It’s not yet spring, but it’s starting to feel like it in Seattle. I’m even seeing buds on the trees! This is rather exciting. Spring time means many things and one of them is riding more.

But before one can ride a bit more, one must change the oil in one’s crank case because one’s scooter is shifting like pure cranky crap.

I noticed this a couple of days ago after riding to Mighty O’s and then to the library. It would start off nearly impossible to change gears. To get into first, I’d have to use both hands. I even got a blister. No good there. See, on a Vespa, you shift with the left hand (as opposed to a motorcycle that shifts with the left foot). Same basic idea though.

Since my engine is being broken in and there’s around 100 miles on it now, it’s time to do a bit of maintenance. That’s where the gearbox oil change comes in. With the scooter, there’s stuff to do every time you ride the thing. But most of it falls every 2,500 miles or so. But after 100 miles or so, I like to flush the gearbox.

The scooter sits low enough that a regular oil drain pan thing doesn’t work. So I discovered that the plastic housing thing that blank DVDs come in works perfectly.

I let it drain for 15 or so minutes, until nothing else is coming out, then I put the drain plug back on, put 100ccs of new oil into it and start the engine for 5 mins or so.

This is a good time to check things like turn signals and brake lights (which you should be checking anyway). Also tire pressure. I’d usually lubricate the cables now too, but since the move, I can’t find my cable lubricant. I’ll have to get some somewhere.

During this, I noticed that Black Kitty and Orange and White Kitty finally noticed each other. They said “hi” and I got to take their picture. The first time I tried, the owner of Orange and White Kitty looked out the window at me so I had to pretend that I was taking a picture of my scooter instead.

The gearbox takes 250ccs of 30W ND oil. The “ND” means non detergent. Most oil has detergents in it. That’s all well and good for most applications, but in a gearbox, you don’t want bubbles because bubbles mean air and air means metal on metal and that’s bad, ok?

When I bought the oil, I found a syringe. I’ve been looking for one of these for a year or so and finally found one. It holds 60ccs. So to get 250ccs, I had to fill it up four times and then a bit more. The rule of thumb is that when the oil starts to drizzle back out of the fill hole, you’re done. That makes sense, but I still like to make sure it’s close, thus the syringe!

Once it starts to drizzle out, wait for it to finish and then put the fill-hole plug back in. It’s a good idea to change the washers too, but I didn’t because there’s only 100 miles on them. Next time though.

Then wipe it all up. I’m using an old dhoti!

And that’s that.