Scooterrific!

Crazy times here at IB Towers with a silly amount of work to crack through. None of which has been helped by the arrival of the latest addition to the fleet!

I started my motorcycling career back in 1997. I was totally fed up with watching bikes pass me in commuting traffic so decide to get involved. I did some research and found what I was looking for at Hamilton’s in Streatham, just around the corner from my house. Hamilton’s was one of those great old grease-ingrained bike shops, spread across a pair of conjoined Victorian shops. It wound through lots of little rooms, and just about managed to contain an almost unimaginable amount of bike stuff. The place reeked of two wheels – I was sold as soon as I walked in. Hamilton’s is now a medical supply store – somewhat ironic.

My choice of mount was a Gilera Runner FX 125. Runners had just come to the market, so mine was fairly new: 1800 miles on a 1997/R plate. I bought it for £1695, and also got myself a Shoei TXR lid and an Alpinestars jacket. Andy at Hamilton’s arranged for the scooter to be sent up to Crystal Palace for my CBT (Compulsory Basic Training) the following week. I booked the day off work (was selling cars at the time) and waited.

The day dawned sunny. Before the event, CBT sounds about as much fun as wallpapering lessons, but it’s actually quite a lot of fun: learning how to handle the bike, getting it on and off the stand, talking about using the thing and finally getting out on the roads and doing some riding. As with most peoples’ CBTs, the instructor was your archetypal old biker who had bundles of time for everyone, except car drivers. He told it like it was for bikers in London: i.e. take no prisoners. I passed his test, and became legally entitled to terrorise traffic light queues.

Getting on two wheels was a big day for me – I still have my CBT pass cert in my box of things to hang on my office wall. My first ride to work was good fun: I remember pulling up in line behind a car at Tooting Bec traffic lights and getting a beep from a bike as it whizzed past me, filtering (splitting lanes) down the outside. I whacked my forehead through my helmet and took off after him.

I did six months on the scooter before quitting the stupid sales job and signing up for my full bike test with Metropolitan in Vauxhall. We did our test over three days with a bike cop who worked part time training riders. It was one of the happiest three days of my life. Riding a torquey Honda CB500 (pic above) out through London to North Kent three days on the trot, alongside a policeman who wanted you to survive and flourish on two wheels, was a formative motoring experience. I passed the test first time and, with my full licence in my pocket, I sold the Runner and got myself a six month-old 600 Bandit from a buddy.

Looking back, it was a mistake to get out of scooters so quickly. I had much more control over my zippy little Runner than I ever had over the Suzuki, which I could never have slid in a million years. I stuck with the Bandit for three years and two non-fault accidents before giving up on bikes until I left London. I went back to torquey twins with the Ducati 750 Monster but really that bike was past its best: my next Monster will be brand new.

Now that so many of my local miles are one-up (Orla being back at school), I began to think again about running a 70mpg scoot instead of a 28 mpg Landcruiser to do some of them. Looking around, the Runner is still the best in my opinion so, following a few months of watching the market, I recently bought myself an ’03 plate Runner 200 VXR with 13k kms on it.

The bike has full history and a Scorpion can, which to be honest I’m not crazy about, but the £900 price was right and it’s easy to take the pipe off. My first ride revealed a problem though: it was slower than I was expecting – lots slower. I couldn’t imagine that the 200 4-stroke would be lazier than a 125 2-stroke, but it was.

I rode it 200kms on my first day, including a 50 kms blast on the M40 and tank of Optimax. It was faster when I got home but still not great. It topped out at 110 km/h and felt like it had the odd cut out when I tried to get it to go any faster. There was no mention in the history of the scoot ever having belt or rollers, though the usual service-y stuff had all been changed. No mention of valve clearances ever being done either. It was time to take it apart.

Seat, front grilles, rear carrier and sidepanels all have to come off to get to the engine. With those off, I pulled the airbox and transmission cover and removed the belt, clutch and variator. Then the carb came off and the spark plug came out. The rocker cover is a pig to remove, though I eventually managed it.

The valve clearances were tight on intake and slightly wide on exhaust. I sorted those and then replaced the cover – was even worse to get it back on! Stripping the carb revealed some black paint coming off the central plunger and going everywhere. I cleaned it up, took off the accelerator pump cover and blew the lot out. I don’t think this is the last we’ll see of the carb. The rollers, variator and clutch pads all looked OK if a little past their best, but I decide to clean them up, then refit and try the bike. I put the bodywork back together and took it for a ride.

It was a revelation. Not as zingy as a two stroke but still great fun – an easy traffic killer. I have since refitted the exhaust (properly), ordered some new transmission parts, am switching to a 13” front wheel to improve the handling and am just about to buy some new Michelin tyres. Then I’ll do the swingarm bushes, as they are causing a little wobble over bumps and in the bends, and then I’ll call it done.

With road tax, MOT and insurance costing under £150 a year, and my solo fuel costs divided by a minimum of two, this should be a cheap, fun way of getting about, especially when the sun comes out. So far, I give it an 8 out of 10!

Tagged as: buying, ebay, fixing, Motorcycles