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I went to pick up a part for the vacuum on the pool, and parked in a regular parking spot.

Older guy parked illegally against the curb (on the yellow fire lane hashed lines) backed up and turned into my parked bike.

Knocked it over. Bent the sidestand to the point that it is not moveable, broke the RH mirror off, bent the LH brake lever about 30degrees down off the horizontal, and severely damaged the body panels on both sides, and especially around the exhaust and under the right handlebar. There's a gentle but discernible pull to the right, and this rhythmic swishing sound coming from around the front wheel. The LH side black panel below the headlights has a visible crack.
Luckily, I wasn't on it, or I'd have a broken leg or worse.

His comment? "I didn't see it. I can't see out of my mirrors to back up. Its nothing a little spray paint wont fix!" before he started to drive away. Another guy in the parking lot blocked him and told him he wasn't going to let him leave the scene of an accident.

Except, IMHO it wasn't an accident. It was negligence. How do you not look behind your car before you back up? What if there had been a kid back there? And he had to TURN to hit me. If he'd backed straight up, he'd have missed me.

I'll get the police report tomorrow afternoon, and my insurance agent was livid that someone would drive without being able to see clearly.

I nursed it home, and what is normally an 18-20 minute ride took a little over an hour. That's when I noticed the swishing sound. Goes away when I apply the RH-brake lever. The cop was nice enough to wait in the lot for me to see if it was rideable, and I did mention the slight pull to the right to him. Wonder if he'll put it in the report?
I have no idea how much it's going to cost to repair the bike.  Almost all of the bodypanels will probably have to be replaced. The RH mirror will have to be replaced, as the base is cracked. It will need a new sidestand. If the motor housing is damaged where the sidestand attaches, I may need a new motor housing. If not, it may just need a new sidestand. Or it may need a new motor.

She's really messed up.  I'm really angry, and frustrated, and disgusted, and a hundred other emotions. The SOB kept trying to make every excuse in the book, and blame me because I was angry that he hit my bike, but I had parked the damn thing and was walking into the store! He acted like he didn't do a damn thing wrong, and I was wrong for causing him delay in his day.

So, there won't be any new updates or reports of any kind for a while, until all this gets sorted. Catch you all later.

 Grab your favorite beverage, and sit back. This is going to be a long one.


Big photos on request.


This turned out to be a much easier job than I had originally anticipated. The only major issues encountered were before the project, in finding the exact connector plug needed. The wiring diagram for the bike, as well as the Service Manual did come in handy, and helped explain to me what I needed to be able to visualize before I started.



Tools needed:

• #2 phillips screwdriver
• #1 phillips screwdriver (preferably with a flexible shaft)
• 10mm socket, and long extension
• Solder and soldering iron
• Heat-shrink tubing and heat gun
• 1 pair JST-PH 2 pin connectors, from Vetco Electronics (https://tinyurl.com/yc8dbftj)

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Wiring Diagram: https://tinyurl.com/ychumaks

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Service Manual, Ch-1 – Exterior Body Panels: https://tinyurl.com/yb4nw9sx
 

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Here's what I did:


First, I removed the luggage bucket, making sure to unplug the compartment light. Very important. The Service Manual explains in good detail how to do this. I learned that one does not have to remove the battery cover to remove the luggage bucket. You’ll need a #2 phillips screwdriver, and a 10MM socket with a 4” extension to complete the job.
 

 
Next, I removed the two covers over the OEM turn signals. Here’s an image to show what they are, from the service manual. Note the green arrow. These are in the same location on each side. There’s a lot of frame and other items in the way, so it won’t be as easy to get to as this image shows.
 

 
I used the flexible screwdriver with a 1/4” socket and a #1 phillips bit to take the screws out. There’s one on each side of each cover. If you have a magnetized screwdriver bit it will help. I dropped all four screws because I don’t have magnetized bits, and I had to scramble around on the garage floor to find them. I wish I’d put something like a blanket under the bike to catch dropped stuff. So learn from my mistake!
 
I got tired of stuff sliding off the pan under the luggage bucket, and so I found an old fiberglass lunch tray from a school (probably 50 years old or more) and put a piece of that white foam on top of it. It fit perfectly in the space where the luggage bucket goes, and enabled me to have all my tools handy. The foam kept stuff from sliding around.
 

 
Once I got both covers off, I drilled a 1/10” hole in each one, because the leads from the new plug are going to have to go through the covers. There’s a weather seal on each cover, so they have to go through. More on this later.
 

 
It was hell the ruggedest mile getting these tiny plugs into those tiny sockets. I couldn’t figure out why the plugs wouldn’t seat in the sockets, even though I had them lined up, and then I saw there was a very tiny little plastic rib on the plug.
 

