Minnie is Dead...No, she's alive!!!

Scootin_in_MS · Post by **Scootin_in_MS** » Tue Oct 17, 2006 9:45 pm

So I was on my way to school the other day, and Minnie started surging as I was going down the road. I pulled over and listened, but couldn't hear anything, so I start again, and again with the surging. So I took her to the motorcycle shop which happens to be along my route, and dropped her off. They didn't know what was wrong, so I had to take her to the dealer. He just called and said the gear is stripped out and broken (? don't know what that means?), so he called Genuine. They said he will have to replace the entire engine, so now they are ordering him one. No clue when it will be here, or when Minnie will be home. I hope they aren't having to ship one from Taiwan. I'm thinking she'll be ready in two weeks...(not really, but that's what Genuine will probably say). Anyone else had any gear problems or did I get the bad one?

Jody

vitaminC · Post by **vitaminC** » Tue Oct 17, 2006 10:09 pm

Wow, that really sucks. Depending on which gears gears disintegrate, then you will probably end up with lots of little bits of metal in your engine or tranny, which will destroy either of them in short order if it continues to be used.

Hopefully they will get it fixed quickly and you will be back on the road soon! Any possibility of them providing you with a loaner scoot while you wait?

dahuffy · Post by **dahuffy** » Tue Oct 17, 2006 10:13 pm

Oh Sweetie, I'm so sorry.

I'm sure you'll have Minnie back in no time

peabody99 · Post by **peabody99** » Tue Oct 17, 2006 10:22 pm

nooooooooo! how many miles does she have? did they say what causes such a thing? here's to a speedy recovery

big calm · Post by **big calm** » Tue Oct 17, 2006 10:31 pm

here's hoping she'll be back on her feet (wheels) in no time

hermitgirl · Post by **hermitgirl** » Wed Oct 18, 2006 12:22 am

Awww, sorry to hear that! I will say though- lucky you know your scoot and caught something like this. Also lucky that there's a shop on the way! I'm sure Minnie will be back and purring before you know it.

Keys · Post by **Keys** » Wed Oct 18, 2006 12:59 am

Guess we'll both have to just sit here and pine for our scooters, Jody...my scooter is still in the shop waiting for a stator. Two weeks? They are supposed to be shipping the part this week (it's been three weeks now) IF they have it. Otherwise I have to wait for the overseas shipment from Taiwan...at LEAST 3 weeks more.

We could just share a pint of ice cream and watch old movies...

--Keys

Scootin_in_MS · Post by **Scootin_in_MS** » Wed Oct 18, 2006 1:10 am

No chance of a loaner scoot. I tried, but no dice. She only has 600 and some odd miles on her. They don't know what caused it, but there were little bits of metal all in the engine, hence the need for a new one. Apparently the gear is a metal center with little plastic togs or something.

But I'm not sitting around pining. I was out practicing how to ride my husband's VStar. Shifting is kind of tiring, but it beats the mile or more walk to the commuter lot (it's back in the 90s here with 80%+ humidity). So I'll be a "real" biker babe until Minnie is back.

Thanks for your sympathy. I'm just hoping for a speedy recovery.

Jody

rajron · Post by **rajron** » Wed Oct 18, 2006 1:36 am

Wow â€“ so sorry your scoot is having problems and being down and out.
Luckily youâ€™re a hop skip to the commute area â€“ that warm weather of yours does sound appealing.
Please keep us updated on the what happens and why it happened.

Kevin K · Post by **Kevin K** » Wed Oct 18, 2006 3:37 am

Scootin_in_MS wrote:I was out practicing how to ride my husband's VStar.

(it's back in the 90s here with 80%+ humidity

It's great that you're practicing on the V Star. Very cool.
And back in the 90's??? What I wouldn't give for that right now!
At tonight's Tuesday Night Run (in Minneapolis) we had "you can see your breath" weather. After the ride we ended up at an Irish pub (the Irish Coffee and fireplace hit the spot).

Hope Minnie is back on the road soon!
-K

Post by **ericalm** » Wed Oct 18, 2006 6:14 am

Sorry to hear you're without your Buddy! I can sympathize; in just a few days my wife & I went from 2 running scooters to one in the shop and one crashed. Now we have one sitting in the garage until I can ride again and are awaiting a settlement check so we can replace the Buddy. It used to be I would get all forlorn when my scoot was in the shop. Now we're both having scooter pangs!

