A) My capstone goals for now to dec1st are honestly quite doable. The only major issues now are getting the turn signal to work and making a custom rear taillight. The scooter now runs, I recently re-did all the fuel lines & fuel filtering systems, de-rusted the gas tank, cleaned the carburetor, completely removed the springs to lower it, (it is now even more of a deathtrap) & I recently fitted the fibreglass wing that will fit on the back. The whole thing has been de-greased and cleaned and the lights that didn’t work now do as well. Honestly very good progress.
I hope to fit the taillight soon. Still need to make a custom bracket. My welding skills are coming to use now. B) Before the end of the month, my main goal is to finish the scooter taillight bracket & obtain a turn signal relay clicker. As this is a 1984 model, it may be hard, but not awful. That, and fitting the fibreglass wing permanently. Other than some simple maintenance things to be done as well, it should be very straight forward. C) To stay motivated & on track is more of a mental game that expected. Keeping a schedule & sticking to it is a big one. Knowing what needs to be done for the day and just going out and fixing this thing is another. Just gotta do it. D) Every time I’ve worked on my scooter I’ve taken photos. Sometimes that’s multiple times a week, or sometimes its less. Photography is a big passion of mine so documenting my work isn’t really that hard to be honest. Ive created a massive folder where I just dump all my photos to include onto my website for later use. Ive found it be a good way to keep track of what I’ve done, whole simultaneously not being a hassle to constantly add them to my website.
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A) With such a niche community, yes, it is hard to find people that modify their old 80s scooters in a gentsuki inspired style. Yet, locally I have a group of about 50 others that modify them and ride their scooters in Vancouver. It’s a Facebook group with tons of different models, years and country spec scooters. I can go to any one of them with questions and get an answer.
B) I have this classic book called “AMERICAN KYUU-GENTSUKI MAGAZINE” In the scooter modifying community, it is commonly known as the most well documented & well written book on gentsuki culture. It includes original photos of some of the first scooters, its history, common mods and other people's scooters. This along with the Facebook group of scooter locals, multiple Instagram pages and old online forums from the early 2000s, I've been able to scrape up enough information about my scooter and my mods to slowly but surely get a move on with the repairs and the modifying. C) Honestly, I've been making very good progress. Currently, it does drive, which was my goal for the week. It still needs a carb clean but all in all, I'm very happy with my progress so far. The scooter is now lowered, which makes speedbumps incredibly scary. When I get the under-cowl, it will almost be impossible to drive over anything other than flat ground. Which has been the goal since the beginning. As quoted multiple times by everyone in the community, “no low, no life” These scooters mimic classic Kaido racer cars, low, flashy and very illegal. The fiberglass wing has also been fitted on my scooter as well. Originally made for a Honda dio 50 jdm spec, I had to make a mold, then cut it and sand it to the correct shape. It now fits great. Still need to fix my blinkers so they actually work, then make a taillight. As it stands, I'm on track with my project. A- The draft proposal has kept my main goal on track, and that is to fix up and modify my scooter in the classic gentsuki style. With so many styling options, its very easy to go down a deep rabbit hole of mods and fixes, so with my limited time constraint, I’ve had to forfeit some things that I originally would have loved to do, to keep my in this time frame deadline. I would love to make my own fibreglass aero parts for it, but I just don’t have the space or time for it.
B- To stay on task I’ve wrote myself a checklist, big on cardboard with a sharpie tied to it, when I finish something, I cross off whatever was done. Then I move on. This keeps me on track, and organized for the project. Knowing when. To finish and move on as well is a big thing. I can be an incredible perfectionist when it comes to things that I love. Realizing that I can’t make it perfect, and acknowledging the fact that it won’t be, has been a big step. C- There is a lot of things that need to be done with the scooter, to even make it legal, I need to create a taillight for myself that actually works. Then, sourcing parts for this scooter is incredibly hard as well. Since its from 1984, the only option is ebay, which has incredibly painful shipping costs & seller markup. Also, time is a challenge I have to overcome as well. We are halfway through the course and much has to be done still. A- So far, ive acquired the scooter, tore everything down and cleaned the scooters engine. It had a blown headgasket, so being a 2 stroke scooter, there was much less compression and leaked oil everywhere. I used up 2 entire cans of grease cleaner cleaning the engine.
The headgasket was replaced, and I cleaned the carb as well. Ive never cleaned a carb before so I went to the university of YouTube to watch some videos on how to clean it. After, I replaced the fuel lines, the petcock and the fuel filter. This took a while as I got the wrong type of plastic fuel line and when it came in contact with gasoline, it got rock hard. Next, is lowering the scooter. The model isn’t very widely modified, so I actually have to figure this out myself. B- Ive learned that patience is key, this is an old scooter so many parts get brittle and deteriorate. As someone who rushes things often, its been very nice to be forced to actually slow down and focus on the actual task on hand. Ive also learned to clean a carb. As engines these days don’t use them as commonly anymore, it took a bit of digging to find how to clean my specific model. C- Oh man, so much more needs to be done. Fitting the fiberglass wing, getting an undercowl, painting those, tuning the engine, fixing the blinkers, fixing the throttle control, and lowering the scooter. Then I need to fix my patlite to the scooter, and add many other cosmetic mods. Much research has to be done for this. |
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