 
Shave this rib off with an X-acto or razor blade. Carefully. But it has to go, or the plug won’t seat in the socket.
 
I had to make a tool to manipulate the plug, (you can see how small it is) so I took a bamboo chopstick. (Yes, just like you get at a sushi bar) and dremeled out a little notch in the fat end that was just barely big enough to fit the plug. Holding the wires against the shaft of the chopstick, I was able to seat the plug in the socket. And no, I didn’t get a pic of this operation, as both hands were occupied, but I did take one of the seated plug.
 

 
From here on out, it was easy as could be. Getting that plug seated in the socket was the most difficult part of the entire project.
 
At this point, I put the covers back on, and threaded the leads through the holes I’d drilled. I took the other end of the chopstick and applied a little glob of 100% pure silicone around the hole to weatherproof it.
 

 
Here’s where it got interesting.
 
I reasoned that since the pumpkin-stalk turn signals already had connectors (of the bullet variety) that hooked into the wiring harness, I could re-use them for this application. So, I removed the stalk turn signals, and clipped off the wiring leaving about 4" of wire with the connectors.  It was a simple matter of then determining exactly what the polarity was, and so I took a break, and came inside to hit the interwebz to research it. I found a neat little device on Instructables that enables one to light up for test purposes, 12V LED lights. Made from a power supply from a printer, no less. A couple of alligator clips soldered on, and I was in business.
 

 
The best thing about this little contraption is that it was free. Everyone has spare DC converters lying around, and I happened to have a pack of alligator clips in the shop, so it was merely a matter of reading the label to see which side was hot and which was neutral, and I soldered on the appropriate color clip. This enabled me to test the lights at each step of the process, to ensure that I was connecting the right thing to the right thing. And I tested everything at every step. The wiring diagram told me that GREEN wires are ground/neutral, so the other color wire goes to the hot side, and that was that.
 
I soldered the male bullet connector to the end of the appropriate colored lead from the new plug, and covered it with the appropriate color (red or black as the case may be) heat shrink tube.
 

 
 

 
 

 
 
From this point, it was merely a matter of isolating the correct wires on both sides (testing as I went along to make sure the LEDs lit up) and connecting the right bullet connector to the right wire. A total of four solder connections, and that was that.
 

 
Once all four sets of connections (hot and neutral on two sides) were made, heat-shrinked, the bullet connectors were re-connected together, and all the wires were tucked in and held in place with small cable zip ties, I was able to put it all back together. Do the reverse of taking it apart, silly! And now I have the OEM LED turn signals operational.
 

 
I don’t know much about electrical, but I do know that LED turn signals have a hyperflash problem. And so my turn signals flash about twice as fast as they used to, but oddly, when I turn the hazard flashers on, they flash at the same speed as they always did. So, I suspect that I am going to have to change out the relay for the flashers. As soon as I find out what the exact specifications for the correct flasher rely are, I’m going to order one, and install it.
 
Here’s a link to an 11-second video showing both signals operating as the Hazard Flashers.
 

 
From start to finish, not counting the breaks, required about three hours time. And only that long because I took my time, and considered carefully what my next step would be, and I tested every connection as I went along. It really wasn’t a bad little project for part of the day.
 
One other thing I did while I had the back end open, was add running lights in the place of the old pumpkin stalks. I got a set of 3/4" red Eagle Eye LEDs from Ebay, and they were even easier to add in than the turn signals were. The wiring diagram enabled me to find the wiring to the license-plate light, and that’s what I hooked into. I used something called “Posi-Taps” which are the greatest thing since sliced bread. They can be found here: https://www.posi-products.com/posiplug.html  I used the EX-100R size, and let me tell you, these things are fantastic. Regrettably, I didn’t take any photos of the installation, but here’s what I did. First, I ran the leads from the Eagle Eyes through the hole in the rear fender (one on each side) where the old leads from the pumpkin-stalks went, and connected each side to the other. Red to red, and black to black. I then took another length (about a foot long) of 24ga wire, and connected one end of that to the two paired leads of the Eagle Eyes. Soldered connections and heat-shrinked. I then isolated the green wire to the license light, and connected the black lead of the 24ga to it with the Posi-tap. I did the same to the brown wire from the red lead and that was that. They lit up like a Christmas tree, according to my dad, who wondered what I’d been doing in the garage all morning. Here’s photos:
 

 
And lit up:
 

 
Those Eagle Eyes are bright! I rode over to the convenience store to grab a lottery ticket for my wife last night, and I swear, they actually illuminate the road! I could plainly see them lighting up the side of the road as I went by. Stuff on the sidewalk, all kinds of things. When I go to work tonight, I’ll take a photo so you all can see just how bright these things really are.
 
