No Air

There was a break in the Weather on Saturday. The forecast was for morning snow flurries, but instead the sun came out. I took the opportunity to start up my bike and Scooter.

I know everyone has their own theory regarding bike storage, but I have been doing it this way for "years" without any problems. Make sure you park it with fresh oil, put in fuel stabilizer and run for a few minutes to make sure the stabilizer has mixed throughout your fuel system, then attach your battery maintainer. I usually start it once every 4-6 weeks, but do NOT bring it to operating temperature. That way there will be no condensation forming anywhere. Also remember to keep your gas tank full. The insurance on my GS ran out late September and I have only started it once since then.
My scooter is my commuter vehicle thus, it does not need to be 'stored', but it has been just sitting there for the past month due to Snow and Ice. I only attach a battery maintainer to keep the battery in top shape. While it is a carbureted model it doesn't sit long enough to create any starting problems

As usual, since I am at work all week, Saturday is the time for me to do all my chores. I find that it is easier to scoot because it is easier to find parking. While the forecast was for rain, the clouds disappeared and it was warm in the sun (and cold in the shade). I decided to check the tire pressure on the GS and found that both tires were around 20 PSI. I have a small capacity compressor so I topped off both tires to around 30 PSI. Then, while I had everything out, I decided to also check the tire pressures of my scoot and the tires were also around 20 PSI which was too low so I also topped them both up to approx 30PSI as well. The tire label was in metric so I wasn't sure exactly how much air to put in.

I purchased these tire sensors a while ago:



They come in a set of 4 (four), complete with a tire pressure gauge from an automotive store. You are able to purchase these in different PSI ranges. The air pressure applies force to the green plunger. (This set is for 30 PSI, low limit 28 PSI) . While the PSI exceeds 30 PSI the plunger shows Green (for good), when the PSI falls below 28 PSI, then the green retracts to reveal a Red Insert (for bad). They are very handy to be able to monitor your tire pressures by just glancing at your tire stems. Whenever I fill up at the gas station, I usually glance down to see what colour they are, and most of the time they are green. I have them installed on my GS, but now I know that I will have to "find" the other two and install them on my scooter.

When I took my Scooter out the air temp was around +3c , and I found that the ride was very firm, much firmer than I had been used to. I could feel every imperfection on the road. I got to thinking that my tires were probably low on pressure all summer which definitely effects speed and fuel economy. I'm glad I had a chance to check the tires. Now if only I knew where those other two . . .