Scooter in the Sticks

Exploring life on a Vespa Scooter and Royal Enfield Himalayan motorcycle.

Enthusiastic Amateur

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Vespa GTS scooter on a foggy roadLEARNING TO RIDE

Each of you reading this should know, if you don’t already, that I’m not an expert on Vespa scooters, riding or anything pertaining to the management and maintenance of machines and devices. I ride, learn and try not to be an Enthusiastic Amateur.

The other day I was riding in the remains of morning fog. On the road two hours too late to really experience the full magic of the ground hugging clouds, I wandered from one side of the Nittany Valley to the other in hopes of entering a surreal landscape.

Later, looking at the photographs of the Vespa facing a world that the fog could conjure, I thought about what I’ve learned about riding, riding in fog and other weathers and how much I want to avoid being an Enthusiastic Amateur.

That label was explained to me by an art director I had the good fortune to work with at Penn State — the late James J. McClure. He assigned that term to individuals who presented themselves as photographers because they had an expensive camera, made pictures in far flung places, and managed to make correct exposures and create images in focus. A parallel with scooter and motorcycle riders has not escaped me.

Jim went on that the Enthusiastic Amateur lacks a deeper interest or understanding of the process they were part of or the ability to integrate it into their own seeing. They don’t grow as a photographer. It remains a technical performance of steps never to be questioned or pushed to another level. Their achievement — images that are simultaneously technically proficient and almost always boring. Or predictable. Their work is an endless repetition of a familiar, comfortable set of steps.

McClure was always after, “Surprising and Delightful.”Continue Reading

Sheltering from Rain

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BMW R nineT in rain
For the first time ever I parked beneath an overpass to wait out a passing rainstorm.  I’ve seen other riders huddled under bridges or at gas stations to avoid the rain but I’ve always ridden on.  To be fair, part of the motivation for waiting was I did not want to get the new BMW R nineT wet so it would remain reasonably pristine for photos.  But the bigger issue driving the need to be sheltering from rain was lack of preparation.

Normally when I ride I have rain gear with me.  On this machine there was no place for gear, tools, or anything else that would not fit in my pockets.  There’s another reason though why I’ve never sought shelter from the rain — I’ve never really been caught in a dangerous downpour.

The next day I was in the van when a dangerous downpour presented itself.  Like sheltering from rain the previous day I was close to pulling off the road for the first time because I could not see the road ahead and pools of water were forming on the road surface that made hydroplaning a real possibility.  Again, like with previous rides, driving and riding through rain wasn’t a reflection of fortitude or courage on my part, I just had not faced a serious weather event that required a decision to be sheltering from rain.

Steve Williams motorcycle selfieI have to say there was an unexpected payoff to pulling off the road to wait aside from the selfie I made while sitting in the dirt.  The sudden, forced isolation coupled with no knowledge of how long it would last was sobering — a lesson in loss of control.  When I ride I kid myself that I am in control when the reality is that I am at the mercy of other drivers, weather and fate.  I merely have limited control over myself and my machine.

Sitting along the road in riding purgatory offers an opportunity to experience some rather intense isolation.  Or perhaps separation from the world is more precise.  Either way you’re left with your thoughts as you sit on the earth.  With a smart phone in your pocket it would be easy to medicate any uncomfortable feelings of being alone with the myriad tools for escape it provides and I did indulge with radar maps from Weather.com and a few pictures posted to Instagram.  But I did recognize the opportunity to experiment with my reaction to sudden isolation.

Boredom, anxiety, and a desire to have control were all mixed together leaving me feeling oddly unsettled.  I like to think riding is a meditative process but while I sat watching the rain and wondering when I would get my life back I wondered if riding wasn’t more escape than meditation.

By the time the BMW roared back to life I had found a calm place, one that was accepting of whatever would come along.  But even that was probably an illusion since I had to only wait an hour, the air was warm, there was no pressing need to be anywhere and I wasn’t hungry.  A few changes in circumstance would challenge the calm.

I have to think having a ride interrupted by weather is uncommon since so many riders are fair weather adventurers.  But some of you that ride into the abyss surely have found yourselves sitting and waiting.

What did you find waiting for you?

Manage Email, Manage Life, Ride More

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Have you ever wished you had more time?

Two days ago I sat at my computer searching for an email I missed. Scrolling back and forth through my inbox it occurred to me (again) that I spend a lot of time “working” on email. And the more I “work” the less I seem to get done. Email gets in the way of me getting better or more involved in important things. At least the way I was handling it.

Embracing a need for professional and personal development I visited the 43folders Web site. It was here that I first learned of my trusty Hipster PDA, another completely functional asset for day-to-day living. Arriving at the homepage I saw the words “Email Eating You Alive?” along with an invitation to watch 43folders author Merlin Mann’s recent talk at Google on how to tame the beast. His talk is called InBox Zero.

