When to change a scooter segment?

The scooter is the solution for many people looking for a way to get around cities who are increasingly against individual means of travel.

More and more traffic jams are created and it is easy to spend hours in transport. With scooters you have a perfect solution to avoid all of this. However, we must not forget that like any machine, they require maintenance.

So, as we saw in a previous article, we must not forget to have your scooter overhauled at regular intervals to check that nothing needs to be changed. But that's not the only time you'll have to worry about it.

Indeed, it will sometimes also be necessary to change the scooter segment and if you are not a professional mechanic, it is sometimes easy to get lost and not know when to do this operation.

Fortunately, in this article, we'll explain everything to you. We will start by seeing together what a scooter segment is. Then we will look at when to change it and finally how to do it.

What is a segment?

As we have said, changing a segment of a scooter is good, but we still have to understand what is behind this name. Indeed, it is surely not the most famous part of your machine.

However, changing a scooter segment is an important manipulation, because the segment itself is a part that has a key role in the operation of your engine. If you're not careful, you could get into trouble.

Among the most serious, we can for example talk about tightening which will ruin your engine and force you to change it. So, obviously, you probably don't want this to happen to you in the future.

More precisely, the role of the segment will be to act as a seal between two parts of your engine, the cylinder and the piston. Depending on whether you have a 4-stroke or a 2-stroke engine, you will not have the same number of segments.

Thus, on a 2-stroke engine, we will generally find two segments while on a 4-stroke engine, we will generally find three. However, we can still find more depending on the model.

Some engines thus have up to 6 segments which will therefore have to be changed. To know the exact number, you must consult the technical documentation of your machine.

When to change a scooter segment?

Well, now that we know what a segment is, we will finally be able to tackle what seems to be the heart of the matter, namely when to change a scooter segment. Well, the good news is that this time we have a pretty specific number to give you.

Indeed, if for other parts, we simply advise you to monitor the wear at certain times, for the segments it is different. Knowing that these are parts at the heart of the engine, we are not going to advise you to open it every day.

Therefore, we will assume that changing a scooter segment is done every 20km. This way you make sure that you don't have to change too often, while avoiding a big degradation.

The material to make the change

Before we look at the equipment you will need to change a scooter segment, we will all the same point out that this is not a manipulation that we are going to recommend to beginners.

Indeed, it will require you to put your hands directly into the engine of your machine and if you are not used to it, you can do more harm than good. Therefore, we advise you to go see your mechanic.

Well, if you are still here, it is because you want to do the manipulation by yourself and for that we advise you to take a large clean sheet to put the different parts that you are going to dismantle.

Then you just need a set of keys and pipe wrench set, because you will see that you will have to disassemble many parts before you can access your engine and its segments.

Change a scooter segment

As we have just said, changing a scooter segment is a tedious operation and we advise you to take almost two hours of free time if this is the first time you do so.

Indeed, this will require dismantling a large number of parts to have direct access to your engine. There, continue to disassemble it until you have access to the pistons. You can then remove the old segments.

What we advise you while you are at it is to change the pistons at the same time to avoid having to dismantle your machine again. Once the pistons are installed, put on the new rings.

Once that is done, check that your pistons have a reasonable play and you will be able to reassemble all the parts that you have taken apart in the reverse order.

To change a segment, you must:

  • Disassemble the parts to gain access to the engine
  • Disassemble the motor
  • Locate the segments and remove them
  • Put new segments
  • Take the opportunity to change the pistons

Become a scooter ace

Scooters are means of locomotion appreciated by many people around the world, among other things for their ability to sneak around.

But there are several types of scooters available depending on the uses you are going to have. This is why we come back with you on these different types in a dedicated article.