I hope this tutorial helps those of you who are going to convert your turn signals. There will also be one for the front, once I get to it.
 
 
 
 Ed

Today I Learned that you do not have to remove the phillips screw holding the battery cover on the luggage box, in order to remove the luggage box from the scoot.
Saved me about 4 minutes total.

I just had to share this with everyone...   
First, a bit of description, so that everyone can picture this.
Here's an image of my garage, where I keep Diana parked.


On the floor, and the platform, from about the third leg of the workbench to the back of the garage is a pile of stuff. (A gas range and dishwasher being stored for my sister, some recording equipment for my brother, miscellaneous tools, boxes, and all 22 screens from my house which are being re-screened and painted before being rehung, and that kind of thing).
Note the little red X on the drawing? 

I've spent the last three days removing all that stored crap (and Diana) from the garage, (I didn't even know that I had a table saw in there!) so that I could get in to the workbench platform, and dismantle the entire floor of the platform in that section to remove two dead opossums. Apparently, they somehow got in under the floor of the platform, probably from the outside of the building, fought, killed each other, and died in between the floor of the platform and the dirt/concrete floor of the garage. And they've been there about a week before I was able to get everything out and dismantle the floor of the platform to get the carcasses out. You can imagine the smell, the insects, and the various noxious and disgusting things I found under there.

What's that you say? "Thanks for sharing"? Well, I couldn't not disseminate all of this this to all my friends on this wonderful forum. Just be glad that I haven't posted the photos that my wife took of the horrors under the floor.

I just finished rebuilding the floor after spreading 60 lbs of lime to cover anything I might have missed, and have moved everything back in. After 2 showers, I feel reasonably clean again. I am so thankful for the respirator a neighbor loaned me, and for the lime my dad kindly offered and was used. We also went and bought three of those industrial-strength odor-eliminators from a local feed and seed store (they're about 8" in diameter and 10" tall, and filled with these little pellets that are supposed to suck in and trap odors) and have them in the garage. We also bought a gallon jug of some industrial strength deodorizing spray, and it's about 3/4 gone too.

I am hoping that I got all of it. And I've also repaired the siding on the outside where I believe they got in. Nothing bigger than a grasshopper could get in now.

Did I mention it stank abominably?
Whew...

Okay everyone! Here is the info on the Kymco Xciting 400i ABS 600 Mile Service. Wrote the Subject Line like that to make it easier to search. 


Interestingly, if you go to the KymcoUSA website, go through "Accessories" and get to the "Parts" section, if you make a "Wish List" it will ask you who your dealer is, and will automatically send it to them via email. I did this, not really knowing what was going to happen, and got an email the next day from the girl at the parts desk at the dealership asking me if I wanted her to order them! I told her yes, so she did, and here's what they cost me:



First, here are the parts needed to complete:

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+ Oil Change:

• 1.3 Liters (1.37 Qt) Castrol Edge 5W-50 Synthetic Motorcycle Oil*
• 1 – Drain Bolt & Sealing Washer Assembly (PN: 9052A-LEB1-900)
• 1 – Oil Filter (PN: 1541A-LEH6-E00)
• 1 – Oil Filter Spring (If needed.) (PN: 15423-KKC3-900)
• 1 – Oil Filter Cap O-Ring (If needed.) (PN: 91303-LEA7-E00)

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The following parts are optional, and only if needed, but should be inspected.

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Inspect Oil Strainer Screen and O-Rings and replace (If needed.)

• 1 – Oil Strainer Screen (PN: 15162-PUA5-E00)
• 1 – Oil Strainer Screen Cap O-Ring (PN: 91307-PUA5-E00)
• 2 – Oil Strainer Screen O-Ring (PN: 91306-PUA5-E00)

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+ Transmission Fluid Change:

• 0.20 Liter (6.76 Oz) Castrol Axle 80W-90 Limited Slip Gear Oil*
• 1 – Transmission Oil Drain Plug Washer (PN: 90474-3C33-001)
• Air Filter: Check for condition, replace if needed. (PN: 1721A-LKF5-E01)

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Crankcase Breather Tube: (Puke Tube!) Check and clean if needed.

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The following tools are needed:

• #2 Phillips Screwdriver
• 8mm Socket
• 17mm Socket
• 24mm Socket
• Needlenose Pliers
• Small Funnel
• 1500ML Maxi Syringe
• Small Torque Wrench (optional, for those of you who don't use them  )
• Protective Gloves and Eyewear are recommended.

