2005 Yamaha BWS: Front Fairing

It's been over a year since I've posted an update about my 2005 Yamaha BWS rebuild. 

(image stolen from www, might have been my scooter)

My build is nothing like reality TV, where customized rebuilds are completed in weeks. There are many factors that have resulted in my build posts to taking so long, the most serious issue has been my inability to post to BLOGGER (which has been documented before). Other factors, like the cold weather, a cold workshop, postal shipping delays, and the whole trial and error process have added to this lengthy build. Finally there are all the problems I've been plagued with during this build. It's also a bit surprising that, parts for this model of scooter are harder to find, considering that it's a newer model.

Now on to the actual build...

(not my fairing, image stolen from Ebay)

One of the ugliest things about the North American YW50, is the hideous reflector on the front fairing. My goal from day one was to remove this reflector and add either LED  side markers or LED turn signals (haven't decided yet). In my opinion, while reflectors do an average job of making the scooter visible to other drivers, lights are better, and LED lights are even better than that, plus they're really inexpensive, and draw less electrical load. 

Problem #1: My original goal was to remove the reflector and merely substitute in .75" LED penny lights. However, removing the reflector revealed multiple mounting holes in the fairing. To avoid seeing these holes in the fairing, they would need to be filled prior to securing the LED lights. I used a technique called plastic welding, where the surrounding area of the fairing is melted, with a solder iron, and new plastic is melted in and added to fill the holes. Seeing as I was already committed to this process, I also decided to fill some fairing cracks graciously provided, free of charge, from the previous owner. After building up the area with plastic, it was sanded down to its original shape. ** When possible use tape on the finish side to achieve a smoother surface, with rough work on the other side of the fairing (hope that makes sense).

Problem#2: Some of the original plastic parts on my YW50 had a textured surface, the fairing being one of them. After the plastic welding process, and the subsequent sanding, the original textured surface had been lost. Sanding down the whole fairing just wasn't an option, so I attempted to recreate the textured surface using RUST-OLEUM's Hammered textured spray paint.

(Here is a picture of the fairing after it had been plastic welded, sanded, and finally painted.)

Problem #3: While the RUST-OLEUM Hammed texture paint did a great job of recreating the texture surface on the fairing, it wasn't the right color.

As you can clearly see from the above photo, the paint can color indicator lid is black, yet my painted fairing is grey/charcoal. As you can image I was pretty upset, which was only made worse by RUST-OLEUM's refusal to admit fault. Instead, after ongoing correspondence they eventually awarded me a refund. Fortunately for me, I was able to correct this, by painting over the fairing with a standard black rattle can paint. ** Note: In the past I've experience issues trying to use different paints on top of each other, with sanding being the only final option, something the refund wouldn't cover. I really liked that I could paint over the hammered textured paint, I might use this process in the future. **

Oh RUST-OLEUM, its a complicated relationships between us.

Problem #4: After waiting weeks for my .75" LED amber lights to arrive, I painted them using VHT nightshade paint to give them a smoked look. I drilled new holes in my fairing and inserted the LED lights, only to realize that the curvature of the fairing caused the LED lights to not sit properly. While I could probably get away with using some silicone to fill the uneven gaps, I just know I would never be satisfied with this look. My solution was to order 1.25" LED amber lights, and hope that they will fit the fairings curvature better.

After several more weeks the new LED lights arrived, and once again I used VHT nightshade to give the lights a smoked look. I used a Dremel tool to widen the .75" hole until it snuggley fit the 1.25" lights. 

While I really liked the size and shape of the .75" lights, the 1.25" lights fit so much better. Overall I'm pleased how the front fairing turned out, and I'm leaning on making these lights side markers that are only on at night.

Supermarket Life: Preferential Treatment?

Why is it people are always in a rush at the checkout tills? People can spend hours shopping, yet when they get to the checkout tills, they can't wait for more than a few minutes.

Hey everyone, I have to say I'm almost embarrassed in writing this post, as it's the most unusual chain of events in my 26 years of working in a retail supermarket.




