That's right. Recently I turned 15. In the state of Michigan, you can get a moped license, without having to pass your drivers training when you're fifteen. That got me pumped. So I went online and looked for a few hours for the cheapest moped I could find.I looked at $2,000 scooters, and $600 scooters.
The $600 one was the one I could afford, with the awesome-ness and power I wanted. (Sadly it lacks in quality a little.)
I ended up buying the $600, off-brand, made-in-China, beast of a machine TaoTao.
It was delivered yesterday, on a big truck with a lift gate. It was dropped off, and I had to act legit, old, sign a paper, and off he went. (Yes, it was okay for me to sign the paper. It was just there so they know the delivery guy didn't take it.)I ripped off the cardboard, and found the steering wheel off, front wheel, panels, etc. Yeap, it was going to take some time to put together.
I started to pull everything apart, set it aside, open the compartments, Figure the thing out.
I found a users manual, a bag of screws, and a bag of tools.
Great, a puzzle. No building manual. Just your brains. The Users manual is this 15 page book on how to start and run the thing.
We started out taking it off the shipping frame, and began to try and put the front tire on... Which wasn't easy. With dad not home, it was just my little siblings and me. I had them lift up the front of the bike (the bike total is 200 pounds) while I put the front tire on, which was super stressful, because I had no idea what I was doing, and nothing was fitting, and I don't know what the heck this thing is and why wont this fit and the kids are all moaning because they are tired of holding it up and BLAH!
That was probably the worst part of the construction process.
After about 15 minuets, I got it in. Whoo!
After that I had to put on the steering wheel, which was confusing also, because I didn't know what bolt to use to keep it on. Soo I kinda guessed. (Later I found out that I was right. :D)
I kept working on the bike for about 3 hours. In that time I was forced to call the place I bought the moped from. They said the support guys where out eating lunch. :| ITS 3 O'CLOCK. I guess they must be based some place far.
I continued to tighten bolts and put on screws until Dad got home. We then continued to work on it. Plenty of "What the heck is this random wire sticking out the side for?" (Not quite, but close)
After a while we called support back, and they where back from lunch. We asked our questions and learned that we needed to change the oil. BLECK. We decided that we would pick up the oil on our way to the secretary of state building to pick up my moped license. :D
We left the bike mostly completed. When we got to the secretary of state building, we learned that their computers where down... Of course. One thing we learned from them, was that we needed something special from the manufacturers, something that said that I bought it from them, and it's legit. On the way back to the Ponderosa, we picked up the oil, and called the place we bought it from, and they said that we needed to make a request for one of those thingys, and they will send it to us through the mail.
Great. Now we can't register it for "7 - 10 business days."
Well, we got back to our house, changed the oil, and put in some fuel.
After that, we had to figure out how to start it up which is more complex then you think.
After we figured it out, we had to wait for a while until it got the fuel through all the lines and everything. After that, it started up with a low, surprisingly quiet hummm. You don't even have to raise your voice to talk!
After letting it warm up, I took it for a test drive.
Which. was. awesome. I rode it around for a while, then parked it in the garage.
BEAST-O-RAMMA.
