When I left my office today it was getting dark, colder, and there were a few snowflakes on the seat of the Vespa. I prepared to ride home feeling flat and unmotivated to do much beyond hit the couch and read a book. As so often happens the moment the scooter roars (you have to help me with the appropriate verb) to life a smile eases into my face and the weight of the day and 35 years fade from my frame.

Out in traffic I was content to take my place on the road with my fellow travelers and enjoy the darkening day. I made a detour into the small village we call home to visit Kim at the salon where she was having her cut. I had taken all the money. I went in without removing my helmet, went into the back where she was under a dryer writing in her journal and proceeded to try and have a conversation. Her ability to hear was drowned out by the dryer and I’m sitting next to her with a helmet and earplugs. We sort of waved at each other apparently understanding. I could tell by the smile on Kim’s face that whatever was happening it must be good and I’m sure she recognized the smile on my face. I don’t know what it is about the scooter but making all sorts of little stops to see things and talk to people just seems natural.

From there to Agostenelli’s Market for some fresh bread. They have it fresh on Tuesdays and I just couldn’t pass it up.

It’s so good that I had to build a sandwich before even writing this entry. Not much gets between me and Scooter in the Sticks. So, the day was getting even brighter when I stopped in the town square to take a picture of the new Christmas decorations on one of the store.

From there a short trip home and happy relaxation. It’s a great evening.

IMPORTANT TECHNICAL NOTE: Notice my first vertical picture today! I am growing more open to new things as I get older.

How often have you thought about getting rid of the cage and living life solely on two-wheels? It’s a nice fantasy but I wonder if it isn’t something best left in the fantasy realm. It certainly would require commitment and patience. I’ve watched my annual mileage drop on my Ford Ranger to about 1000 miles per year from around 10,000 the year before acquiring the Vespa. If I absolutely had to I could survive with only the scooter relying on the bus for days too harsh or dangerous which is what I do now. Days I don’t feel comfortable on the Vespa are the same sort of days the Ranger doesn’t do well in either.

I got up this morning for a ride in the bright sunny 25° F morning. The wind was gone and the bright sun confused my brain into not thinking it was cold. This picture shows what a cageless world would look like for usually this place is lined with them.

From there out across the valley and smiling because the new mittens are keeping my hands toasty today at even lower temperatures than last weekend even with a stop to gaze at the sky.

A stop at one of the local car dealers just to scan the window stickers of the used cars was an eye opener. I tend to buy vehicles at ten-year intervals and don’t look much in between. Our VW Jetta is 11 years old now but with only 89,000 miles we’ll try and run it along for a few more years. Walking from one sticker to the next I choked at the prices for used, I mean pre-owned, vehicles. I didn’t even venture to the new ones.

We have two vehicles plus the Vespa. I don’t see us with zero cages but I can see scaling back to one. Since both are paid for and in good shape I’ll hold onto both and make a final decision when the time comes to replace something. I do have dreams of saving that extra cash. And even if I do need a second cage, maybe I can opt for the 500-dollar beater. There is something romantic about driving a beater car, especially in these days of perfect shiny cages.

Only a short ride into town today to run some errands and buy oil for the next oil change in the Vespa. It was windy and 33° F according to the display at the bank. New mittens were nice and warm and I had another uneventful ride. Since there isn’t much to report I thought I would get something out of my head that has been floating around for awhile related to noise.

For a long time, shortly after 2AM a loud and obnoxious motorcycle would roar up the hill to our house, turn onto another street, and roar up the street. Each night it would wake us up so that we could follow the path until it finally disappeared into the silence of the night. I describe this particular motorcycle as obnoxious because the noise level was loud enough to make a loose pane of glass in the front door vibrate and if I was outside when it happened to make an appearance in daylight hours I felt like holding my ears. (actually I felt like doing something else)

On a warm Saturday morning at 9AM when I am relaxing with a cup of tea in the garden I can anticipate doing this with the sound of several lawnmowers somewhere nearby, a leaf blower cleaning a driveway, a circular saw cutting a board for a deck, a shop-vac cleaning the inside of an SUV and any number of other typical sounds. The neighborhood is a noisy place. This background noise blends together as a symphonic representation of non-urban America.

