Hi from North Yorkshire.

Hi. I purchased my Townmate a few days a go and already love it. I have to admit it was an impulse ebay buy and I didn't know the first thing about them before then, I have since been doing lots of reading and know a small amount know. She's a 1985 T80, sadly she's in a bit of a sorry state at the minute, the front plastic panels need taking back and respraying, thankfully the engine seems fairly sound and she starts without too much persuasion.

The guy I bought it from had had it in his garage for the past 2 years and he says the guy that had it before him apparently had had it in his living room for the past 12! Only 5000 miles on the clock, not too bad for a 27y/o I didn't think.

I have never owned a bike or scooter before now but am reasonably practical when it comes to mechanical things and was up for the challenge of getting her back on the road.

I have ordered a new spark plug and battery and will fit them this week I have also done an oil change and cleaned out the air filter. I have since found out that the oil I used was the wrong type, I used 20W40 instead of 10W40, can anyone tell me whether this will matter that much.

A problem I'm having is getting her to set off smoothly, having never ridden a semi automatic bike before I'm not sure whether the problem is the bike or whether I just haven't found the knack yet. when I try to pull away in 1st I find the bike jerks and stalls unless I give it a fair amount of throttle, which would be useless if I was crawling in traffic say.

I'm wondering if this is a problem with the clutch plate and I will need to replace it or whether I'm just being useless. The steps I go to through are to get the bike ticking over in neutral, then pressing the gear pedal down to shift into 1st while twisting the throttle a little. Is this correct? I really am this much of a novice.

My overall plan is to get her into a good enough shape to get through the MOT and to eventually go touring around some of Europe next summer.

Any bits of advice are greatly appreciated, also are there any other owners around the Dales area?

Cheers, Tim

20/40 oil wonld do any damage but it may cause the clutch to slip (maybe your other problem) Your driving method is correct when you open the the throttle it should take off smoothly. I would suggest you buy a Haynes manual before you do any more work.

Cheers John, I'll make sure to get hold of the correct oil and give it a change again then.

And yeah, I think it would probably be a good idea to get hold of a Haynes Manual. I did however change the spark plug today and the scooter seems to start up a whole lot easier now. I'm going to take a few pics tomorrow and will pop them up.

Hi Tim Enjoy yer new toy there great liitle bikes.

Cheers drgaz, I'm sure I will.

Here are a couple of pictures. As you can see the plastics need a fair amount of work doing to them and the mirrors are missing, but other than that not in too badder shape. It's unfortunate that the Yamaha badge is missing from the front though as I hear they are almost impossible to come by.