Modern Vespa

My Honda has >32,000 miles. 50% highway 50% city. Soon to be 100% city. I'd like to know the average lifespan of a 150cc starter.

What I have noticed is that a lot of components will last either a certain amount of miles or a certain amount of years, so that after a certain amount of time, the thing will just go bad, no matter if you have 20,000 miles on it or 2,000. We sell a lot of starter motors for the leader engine, and it's a good starter motor that both Honda and Kawasaki use. A lot of the bikes that need new starter motors have extremely low miles on them.
So there is no one right answer.

I'm with motovista on this one. there's not really a firm answer.

I've replaced my fair share of them and the actual failure rate is quite low. the other reasons were: debris from transmission self destructing not properly cleaned out, jump started from a car directly to it, not installed properly (hammered in), not hooked up or bad connections, and hooked up to a battery to see if it was still good.

one client is on a two year schedule. he lets the bike sit for ages and then when he goes to start it he just reefs on the thing till hell won't have it, breaks down and has his carb cleaned and then the starter goes out like two weeks later like clockwork.

Motovista sold me my new starter. I had taken the old one off and disassembled it intending to clean it and check the brushes.

Don't do that. There is no salvation to be found inside the starter motor. They aren't too expensive. After 32k miles you could do worse than replacing it outright or having a spare on hand, just because.

That's not good news for my 12 year old 2,000 mile bike.

I don't know whether it's good news or bad news. Lots of things CAN go wrong - how many are you going to worry about! Not sure about the Honda but the Vespa part is $70 and an easy 30-minute fix. Is it worth having one on the shelf so you can fetch it and fix it in a parking lot if you get stranded somewhere? I don't think I would. Failing starters often get balky before they fail completely, and can be coaxed into function with a rap with a hammer, etc.

And I wonder if it would be possible to make a 3D-printed plastic socket that could crankstart a Vespa with a ratchet/drill on the crank nut, but would have scalloped faces (or would break) so the ratchet/drill would get pushed off the nut once the engine caught (and wouldn't spin around at high speed, breaking bones). You'd have to take the variator cover off to use it, of course, and then put it back on while the engine idled, but it would get you home.

EDIT: or just remove (or drill through) the plastic shroud in the variator cover that covers the crankshaft nuts. Hmmm….

I'm answering my own question.
42,000 miles and the starter clutch is going bad. Ordered it and now comes minor surgery to the black beater. For every delivery I avg. 2.5 starts. Avg 50 delivery's a week is a lot of starts compared to 3 starts a day when commuting.

If by "starter clutch" you mean "Bendix gear," you might want to take it out and clean/lube it. They're pretty solid devices. But not particularly pricy, either….

If I'm going to preform any surgery on my bike, it gets new parts.

The Shitty's (sorry!) have a sprag clutch, not a Bendix.

Yes, but Bendix is so much easier to remember than "sprag clutch."

Why "shitty"?

so, basically you went from 15 (or let's be generous and say 20) starts a week to 125 starts per week, or roughly 500 starts a month for the last 6~7 months across what, roughly 10K miles? that's 3,000 starts. no wonder it gave up the ghost.

also, where's the .5 of a start come from?

If I deliver to a house, I let the bike run. If I deliver to a business or apartment, I shut it off.

1st start leaving the house. 2nd start pickup at merchant. 3rd start ?
Short version, WAG.

I get you, I'd thought about that and I guess that's just how the numbers fall.

either way, that's a big load across a short period of time. combine that with all the previous use and it just turns out that it's time.

not that bad of a job at least

What are the economics of scooter based delivery?
Purchase, maintenance, gas?

How many deliveries in 42000 miles?

Thinking of becoming a scooter courier Z?

Isn't getting paid to ride a scooter something we all aspire to?


Actually I did that circa 1990. Lasted one night.

Compared to a car/suv. I'm limited on my earnings. Can't deliver pizza, dozen doughnut box, multi orders of some # of items and I won't do shop and deliver.
I prefer boony runs. Sitting in traffic breathing exhaust sucks. In 7 hours I spend 3 hours hanging at the house waiting for acceptable orders. I work 8 AM to 3 PM because it's the best time for light traffic but it's the worst time to make big bucks. The best area here to make $30 an hour Has a bunch of cell phone dead spots for me. Dealing with english as a 2nd language customer service cuts into earning time. If I can't close the order with a picture, I have to drive out of the dead zone and wait for CS to call the customer and close the order.
I think I've made $7,000 in 10,000 miles. It takes about $5(non ethanol) in gas to make $80 to $100.
The best part is that if I'm not feeling it or bad weather, I don't have to do it.

I know car jumping is a no no but is it, like, a 5% chance of breaking something, 50%, or what? Not arguing but very curious, tho I know it's a hard question to answer.

I recently cleaned the bushes on the Primaveras starter. Probably a replacement job for a lot of people.
10,000 km mostly commuting to work 4km so around 2,500 starts.

Starting directly from a car battery is fine, as long as the car's engine isn't running. Also, the usual instruction to affix the negative leads to the frame rather than the battery itself only applies to flooded batteries, not gel (sealed) or AGM. And that's only because the flooded batteries can give off potentially explosive hydrogen if they suddenly get a big charge current incoming.

There's a lot of old-time myth and baggage surrounding batteries and charging - and these artificial pearls of non-wisdom keep getting repeated.

You can get a kickstart cover for your S150. And can probably make it work on a GT200.

I have a sae to power point jumper cable, which connects to the battery tender connector
Easy, compact

The hurry up and wait is over. Now I have the tools to remove a flywheel $60 for both. The symptoms were identical to a weak battery. The wear was obvious on the sprocket and the clutch housing inside diameter.