I realised that since the scooter was not being used, people in my housing society were treating it like scrap.
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So the scooter was just sitting around for a while. Too much happening on the personal front. The real reason though was one fine day I was about to go to work and again had the starting issues. I got fed up, just stopped trying and took a rickshaw to the nearest metro station. Since then I kept meaning to have it looked at thoroughly but never got around to it.
One fine day had a mini scare when I couldn’t see the scooter at the place I remembered parking! This was a society we recently moved in to so I was really confused. Took the security supervisor’s help and after a good 20 min of searching finally found it moved to another corner of the society.
Anyway, since the battery was completely down now I let it be. Long story short, this was a bad decision. Things really came to a head when someone broke the number plate and put the broken piece in the glove box. I kicked myself for letting things get this far. Realised that because it was sitting around people around it were treating it like scrap.
So, the next day while returning from an errand I walked into a nearby battery shop. There was a young mechanic working on a scooter. Had a quick discussion and he showed up at my place with another guy. He had a look. Asked some basic questions and said he’d first charge the battery and do a full service while at it. He then offered to get the display repaired by a guy he knew. I was doing mental cartwheels when I heard this! Best part was a warranty of a year. I mean there was no warranty slip or anything but I told myself, hey at least he’s confident enough to give a fake one. They did the Indian method of towing it with their foot (should it be called toe-ing then?).
Anyhow, in about 5 hours he called and said everything was done including the display! Now that was fast. Off I went to the shop and there she was, looking as shiny as ever. Turned on the scooter and almost cried seeing the beautiful display. Icing on the cake was that odo was recording all this while. Only the top panel was bad. Fuel gauge worked too. No more vedic mathematics needed to calculate the drops of fuel left and extrapolate to the time taken to the nearest pump.
Damages were Rs. 4k odd. Out of which 2500 was for the display repair. Other expenses were the oil change, new numberplates, new air filter, cleaning the brake lines, charging the battery, etc.
The scooter gave starting trouble again when I left it for a few days as I was travelling. However, the mechanic said once I drive around a bit the battery will get charged. Seems he is right since the two times after that have been subsequently easier. If not, the carb may need cleaning.
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