Scooter in the Sticks

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

Riding Through Sherwood Forest

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I took the day off work. Too bad I couldn’t ride all day but I had to be home to meet a contractor to talk about replacement windows. Could be worse I suppose. I did have an hour to ride before that meeting so I just ventured off down one of the roads I ride regularly. And wouldn’t you know it I find a little track moving off into a wooded area between two farms. Like magic the little kid in me lights up, I look to see if anyone sees me, and off I go into the unknown.

This is the kind of place that as a kid we would have had forts and battles, hikes and camps. No evidence of kid activity here today — not sure parents let their kids out for stuff like that anymore. But damn, I felt like a kid exploring the wilderness. Here I am, 54 years old, riding a Vespa and having more fun that a person is entitled to.

The woods were dense and secretive, just as I imagined Sherwood Forest as a kid. The track ran for less than half a mile but that’s plenty for an imagination to soar. These little rides recharge my spirit by reconnecting me with that wonderment I had as a child. Seeing a grove of bamboo growing along the road, stopping to climb to the top of a big dirt pile, things like that.

Definitely not the kind of riding experience most riders are after but I won’t pass it up.

Riding in Cold Weather: Dress for Success

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These two Vespa scooters flanking my GTS belong to first time riders — a young man and woman, maybe in college, perhaps high school. They are excited about riding and I’ve seen them around town. They ride with helmets on top of short pants and t-shirts, no gloves and no boots. A riding costume I see not just with scooters but on sport bikes and cruisers as well. This post isn’t about safety concerns though. It’s about how these kinds of dress habits may short circuit the discovery of the thrill of riding in cold weather. I’ve spoken to many, many riders who dismiss riding in the cold. To a rider when asked what kind of cold weather gear they used they admitted they didn’t have any. Under dress when the temperature dips below 70 and things can feel chilly. Below 60 and you figure you should just park the machine.

I love riding in the fall, especially at sunrise. There’s a warm glow in the autumn light, a fragrance of decaying leaves, and a crispness to the air that is unmatched any other time of the year. I left early in the morning for a short ride before work, a sort of extended commute. Coming down the mountain I say my temperature gauge reading 45 degrees, cold by most rider’s standards. I hate being cold and shiver at 68 degrees. I look forward to riding in cold weather but only with the right gear.

To be able to enjoy the road when the temperature goes down means you absolutely have to have the right gear. Otherwise things will be miserable. It means a commitment of money and time — money to buy the stuff and time to put it on. And for some it may mean a divorce from any preconceived style ideas especially where helmets are concerned.

If you are used to just jumping on a motorcycle or scooter with whatever you happen to be wearing you may have a hard time in cold weather rationalizing the amount of gear you have to don. It may be best to bundle the machine up in the garage and do something else. Just remember, you’ll be missing some great riding.

My hands were already getting cold after numerous stops to make pictures where I had to take off my gloves. The camera feels like an ice cube in cold weather. As the first beam of sunlight cut through the forest it was 45 degrees it was 40 degrees warmer than my lowest riding temperature limit of 5 degrees. At the lowest temperature here is what I wear from the skin out:

Poly long underwear
Long sleeved shirt
Windproof jacket
Blue jeans
Heavy socks
Tourmaster Overpants
Leather boots
First Gear Kilimanjaro IV Armored jacket
Ski mask
Full helmet
Gerbing electric gloves

For someone used to riding with no gear that’s a lot of stuff to put on.

With the sun sweeping across the open fields it was time to ride to work. On this particular morning I had on everything on the above list EXCEPT the ski mask, long underwear, and electric gloves. Still takes time to put it on.

So before you decide that cold weather is not for you beg or borrow some gear and try riding when you are not cold. You may find the effort brings you many more weeks or months of riding.

Good Rider, Bad Driver?

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Fog draped the world when I rode into town on Sunday to meet a friend. Better planning would have found me wandering with a camera. Fog is a high alert situation and requires (me) steady concentration and skills at the ready. I’m familiar and experienced in these conditions. I’ve considered possibilities in general and specific options on the road. I feel I am a good rider and continuing two-wheeled learner.

Recently a postcard came across my desk advertising an advanced driver-training course offered by my employer. As I read through the description – evasive maneuvers, skidding, panic braking, and other things that I’ve only experienced in movies I began to wonder what kind of driver I am?

Riders tend to make sport of cagers and engage in tales of driver antics and idiocy. I suspect more than one character highlighted has been a rider who happened to be driving on that occasion. I have a lot of years behind the wheel, a lot of experience driving, but I’ve not thought much about it and aside from drivers ed class in 1970 haven’t practiced a thing.

Riding experience doesn’t necessarily translate to a car.