Enter the motorcycle – or scooter. Many ride through town and the neighborhood barely noticeable. My Vespa is so quiet that often the dog lying at the door awaiting my return doesn’t hear me pull up. My friend Paul’s Harley Fatboy is quiet too since he has left the factory exhaust untouched. And I should add that not all scooters are quiet. The vintage two-stroke scooters can be loud and spewing clouds of smoke and often exaggerated because they congregate in a flock. But they are less than occasional occurrences at best and tolerated more easily like a passing fire truck or helicopter. It’s the large number or loud sport bikes and cruisers that comprise the problem population and where real change and improvement are possible.

There is a growing movement from the grass root level to the legislature to curb or ban loud exhausts or even motorcycles. I know the freedom and independence arguments but as noise levels increase there will be a growing outcry from the non-riding, property owning, and motorcycle averse voting population to have something done. Riding a scooter is about as innocuous as you can be without resorting to a bicycle or walking but a scooter isn’t for everyone. For all other motorcycles from dirt bikes to big V-twin cruisers it is technically easy to make those machines acceptably quiet. The more difficult challenge always resides between our ears.

I stumbled across a site today that had a lot of links to noise related issues and it’s worth some time to get up to speed on what’s going on in various places and consider where you are in the equation. Maybe we can do something individually before Uncle Sam steps in and does it for us. Maybe it’s just a matter of understanding, respect, and consideration for others. The kind of consideration we would all like to have on the road from other drivers. Maybe there’s a chance to set a fine example.

AMA Excessive Noise Position

RideSTEALTH site

First off the picture was taken a couple of mornings ago on the way to work and the sun appeared for a few moments just after dawn and I just had to stop and take a picture. It’s like that with a scooter, you just see things that you miss in a cage.

I forgot the camera today so I couldn’t photograph all the great stuff I saw. Those great images all got away. I’ve been working on a few posts but none are ready for release yet but I did want to share a few observations about the commute today. When I left the temperature was near 50° F with a slight breeze and heavy sky that was crying tears of rain and mist. The ride was uneventful and I arrived at work on time and in good spirits.

About mid-day I could see that the wind was picking up and a quick check of the weather forecast showed a storm front coming through with up to an inch of heavy rain and winds gusting to 60 MPH. I went outside to check my Vespa and since it was parked right next to the building it seemed safe from a fall and if it did fall it would go against the building.

When I left at the end of the day the rain had passed but the wind was howling. I was buffeted around just walking across the parking lot and the ride home was probably the most challenging of my Vespa career. More than once as I was moving through traffic at slow speeds I had to put a foot down to keep from being blown down. The wind was unpredictable and the direction kept changing. I stopped at the library and had to park the scooter on the street but not until I determined the wind direction and parked with the nose of the scooter into the wind. I feared returning to find it sprawled along the street.

The Vespa gods were with me and it stood up fine. The remainder of the trip home was even more difficult as I entered the faster traffic that is not fazed a bit at the wind. I on the other hand had to drop my normal speed by 15 to 20 MPH at time just to stay in my lane. I was fortunate that I hit lights a few times as they were turning yellow and I didn’t have a lot of traffic behind me for short periods.

I was relived as I turned into the driveway unscathed and sat for a moment thinking about the ride. Compared to the snow and ice I’ve been on this gusty ride seemed out of control and almost unmanageable. Good to be home and have a cup of tea.

It was frosty cold yesterday morning and ideal conditions to test my new glove protection against the elements. For regular readers you are familiar with my tedious search for something to keep my hands warm. And my desire for something simple — read that nothing electric. My searched ended on Friday when I purchased a pair of Black Diamond Mercury Mitts — mittens for extreme cold.

