1. Be patient. Don’t try to start immediately.
2. Put scooter in a warm, dry area if possible. In the sunshine, a heated garage etc give the scooter as long as you can to dry out, a couple days if possible.
3. Remove carb and drain of gas and water
4. Get some gas treatment for the tank, STP and Gum Out make this. This should remove any water in the tank if the tank was not fully submerged. If the tank was fully submerged you will need to remove it from the scooter, drain it and dispose of the gas/water mixture correctly. Allow to dry before putting in fresh gas, and use some Gas Treatment anyway for excess water in the fuel line.
5. Drain the gearbox oil of oil/water. Allow to dry before putting more oil in. Once the scooter is dry and running you might need to fill and drain the gearbox several times to get any water residue out. If your oil turns milky or frothy after running you still have water in transmission somewhere.
6. Remove spark plug and exhaust if possible. Kick scooter over to push water out of top end, drain exhaust if you can, if you can’t remove it, kicking the scooter over should push enough through so that the scooter can start, which will force the rest of the water out. Put some 2 stroke (a small amount) into the top end and kick over again to protect the bearings and crank and piston while the scooter sits for a couple days drying out.
7. Remove the flywheel and use a hair dryer on low setting to dry the stator out. If you can’t do that, removing the flywheel at least with the engine in a warm place will help dry the stator out.
8. You can check for a spark before trying to get the engine started – put the spark plug into its cap, and, holding the plastic lead or cap, rest the end of the spark plug against a piece of metal and kick the scooter over – if all is good you should see a spark on the plug.
9. Reassemble everything. Put in some new transmission oil and gas and see if the engine will fire up!
10. Letting the scooter idle for awhile will bring it up in temperature and will help to dry out other parts of the engine
11. Ride safely !

Yep, you read that right: We’re chucking life in the big city for some country livin’.

As of Dec. 1, Scooters Originali will be located at 924 Marcon Blvd, Suite 105, Allentown, PA 18109.  You’ll still be able to find us at www.scootersoriginali.com, and call us at 973-672-6600.

And we couldn’t be happier, because our new location offers 25 percent more space — and that means big things for our customers:

• A 50 percent larger workshop space so that Gene can devote even more attention to our meticulous, museum-quality scooter restorations.

• Greatly expanded parts storage to accommodate an even larger inventory for our online parts customers. Now, more than ever, Scooters Originali will have you covered.

• Closer proximity to high-quality partners for services such as media blasting, powder coating and paint.

• Absolutely amazing roads for scooter riding! We admit it: This move is partially selfish, because our new shop sits smack dab in the middle of some of the best twisties and scenic riding a vintage scooterist could ask for. Can you say, “lunch ride?” We sure can!

Moving Sale and Open House!

You’ll hardly notice our move. We’ll be closed Thanksgiving, Nov. 22 through Nov. 30, with our grand reopening happening on Dec. 1. You feast on turkey safe in the knowledge that our staff will be hard at work making the best scooter shop in America even better — and you can get in on some amazing deals in the meantime:

• We’re hosting a 20 percent off everything moving sale, which will run through Nov. 21. The less we have to box up, the better!

• Then, on Dec. 1, starting at 12 noon Eastern Time, we’ll unlock the doors on our new digs to host an open house. Customers visiting our new location can browse all the shelves of used parts, shop from bargain bins of parts at knocked-down prices, and enjoy special offers on new parts. Did we mention that we’ll have free coffee and snacks? Now that’s some country-style hospitality!

More space, better resources, a holiday move, massive before- and after-moving sales, and open house, plus the opportunity to hear Andrea say things like, “y’all” in a lilting English accent? This move to the country looks to be as purdy as possum pie!

We’re taking a long weekend to go to PVSC’s Band Camp rally. We’ll be closed from Thursday June 14th 2012, reopening at our usual time of 10am on Tuesday 19th June 2012. Drop us an e-mail whilst we’re gone, but there’s no cell service at the campsite, so we might not be able to answer till next week. See you at Band Camp. -A

Time: Sunday, April 17 · 11:00am – 6:00pm
Location: 50 South Center Street Unit 6, Orange, NJ 07050

Scooters Originali is hosting another scooter swap meet on Sunday April 17th at 11am, at our shop at 50 South Center Street, Unit 6, Orange NJ 07050, from 11am till whenever.

Bring all those parts you’ve had hanging around in your garage for ever, and swap them with other people, or sell them to get the money you need for new parts. Nothing to sell or swap? No problem. Just come and browse what other people have to sell.

There’ll be rare vintage Vespa and Lambretta parts, accessories and even a few modern Vespa bits and pieces, all being sold at unbelievably low prices. We need space and we need to clear the shelves off! This year we’d like to free up lots more shelf space. No reasonable offer will be refused.

If you’re bringing parts to sell, just bring a blanket to throw all your parts on, as tables will be in short supply.

This year we’ll be pulling more stuff of the shelves, so you won’t have to go look for parts yourself, plus we’ll have the free box and the $1 box for you to rummage through too. Yeah, we know lots of you didn’t realise you could go rummage through the used parts shelves yourself last year. That’s why we’re pulling more parts out for you.