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* If you prefer another brand, be sure to use a fully synthetic quality 4-stroke engine oil to ensure longer service life of the scooter. Only use oils that have a SJ rating above per the API service classification.


Engine oil viscosity: SAE 5W-50


Transmission oil viscosity: SAE 90


The procedures are straightforward, for someone with moderate mechanical skills.

I was going to attach the specific parts of the Service Manual for procedures and how to do it, but I get a "File Too Large" error.  So, I've uploaded them to OneDrive, and they can be found here:

https://1drv.ms/f/s!Ajl8K-lSeuLUaAFIfilz0LGk-Po
 

Hope this helps anyone who does their own service!!   

On Friday (the 13th no less!) I turned 600 miles on my way home from work!
Now it's time for that service appointment. I'm not going to attempt it on my own, even though I feel like I could, but am going to make an appointment with the service department at my dealer.

I'll let you all know how it goes when I get Diana back from the shop.

I have a mesh jacket for sale.

I had it custom made, but the manufacturer didn't realize that the measurements I gave them were intended to be for the jacket, and not the measurements of me, so they included a little too much extra room in the jacket. Instead of it ending up being a regular XL size, it ended up a little closer to a 3XL size, and is therefore about 2.5 sizes too big for me. It's a very well made jacket, with two large inside pockets w/Velcro closures, and two nice outside hand-warmer style pockets with zip closures. The collar, sleeves, and waist have Velcro closure, and it's got some kind of heavy padding in the armor pockets (I wouldn't call it real armor)  There's a neat little "tab" or extension at the back on the waist, and it's got royal blue accents. Reflective striping and piping on the sleeves.



All in all, it's a really great high-viz jacket, it's just too big for me. The manufacturer apologized for their error, and replaced the jacket in the correct size at no cost to me, so I basically got two jackets for the price of one. I paid $250.00 for them (actually, just for the one that fits me) which is a pretty good price for a custom made mesh jacket. I'm asking $100 for it, but I honestly think it's worth much more than that, since I've seen comparable jackets for sale for $200-$300 online. It's every bit as good as the Icon jacket I already have, and I paid $295.00 for that.
I'll even throw in the shipping cost for someone who will give this jacket a good home!

On my old Honda, I replaced the forward and rear retroreflectors with a pair of amber and a pair of red LED marker lights. I also added an auxiliary brake light, consisting of an LED strip mounted on the back of the grab rail.

I intend to add similar lighting to Diana (my lovely X400i) but I'd rather it look a little more sleek and have a more "designed-in" feel. To that end, I've acquired some 3.4" Eagle Eye led lights in red and amber, and a neat little LED marker light that is incredibly bright to serve as the aux brake light.

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I'd like to mount it to the grab rail so that it will be high enough to be seen, but there's really no way to mount it directly to the bike, so I have hit upon the solution of making a small bracket to add to the grab rail, on which the light will be mounted.

This was the process I went through:

I started with some oak lumber, about 2" x 2.5". I cut a few small pieces of maple that is about 5/8" square, so that it would form a shape into which small aluminium strips could be pressed into the shape of the bracket.

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After a bit of fiddling to get everything square and centered, the maple bits were added to the oak ones, and voila! The press forms for the bracket. I had some 1" x 4" pieces of  0.040" aluminium, and they form the bracket.

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It takes a bit of fiddling to center the aluminium strip over the center of the form to put it into a vise to press the forms together with the strip in between.

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I put the whole thing into the vise, and tighten it up as much as I can. I leave it for about 10 minutes, so that the aluminium gets stable in the form. This is what it looks like when you take it out of the vise:

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Once the strip is pressed into shape, it's just a matter of using the grinder and a Dremel to shape it to fit the mount housing for the light. I've included a bit of tape measure so everyone can see the scale of this thing.

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Trimmed up and drilled for the mounting holes for the bracket. I'm debating whether or not I am going to use pop rivets or a nut and bolt to attach the mount housing to the bracket.

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If you look closely, you can see that the holes through which the self-tapping screws are going to attach the bracket to the grab rail, have not been drilled yet. That's because I have not yet acquired the exact drill bit I need. The screws I have for this have a 2.3mm shank, and I want a drill bit exactly the same diameter, and I haven't yet gotten that specific bit.

This coming week, my workplace is closed for the holiday, and so I'll have enough time (I hope) to add in the Auxiliary Lighting. I'll have to remove some plastics, and that worries me since there's no really good tutorial for that, and I don't think  I am up to making one.
I'll keep everyone posted on the progress in this thread!