A bit of history. Last winter I purchased a pair of Alpinestars insulated gloves to begin my cold weather riding. When the temperature dropped to 40°F the Alpinestars weren’t warm enough and a purchased a pair of Tourmaster Cold-Tex gloves. I rode with these all winter but I should describe the experience.

My winter riding at sub-freezing temperatures with my Tourmaster gloves require frequent stops to warm my hands on the headlight or exhaust. At 30 degrees I can manage 15 minutes at 50MPH before my hands are painfully dead. More or less time depending on speed. For my daily commute where speeds are less than that I can suffer along down to 15 degrees. For long trips I plan my route with stops to get warm, eat, drink, and huddle around the muffler. Sort of like camping when I was a kid.

My hands have always been cold since I was a kid. This personal property worsened a few years ago when I developed frostbite on the ends of all my fingers while helping a friend move a stainless steel centrifuge in sub-zero temperatures with no gloves. This act is on my top-ten list of boneheaded actions.

So when it comes to winter gloves I am starting at a disadvantage — genetically cold hands, frostbite history, and a rejection of modern electric technology. Just so you appreciate my challenge. I’ve done considerable research and inquiry about gloves on various forums and in person and I’ve found that estimating protection against cold is not an exact science and complicated my personal tolerance. And it seems as if manufacturers rate things against death or damage rather than my comfort level. But then again how can they determine that.

With that history in mind I can proceed with my story. It was a dark and dreary night and all the riders were sitting around the campfire when in walks Steve. And this is the story he told them…

In my search several gloves kept being recommended — the Tourmaster Winter Elite, Tourmaster Polar-Tex, Orina 118, BMW winter glove, and generic snowmobile equipment. After some interaction with members of the Adventure Rider forum with people riding all winter in places like Alaska I realized that no glove on the market without electrics was going to keep my hands toasty in the weather I would be riding in. When I finally accepted this I turned towards mittens at the suggestion of Mr. Charpentier at Rush Hour Rambling.

When I couldn’t find much evidence of snowmobile glove and mitten effectiveness I abandoned that search in favor of arctic expedition and snowboarding mittens. There was a lot of ratings and descriptions of the environments this stuff is used in. Snowboarders at 4000 meters in sub-zero cold traveling at 50 MPH. If it worked for them it had to work for me on the Vespa.

After abandoning consideration of the $200 Outdoor Research Alti mitts and other serious expedition down filled mittens I looked at the black diamond Mercury Mitts at our local outdoor outfitter — Appalachian Outdoors. Waterproof/breathable liner, windproof, ten ounces of PrimaLoft insulation, and big gauntlets, I put down the cash and ended my search.

Yesterday morning, 8AM, 28°F. Perfect weather for my first test. I decided to ride 60 miles to my in-laws in Altoona to hand deliver an anniversary card.

I’ve made this trip many times last winter in comparable temperatures so I knew what to expect in terms of hand coldness. My goal was to ride to the half-way mark, the Family Chill and Grill, without having to warm my hands. Usually I would have to stop three to four times at this temperature.

With these new mittens I didn’t have to stop to warm my hands. They weren’t toasty but not painful either. I did stop twice to take pictures and holding the icy metal camera in my bare hands didn’t help. But once the mittens were back on I could feel them warm rather than the steady decline towards pain in the old gloves.

Upon arrival at the Family Chill and Grill for a hearty breakfast my hands were cold but nothing I couldn’t live with all day. And I was riding at speeds I normally would not ride on this trip — 50 – 60 MPH. So I consider the new mittens a success and expect them to be fine for my kind of low speed adventuring all the way down to my 5 degree goal.

I should add that the bulk of these mittens requires some adjustment at the controls. The leather palms grip the brake levers nicely but you have to be more deliberate in moving your hands and fingers. After a few minutes of practice I was fine. The thumbing of the starter, high beams, turn signals and horn was easy.

My reward for the test was a too big breakfast. I thought I ordered bacon, eggs, homefries and toast when choosing the Country Breakfast.

Instead I got more of everything than I needed, plus sausage, plus pancakes. See what good mittens will get you!