Scooter update and a new purchase

On Sunday 24th July 2009 Shelly and I will be flying off to Germany for three months of random travels across Europe. Needless to say there won't be much to report here on the scooter restoration front. I do hope to visit a few scooter and motorcycle museum on the trip and I'll try and post some pics if I can. We shall see. For anyone interested, here is a link to our blog:
http://paulymx4.travellerspoint.com/

So, here's a wrap up of the Scooter situation....

The Troll is still broken down. I'm fairly confident that the rings have gone. I've found a source for pistons and rings but won't order until I have the confirmation of the damage. Ivo is going to pick up the Troll in the next week or so.

In the meantime I've been riding the Vespa - although not very often as it's been pouring with rain here in Perth. The Vespa feels very uncomfortable after riding the Troll. It really is only suitable for short rides. It doesn't have any guts, acceleration is poor and second gear is hopeless. I think a total rebuild of the engine and clutch is called for but I really don't want to spend any more money on it right now, especially as there will be a bill coming for the Troll.

The Heinkel is still parked in my shed. I haven't done anything more on it since I got the parts from the Heinkel Club and it doesn't look like much more is gonna happen this year. Partly, this is because I ended deciding the spend the 'Heinkel restoration fund' on an Ariel Leader. As I have mentioned before, I made some enquiries about the Ariel Leader earlier in the year. I wasn't especially serious at the time but things just took on a life of their own. I don't remember actually committing to buy the bike, but the seller became convinced that I was the guy he wanted to sell it to. About three weeks after I'd made my first enquiry the seller, Barry, called me out of the blue to advise that someone else had been around to visit him and was interested in the bike, but he told them firmly that he was selling it to a guy in Perth - me. I was a little surprised and told him that I didn't have the money (I didn't - I bills coming out of my a*se!) but he was okay with that. I could just pay him a bit at time, whenever I had some spare cash. Time and money were not an issue. After I had had time to think this over I decided - why not!? Opportunities like this don't come along often. So I paid him off over a couple of months. On Friday I got a call from the transport company - the bike is in Perth and ready for collection. Unfortunately I won't be around to pick it up, but my brother will kindly take care of that for me. The bike has been in storage for 10-15 years, but it was test run before it was sold. I've heard the engine running - it sounds rough, but what do you expect. It's almost road worthy, needing only new tyres, brake light and a new battery (and a tune up won't go astray!)

Troll - Fizz, Pop, Ping!!

Despite it being winter the weather the past couple of weekends has been marvellous - too good in fact not to take the scooters out of a ride. Monday 1 June was a public holiday, the sky was blue, the breeze light, so I invited Shelly out for a ride along the coast to Cottesloe. The Troll was running marvellously, although it continues to slip out of fourth gear a little too easily. Nevertheless, we scooted up through Cottelsoe without any problem and, as no particular cafe's looked inviting enough to stop, I pushed on up the coast intending to stop in Floreat or Scarborough.

On West Coast Highway by the SAS barracks there's a long run without any intersecting roads that offers the opportunity to open up and push the bike to the limit. The speed limit is 70 kph but everyone seems to do 80 kph. I opened the throttle and although the cars were still overtaking us, I was quite confident we were exceeding the speed limit (naughty! Double demerit points for a long weekend). Then, with the throttle full out, the engine started to sag. All the power seemed to drop away and the Troll began to slow. I dropped a gear and increased the revs but it continue to slow. We reached the turn onto the scenic drive and I pulled into the City Beach carpark. The performance picked up a bit and I nursed the Troll into the Floreat beach carpark, as I expected the cafe there to be open. The engine didn't seem too hot but we stopped and walked around a bit allowing it to cool down.

The engine was a little slow to restart but this was nothing unusual. We took a slow ride back towards Freo. Back on West Coast I opened her up again and we sailed along with the traffic. I was beginning to feel better - maybe it was just the throttle cable playing up? But as soon we hit a slight gradient - no more than 5% - the engine began to struggle again. Now this wasn't feeling right. I got off the highway and headed back towards the coast. There were a couple of low hills in our path and the engine struggled to cope. Soon the Troll was wheezing along in first gear up the lowest of hills. As we rolled down into Cottesloe the engine began making some unhappy noises. I pulled over in front of the Observation Beach Hotel just as the engine stalled. Smoke poured from the intake fan - not a good sign! I popped the side doors to allow the engine to cool. The engine was very hot so I assume the fan belt had finally failed. But even after the engine had cooled it resolutely refused to start. So we sat at the side of the road for a couple of hours waiting for my brother in law to bring down his truck to rescue us. It wasn't much fun, but even broken down we had people come over and ask us about the Troll and take a couple of pics.

Having never experienced this before I don't exactly know what's wrong but I suspect the rings might have gone as it doesn't feel like the engine has any compression. I've arranged with Ivo to have a look at it but I won't drop it off until I get the last shipment of spares in from Germany (why do some parts take SOOOOOOO long to get here? I mean three months!). I'm expected the latest package to arrive in the next week or so, hopefully not longer as we're off to Europe for three months in six weeks time. So it looks like I'll have to renew my relationship with my long neglected mistress, the Vespa VBB.