I’ve embedded the video below but before you get to that I wanted to share some quick statistics. When I started the video I had almost 9000 messages in my inbox. A paralyzing mix of messages from the past couple years representing a mix of indecision, procrastination, lack of attention, and inability to do anything but collect more and more. The only hope was for some cataclysmic email server failure that would deliver a reborn email world.

One hour after I finished the video I had zero messages in my inbox. I had successfully deleted over 6000 messages that were absolutely and utterly without worth. The remaining messages were moved to the DMZ and I had put in place a method of taking action on email, made a commitment to keeping the inbox as empty as I do the mailbox in front of my house, and following something that many others have suggested before — I turned email off and check it only a couple times a day. It isn’t instant messaging after all.

I’ve only been doing this a couple days now but I have to say it is a remarkable experience to see an inbox with only a handful of messages to deal with. And turning it off has meant I actually had time to work. Make things. Figure things out. Create. Contribute. Earn my keep. And ride more too.

If you think you might have a problem with email, if like me at one point find yourself checking email on your Blackberry in the middle of the night when you got up to go to the bathroom telling yourself how lucky your employer was to have such a dedicated employee, them maybe you should invest an hour to watch Merlin Mann’s presentation.

So without further ado I give you Merlin Mann…

Mechanical Lessons

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No Riding!

The scooter has been in my garage since trucking it home last Friday evening. It will not start. I’ve worked hard to diagnose the problem and get it back on the road. And I’ve learned a few things–about the Vespa and myself.

I am not a mechanic nor particularly mechanically inclined. Turning wrenches doesn’t bring joy or satisfaction, particularly in a cold, messy, poorly lit garage. Making the decision to try and fix the scooter grew out of a desire to not feel helpless or vulnerable should the Vespa die on a trip. Like it did–last Friday.

I have the Piaggio Shop Manual for the LX150 and a Haynes manual too. The Modern Vespa forum is a great source of information and assistance, as well as my friend Paul. I assumed that the worse case would be to haul the broken scooter to our local Vespa dealer for repair.

My first lesson began at Modern Vespa. Searching posts on non-starting scooters eventually led me to post a request for help. Their Technical Moderator Gary, a motorcycle enthusiast and career engineer from New Jersey, took on the role of master with me the student. Troubleshooting a problem is not rote operation. At least not for me. Gary patiently instructed me on how the various components work together and generally demystified the mechanics of each step of diagnosis. His instruction allowed me to remain mostly free of fear, frustration and cursing. And witness the miracle of a functioning vacuum fuel tap and the free flow of petrol (thank you Mr. Charpentier) from the fuel line as I humbly sucked on the associated vacuum line.

My lessons were many but here are a few of the mechanical processes I now can engage:

1. Test functioning of vacuum fuel tap
2. Remove and install sparkplug
3. Test to verify functioning of starter relay
4. Test for spark
5. Test cylinder compression
6. Remove carburetor, remove fuel bowl and verify free flow of fuel through primary and main jets
7. Test high voltage coil
8. Test for spark while plug is in cylinder and firing under compression using an induction timing light
9. Assessment of battery voltage and grounding

Gary was extremely patient, available and able to provide expert information and instruction. I don’t expect to any time soon be doing the Darth Vadar thing indicating I was once the student but now the master. Maybe in another life. Thank you Gary!

I worked on the scooter a little at a time over five evenings. Some other things I’ve learned is Kim is not turned on by a man wearing the engine, oil and petrol fragrance. And she is actively opposed to starting ether wafting through the house. Paul also helped me with moral support and to manufacture a crude scooter compression gauge from one designed for those big sparkplug holes of an automobile. Thanks Paul!

Riding experience has reached into the garage. The patience learned on the road was accessible during these mechanical lessons. I was able to pay attention and as thoughtfully as my skills would allow work on the scooter. And when things didn’t go right or the thing still wouldn’t start I would just move on to the next test.

I would like to announce here “The scooter starts and it is back on the road!” Sadly that is not the case. I have exhausted all things I can test and everything is pointing to a faulty CDI box. This is the electronic box that control ignition. Can’t be tested, just needs swapped out and hope that solves the problem. I’m comfortable that I’ve exhausted all the things I can do and will haul the scooter to the dealer for this expensive bit of work. Bad luck on my part that none of the more common failures were in play.

Should you attempt this work on a scooter or motorcycle? Depends on you, depends on the scooter or bike. The Vespa is quite simple, doesn’t require a lot of expensive tools, and information is readily available. The key is yourself. Do you want to do this? For me it was a good experience and I will turn the wrench again. I definitely feel I could fix a lot more things in the field now than I did last Friday. So for now I am on a holiday from riding in the sticks.