I was excited to take the driving course until I figured out it would cost almost 500 dollars. Sure, I would like to get on a track and learn some high-speed maneuvers and skid along like James Bond, but 500 bucks…

I’m thinking about my driving and what gaps exist in skill or temperament. I don’t often get angry anymore while driving. That’s a plus. And I’ve always had two-wheel drive pickup trucks and function fine in the Pennsylvania winters. I’ve even pulled a couple four-wheel drive vehicles out of snowy ditches. That has to mean something right?

The Daydreaming Rider

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While eating my lunch the other day I watched a segment of The Tonight Show on the Web. In response to a question by Jay Leno actor Hugh Laurie (from the TV show House) said he would like to ride his Triumph motorcycle across America. The stuff of many daydreaming riders. He talked about putting a sidecar on the motorcycle and packing up his gear and just riding forth to see some of what makes up this country. See what makes up this country — those were the words that resonated with me. Seeing and experiencing places is at the foundation of many of my own daydreams. I don’t know whether Mr. Laurie will ever makes his ride but his description of why he wanted to ride echoed my own. He sounded like the kind of guy I would be comfortable sharing the road with.

Riding daydreams are a pleasant aspect of my restless and wandering mind. No task is too monotonous or trying to not respond well to a good riding daydream. Just give me a map or atlas and I am on the road with the Vespa visiting parts unknown. Endless roads, National Parks and city streets, mountain passes and open plains, nameless small towns and rugged coastlines. Wandering through the world taking it all in like a man with new eyes.

My conscious mind may remind me that some daydreams don’t really fit my mental or physical resources. But daydreams offer a vicarious path of experience, rides I will probably never undertake. Like the Cannonball Run underway now with scooterists racing across the country. Or IronButt rides running a thousand miles in less than 24 hours. I’m not competitive with the clock or other riders but there is a thrill imagining what it might be like to do my own Long Way Round or on a dirt bike flying through Baja in From Dust to Glory. Mental wanderings of a daydreaming rider.

I wonder sometimes what I would do with time and money. If I would actually transform a lot of daydreams into reality. Until then I’ll continue to ride as I can, daydream when convenient, and relish experience as it comes.

Riding a Triumph, Riding a Vespa

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A minor aside: This is my 300th post. Who would have known I would be writing about a Triumph.

After two weeks on the road with the Triumph America I had to give it back. During that time I was able to stretch my motorcycle legs and strengthen my scooter resolve. If something is going to pry me away from the Vespa GTS 250ie it isn’t the America.

I won’t say there is anything wrong with it. There is no doubt that the Triumph attracts some attention from other riders who are either curious about or appreciate the British bike mystique. Or at least the ghost of those earlier machines still evident in the styling lines of these modern offspring. To the general public it’s just another motorcycle. No curious inquiries like I get with the Vespa.
Commuting and running errands on the Triumph was easy but I was missing some kind of locking storage, someplace to guard my potato chips, library book, or digital camera. I suspect some kind of luggage is available but I wonder what it would do to those classic lines.
The big tires do a real nice job of smoothing out the road but it is almost cancelled out by the shake and rumble of the engine.

The most noticeable cost of those big tires though is the sacrifice in nimbleness on the road. The Vespa just feels much more responsive. Nimble. Quick. And much easier to stop. But each machine has their own strengths and weaknesses and what may be important to me would be a negative to someone else. Each rider needs to draw their own conclusions when it comes to selecting what they want to ride.

It was hot and windy when I headed for Altoona and I was surprised how badly the America was pushed around in a heavy crosswind. I assumed the size and weight would keep it in a straight line. At 55 mph I was afraid the road wasn’t wide enough to not suddenly be riding in a cornfield so I veered off onto a more dawdling route and enjoyed the trip a lot more.
I stopped a few times along the road to take some pictures and you really have to watch the Triumph in the gravel. A dirt bike it is not. The mass of the machine makes any use of the front brake a touchy enterprise. I can see why a lot of riders don’t like taking these things down the forest roads around here.
I retrieved the Vespa and headed straight home. It felt tiny and I recalled driving our 1970 VW Campmobile where you sat out over the front wheels with nothing in front of you. Same thing with the Vespa. Nothing out in front of you but air. You don’t see the front wheel.

Welcome back to the shiftless world. The quiet world, the darting, quick, and nimble world. One stop in an alfalfa field reminded me that I was home again with an agile little scooter.

As much as I wanted to get home I kept seeing places to stop to look around and take some pictures. Places I would ride past on the Triumph. So for me the Vespa remains the right ride. But if I have the chance to ride some other things I’ll take them. I’m open to the idea that there are other quick and nimble rides that will make it easy to do what I do.

Scooter in the Sticks

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

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