Scooter in the Sticks

Exploring life on a Vespa, Royal Enfield Himalayan, Honda Trail 125, and a Kawasaki W650

A Plain Ride to Work

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I could not resist stopping to talk with this horse. I figured he might be related to my Belgian Sheepdog Junior being a Belgian draft horse. Pauses like this during the morning ride to work are sort of, well, therapeutic. Calms my squirming brain before sitting down to a day’s work. When I first stopped this horse galloped off, undoubtedly frightened by the mighty roar of the Vespa. It did not take long for his curiosity to get the best of him though.

The chilly 39F morning ride was replaced by a near 60F ride home. Warm enough that I found myself engaged in my usual Family Circus style circuitous route home weaving through every lane and field I could find. I had forgotten the little thrill I get just poking along and seeing what the snow had hidden for so long.

I don’t ride in groups and seldom ride with anyone at all. Looking at this scene reminded me of what I find most powerful in my little adventures — solitude, escape, and a feeling of being alive and walking on the earth.

Just another plain ride to work.

A State of Mind

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On the way home from work I was doing a bit of musing as I wandered around a farm field with my camera and was thinking about how I often come to be in places like this.

Dan Bateman, author of Musings of an Intrepid Commuter, recently wrote about the state of mind that riding can put you in – one decidedly different than that sitting behind the wheel of an automobile. I revisited the two paragraphs below a number of times. What Dan wrote soundly struck a chord and neatly sums up the magic of riding for me.

There’s something about riding a motorcycle that puts us into a different state of mind than cagers. Sometimes that’s bad. We’re more likely to find ways to get into trouble, you know! On the other hand, or maybe just the other side of the same hand, I find myself so much more open to the world around me. I see more, feel more, and thus experience more, than when in a car. I find myself so much more willing to wander off the beaten path. The age old question. What’s down there? Let’s go find out. I’m not so likely to bother with it in a car or my truck. On a bike, in vivid contrast, I’m ready for adventure at a moment’s notice.

I think most people who ride experience the same thing. Using a bike for regular transportation amplifies the effect. I spend a lot of time on a bike. So I also spend a lot of time in an open and inquisitive state of mind. It’s become a regular trait of mine. Riding is a Zen-like journey. There’s so much personal growth that comes as a result of, but not directly tied to, riding. Thus my journey Monday evening.

Musings of an Intrepid Commuter, April 9, 2009

Riding strips away a lot of the noise that builds through the day and can open the door to adventure. I’m not talking about the big, heroic rides across continents, but rather movement through a regular day, through the daily rituals of life. When I push the Vespa back onto its center stand it is almost always to look around. At nothing and everything. I feel the same way I did when I was a kid and everything seemed new and treasure is everywhere. I’m fortunate that I can ride regularly and enter this state of mind.

Dan talks about how a motorcycle makes him more willing to wander off the beaten path. I have to agree. I seldom wheel my Ford Ranger off the beaten path. The enclosed comfort in a modern vehicle makes those turns ponderous and difficult. Or more often just unimportant. I don’t often feel like a kid in my truck. I know it can be done because I used to prowl the Central Pennsylvania landscape in a truck with my view camera in tow. I would move slowly, just as I do on the scooter, and travel down every unmarked path searching for photographic treasure. But it was never easy and I always had to push past the slothful comfort of padded seats and stereophonic music. The Vespa appears in these pictures without any need to push.
Riding to work the next morning was a repeat of the previous evening. Another path, another opportunity to breathe in the world. They aren’t dramatic rides but they are opportunities to be present, something that is more difficult to achieve amidst the noise of daily living. 
I’ve been here before but each time I stop it’s the first time I’ve been here.

3 Prints Project — February 3, 2008

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Another week has passed and I managed to shoot two more rolls and make prints. It is becoming easier to get myself into the darkroom and exposing the film is becoming more transparent in my life. It definitely helps that I carry my Leica M6 with me everywhere.

Here are the pictures…

Early last Sunday morning at local cafe
Kim in parking lot

Farm along long route to work

The 11 Degree Fahrenheit Commute

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Darkness and the thermometer indicated 6 degrees when I got out of bed. It requires great effort to leave the house; on foot, by car, or on the Vespa. Once the sun comes out it’s another matter entirely.

Preparing for cold rides takes more time, more layers of clothes, heavier gear, wires for the electric gloves. I feel like a knight preparing for battle except I don’t have a squire to care for the Vespa. The routine mechanical check revealed low tire pressure front and back. Just what I wanted to fiddle with in an unheated garage only marginally warmer than the air outside. I dutifully checked everything, pushed the scooter into the driveway and hit the starter button. Even at 11 degrees the GTS starts right up. No battery tender needed yet.

The Gerbing electric gloves work great at this temperature and aside from the shear bulk of my riding gear everything else keeps me warm and insulated from the icy cold air. Everything but the helmet vent I neglected to close that allowed a little knife if frigid air to torture my left eye.

With the Vespa parked in it’s space at work the bright sun makes everything seem tolerable. Looking at the picture I hardly see anything cold. No matter how cold it is I’m fine if the sun is out. Like one New Year’s Day hike long ago when I fell through the ice at Bear Meadows. Sun was out so I hiked another 8 hours after I got out of the water.

The Vespa provides basic transportation. With some extra gear it allows me to use it year round, even for an 11-degree commute to work. The ride home was much warmer with temperatures soaring to near 30 degrees.

I stopped on the way home to photograph glowing orange corn stubble in the snow. I see a lot of things while I ride that I would like to make a picture of but I do want to go home.

Turning around and walking back towards the scooter I couldn’t resist making one last picture as the sun neared the horizon. It still gets dark too soon and I look forward to longer and warmer days. Until then I’ll have to keep preparing as if I were going out on a moonwalk I suppose. Not very stylish but very effective.

To Ride or Not to Ride

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That is the question.

One that goes beyond any momentary consideration of weather. It’s a question of time and choices. Riding for riding’s sake and not for transportation. Transportation is a simple question to answer and so is the weather. What I’m talking about is making a choice to ride when I have nowhere to go. When the choice to ride means I won’t be raking leaves or paying bills. Time spent with friends or family will give way to time on the road. That choice is more difficult.

This past weekend was perfect riding weather. Gray skies, cool air, and no one on the road. And I had a ton of work to do. More than normal and the days pass quickly. I feel the clock. I make the choice to ride though I don’t know if it’s the right one.

It’s easy to say I need to ride to stay sane but I know that’s not true. If I never rode again I would retain my grip on reality. I also know that riding has changed me. For the better and that’s something that’s hard to dismiss. But still I’m left with much responsibility and a fixed amount of time.

The ride was short, sixty miles with a stop for breakfast. The temperature hovered around 50 degrees and the skies remained heavy with cloud cover. Farmers were cutting corn and spills of the hard yellow stuff were evident on and along the roads, another road surface hazard that could surprise the unwary rider on dry roads.

Stopping by a small lake in Pennsylvania Furnace Paul offered to leap through another picture. Looking at it now I see myself responding to the question of riding.