Exploring life on a Vespa, Royal Enfield Himalayan, Honda Trail 125, and a Kawasaki W650
HOW TO RIDE BITCH from Alex Vivian on Vimeo.
Every male riding a motorcycle needs to study this video. If you are going to ask your wife, girlfriend or anyone for that matter to ride on the back of your motorcycle or scooter you should first explore the experience yourself. This video will show you how.
Maybe it’s a good rule of thumb to experience yourself anything you would ask another to do whether it’s riding bitch or anything else. Think about the things you would have to try…
Robert Pirsig, author of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, wrote the line I’ve borrowed as the title for this essay, “Sometimes it’s a little better to travel than to arrive”.
Sometimes, the saddest moment in a ride is when it’s over. That’s not a complaint about home or family, just a recognition of the sublime joy of spinning around the act itself — moving through the landscape on two wheels. It does matter why or where you’re riding, just being on the road, soaring and flying in body, mind and spirit can be pure, cosmic satisfaction.
I found myself in that place as I wandered along the winding roads of central Pennsylvania.
There’s much to see while riding, some of it subtle and easy to miss. I’ve ridden past this dry stone wall many times but never paused to look closely or consider what it actually meant — someone, by hand, built this large, long dry stone wall. I’ve built a few dry stone walls but nothing of the scope of this one. It approaches 8 feet in height and runs along a rural stretch of road about half a mile. It’s obviously not maintained and the property seems abandoned. I suppose the state could have built it for some reason — it’s not far from the Rockview State Penitentiary where they would have had lots of free labor to use at some point in the past, but it doesn’t seem to connect clearly with that facility. A small historical mystery found during a ride to no where.
Other decaying roadside artifacts, this one man-made, are everywhere though more and more they are just disappearing. When I was a kid Mail Pouch signs on barns where everywhere. Now I can’t recall another one than this one near Axemann, Pennsylvania.
Winding roads are in abundance around here and provide a fine diverse riding experience. Lot’s of gravel sprinkled around so it does demand caution lest a rider entertain disaster from attempting to carve lines around tight curves.
For me, these stretches of winding, wandering roadways through the hills and dales where I live never cease to thrill.
The roads on a Sunday morning are remarkably quiet. I probably passed more squirrels and groundhogs than I did cars.
Fuzzygalore.com recently published a story about riding just a ways north of here and how empty the roads were — Road Tripping in Pennsylvania — Wandering to Breakfast in Wellsboro. Some nice photos made along a beautiful part of the state. And her SEO is better with much better post titles than I use!
Last year my Vespa GTS died right here, at least for about 30 minutes. The engine would crank, start and immediately die. After the engine cooled it would start right up, a problem I later determined was a failing fuel pump. I missed the idyllic scene of winding road and cattle on the hillside then. Enjoyed it this time.
There are a lot of switchback curves in the mountains here — 180 degree turns that challenge a rider to whatever degree they wish to be challenged. I made this image with the panorama feature of my iPhone. If you’re interested in seeing the larger version lick on the image. The gravel just off the berm was incredibly soft — had I hit it at anymore than a crawl I would have gone down.
Despite that, it was good to wander, and it was definitely better to travel than to arrive!
Can I ride a scooter on the freeway? The answer to that question depends on your scooter, your level of riding expertise, and the freeways to plan to ride on.
Scooter on Interstate 99There’s little traffic on Interstate 99 at 7am on Saturday morning. Riding on a rural freeway with little traffic is markedly different than trying to ride on a main transportation artery jammed with cars and trucks around the clock.
To start, many people, motorcycle riders and scooter riders both, think a scooter is only suitable for riding around town. A lot of motorcycle marketing suggests that the choice for riding big miles on big roads involves 500 pound plus machines with engines capable of propelling you at speeds north of 100mph. Over the years manufacturers have successfully pushed the notion of a “real” cruising motorcycle to something with an engine that has 1000cc or more. Bigger is better in the mantra and it applies not only to motorcycles and scooters but to automobiles, pick-up trucks, houses and practically everything other than waist size.
If you can disconnect your head from the marketing absolutes and industry propaganda you can see a glimmer of what’s actually possible with smaller machines — scooters or motorcycles.
The reality is you can ride a scooter practically anywhere save for some hardcore off-road tracks involving deep mud and water. My Vespa GTS 250 can run all day at 65mph without a problem and faster if I need to. On this recent 55 mile run down I99 I was passing cars, what few there were.
