winter Archives - Scooter in the Sticks

Inspiration Versus Desperation

Scooter in the Sticks — Sun, 23 Mar 2025 14:11:41 +0000

A Gray World Eventually, reliably, the gray gloom of winter gets to me. Moving outdoors to walk or ride changes from a looked for dose of recreation and enjoyment to a heavy trudge of resignation. Keeping all five machines in the garage “winterized” through consistent riding becomes work. Why riders drain the fuel and pull […]

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Can I Love Winter Again?

Scooter in the Sticks — Sun, 24 Nov 2024 14:25:10 +0000

Facing the Cold The first snow has arrived. Light, decorative, a dusting that beckons of winter to come. The past month has offered unseasonably warm weather. Riding weather for even the cold-adverse riders. Yet the roads are largely empty of scooters and motorcycles save for those souls committed to continued riding. Some I suspect have […]

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Cold, Snow, Chicken

Scooter in the Sticks — Sat, 04 Jan 2014 22:48:00 +0000

Another morning of snow and ice on the road and cold in the air. Walking Junior up the street I tried to convince myself that I could easily handle the snow on the road. There was, after all, a lot of grit and salt mixed in with the snow. And big patches of hard ice […]

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Vespa Ice Racing and the Power of Studded Tires

Scooter in the Sticks — Fri, 29 Nov 2013 17:30:00 +0000

With a lot of discussion lately focused on snow and riding I took a look around YouTube and found a short film that explores some of the possibilities of riding on snow and ice. The first look at a winter equipped Vespa takes place at 2:09. Take a look at some of the scooters racing […]

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Searching for Autumn

Scooter in the Sticks — Tue, 01 Oct 2013 01:05:00 +0000

Autumn is about to burst forth, leaves beginning to escape their captive positions in the trees. First a few yellow and orange leaves on the road, a few more in the trees, and suddenly, as if a fuse was lit and a fiery palette of red, orange and yellow sweeps through the forest, across the […]

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Vespa on a Sunny Day

Scooter in the Sticks — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 21:45:00 +0000

The sun finally came out and if it weren’t for the wind I could almost believe it was spring. I’m tired of winter and riding has become a chore in itself of late. So it was nice to wander around on the scooter, collect some mud under the fenders and just live under a blue […]

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Riding Interruption Due to Snow

Scooter in the Sticks — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 17:04:00 +0000

A fresh snowfall overnight — just four or five inches but enough for me to opt out of riding today. I’ve ridden in this kind of situation before but only to prove I could or to test out my winter tires when I bought them. With nothing to prove to myself the angels of my […]

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Snow Equals Minivan

Scooter in the Sticks — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 13:21:00 +0000

The view when I stepped out of my office last night. Wasn’t riding the Vespa then and not today either as another three inches of snow dropped overnight. More forecast for tonight. Putting on my mathematician’s hat I’ve calculated that snow = minivan. Or the more complex expression: Oh well…

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Gerbing Electric Gloves: A Pleasant Surprise

Scooter in the Sticks — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 03:48:00 +0000

My electric gloves are dead. They died a slow death over the past couple months but last week during an 8F morning ride I knew they were done. My friend Paul gave them to me for Christmas in 2007 and in the subsequent four years they have seen a lot of use; probably more than […]

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Cold Weather Preliminaries

Scooter in the Sticks — Tue, 21 Dec 2010 02:49:00 +0000

Preliminaries. Making ready. Husbanding ones resources. Getting into harness. Ugh. Buckling on the armor in cold weather is a chore. No way around it. On Sunday morning the thermometer pointed to 14 degrees Fahrenheit. Out came the long underwear, wool socks, sweater, windproof jacket, jacket liner, wires for electric gloves, winter riding jacket, winter riding […]

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