My first official BREAKDOWN!

If you ride, you know that there is always a slight danger that your scooter can suffer a breakdown.

This is what happened:

While riding our scooters back from Amerivespa 2012, we pulled over for gas.

I have NEVER filled my scooter up to the brim during the summer. My own scooter mechanic, Milan from Motorworks, in Chicago had told me:

"NEVER fill your gas tank all the way to the top and you will NEVER have an evaporation canister problem."

(Very quickly, Evaporation Canisters have been installed in scooters to catch the few gas drops from a tank overflow. It is supposed to then feed the gas back into the engine but often it just makes the engine, basically choke on this extra gas. It is usually wise to remove this Evaporation Canister.)

I also know enough not to top off a tank when it is HOT HOT HOT out. Something about vapor lock or some such fear is always in the back of my mind as well. So for 4 summers now, I have been riding and filling my tank to only 3/4 full.

So while my back was turned, my unknowing BF filled my gas tank to the brim on a HOT HOT summer day and SURPRISE!! the scooter wouldn't START!

Of course you know what happened next... WORLD WAR THREE on the SIDE OF THE ROAD!

You need to listen to this woman when she talks about how her scooter needs to be treated...

After THAT was over, it was decided that I would ride the MP3 400 home while my BF stayed with the Blue Dragon and try to coax it home.

So I rode the reliable MP 3 400 home while my BF got the Blue Dragon to sputter on for about 20 more miles before it died completely at a gas station in Pingree Illinois. Luckily that is only about 50 miles away from home.

By then I had the car and went up to Pingree and picked my BF up. Leaving the Blue Dragon at the gas station over night... now WHY would we do THAT? Because my BF believed that the scooter would start again the next morning when the temperature was much cooler. 

So my BF and Mike went up to fetch the BV early the next morning and it still would not start. They THEN loaded up on the carrier on the back of the Trailer Blazer and brought it home. 

I contacted Motorworks and they had us bring the BV 500 in very early the next morning. There they removed the HATED EVAPORATION CANISTER, since my BF is not good at following directions. Then they checked the fuel pump finding a cracked fuel pump hose. 

Apparently the hose was previously replaced due to a recall but was still not the best quality hose. It also became brittle over time and cracked. When we added all the gas, we caused the pressure in the tank to increase and this made the hose crack even further.

Motorworks replaced the hose (again, but this time with a big black BMW hose, YEAH!) Once you go BMW you never go back!


This has fixed my BV 500. Supposedly, I will NEVER HAVE AN ISSUE LIKE THIS EVER AGAIN!!!!


But this was my first real break down. I think we dealt with it okay. It could have been much worse.