Scootin_in_MS · Post by **Scootin_in_MS** » Wed Oct 18, 2006 2:53 pm

I just heard from Kent at Retro Cycles. He said I have a new engine en route, but he doesn't know where it's coming from, so no estimated date of delivery. You're thinking two weeks, right? Anywho, Genuine told him this is the first failure of this kind they've had. He's supposed to send them my fubarred engine so they can figure out what went wrong. I'll keep you updated when I have anymore news. In the meantime, look for me on a blue and black VStar.

Jody

avidgirl · Post by **avidgirl** » Wed Oct 18, 2006 11:00 pm

Maybe your new engine will come with a price tag that you can then leave in place?

Hope you are back up and running soon.

hangukhurley · Post by **hangukhurley** » Thu Oct 19, 2006 2:09 am

Sorry to hear about Minnie

Thank goodness for warranties!

dahuffy · Post by **dahuffy** » Thu Oct 19, 2006 3:00 am

Hey, Scootin n MS, the sweet little puppy on your avatar, what breed is it? I had a miniature Pekinese when I was in high school that looked just like it, her name was Tinkerbell.

Scootin_in_MS · Post by **Scootin_in_MS** » Thu Oct 19, 2006 12:56 pm

Sweet? Sweet? Noooooo. He's ferocious. Look at that snarl. He's going to bite your foot off if you call a scooter a moped. Sweet? Sheesh!!! A puppy gets no respect...

I believe it's a Shih Tzu. And it has the same coloring and markings as my Shih Tzu so I pretend it's a baby picture of him (he was a year old when I got him). Anywho, my husband copied the picture off of www.CuteOverload.com and made it into an avatar for me.

Jody

ellen · Post by **ellen** » Thu Oct 19, 2006 1:18 pm

Thats funny. I saw that picture last year right after we got our Papillon puppy. Thought it looked like him. So I was going to put in the bottom.. "I'm not a long haired Chihuahua damn it"

But come to think of it. I think you're right about it being a Shih Tzu.

Keys · Post by **Keys** » Thu Oct 19, 2006 4:45 pm

My mom has a dog that is half miniature bull-terrier and half Shih Tzu. She calls her a Bull-Shihtz.

--Keys

Scootin_in_MS · Post by **Scootin_in_MS** » Thu Oct 19, 2006 9:02 pm

Keys wrote:My mom has a dog that is half miniature bull-terrier and half Shih Tzu. She calls her a Bull-Shihtz.

--Keys

I like your mom.

Jody

Scootin_in_MS · Post by **Scootin_in_MS** » Fri Nov 03, 2006 1:31 am

Minnie has been revived! We picked her up this afternoon, and I took her for a spin. I can't believe how much I missed her! Scooting is totally addictive.

The shop guy thinks either a rod wasn't hardened properly or a nut wasn't torqued down inside the engine somewhere, but he doesn't know for sure. He sent off the old engine to Genuine and they're going to try and figure it out.

Jody

Post by **jrsjr** » Fri Nov 03, 2006 2:27 am

Scootin_in_MS wrote:Minnie has been revived!

Excellent! Glad to hear it. It's only been 16 days since your first post, so I'm please to hear Genuine were able to get an entirely new engine to you so quickly.

Scootin_in_MS wrote:The shop guy thinks either a rod wasn't hardened properly or a nut wasn't torqued down inside the engine somewhere, but he doesn't know for sure. He sent off the old engine to Genuine and they're going to try and figure it out.

It's the first catastrophic Buddy engine failure I've heard of. Usually these things come in bunches because they're typically caused by a defective batch of a particular part. The fact that we haven't heard of others leads me to wonder if this was a fluke thing. Either way, I'm delighted to hear that you're back on the road.

Ride safe!

MNBuddy · Post by **MNBuddy** » Fri Nov 03, 2006 1:44 pm

I hope there isn't a batch of them with a "bad" part. It would be nice if there was some way to do a poll that wouldn't shift down the posting list as it got older. Then we could gather information from people to who have had major mechanical issues. I might help if a moderator could then refer them to an existing thread if there problem is similar to one already posted.

Keys · Post by **Keys** » Fri Nov 03, 2006 2:31 pm

So cool you got Minnie back, Jody!! I just got my Urban Assault Vehicle back, too, so I guess we can put the ice cream away and get on with scootin'!!

--Keys