Popcycle Owner's Manual and Parts List

 

Here is the owner's manual and parts list for the Popcycle.  It will give you a background for the  scooter, and tell you how to do routine maintenance on the scooter.

The parts list should help you to find the correct parts.

Condo Association Meeting 7-08-2013

Okay, so it's been a while since our last condo meeting.  Here's what was discussed:

As you are probably aware of, the Koman Group has purchased the remaining units in the Motor Loft building.

Present at the meeting were Garrick Hamilton (General Counsel) and Julie Pangos (Vice President of Property Management).

They began the meeting by reassuring the owners that the Koman Group is committed to the property, and is interested in making it successful.

After their introductions, they opened the floor up to questions from those in attendance.  The questions from the owners were:


Downtown Children's Center's representative Susan had a few concerns about the owners / renters respect for their property.  She noted that some people's children were playing in the playground area after dark, and leaving the area in disarray for the children the next day.

She was also concerned that cigarette butts were being flung into the playground.

Another concern was that people were not picking up after their dogs, which could be a health concern for their licensing.

Her final concern was that owners/renters were using their dumpsters.

Jerry from Blue Urban was in attendance, and said that they usually used their maintenance guys to clean up when this occurred, but I'm sure the owners could help out our neighbors, and let others be more aware of these concerns if they see them happening.


Chad asked if condo fees were going to be affected by the new ownership. 

Garrick and Julie assured him that no extreme jumps would occur, and also stated that a new budget would have to be proposed and voted on in a future meeting.  The budget would determine the condo fees.

This brought up a related question from Maria, one of the property managers of one of the units.  She wanted to know if insurance prices for the building had decreased over the years since the property values have decreased over the last few years.

Jerry stated that prices for insurance have held steady over the years, and did not decrease, therefore, condo fees have stayed the same since they were first decided upon.


Claire wanted to know if the owners would have a voice regarding building concerns since we are technically the minority owners in the building.

Garrick assured her that the Koman Group wants to have a good relationship with the owners, and would consider any suggestions from the owners; however they also want to look out for their own interests too.  Since they own 65% of the properties, they do have a concern in what goes on in the building, but would have to carefully consider any spending, since they would have to pay for 65% of any purchases.


Neil and Claire were curious about the Koman Group's intentions for the properties.  They wanted to know if they intended to keep them as rentals or if they planned on selling them in the future. 

Garrick said that they are legally obligated to keep them as rentals until 2014.  They plan on keeping them as rentals past that date, but that they would be willing to sell the units to owners if it made economic sense for his company.



There was a question about who we pay our condo fees to in the future.

Starting in August, we will pay our fees to Motor Lofts Condo Association , and the Koman Group will use their own company to manage the properties.  We can still drop checks in the rent box if we want to.

                Motor Lofts Condominium Association

                c/o The Koman Group

                6 CityPlace Drive, Suite 430

                St. Louis, MO 63141

 

Rodemyer-Christel, Inc. is no longer involved with the property, but will forward to Julie any checks that may have been sent to them for July payments.

Neil asked if the Koman Group would offer the same Fitness Factory discounts to the owners.

Jerry explained how the process worked, and Julie said that they would be willing to try to continue the same process.


Julie said that she would like to beautify the building in the future, and perhaps put some art on the walls in the hallways.

Chris asked if the art would fit in with the urban sensibilities of the building, and Julie agreed with this.


Claire was curious if the screening for the renters would be as stringent or stricter than it is now.

Julie said that it will be as strict, if not stricter.


Neil had a question about insurance.  He wanted to know what insurance the owners needed.

Basically, owners need "renter's insurance" which covers everything inside of the unit, including the drywall.  Everything else is covered under the insurance in our condo fees.


Finally there was a vote for officers.  For legal and business purposes, employees of the Koman Group were given the titles of Director and Secretary.  Chris Matter (the author of this blog) was voted as Treasurer.


As usual, my role will be as a liaison between the owners and the property owners.  If you have any concerns that you feel like you cannot bring to the Koman Group directly, contact me, and I will bring your concerns to them.

Also, I would like to keep in contact with all the owners of the building, so if I do not have your contact information, you can contact me at chris_mattler@hotmail.com.

JR Market

There's a new market around the corner on Locust by Pepper Lounge and El Borracho. It's called JR Market. Apparently it's run by a guy fleeing from Afghanistan. The place has some basics in case you need them: dish soap, pasta, soda, cigarettes, etc.

Check it out if you need some quick groceries.

Winter is a'coming

It's getting cold out, so now is probably a good time to change your filter in your HVAC unit. It's probably been a while, so if you notice there is no air flow through your filter, go get a new filter this weekend. You can also refer to my previous post to turn up the heat on your hot water heater (but remember to be careful when doing this!)

Motor Outdoor Party

We've hashed out the details for the fall Motor party. Check the Facebook page or the flyer in the elevator for more details.

