Car > Scooter

I think today sealed the deal for me. Now NOTHING against scooters - I LOVE THEM - but I think we will be selling ours sooner rather than later.

On Thursday the scooter was riding a little funny. We had a lot going on (working, growth group, etc) and I forgot to mention it to Ryan.

Friday morning when I went to the garage the back tire was a little low. I figured it was fine and rode it to work. It was getting lower on the ride in and getting more and more wobbly (when the back tire goes out on a scooter, you are really just relying on the front tire - which causes the scooter to fishtail, or at least feel like it is). When I got into work I texted Ryan to let him know that the tire was flat. When 2pm rolled around on Friday I thought I would need to try to make it home. The storms were rolling in (supposed to start around 3pm) and if I didn't get it home then it would have been out in the weather all weekend. I drove fairly slow (the speed limit is 55mph on most of the roads and I think I was going in the 40-45mph range). It was super windy (because the storms were coming) and it started raining, which made the ride even sketchier. I made it home safe and sound (just a little wet and pretty freaked out). I told Ryan about it when he got home and he decided he would try and fix it once the rains stopped.

Sunday he was able to pump up the tire (our bike pump actually works on the scooter tires), ride it down to get gas, and everything appeared to be fine. We checked on the pressure throughout the day and it seemed to be fine (but then again it was up on the stand so the tire wasn't touching the ground and putting any pressure on the wheel.

This morning I went out to the garage to leave for work and everything looked fine. I sat on the scooter and the tire held up perfectly normal. I left for work thinking that Ryan had fixed it totally. About 5 minutes away from the house the scooter started acting funny again (not really being able to turn very well, feeling as though the back end was fishtailing, etc). It was riding okay, just annoying for the next 10 minutes or so. About half way to my office though, it started being real silly. I could feel that the tire was probably 90% flat. I could barely turn (it felt like if I were to lean the back tire would just slide out from underneath me) and if I went over about 25pmh the back end was waving back and forth pretty badly. I was able to ride in the bike lane at about 20mph till I got to work. I called Ryan to let him know. He came over at lunch with the bike pump, some goo to fill the tire, and lunch. The pump worked, but once you put the weight on the tire it goes out. The goo didn't work, because it seems as though the VALVE is where the issue is, so once Ryan put the goo into the tire, it would just come out the valve.

Tomorrow Ryan and Mike are planning on coming over to the office to put the scooter in Mike's truck so that they can at least get it back to our garage. We have a few calls into local scooter repair shops to see how much it would cost to fix the tire (I think the more expensive part will be the labor because you have to remove about half the bike to get the back tire off). We will decide when we get an estimate whether or not we will fix it before we sell it or not.

At least my scooter skills have kicked in and kept me safe :) Now Ryan and I will just be doing a little carpooling till we either fix the scooter or get another car.