Motorcycles

Last year when I completed my ride to Canada on my Suzuki Burgman 200 scooter I rode slowly home and met a bunch of scooter riders I'd only ever known online on scooter forums. One of them, Eric in Virginia took to heart my desire for a replacement Burgman. Last week he texted me with a  deal I shouldn't resist. He found a 2014 Burgman 200 in a Houston suburb with 400 miles from new, and offered for a mere $2,000. I think the dealership had taken it on trade and wanted to get rid ofg it before the Spring rush. Eric said he'd love to ride it home for me -crazy- man and that is what he's doing, scheduled to arrive tomorrow, Saturday March 2nd.

It's a four year old scooter that has never been used and by the time Eric gets it home it will still have only 2,000 miles on the clock. We are a nerdy bunch on the scooter riding community but we have some amazing camaraderie. Eric's generosity won't get me riding sooner but it is an enormous morale boost to have the scooter and know I will be riding that very machine before too long.

Eric has enjoyed the ride as far as I can gather despite insistent rain. He also approves of the little scooter noting it actually offers excellent performance and keeps up easily with freeway traffic on I-10 along the Gulf coast. I have to admit it was nice to hear from Eric that he really liked my favorite scooter even though I already knew(!) what an unusually speedy performer this 200cc scooter is when pushed. And so we come to my photos of the day, a simple wander through my local motorcycle shop. Forgive me if motorcycles bore you or irritate you or frighten you; I miss riding and wanted to write just a little about it. Also I enjoyed playing with my iPhone camera in the shop... and you have to suffer for it. Sorry...

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I miss riding so from time to time I drop in on the  last shop in Key West.

 Except it's not in Key West, it's on Stock Island and it's the go to place to get motorcycle service.

 Consequently Jiri the owner is swamped with business.

 Is it such a badly paid trade no one wants to do it, he mused.

 I said it's probably because  no one is trained to do the work anymore.

 Easy enough to learn he added, also telling me about installing his own air conditioning.

 He talked to customers, I wandered around.

 I miss my scooter, but in a broader sense I miss motorcycling.

 I can't walk properly, my feet are still too swollen for proper shoes so I can't ride.

 But I wish I could. 

 I have entered a scooter phase of my life. I considered a proper motorcycle but it doesn't hit the spot.

 I think there is pleasure in the sheer simple utility of a scooter.

 But there is also a mischievous sense of fun in doing more with less. A long distance small capacity scooter? Say it ain't so!

 In a way it is a return to my youth when I criss crossed Europe and North Africa with unsuitable small motorcycles and improvised gear.

 The fact that I live in a  culture that allows only for huge motorcycles for enjoyable touring spurs me on to my madness. 

 Small is economical, small is fun, but small is not arm wrenching powerful.

 Small is easy to handle and makes a lot of sense but most people ride motorcycles as toys.

 A scooter is utilitarian and rather dull they think.

 The predictable among us seek the security of the huge V-twin, the Harley that brooks no competition, that is the default position of the unimaginative. So many machines to ride but only one will do. 

 It's like eating only your favorite dish every day, and worse it is most often done in company, crowds all riding the same thing.

 I say variety is the spice of life and in the world of motorcycles I have tried many of them including Harleys which are fine machines but not the only ones worthy of consideration in a long riding life.

 My Triumph Bonneville was the best but my clutch wrist has arthritis now and a clutch free scooter is indicated.

 Jiri's own bike is a Suzuki that has four cylinders, lots of power and is cheap and cobbled together from parts.  Just how he likes it. I want a Suzuki -a 200cc Burgman scooter not a 1200cc Bandit..

 Seen here working on a client's machine we talked of this and that, of our lives left behind in Europe.

 Jiri grew up under Communism and envied the bikes I rode on the other side of the Iron Curtain. Now we are equals in the New World.

We both like dogs.

