[KDS4444]

Once again, covid-19 stands in the way of my possible future success! If your wife ever decides to travel again and makes that same trip, and if my scooter is in any condition other than perfect (which is most of the time) I'd be thrilled to have her take a look at it! (How can I entice her? Food? What can I bake for her??).


Regarding the kickstarter— yeah, fair question. The very first thing to go on the scooter was the push start button. The machine was even still under warranty, but I didn't want the hassle of bringing it back to the dealership for something I could work around so easily.


And then some time later I had a little accident with the bike, and broke off one of the rear blinkers, so I made custom ones to replace them (they're pretty neat!) using high-power LEDs. But in the course of adding wiring for those LEDs, I did something that caused my battery to slowly drain down to nothing in about an hour of non-use, and I could not find where the short was, so I took the battery out and replaced it with a thing called a "battpack". It's basically a very large capacitor that sits clamped to my frame, and it works (has worked) perfectly. Only drawback is that I only have power while the engine is running, and I have to keep using the kick start to turn the engine over. But no internal battery at all! It's been like this for over a decade. I had no idea batteries were so superfluous, but it turns out they are. (technically this modification is illegal, I forget why, please don't tell the sheriff!)


If you have any suggestions on how I might shove the carburetor back into the rubber joint of the reed valve, I am all ears. And again, ask your wife what I can bake for her if she ever comes this way! It would be a treat to show my bike to someone (anyone, really) who gives a damn about Zumas!