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8 days agoHi I’m a weirdo who lives in a Philadelphia suburb and whose main transit mode is 50cc scooter (even in this fuckshit cold ass weather).
Some advice:
- practice tight and quick turns without tipping over
- wear helmet and high vis always
- ride like you’re invisible. assume that nobody sees you
- wear bandana/scarf tucked into bottom of helmet & collar of shirt/jacket. insects can get sucked up into your helmet otherwise…
- get anti fog helmet shield and if you wear glasses get some anti fog cleaning wipes
- get a cover and use it (i store mine in the seat trunk)
- make sure you know a mechanic who can work on it if you can’t do it yourself
- have backup transit for dangerous weather (I’m lucky to live in an area with bad but usable public transit and Lyft)
- don’t underestimate wind
- put high octane gas in it. it’s such a tiny engine that the extra energy density makes a noticeable difference in acceleration
I spend $2/week on gas, $240/year on insurance, and have spent less than $200 on mechanic’s fees (oil changes, etc.) in 3 years of owning it. I have been crushing my debt with the money saved not having a car. It’s a powerful way to save money if you’re willing to sacrifice comfort, item/passenger transport capacity, and to some extent reliability
I keep going back and forth about whether I’m imagining it gives better performance or it actually does 😅
I vaguely knew “higher octane” didn’t mean higher percentage of 8-C hydrocarbons but definitely believed the misconception that it was higher energy density. Hm.
It definitely doesn’t have much in the way of sensors (though it does seem to adjust the idle speed in cold weather through some mechanism). It has spark plugs and a carburetor so no dice on coil on pack ignition or fuel injection.
The mechanic I took it to did say he thought it would run better in cold weather with higher octane fuel but didn’t elaborate.