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Nevermind, fellow scooters. I found the answer on another thread. In actuality, the brake lights have always been on. I hit the starter without pulling the brake handle and it turned over, so I looked and sure enough, my left side brake switch was stuck.

I have a 2008 MC-54-250b and it's time to replace the battery again. I've read about the BikeMaster TruGel batteries being a longer-lasting alternative to the stock style. Anyone have any experience with them? If so, what part number works for the MC-54-250b?

Thanks for the advice. Is there any sure-fire way of telling which bike I have?

Okay, repairs are done and here's the update. I wish the situation was a bit more exotic and i didn't look quite so stupid, but the truth is that when I got down under the bike, I found the the exhaust pipe had completely disconnected from the exhaust port. The nuts had worked their way off and the pipe was just hanging there.

Of course the donut gasket was gone, so did a little searching and decided to follow Alleyoop's steps on how to make your own exhaust gasket from wire. A trip to Lowes and $3.00 later I had a couple of feet of 6 gauge copper wire and two 8M nuts and lock-washers The gasket fix worked perfectly and I'm back on the road.

The only way I can make this story really intriguing is what I think caused the exhaust nuts to loosen and fall off. My guess is that the February 6 laydown started the process and jolted them loose, but another factor probably contributed. In April I was riding to work when the bike just bogged down and died. On the side of the road I tried the started and it fired back up, but the throttle gave me no power to the wheels. After 15,800 miles I had finally broken the belt. Fortunately, a new belt had been on my Christmas list last year and Santa had come through, so I had the replacement hanging on the garage wall.

I pushed Big Red into the driveway of an abandoned house that was for sale, got my tools and began taking the CVT cover off. A few bruised knuckles later, this is what I found:





The belt hadn't just broken. It had exploded into a thousand bits and the remaining radial cord had wound itself around the clutch. When it blew, it took out several of the teeth on the variator fan as well. I extracted the cord, reset the variator, installed the new belt and got back on the road.

When I was done, I was amazed at how smooth the acceleration and ride had become. It made me realize that the bike had been shuddering on take off for quite a while and I had just gotten used to it. Apparently the belt had been trying to warn me for some time but I wasn't paying attention. My guess is that the excessive shuddering helped to work the nuts completely loose from the exhaust port and contributed to that problem.

The belt replacement was my first dive into the CVT, and it inspired me to do an upgrade. I've ordered a set of 14g Dr. Pulley slider weights which should be waiting for me when I get home, so this afternoon I plan on doing a quick install and we'll see what kind of performance/speed/MPG changes they bring.

Big Red has decided it's time to wake up the neighbors.

Over the past few weeks I have noticed a noise coming from my MC-54-250B (16,200 miles so far). When the engine is under load I could hear a very slight tfff-tfff-tfff... sound, which sounded like an innocent exhaust leak. Last night while riding I noticed that Big Red was starting to roar and my ride got progressively louder as I went to work. After work I started him up and wanted to ask who had replaced my mild-mannered scoot with a fire-breathing Harley.

What was a simple tfff-tfff was now a full-on rumble, complete with the occasional backfire on deceleration. It was so loud that I felt the need to coast into my neighborhood to keep the peace with my neighbors.

I plan on checking it out this afternoon when I get home, but I'd like to have an opinion on where the problem is. My guess is that the little metal ring gasket between the engine exhaust outlet and the muffler pipe has worked its way out and is no longer with me. Is there somewhere else that I should check?

Here's a small backstory that might shed some light. A few months ago (February 6), I was taking a right-hand turn and hit a pile of dried road salt, which took the bike out from under me and laid it on its right side for a 15-20 foot skid. Since that is the side with the muffler, which took the brunt of the road contact, I'm wondering if that didn't flex that joint and cause it to loosen and possibly damage the gasket, which gradually worked its way out.

These are the bulbs that I bought from ebay. In the interests of full disclosure the listing does say "Xenon style", so they are probably not true Xenon bulbs. Even so, they are unbelieveably bright and worked right out of the box:

HEADLIGHT BULB 12V 50/50 WATT BA20d SUPER BRIGHT XENON STYLE GY6 CHINESE SCOOTER

Here is my trusty steed Big Red, a 2008 Cyprus 250, along with a few of his custom additions. I bought him in the Fall of 2010 when he was just getting broken in at 5,500 miles and it's been a great ride ever since!



Red has Xenon headlights that make street signs absolutely glow in the dark and LED turn signals all around. The 7jurock aftermarket windshield (24 inches tall and 17 inches wide) and the red handguards work together to block even the coldest winter winds so I can ride year-round in SW Missouri.











When I bought him, he had some very faded vinyl decals of a flaming eagle on each side. Although I liked the design, the fading made them look bad, so I decided to peel them off and when I did, I was very excited to see that the paint of the bike had faded all around the decals, leaving an awesome ghost image of the design!



To give me quick access to my phone's GPS and road tunes, I installed a Ram Mount X-Grip with a short arm so I can angle it as needed. I've used both a Samsung Galaxy Nexus and my current LG G2 (shown displaying the excellent Car Home Ultra app) in the mount. It takes a second to mount and unmount the phone and neither phone ever even slipped a little. A great buy that I wouldn't live without!



My Bluetooth helmet is the companion piece to my smartphone, giving me music while I ride and the ability to take/make phone calls hands-free.