I was on my way to the grocery store last night (in the van, as I needed to swap a propane cylinder), and this woman flagged me down. She says, "can you kick start a motorcycle?" I said, yeah, I guess so. She goes back to the alley to bring it out to the street.
Out she comes with a dinged-up Chinascoot. She explained that someone had tried to steal it and had managed to drop it both left and right, so the edges were pretty beat up. They had apparently tried to screwdriver the ignition, and it was stuck in the On position, which killed her battery, so no electric start. She was unhappy that the built-in stereo wasn't working. She was starting/stopping the whole thing with the kill switch.
I was a little skeptical at this point, but she had a little purse wired to the helmet hook, which I figure a real thief would have already made off with, so I gave her the benefit of the doubt.
Her kickstarter looked like it kicked 'counterclockwise', compared to clockwise on the Buddy. Otherwise, it sorta looked like a familiar GY6. But funny-looking.
Anyway, a couple of kicks brings it to life. While it warmed up, I looked a little more closely. One of the dual headlights was only barely glowing, one running light wasn't lit, mirrors were bent up, in short, this scooter was a mess. Then I looked at the badges. She had a 49cc placard on the license plate holder, but a deeper look showed that 'someone' had peeled off the '1' before the '50' on the badges. Which explains the funny-looking heavier motor.
I smiled and said 'this isn't a 50cc, is it?' She said 'ummm... no... you aren't a cop, are you?' I said I rode a 150. I gave her the names of a couple of local service shops who might help get her electricals back in order, and off she went.
[NBR] Funny roadside assist
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