As seems the case with most unusual events they either happen at the beginning or end of your shift, and this event took place just minutes before I was going home. I was working the scan & go (self check out tills) assisting a customer when I was approached by an elderly couple who were requesting help entering in reduced bananas. I replied to their request, that I would have to assist them in entering their reduced bananas, and that they could continue on entering their groceries as I would be there momentarily, when I finished helping the customer I was with. I finished helping the current customer and as I was making my way over to the elderly couple, with the bananas, as my passage was obstructed by a young man and his wheelchair.

The wheelchair bound young man asked if I could assist him in putting through his order, which isn't technically my job. Concentrating my efforts on one singular customer while at scan & go, means the other 5 are left waiting, and slows down the whole process. It's also frowned upon by management, because not only will those customers waiting patiently in the express lanes complain, the scan & go tills aren't made to maximize a cashiers speed and efficiency, they're made for ease and accuracy, it actually nullifies a cashiers training and speed. Basically it's much faster to have a cashier on a regular lane assisting people, than having a cashier use scan & go to enter orders.

So what do I do? Do I refuse to assist this young man who is confined to a wheelchair?

I looked over the items in the young mans basket, and realized it was about half a dozen items, I could easily put those items through in a matter of minutes. Hopefully, by that time, my replacement would show up, and they could cover the other 5 tills. I looked over at the senior couple and they hadn't even started their order, so I proceeded to assist the young man.

I begin the process of entering in the young mans order, assisting him in getting his loyalty points card out of his wallet, as his shaking hands was making the process too difficult for him to do on his own. I got about half way through his order when I'm interrupted, once again, by the senior (reduced bananas) lady, insisting I go over and enter in her bananas. I kindly ask the young (wheelchair bound) man to wait as I go over to assist the senior couple with their bananas.

Where is my replacement, I should be off work by now!

I get to the till where the senior couple is, and their order isn't finished, it's not even half way done. There was no immediate need for my assistance, apart from them wanting to be served next. I was appalled, and instantly infuriated by this behavior. They saw that I was busy helping someone that was physically disabled. It wasn't that I had forgotten about them, or ignoring them, they were upset that I assisted the disabled person before assisting them. I remember thinking to myself, is this what society has become?

I couldn't remain silent, and in a loud voice I politely asked the senior (reduced bananas) lady, why she felt that getting her reduced bananas put through was so much more important than me assisting a physically disabled person. She immediately turned red as the rest of the customers turned and looked at her, even her husband gave her a stink eye stare. She responded that she didn't know he was physically disabled, clearly a lame attempt to justify her actions, as it was impossible not to see the motorized wheelchair at the other till. I shook my head in disgust, put through her reduced bananas, and went back to continuing the young (wheelchair bound) mans order. After completing the young man's order I glanced over to see that the senior (reduced bananas) couple still weren't even half way through their basket (so much for their urgency to get reduced bananas). My having chosen to assist the young man, would not have hindered the senior couple in any way from completing their order in a timely manner, regardless of when I tended to them.

My replacement finally arrived, and I was finally able to leave work.

In the weeks following this unusual event, I find myself wondering what would have happening if the senior lady complained that I had a bad attitude and had embarrassed her. Would I be able to defend my actions? Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't change what I did, but looking back, I still don't know what the social edicate should have been. Do seniors get priority over the physically disabled? Should I have flat out refused to assist the wheelchair bound young man? Is it first come first serve no matter what? Lets face it the young wheelchair bound man's request really put me in a shitty position, by requesting preferential treatment and having me break conventional rules. After all, he did manage to get all his groceries into his basket without my help, so did he really need my assistance? I don't know? In hindsight perhaps I should have merely referred him to the already long line at the customer service desk, but that would have taken much longer than the few minutes it took me to complete the order.

My particular retail supermarket used to have a specific till for people with physical disabilities in the past, but they were removed several years ago. Is this an indication that we no longer give people with physical disabilities assistance anymore, is this a new modern movement? I know, from experience, that I'm not supposed to hold the door open for women anymore, which is totally another conversation, because I sometimes hold the door open for men too (it's called being courteous)! However am I being insensitive to physically disabled people, and their wanting to be treated equally?

Seriously though I'm curious? Was I right in handling this the way I did? Am I right in being offended by the senior ladies behavior? What would you have done?