Bad weather date will be announced, if necessary.

Need more detail? Call us on 973 672 6600 or e-mail sales@scootersoriginali.com

-A

We’re closed from February 21st, reopening on Friday March 4th at 10am.

See you in Cocoa Beach

-A

You’ve got a project you want to complete over the winter, but you don’t know when you’re going to be able to afford all those parts you need? Then take a look at our new layaway schemes. We offer an 8 week, 5 payment plan and a 12 week, 7 payment plan. We can also synch up the payments so the coincide with you payroll dates.

Contact me by phone on 972-672-6600 for more details and to set your parts order up on layaway, but here’s the terms laid out for you:

Scooters Originali, Inc. 12 week and 8 week layaway plans Terms and Conditions.

1. Minimum amount for layaway is $100 including shipping charges.
2. Layaway plans are open to US residents only.
3. A $1 charge will be made to utilize our layaway plan.
4. Only in stock parts can be placed on layaway. We will not special order parts to be placed on layaway. If a part you want is out of stock, we will contact you when it comes back into stock to see if you would still like to purchase it, and a layaway plan can be set up at that point.
5. Once you order the parts and place them on layaway, we will physically remove them from our shelves. They will be placed in storage until your final payment is made.
6. 8 week plans are 5 equal payments. 12 week plans are 7 equal payments. See examples at end of these terms.
7. The first payment is due within 24 hours of the order. The second payment can be set up for any date you specify within 15 days of the first payment. Subsequent payments will be charged at 14 day intervals from that 2nd payment. This is so you can synchronize payment with your payroll dates.
8. You can cancel the plan within the first 14 days and have all the money you have paid refunded to you with no charge. If you cancel over 14 days after we have charged the first payment we will charge either an 8% cancellation fee, or $16, whichever is less. Refunds will be made within 10 days after you cancel.
9. If you are unable to make a payment on the scheduled date, we will give you a 15 day grace period to make the due payment. After this 15 day grace period we will consider the layaway contract cancelled, the stipulated cancellation fees will be charged and the parts you ordered will be returned to our shelves.
10. When the layaway plan starts we will provide you with a schedule of payments, how much and which date they are due. We will provide you with an updated statement, showing the plan balance, each time you make a payment.
11. Payments can be made by credit card, or by mailed in or hand delivered check or money order, or by cash paid at our premises in Orange.
12. After the final payment is made, we will ship the parts you ordered within 2 business days.

Example of 8 week payment plan – 5 payments
Total of parts ordered on September 28th- $180
Service fee – $1
Total amount for layaway plan – $181
First payment made – September 29th – $36.20
Second Payment due. Customer opts for date of October 8th – $36.20
Third payment due – October 22nd – $36.20
Fourth Payment due – November 5th – $36.20
Final payment due – November 19th – $36.20

Example of 12 week payment plan – 7 payments
Total of parts ordered on September 28th- $375
Service fee – $1
Total amount for layaway plan – $376
First payment made September 29th – $53.72
Second Payment due. Customer opts for date of October 8th -$53.72
Third payment due – October 22nd – $53.72
Fourth payment due – November 5th – $53.71
Fifth payment due – November 19th - $53.71
Sixth payment due – December 3rd – $53.71
Final payment due – December 17 th – $53.71

-Andrea

We’re closing early today, and we’ll be closed tomorrow, Saturday 18th September as we have an absolutely brilliant family wedding to attend.

-A

Rudy Perez is an extremely nice guy and he builds the sweetest custom Lambrettas. He won the Las Vegas scooter rally Build Off competition this year, 2010, with his build of “Death Proof”. It is a beautiful bike and he’s put together a video of photgraphs of the whole build off process.

Congratulations Rudy, and I look forward to your next build, which I think might be the 2011 Lammy Jammy Raffle bike. I’ve got to make sure I make it to Lammy Jammy. Rudy’s Lambrettas are definitely worth winning.

-A

On Saturday a customer requested that we post more up about what is going on in the workshop and more specifically, what Gene works on. So, C, here it is The first “What is on Gene Merideth’s table” post. I don’t think its going to be possible to post everything Gene works on, but I’ll do my best to post regularly.

We’re closed Mondays usually, but Gene and I will sometimes come in to get caught up on a few things.

The first thing Gene went to was a renovation we’ve helped a customer with. We stripped the bike down and rebuilt the engine. The customer did his own bodywork and paint, brought the bike back to us, and we’re reassembling it. First thing this morning Gene put on the legshield badge and wired up and fitted the tail light.

The next thing is a Lambretta SX200 engine rebuild that’s going into an SX200 restoration. When I went out to snap the photos, Gene was fitting the rings.

-A

3 rallies coming up over the next 2 weekends.

We’ll be closed Friday June 18th through Monday June 21st, reopening with our usual hours on Tuesday June 22nd.

The following weekend we’ll also be closing early on Friday June 25th,  and closed over the weekend through Monday June 28th. We’ll open again after the weekend on Tuesday June 29th.

See you at PVSC Band Camp, the Lammy Jammy or the Usual Suspects rally.

-A