Annual Fire Truck Parade

Every year the firemen have a parade on 9-11. I happened to be coming home when it was starting, so I took a few pictures. Enjoy!

+++Click here for photos of the parade+++

Replacing the Boot Gasket on Your Washer

Recently, I was doing a load of laundry when water started leaking from the front of my washer. I put a bucket under it until it was done, and found out that the problem was a small piece of rubber had broken off of the seal on the door (see picture).


After some research, I found that this piece is called a "boot gasket". I ordered it from partstore.com (here's a link to the product page) You can look elsewhere to find it cheaper. It was about $50 with shipping. Your washer is a Bosch WFL2060UC.

If you want to attempt to replace this yourself to save money, it requires few tools, but the difficulty is a little hard. Why? It's because of the fact that you'll be working in the small space between the drum and the opening in the door. I'll explain as I go along, but know this going in - it isn't the easiest of projects.

So you've decided to do it? Good for you. The first thing you want to do is to remove the metal ring that holds the gasket to the front of your washer. If you look closely, there's a small spring that holds it in place (where my finger is in the picture.)


I used two needle-nosed pliers to get it off, by holding onto one end of the metal ring and pulling the spring up with the other.

Once that metal ring is off, you'll need to remove a large spring that is wrapped around the back of the gasket towards the drum. It's pretty tight, but I just stuck a screwdriver between the gasket and the lip holding it in place and pulled back, and it released the spring and gasket. After the spring is loose, the gasket can be easily removed. Pay attention to how everything fits in place before you go ahead and rip it out though (so you'll remember how to put it back in.)

Now for the hard part - putting it back on.

If you look at the picture below, you'll see that the spring fits in a little groove all around the gasket like this. The difficulty is that you have to do this is the confined space that you see in the pictures.

The first thing you need to do is put your gasket back in (don't worry about the spring yet). If you look at your gasket, there are three drain holes which need to be facing the bottom of your washer. Make sure they are on the bottom.

The next step is to seat your gasket in the lip that goes around the washer. If you look at the fourth picture (the one with the screwdriver) you'll see the lip. It's a brownish-gray metal ring that goes around your drum. Find the part of the gasket that needs to go in there (the part where your spring will eventually go (see picture below)) and fit it in there with your fingertips. Get it in there snugly (you'll feel it when it goes in the lip) and once you get one part in there, guide the rest around from that point in a circle. You don't have to stretch it hardly at all.

Now comes the spring. This is the most difficult thing you'll have to do. If you have your gasket in place, you'll feel the groove that the spring is supposed to fit in. You'll need to go under the gasket and try to stretch this very tight spring around the entire thing to hold it in place. Let me explain my method and the difficulties.

The gasket is a big rubber ring, and you're going to have to stick your hands under it and work all the way around it trying to stretch this very tight spring, while keeping it in the groove, joining the ends with all that tension, and finally fitting it in place.

Here's what I did. You might find something that works better for you.

Tie a piece of fishing line around one end of the spring and tie the other end to the door. (See picture below) It will be a lot of force, so make sure it's something that can take the stress. I used several pieces of fishing line. This allowed me to tug on the spring with one hand and hold it in place with the other, while keeping the other end tight.

Pulling the spring tightly (but not too tightly) put it in the groove where you want to start and hold it in place with your other hand. From your starting point, keep pulling the spring as much as you can and sliding your other hand over the tightened area to keep it in place. This takes a lot of hand strength. Keep pulling with one hand and holding it in place with the other hand, working it all the way around. Surprisingly enough, the rubber helps to hold it in place to a degree. Pull too much, or at the wrong angle though, and the whole thing will snap out of place and you'll have to start all over again, so be careful.

Once you're a little more than 3/4 of the way around, attach the two ends of the springs. Make sure to keep holding it into place because you don't want the whole thing to snap out after all that work! Since you have enough of the spring wrapped around the rest of the lip, this should allow you to stretch the attached ends of the springs over the rest of the lip with two hands. Remember to always keep that tension on the springs though. Once you've fit the entire spring around the lip, clip the string and check to make sure the spring is entirely in the groove.

Some advice I would offer on this part of the project would be to make sure the string you use will allow you to make that last pull of the spring so it can fit over the lip. Don't tie it too short or you'll be stuck.

Another thing I would recommend is to fold the rubber carefully in toward the washer. (See picture below) Since you'll have to work around the outside of the circle, it gets in the way a lot and can be frustrating. Keep working with it, and it should look like the picture below.

If you've gotten the big spring in place, rejoice! You're almost home. Now all you have to do is put the metal ring back on. Unfold the rubber and it should fall nicely into place. On the outside of the door is a very small lip that the gasket fits into. Put it in place, working it all the way around. Finally, get your metal ring ready to put over the gasket.

This time put the whole ring together first, put it around the gasket as much as you can and pry the rest into place with a chopstick.

That's how you replace your boot gasketfor your Bosch front loading washer. It's a little frustrating and a bit time consuming (It took me about two and a half hours) but it wasn't horrible.