The World Is Flat: Toronto, Canada

I want to give a big shout out to the Canadian Freestyle Organization, and the city of Toronto for putting on this event.

Full Disclosure #1: It seems flatland, and maybe the BMX scene itself, is moving away from the 90's grunge look, and back to what seems like a more retro 80's look. This is definitely something I'm looking forward to. I'm tired of seeing pro-riders with mismatched bike parts and sloppy mismatched paint schemes. If you're a pro rider, you're bike should look the part, like the black and yellow or the red and white bikes featured in the above video. Now before I start upsetting people, I get it if your a struggling rider with no money and have to make do with whats available. In the end its all about the riding, but if you're a pro rider and are doing competitions, or your making promo video's then put some effort into the BMX scene and have a bike that looks the part, please!

Full Disclosure #2: I love seeing full brake setups on BMX bikes. Maybe it's something nostalgic, maybe it's out of some primal safety concerns, but I honestly think BMX bikes look better with full brakes. Now I totally understand the skill level needed to do tricks without brakes, and I get that, but couldn't you still ride with brakes, just not use them for tricks. On the flip side, to riding with no brakes, what happened to the skill set of knowing how to feather brakes, it, in itself, was a challenging skill set to learn, which seems lost in today's BMX scene.

Awesome work, Steven Lapsley, on capturing this video, keep up the good work.

Link Exchange Is Now Open

I just added a link exchange menu to the Mass-IMO website. I will be adding links to it in the future, so reach out and let me know if you think you deserve to be on it.

New Media Center

It's been a few years that I've had to do without my beloved Yamaha surround sound home theater system. When Nadia and I moved in together I learned something new to me, that cats and speaker wire don't cohabitate well together. As a result of this new found knowledge, when we started renovating, I decided that not only are we going to run network wires throughout, but also surround sound speaker wires. This advanced renovation planning brought me one step closer to finally getting my home theater system back.

Besides stereo speakers being a great interactive knock down toy for cats, they are also really good at collecting dust. My solution to both these problems was to find a media center that would hide stereo speakers, and their wires. Now I looked at finding a media center at various home furnishing store, and high fidelity stereo stores, but I just couldn't justify paying the prices they were asking (yup, I'm a bit cheap).

Craigslist became my beacon of hope, as I decided it might be easier up cycling and old dresser into a more modern functional media center. I started my search looking for something made out of real wood, something strong, so as to support a large TV (my last dresser was made using some particle board material, and bowed under the TV's weight). I knew I wanted the top row to consist of three shallow drawers, as they would house my left, center, and right speakers. I also wanted a wide middle drawer to place my receiver and the whole dresser had to be less than 67.5 inches wide.

After months of searching on Craigslist, and many failed attempts to finalize a sale, I finally became the new owner of this.

The PRO's of this dresser is that it's 66 inches wide, it was made of some hardwood (I think it's cherry wood), and would house all my home theater components excellently and it only cost me $80. The only drawbacks is that it had some noticeable water damage to the finish (the wood was still in good shape) and it cost me $80. In hindsight, I should have brought Nadia with me to negotiate the price, she is so much better at haggling than I am.

My original plan, after getting this dresser home, was to sand it down and re-stain it. All the snow we got this year changed those plans. I was also going to simply remove the drawers and insert my stereo components, but I was growing rather fond of the beveled drawer faces, and I refocused my attention to keeping them. My solution was to order 2 inch speaker grills to allow for sound to come out while still maintaining the overall structure of the dresser. Once the grills arrived I cut 1 3/4 inch holes with a hole saw bit, and fastened the grills in place.

 I also used a dowel to fill in the drawer handle holes, lightly sanded the surfaces, and painted the dresser using a satin dark walnut paint.

Wood strips were used to braces the speakers in place. I also removed the middle drawer face and reattached it with t-hinges so as to be able to control the receiver when needed and hide it away when not. A hard drive magnet holds the middle drawer face closed when not being used.

 I think it turned out awesome, and above all its functional, with plenty of room to add game consoles and controllers. I still want to properly strip and re-finish this unit, but we'll have to wait for sunny weather.