One of the joys of owning two wheeled conveyances is the need to perform periodic maintenance. Unlike a car where an occasional oil change or brake job is a regular thing, motorcycles, scooters and mopeds require more labor intensive maneuvers. Right now everything out there could use an oil change, the two scooters need new drive belts installed and there's at least one, OK two...alright three, machines that could use a check of engine valve clearances. Today I got off my chair and began the jobs slowly by changing the oil on Rocket, my 50cc mini motorcycle. Rocket is a good machine to start with as it's the easiest to do an oil change on. You unscrew the drain plug from the oil pan, the oil pours out and you replace the drain plug. Then you refill the bike with an acceptable oil, check the level on the dipstick and pour the old oil into a waste bottle. Rocket has no oil filter screen to clean, 'O' rings to switch around so it seals better or extra plugs to remove and reinstall. It took all of ten minutes to get everything out of the garage, do the job and clean up. Painless, quick and deeply satisfying. The scooters should be so easy.
After starting the engine and rechecking the oil level I pushed it back into the garage and went inside to wash up. Yes, there's more to do but you can't rush these things. One oil change down, three to go.