Scooter in the Sticks

Scooter on the Freeway?

June 28, 2015 by Scooter in the Sticks 41 Comments

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 99

There’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 Highway Scooter

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.

LEVEL OF RIDING EXPERTISE

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.

THE FREEWAY

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…

Hospital or Graveyard?

June 27, 2015 by Scooter in the Sticks 2 Comments

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.

Post-Heart Attack Riding

June 21, 2015 by Scooter in the Sticks 15 Comments

It’s been five weeks since an emergency room doctor said to me, “You’re having a heart attack.”

Hearing those words didn’t have a lot of power at that moment because of the pain and agony and I was more interested in actions to make it all go away. There was no thinking of death or damage, just a singular focus on feeling better. But since that night a lot of different thoughts have percolated into consciousness and changed the discussions in my head toward the expected recognition of a brush with death, a new appreciation of mortality, and a heightened sense of time as if I can see my own sand rushing through an hourglass.

Riding to work last week I noticed myself monitoring my body — measuring the ease of breathing, noting any unexplained twinge or riffle in function, reaching to determine any sense of heart rate or rhythm. It lasted moments and was gone as the sky seemed to brighten for an instant or a breath of wind moved over me.

I know people who have been overwhelmed by these assessments and evaluations to the point that their lives are reduced to a quiet waiting for the next cardiac event. It’s certain to come, there’s just no way to know when. So far these trains of thought have been more curiosity than anxiety and haven’t intruded in any real way on the decisions I make.

Or so I tell myself.

I rode in a hurry today on Interstate 99 — 70 mph on a hundred mile there and back again ride to deliver Father’s Day greetings. I did it because I wanted to know if I could. Moving over the road I imagined hours and hours on the superslab crossing county lines and state lines in an imaginary trip to nowhere. And the Vespa kept hitting the rev limiter reminding me we had limits.

In cardiac rehab, so far I’m not hit a rev limiter as they push my heart and body on machines to help me know my limits. It’s part of my post-heart attack riding.

And just like a ride on the Vespa, I’m learning that lessons of the body, mind and spirit are important for the ride — on the road, and through life…

Sheltering from Rain

June 17, 2015 by Scooter in the Sticks 15 Comments

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?

Riding a BMW R nineT Motorcycle

June 15, 2015 by Scooter in the Sticks 27 Comments

I swear, I love my Vespa scooter. Regardless of what I write from this point on remember that.

The details aren’t important other than Kissell Motorsports put me in a position to be riding a BMW RnineT motorcycle. I don’t follow the motorcycling world closely so I missed the unveiling of this bike as a new direction for the BMW Motorrad line. There are a wealth of reviews on the web of this motorcycle with technical evaluations replete with discussions of forks, dissertations on exhaust design, or musings on quarter-mile sprint speeds. And of course the endless arguments on what the best customization paths are.

Ugh.

Double ugh.

I decidedly do not fit into the aftermarket customization customer model. Whatever personal defects are at work I generally make do with whatever the scooter or bike has and it takes a long, long time for me to think about changing anything. And then for purely utilitarian reasons — like wanting to haul more groceries or needing better traction in snow.

So what I’ll try and do is share what it’s like to move from a relatively small scooter to a big motorcycle. It’s a path many riders take from small to large so perhaps I can shine a light on what to expect.

While a lot of riders talk about how fast a motorcycle will go I’m more concerned with how slow it will go. Or more specifically, how well it will go slow. I’m a tourist when I ride. I like to take in the scenery, creep along back roads and feel the air change from warm to cool as I pass a creek. This kind of slow riding is not something every motorcycle does well with engines demanding higher RPMs lest they lurch and chug or worse stall at slow speeds. The BMW R nineT is marvelous at slow speeds and purrs like a kitten at 10mph, 25mph, or 85mph (the fastest I actually witnessed on the speedometer).

The motorcycle is easy to handle and has little of the big motorcycle feel that other machines have.

The BMW R nineT is fun to ride but it does lack some of the thrill I derive from the Vespa — that feeling of flying that comes from relative silence and absence of mechanical reminders. The BMW makes noise, heightened by the addition of a titanium Akrapovic exhaust. You just can’t escape the fact that you’re riding astride a big, powerful machine. It’s the difference between being a bird and being a pilot.

I like being a bird.

Unlike all the other modern BMW motorcycles I’ve ridden the nineT is simple. No heated grips, no GPS, music systems, heated seats, it doesn’t even have a fuel gauge. The simplicity is in line with the elegance of the motorcycle. It is beautiful, and it attracts attention from others. Stopped for fuel two other riders paid a visit. At a Cafe for a snack another rider did an inspection. A neighbor saw me on the road and paid a visit to talk about it. And on the road, at traffic lights, people looked my way. That has not happened on any other motorcycle I’ve ridden save, perhaps, for a URAL.

I tried to picture the BMW R nineT in my garage; what role would it play in my riding life? It seems great for a ride that requires nothing more than the clothes on my back. Without any capacity to carry extra gear for changes in temperature or precipitation you really need to pick your riding times carefully. Adding luggage or storage would seem like a sin to muck up such a pretty machine. So the utilitarian needs of a daily commuter or long distance traveler are out in my book. The nineT seems like something akin to a sports car that only goes out on sunny days for fun.

Maybe I’m wrong.

Riding on a foggy morning with patches of wet roads and impaired view I was grateful that the motorcycle had ABS brakes. With it’s big tires and big brakes it stops fast — something handy with deer and other critters bouncing across the road.

Making this picture I was again struck by how really cool this motorcycle looks. The BMW R nineT is one of the few motorcycles that I find visually stunning.

I really like the BMW R nineT despite what I know are functional limitations to the kind of riding I do. I would never take this out in the winter or go on long trips with it. But still, it is so much fun to ride that if I had it in the garage I would figure out reasons to ride it.

And I did feel unique on this machine. I admit by ego was at work but the whole idea of individuality that are part of motorcycle marketing are so much noise. But with this motorcycle, it seems true. Riding it through the central Pennsylvania countryside I felt as if I were alone in the world, me and everyone else. It’s not flying but it is a heady feeling.

I had to try it on gravel, just a little bit. Nothing fast, just to see how it performed on what are common choices around here. The big smooth road tires aren’t what the doctor ordered for gravel but it was fine.

Because of the riding nature of the nineT I would probably seldom choose to pick my way along dirt or gravel roads.

Final thoughts…

1. I really loved riding the BMW R nineT motorcycle. I was fun, a very easy riding position, comfortable weight and handling, and great road feel.

2. Powerful. For someone used to a much smaller and lower powered scooter you could immediately sense how little throttle it would take to light the front wheel off the ground. Something any new or transitioning rider needs to pay attention to.

3. Beautiful, elegant, stunning look. Nothing like it as a factory bike. If you want to stand apart from the crowd, this is a bike you should seriously consider.

4. It’s not practical for commuting, errands and other utilitarian purposes.

5. If you can afford a second motorcycle to be the sports car in your life, this is a great candidate. I didn’t want to give it back to Kissell Motorsports.

I love my Vespa scooter and tell people that of everything with two wheels I’ve ridden it remains the best choice for me and what I do. But I’ve always thought it would be nice to have a motorcycle in the garage for those days when I want a different experience. I wouldn’t feel bad to see a BMW R nineT sitting there waiting for me.

« Previous Page

Scooter on Interstate 99

The Highway Scooter

LEVEL OF RIDING EXPERTISE

THE FREEWAY

Do I Belong on the Freeway With a Scooter or Small Motorcycle?

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Scooter in the Sticks