Pretty soon the picture of the Yamaha will disappear and be replaced with a Chinese scooter. The Yamaha has been deemed saleable and I've purchased a CF Moto 250/Honda Helix clone. Named "Fashion" the 250 is currently down in my friend's garage waiting for me to fetch it. The Yamaha will require over $200 in parts to get running again and then I'd be back where I was with a bike of questionable reliability, worth about $500 if I sold it running, and so far I'm about $800 into it before another $200+ in parts. Time to cut bait and move on.
The CF Moto is a 2009 and has a good reputation for comfort, speed and reliability. The ride here from Long Island will be a good test and I'm looking forward to it. While not alot to look at, the scooter should serve me well and early reports on it are favorable. My friend Marc's son has ridden it and compared it favorably to their Honda Reflex.
In the meantime I've been working on sealing the oil leak on the Milano Chinese scooter and it's been slow going. I finally took a good look at the cylinder head and found a crack. Of course the crack hasn't turned out to be the biggest problem, the head gasket has. In a no-stress area on the cylinder head oil is seeping out. I've used muffler cement to try and seal the leak but it continues.  Today I covered the area with high temp silicone seal and will find out tomorrow how it stands up to the heat and oil. The real cure is replacing the engine cylinder and cylinder head, another $100 in parts.
I've been riding one of my 50cc bikes to work and it's handling the trip well so far. It's made seven trips, about 250 miles, and returned a phenomenal 105 mpg despite working its little heart out. It's also made numerous trips to town for groceries which brings it's recent mileage up near 300 miles. To say I'm astounded would be an understatement. It's hard to believe the Japanese strength and character in this Chinese mini-motorcycle. It puts my Chinese scooter to shame. Hopefully the new 250 will be even better.