Dear scooty, why you no worky?

[OwlCat]

Hi all,

So I rode my Vmoto Monza to work today for the first time in 6 days. All was good until I came to the small hill to the tunnel. I can usually ride this hill at 40-50. It was dragging at 30. Okay, I thought. Maybe just needs warming up from lack of use over the week.

Also notable was a *jumpiness* about the bike, and louder than usual. Also, on the flat was riding about 5-10 slower than usual.

But when I went home it was so much worse. Small hill to the tunnel - again, usually at 40-50. Dragging at 20. On the flat through the tunnel, no more than 40. Driving downhill it would go smooth (no jumping and up to 50-60), yet as soon as I got on the flat it struggled.

On the 70km zone at the main stretch home, I was at 40km the whole time, no higher, sometimes down to 30. This was at attempt to full speed.

I will book in for mechanics, as I thought this morning, maybe it just wasn't working for lack of use. But as it was worse on the way back ...

Any ideas what could be wrong???

[Akzle]

buy a motorbike.

.that is all

[caspernz]

Drain the fluids and use it for a boat anchor...

[NinjaNanna]

sticking brakes or crap in the carb

[Paul in NZ]

sticking brakes or crap in the carb

I think it might be the crap the carb is attached to thats the problem

[CrazyFrog]

There could be a number of things wrong with the scoot losing power.
My initial diagnosis is the remove the muffler and de-coke it, or better still, get your mechanic to cut it open to check for blockages.
Same thing happened to my little Suzuki, idled fine, revved out on it's stand, but as soon as I tried to ride it, it would bog down and only do about 25kmph. It turned out the catalytic converter in the exhaust had collapsed, so I removed it, put new packing in muffler, and now good as new. Now it's a bit louder, but who cares. Scoot goes well and seems to breath easier.

Other possibly diagnosis:
Check spark plug, make sure it's within wear limits, if in doubt, replace it.
Dirty carb, remove and clean properly, check jets for blockages.
Dirty air filter foam, easy, clean it.
Worn variator /clutch rollers and drive belt - no other option, replace them.
Faulty electrics, possibly the ignition coil or CDI working itermittantly - more of a pain to diagnose but could be the problem.

Whatever it is, try to do as much work yourself, because shops will charge you a small fortune for the privaledge of working on your scoot.

[SS90]

I would be surprised if the exhaust was blocked, modern oils pretty much never create enough coke to block exhausts these days.

I would suggest that you get your transmission serviced, (you forgot to mention how many kms it has)

When the variator rollers get a bit of wear on them, they can be prone to jam, causing symtoms not unlike what you are experiencing.

[FJRider]

Clean or replace the plugs and air filter.

But after sitting for six days my best bet would be plug gummed up with shit that settled in the bottom of the tank. Or stale fuel in the carb.

[SNF]

It sounds like it could be bogging down. Start with the basics first, new spark plug, new air filter and fuel filter (if it has one). Drain the fuel in the carb from the bottom of the float.Then look into cleaning the carb itself. If its not any of that then it could be your drive train (belts, rollers, clutch spring).

Mine was bogging badly yesterday, I hadn't ridden it for a bit, I had cleaned out the carb not long ago and replaced all the filters, spark plug, battery, even the petcock since mine was stuffed - wasn't getting fuel. It took forever to start, wouldn't idle unless it was wide open and even then it was bad. Petrol pissed out of the pod filter from my efforts of trying to start it while calling it many names before I realized it had pretty much drowned itself. Could be the start of a carb float issue.

Anyway,
Filter off it ran. Filter on it would die, so I stuck the stock air box on it and it now runs mint. Small engines are very finicky especially the 2 smokes. 4 strokes can be easier, if I left my bike a few weeks it probably would start fist go with a bit of throttle no sweat. My scooter will still play silly buggers.