Losing Power Uphill

[Arbutus92]

I have had my 2008 Zuma scooter since May. At present, it has 3,200 miles. Recently, however, I have noted that my scooter is slowing down appreciably while going uphill. Hills that I used to be able to travel at 20mph, my scooter is now slowing down to about 10-12mph. I have cleaned the spark plug but don't really know what else to do to return my scooter to its previous performance. What could the problem be? Thank you.

[Lennox]

REPLACE the plug, and clean air filter.

[Arbutus92]

Thank you for the reply. I will give that a try tomorrow ;-)

[memeselfi]

replace the belt. my 08 did the same and then the belt broke. think it might be bad belts in the 08. provoscooter has a good aftermarket one.

[Asgardian]

You have, of course, had some basic tune up service, right? You should be looking at your first round of maintenance at this point (the stuff that Lennox mentioned) - and your tranny oil should have been changed a long time ago. Since I have an 06 - not sure about the 08 stock belts, but defiantly not going to hurt to take a look!

[Arbutus92]

I've taken your suggestion. I just ordered the Kevlar drive belt to replace my current stock belt. I also went ahead and ordered some new Michelin street tires instead of the knobby stock tires...I think that will improve the scooter's performance slightly, too. I know that scooter tires are difficult to change so I contacted my local Yamaha shop and they said that they will install the tires and the new belt for me. They are also willing to cut the restraining clip on the throttle for me (hush, hush) so I'm very excited about that, too! Hopefully, I'll see not only a return to previous performance but an improvement in the original performance! I'll be zippin' along quite nicely...hopefully (as long as I don't lose gas mileage, which is the primary reason I got the scooter to begin with).

[Asgardian]

Gas millage is relative. On my 06 I'm open throttle almost all the time. I know that I'm burning way more per km/mile than someone who is just commuting around town. I did some tests a month or so back, and if I went just under full tilt, I saw a huge savings in fuel (huge in the scooter world that is) Instead of burning 30% of the tank one way, I was only using abut 25%.