There are just a few things you need to consider in regarding to a scooter on the freeway. First, is it legal? Some freeways have engine size or horsepower minimums. Make sure you meet those. In most states, if not all, you can’t ride a 49cc scooter on an Interstate highway. I’ve ridden 150cc and larger scooters on freeways without a problem.
For me, one of the bigger issues about being on a smaller scooter is stability. There is no doubt that a 500 pound plus motorcycle with big wheels will feel more stable, respond less to the air blasts of passing trucks, and deliver a more sedate ride. But that does not mean a smaller machine is not stable. It sticks to the road and follows a line just fine. But be prepared for some beating by the air, especially if you’re riding along at 70mph and there’s a crosswind.
Mentally, the most frightening riding thought for a lot of scooter riders is the freeway even though it may be a safer place to be that on a lot of crazy action on surface streets. Recently, a local rider told me she now commutes on the expressway because of the higher danger of being clipped on local streets at rush hour. Still, riding on an expressway has its own unique demands of a rider — traveling at higher speeds and being comfortable maneuvering and stopping in an emergency being two important skills that should be in your toolbox.
Riding at expressway speeds, 55 to 75mph means things happen pretty fast and you really need to have sufficient skill to make quick decisions and translate them into action on your scooter. It could be a need to evade a piece of truck tire, or dodge a pothole. While the low speed skills theoretically apply to higher speed riding you really need to do some practice. I would suggest anyone considering riding on an expressway try and do some gradual practice to get comfortable with the speed and how the scooter responds at higher speeds. That could mean some early morning weekends on the pavement to experiment.
Riding defensively is important too. You’ll need to be aware of lane placement to keep yourself visible and learn to anticipate when you’re more vulnerable to someone nudging you into oblivion.
Not all freeways are the same and they’re differentiated by speed, amount of traffic, and the quality of the road surface. Heavy traffic moving at 70mph on a badly crumbled surface is a nightmare compared to an relatively empty highway with a new surface where you can ride at any speed and it won’t matter. Make sure you know what you’re getting into.
Make sure you have sufficient power to travel along at a reasonable speed considering other traffic If you’re considering commuting at rush hour where traffic crawls along it won’t matter much. But if you’re considering a ride on a main artery where there is a lot of traffic and it’s moving fast you want to make sure you can move with it, or at least near that speed. I’ve parked myself behind a slower moving RV, truck or car more than once to move along a high speed expressway so I would be more “visible” as a slower moving vehicle.
The idea of “sufficient” speed is where scooters get dismissed. If you can’t rocket away from trouble or travel faster than everyone else then you can’t ride on the freeway. Similar thinking applies to automobiles. But being able to pull yourself out of trouble is probably the wrong way to think about riding. It may be better to consider how not to get in trouble in the first place.
Do I Belong on the Freeway With a Scooter or Small Motorcycle?Deciding to ride a scooter on the freeway is a personal choice dependent on a variety of issues. There is no right or wrong answer. There are plenty of scooter riders who travel freeways and Interstate highways every day. A lot of riders avoid big highways simply because they aren’t much fun. After all, they’re designed to get you from point A to point B fast and little more. It’s hard to enjoy the scenery when you’re flying fast and paying attention to a crowd of vehicles.
I ride on the expressway sometimes when I commute to work, or need to get somewhere quickly and the Vespa is fully capable of undertaking that task. Is it as comfortable as some of the big BMWs I’ve ridden? No. But it has advantages over those motorcycles in other situations that I ride in more often.
So, can you ride a scooter on the freeway? The answer is a qualified yes.
Perhaps readers can share their thoughts and experiences regarding a scooter on the freeway…
From the opening crow caws to the closing funk music driven motorcycle montage, listening to Peter Fonda describe possible outcomes of not adequately learning how to ride a motorcycle as ending up in the hospital or graveyard was just part of a fun and interesting film filled with motorcycle safety tips.
I came across this vintage 70s instructional film on Gail Hatch’s She Rides a Beemer blog. The film is narrated by Fonda, famous for his motorcycle escapades in the film Easy Rider, and includes commentary by famous motorcycle aerialist and daredevil, Evel Knievel. I feel you can never know or learn too much about riding and safety, so pull up your computer, grab a snack, and enjoy a trip into thoughts on safety from the past.
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.
I 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?