5th kick scooter

<=== This is the first image you get if you type 'scooter god' into Google Images. Strange.

It has been a good weekend for scootering. Couchette has been riding really well. I took her for a long burn and up to Jim Smith Lake for the first time. I never actually got there because I stopped to see my friends Dan and Jan who live up that way. While I was talking to them the scoot started to sputter and I didn't get her into gear in time to save her. Dan push started me in his socks, and I was off. At the top of the hill she cut out again, and I knew the plug was pretty fouled. After coasting half-way down the hill with the throttle on, hoping she would catch, I pulled over and pondered my situation: I was 4 miles from home, the scooter wouldn't start, and I had half of a hill left to get her going... what to do?

I decided to risk it, pushed off and popped Couchette into second gear to get the motor turning over...nothing. Then it hit me like a flash, like a vision: I reached down and turned the fuel tap off for a few seconds to starve the motor. (this may be quite dangerous since the fuel also carries the lube for the engine, but I figured that there was enough fuel in the combustion chamber for a few seconds of starvation) After three seconds the engine sputtered and caught and I flipped the fuel supply back on. I win. After that she ran fine, and I made it home no problems, teeth showing.

Since then, I have been able to get her going each time I needed to. I have been cautious about riding somewhere that I might get stuck, but so far so good. On the 5th or 6th kick she usually fires to life and away we go. To the movie store and back, to Jack and Dale-Ann's house, etc. All successful trips. The scooter gods are on my side. for now.