Scooter in the Sticks

In Case of Rain

February 11, 2009 by Scooter in the Sticks 5 Comments

Some mornings there is no thought process involved in the decision to ride. I knew I would ride when I got out of bed. No weather checks, no thoughts of parking or things I would need to haul, I just went through the motions of putting on my gear, pushing the scooter out of the garage and starting it up. The only break in the flow was when I sat down in the driveway to make a picture.

The orange low fuel light came on so I had to divert for some Nascar approved fuel at the local Sunoco station. Fuel prices are beginning to creep back up. I’m hoping they stop before crossing the $4 mark again. I suppose I am in the internal combustion game for a while yet. Just spent nearly $3000 for two cylinder heads on my truck and all the associated stuff that goes along with that. Still cheaper to repair than buying a new one. Or even a good used one. But I would have rather put that money towards a Piaggio MP3. Or a trip across the country on the Vespa. Or anything else. Geez. But I digress.

I wondered whether the snow would be gone from the motorcycle spaces when I turned into the parking lot. A few warm days took care of most of it. The Vespa sat all alone today, none of the other riders are ready to come out and play. I didn’t care though. I was just glad to be back on the road. The only unexpected event was it started to rain in the middle of the day. I looked out the window and thought “how did I miss that?”. But then it’s just rain. Rain isn’t an issue for riding, just a variation in the day. I’m always up for rain.

Just in case.

Battery Tenders Enable Lazy Riders

February 8, 2009 by Scooter in the Sticks 15 Comments

The past month many days the roads were a mess. Even for four-wheeled vehicles. No fear here though for the Vespa is fine in the garage connected to a Battery Tender, slowly slurping juice from the Allegheny Power grid. I’m relaxed.

Content.

There were days when the roads were mostly free of slippery stuff. Certainly in the range of routine riding in previous winters. The scooter is on the Battery Tender though. The battery will be fine if I wait for a better day to ride. It’s still cold outside, well below freezing, and I do have a Battery Tender…

I realize now how much of my winter riding was, in part, motivated by a desire to keep the battery charged. By not wanting to winterize the Vespa. I never liked the idea of taking it out of commission for months at a time. Now a Battery Tender has come into my riding life. Like indoor plumbing and hot showers. Once you have them you can’t easily go back. You get soft. Complacent. You start having wussy thoughts — GPS, chrome accessories, and worse.

I left this morning at 45 degrees Fahrenheit. Brrr, cold. Water on the road, My Vespa might get dirty. It’s windy. Now it’s 50 degrees and I think I should go home. The sun is out but I believe 50 degrees is chilly. I need to stop somewhere and get warm. Get my head on straight. Damn Battery Tender. I’ve turned into a riding wimp.

It turned me into a riding wimp.

I just sat with a cup of tea and jotted down some notes so I would not forget my wimpdomization. Make sure I recorded what was happening to me in case I needed to call a cab home. Crazy.

And then, on the way home, it happened. I sensed a shift. Any concerns about cold, weather, water, it all evaporated. I was a rider again. Maybe it wasn’t the Battery Tender. Maybe it was the weather, the desert of riding experiences of late all piling up in my head like it was my fault. Good old brain is always plotting.

I rode into town tonight. Temperature dropping near freezing but I had a few errands to conduct. And I was set on riding. That’s the way it should be. It’s good to be on the road again.

And the Battery Tender isn’t plugged in, just in case.

Revisiting Risk: Thaw Then Freeze

January 24, 2009 by Scooter in the Sticks 36 Comments

Steve Williams, Vespa Rider, Winter Rider

That’s what I look like after a mistake in judgment. I look pretty much the same when I make the right choices. I’m careful choosing the days I’ll ride. But I do make mistakes.

Scooter Riding in Freezing Weather

Impatience to ride and choosing to believe the sunnier of two weather prospects contributed to an error in evaluating the risk of riding this morning. And there was also the fact that I ignored the direct evidence that the driveway that was wet last night was ice this morning. Ignoring that I walked to the road to find dry, salty pavement. In my head I’m repeating the weather forecast, “…near 50 degrees this afternoon…” I’m standing in the road, it’s 8 AM and the temperature is 27 degrees Fahrenheit.

On the Road in Winter

On the road I am thinking about breakfast and not the ice. Out of town and into the countryside I begin seeing intermittent ice strips along the road from streams of water that ran during yesterday’s thaw. I’m still not processing the data. Instead I point the scooter straight ahead across the ice, these patches that are still narrow. Breakfast in Centre Hall or Bellefonte? Ten miles or fifteen? My stomach is managing the ride.

Encountering Ice on the Road

A 50-foot wide swath of ice. Yesterday is was liquid water but now it is a big stop sign. It’s not a little patch of ice. It’s not black ice which has more traction to it than this stuff. It’s shiny deep ice.

This is how a rider manages shiny ice:

Pull over and stop
Look in the mirrors for traffic
Push up the visor and admire the ice
Say to yourself “What the f…??”
Decide not to ride to Centre Hall or Bellefonte for breakfast
Admire the ice some more
Sigh
Begin picking out the least slippery path across the ice
Cross the ice

Right, cross the ice.

