Plex under the knife

The life of my scooter is in the hands of a short, bald, Italian man named Fabio.

I dropped off my scooter in Anaheim today to finally get fixed by a professional. My yellow Honda CT90 has been out of commission for months now. First it pooped out on me while riding it and I spent a week+ taking apart the engine on my own. Then I realized I could just upgrade the engine to save me time and I was ordering it on eBay days later. Then when it came in the mail I spent days installing the engine onto the frame of the bike and then weeks staring at the electrical of it. Basically it was an old bike with a brand new engine and they weren't getting along. The Honda was playing with it's phonograph and the new engine was trying to plug in it's iPod into it. It just wasn't going well for me.

Last week I decided to leave this job to the professionals and try not to ruin my engine anymore than I already had(in an attempt to charge the battery I caused the ignition coil to fry and crack open). I called the guy who was the first person to work on my bike but he flaked. So my good friend thought maybe his scooter guy could help me. One problem though, this guy only works on Vespas..... I mean, he is Italian.

Fabio was my last hope and I was nervous bringing my bike down to Anaheim in fear of another brain stumped by the tangled mess of wire in my bike. I was confident with Fabio when I took the bike out and he immediately started  telling me things about the inside of my bike that I didn't even know. I knew I'd brought it to the right place. One thing he said to me that blew my mind was that the only purpose for the battery on my bike was to enable me to have my front and back light on before the engine is on. That's it! I though it would be a little more important than that. He said he can rig it up so the battery is bypassed and i wouldn't need it any more, which is how all Vespas are made. He commented how my exhaust pipe is too narrow for my carb, and also how i had forgot to put the foot pegs back on the bike(I was in a hurry), but then i gave him my number and it was homeward bound for me.

I'll hear from him tomorrow to see the status. Still nervous. Plus I don't want to pay him to tell me that he's stumped as well. We'll see. I hope his Honda mechanics are as good as his modeling skills.


Update 11/25: Fabio has failed. He found there was no spark, meaning a fault in the electrical system, but he doesn't have the tools to fix it. Hopefully Gretchen's in Long Beach can throw some luck my way. Oh and apparently Gretchen's doesn't consider Plex a scooter but a motorcycle. So that's a plus.