What’s In Your Scooter Glovebox
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Jimpleton shows us on Flickr what he keeps in his Stella, What’s in your Glovebox?
What’s in the photo:
First row:
* bungee cords: these are invaluable for strapping stuff down.
* thumb-mounted wiper blade. Useful when it rains, for clearing off my helmet visor, and also good for wiping water off the seat. Only a couple of bucks at a motorcycle dealership.
* Orange poncho: great as a poncho, for ground cover, or as a water-proof cover for loads. One buck at a thrift store.
Second row:
* Tire pump. Lightweight and compact, meant for mountain bikes.
* Stella Service Manual: If I could carry the Chilton’s Manual in the glovebox, I would, but this isn’t half-bad. I also printed off detailed instructions for things such as changing out cables.
* Oil: If you carry anything, this should be it.
* Gasoline: one liter in an aluminum flask bottle meant for carrying fuel, bought at a camping store. I used gas stabilizer in it so it doesn’t shellac. This is such a simple and useful thing to have, but I’ve yet to meet another scooterist who carries spare gas. The gray covering is originally a lens case I bought used at a camera store. It keeps the gasoline flask from banging around.
* A Zip-loc bag with work gloves, bought at a dollar store for…well…one dollar. If you have to work on greasy stuff you’ll be glad you had these.
* A pencil case, stuffed with: Spare fuses, spare bulbs, spare cables (two clutch and one throttle), spare solderless nipples for the cable ends, spare bolts, lithium grease, paperwork about “roadside assistance” from my insurance company, some emergency cash, etc. (If you drive a manual-shift scooter and have spare clutch cables, but no solderless nipples, I can guarantee you’re going to be SOL when you try to fix that cable on the side of the road. )
Third row:
* Goggles that go over glasses. These are useful if I lose a contact lens and have to use my spare glasses; they’re also useful if I carry a passenger who doesn’t have eye protection, as it’s required in my state. I keep them in an old sock.
* Purple hand-pump flashlight: ’cause I don’t trust batteries.
* Duct tape: ’cause you can fix any damned thing with duct tape.
* Plastic bag with: small bottle of glass cleaner, paper towels, baling wire, velcro straps, a couple of spare spark plugs, spare hose clamps, string, and a pad of sticky notes. If you can’t fix something with duct tape, you can probably fix it with baling wire.
* Tool roll – you can buy the roll at an Army-Navy surplus store. In the tool roll I have: A dogleg flat/philips screwdriver, for getting off the carb cover; two wrenches to fit my scooter (7, 8×2, and 9mm from what I remember); the cheap screwdriver that came with the scoot; a pencil; spark plug removal wrench that came with the scoot; tire pressure gauge; spark plug gap tool; permanent marker; adjustable wrench; a pocket knife; combo wire-cutter and pliers; and a big ol’ flat screwdriver.
* bag of Band-Aids and some Telfa pads. I figure in an emergency, I could hold the pads on a wound with the electrical tape. I used to carry a complete first-aid kit, but decided that was probably overkill.
* spare prescription glasses: in case a contact lens goes wonky.