There’s an element of machismo in riding. Perhaps less on a Vespa but it’s still there. It evaporates crossing ice. Anyone watching knows you’re an idiot. Or worse. Feet down pattering around as the scooter moves forward slowly searching for just a tiny bit of traction from a stray piece of gravel. The scooter moves in directions is shouldn’t, boots find no purchase. Constant attention to the mirrors for traffic. I am fortunate in my little world that traffic is minimal to non-existent. No one is watching. I don’t just look stupid doing this, I am stupid. Poor decision-making back in the driveway.

Over the next two miles I repeat the process a dozen times as each ice hazard seems to become more complex, like a puzzle book or increasing difficulty. My brain is working now to determine an ice-free route. That means a main traffic artery where use and excessive salt will mean less likelihood of ice. A half hour later I am at Barnes and Noble. Not the breakfast I planned but one requiring a reasonable amount of risk.

Riding, Photography and Taking Notes

I sat and wrote this down before I forgot what happened. I like to forget things that don’t go my way or illuminate me in a bright, positive light. It’s one of the unexpected benefits of blogging — learning something about how I operate. While I successfully managed the risk on the road I did not do a good job managing the consideration of risk to determine if I would ride. The mistaken application of a weather forecast for later in the day, ignoring the significance of ice in the driveway, and allowing my desire to ride cloud my judgment, all worked together to produce a failure in managing the risks I am willing to take.

I learned some things today. And I did bring home a giant chocolate chip cookie.

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Revisiting Risk

January 23, 2009 by Scooter in the Sticks 7 Comments

Morning Fall
by Edward McGinty

I’ve been working on a piece related to risk and the potential price of riding. It’s the sort of thing that makes family and spouses uncomfortable but bears consideration by anyone who ventures out on two wheels. Denial is not a useful tool in managing risk.

I’ve reposted the Morning Fall video that I shared over two years ago. It helped me think about risk and consequences and has focused my attention (again) on managing my skills and expectations wisely. If you have not seen it before it is worth watching. And if you have, maybe it will rekindle your own desires to be a better rider.

I should be posting my new risk piece over the weekend.

Frigid Riding and the Battery Tender

January 18, 2009 by Scooter in the Sticks 26 Comments

It was cold yesterday morning. The kind of cold that makes my dog hesitate at the door. Accuweather said it was -4 Fahrenheit. Too cold to ride. The road was dry and white from salt and the sun was coming up in a clear blue sky. Its been almost two weeks since the last time the Vespa was on the road and more snow was forecast for later in the day. Even if I had wanted to ride the Vespa wouldn’t start after sitting in an unheated garage for so long. As I made my way through shredded wheat mixed with almonds, blueberries, and raisins I wondered if my riding clothes could deal with subzero temperatures. They’re all hanging in the garage. Probably frozen solid. Besides, it was four degrees below zero, no fun riding in that. And the scooter probably wouldn’t start.

Probably.

The headlight came on when I turned the key. Looks bright. That’s a good sign. A touch of the starter button and a few extra cranks of the engine and it came to life. I could ride if I wanted. Shortly I was geared up and pushing the scooter through the snow to a relatively clear spot in the driveway. The Vespa’s ambient temperature indicator is flashing 11 degrees. A quarter mile later it was flashing 2 degrees. After some slow travel on secondary roads to make sure everything was working properly in the cold I pulled onto PA Route 45 with the indicator blinking 0 degrees. This was the coldest I had ever ridden.

My gear was doing a good job keeping the cold out. The only real problem was the ice building up inside the visor. Cracking it open does not clear ice as it does fog. Riding at 50 mph was out of the question so I had to breathe carefully to keep it at a minimum. The indicator blinked -2 degrees, the lowest it would go during this ride. Ten miles from home the tips of my fingers were beginning to get cold despite my Gerbing electric gloves on full power. Fourteen miles from home I decided it was time to turn around and find some warmth.

Sitting at a booth in a local convenience store I was content to hold a cup of hot chocolate, fingers wrapped around the paper cup absorbing heat from the hot liquid. Even the hot BBQ sign warmed my spirits.

After a quick stop at the veterinarian’s office to get some special dog food I pulled into the parking lot of Kissell Motorsports to look at a Battery Tender. In the past I relied on frequent riding to keep the battery charged but the harsher winter will eventually kill the battery. Keeping the GTS on a trickle charger makes sense today. The addition of a Gerbing adaptor will allow me to plug into the outlet for my gloves.

It’s hard to explain riding in cold weather. I don’t think you can. You have to experience it. And with the proper gear. Otherwise it will be miserable. I was reading an article this morning in the January 16 edition of the New York Times about climbing Mount Washington in the winter. One of the climbers describes the experience, “There’s a simple purity in all that quiet”. I find that riding in general but especially in winter.

The snow has been coming down all night and the roads are bad. Until they clear the Vespa can sip on milliamps.

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Steve Williams, Vespa Rider, Winter Rider

Scooter Riding in Freezing Weather

On the Road in Winter

Encountering Ice on the Road

Riding, Photography and Taking Notes

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Scooter in the Sticks