eastbay wrote:Ahhhhh yeah. 90 mpg on my most recent fill-up. Nice.
I'm now leaving it on a trickle-charger since it isn't being used as much when it rains. I went to ride it last Saturday after 5 days of sitting and it wouldn't start... yikes. I understand it's ok to just leave the trickle-charger on all the time. If not, someone please correct me.
On another topic:
When I become The Highly Esteemed Leader I will institute 10 years of hard labor internment on anyone who dumps oversized posts on threads. This will be the Law of the Land. There will be no appeals.
eastbay wrote:Yup. Charger says, 'Made-in-China on it and nothing else. Battery says 'Magna Power' on it so, although it's a New Jersey company, it's probably made-in-China too. It might be less headache to just can the battery, get a new high quality battery and treat it properly. On the other hand, there's about 100 million Chinese scooters in China all running seemingly just fine on Chinese batteries. What do you think?
eastbay wrote:BW,
I made an error. It's a 'battery tender', not a 'charger'.
I took the battery into the local Japanese bike store yesterday and they kindly charged it for me telling me it appears fine. I offered to buy a new one and the guy said save the $$.
I rode it on about 20 miles of errands today and it operated perfectly, but the instrument panel charging indicator guage seems to indicate a lower than desired level of charging.
So now I'm leaving the trickle charger/battery tender on all the time when I'm not running it. This may be the ticket.
But I think you're right. It's a problem other than the battery and I know exactly 'jack' about scooter electronics.
eastbay wrote:Well, since my Spanish-made Derbi scooter has a 150cc Vespa engine, it shouldn't be too hard to determine exactly what's up with the charging and all that. Luckily we have a Vespa dealer somewhat nearby.
eastbay wrote:Blistered Whippet,
Man, I really appreciate your input. The charging system is no longer a suspect, thankfully. The manual says to never let it sit more than 30 days because the battery will have drained by then. There is a little red light on the instrument panel constantly blinking away that may be the cause of some of the power loss. The manual makes no mention of what this light does. Typical.
Yesterday I tested and found out the old tender is not functioning. So I'm going to buy one... any suggestions?
btw, this great little scooter has no kick starter. It took me to work and back yesterday starting easily each time. 90 mpg.... I'm hopeing this bike will last years
BlisteredWhippet wrote:The electrical pressure differential between a car battery and the little scooter battery is great and if you do the usual and start the scoot with the other car running, you can potentially fry the scoot or maybe even blow up the battery..
MD wrote:BlisteredWhippet wrote:The electrical pressure differential between a car battery and the little scooter battery is great and if you do the usual and start the scoot with the other car running, you can potentially fry the scoot or maybe even blow up the battery..
Pressure differential? If the scooters are running on a 6 volt system, you really don't want to be connecting a 12 volt battery even for a few seconds.
You may occasionally get away with doing so, but it's risky.
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