The Scooting Life

Scooters in the US are a subset of the motorcycling life. And motorcyclists for the most part ignore or dislike scooters which are viewed as underpowered emasculated and not ridden by real men. I grew up riding in Italy where Vespas and motorcycles each play a role and the riders of one may also be riders of the other.  Because I am a contrarian I have taken to riding scooters in my old age. Also because arthritis in my left wrist makes using a clutch painful and modern scooters like cars tend to be automatics and the left hand is mostly idle. At my age I have nothing to prove but I take pleasure riding a small engined scooter too far and too often thus shocking passers by. Like my August trip to Niagara Falls in 32 hours on my Suzuki 200.

Wytheville, Virginia, August 19th, dawn. 

It was fun though no one believes me! Next year I plan a repeat trip perhaps to Alexandria Bay. My friend Val knows why, because she grew up there plus it’s 1500 miles from Key West and I’ve never been. All this by way of explanation. I’ve now downgraded even lower to a - wait for it!- mobility scooter. Sounds  like old man stuff indeed! 

Notice the walker hanging off the back to give me complete mobility and independence! I am a happy camper. Thank you Therese for gifting me a month’s rent. My friends are extraordinary.  This isn’t a substitute for exercise but with a top speed of a leisurely jog and a range of twelve to sixteen miles I am set. It has lights turn signals and an indoor horn. It is comfortable and it sets me free. Thank you Island Mobility on Stock Island. Craig was a pleasure to deal with. 

This machine is slick. It fits in my apartment better than my manual wheelchair. It rides bumps and lumps just fine, it fits on sidewalks and takes me into the aisles of Publix with the greatest of ease and no fuss. 

It’s easy to use, just turn it on and press F for forward and ...R for reverse! It’s the black bar visible in the photo above. It doesn’t beep in reverse (thank heavens)  and comes with a mirror. It’s exactly what I need until I get my driving privileges back. 

Work is three miles from home along North Roosevelt on a waterfront sidewalk ideal for the purpose. I know this isn’t sexy but it has changed my life. For some a leather jacket a Harley and a handgun are signs of masculinity. For me it’s having fun with what I’ve got and my first instinct was to be an explorer with a whole new perspective of my town. I am blessed with curiosity and a desire to experiment and this is just another way to do that. 

This is going to be a blast. I’m half pedestrian half electric cyborg. 

I’ve also got permission from my scooter buddies on Adventure Rider (advrider.com) to participate in scooter tag which is not normally allowed for mobility scooters... remember I was talking about how segmented riders tend to be? Well I have permission to participate owing to my extraordinary circumstances. 

Pretty cool huh? I have great friends all over the place. I may have weak legs but I’m a happy lucky man. Oh and Rusty got his stitches out from the visiting vet, Dr Edie. 

No strenuous walks till mid January when his tendon should have healed. Excellent news. We’re doing well, both of us. And my wife is managing. I did some shopping for her. And got it home in one piece. 

Getting there, but by bit. I always said I’d get whole again. And I will. Doubters are banished! 

The Ideal Commuter

In 2005 or thereabouts my wife got her motorcycle endorsement and conceived a notion that she wanted to ride a Vespa around Key West as part of her job visiting recalcitrant students. We found an almost brand new ET4 150cc automatic with 236 miles and a couple of slight bumps on the leg shield where the first owner apparently dropped the scooter not even causing the paint to chip but enough that she lost her nerve. $3500 got us a scooter complete with accessories and little did we know many years of faultless service ahead.

In 2007 I bought a Vespa 250, a lovely machine that was part of a batch with faulty electrics and cheap fuel pumps from China and that I had to sell to save my sanity. In ten months it spent more time in the shop under warranty that it did on the road and I still put ten thousand miles on it I liked it so much.

I replaced it with my Triumph Bonneville motorcycle still running faultlessly after a decade and 98,000 miles. My Vespa itch which I have had all my life since my first 50cc in 1970 had to be satisfied and I bought a 200cc two stroke. The idea was it would commute at 60mph and being almost maintenance free and carry a spare tire with split rims such that I could replace tires at home easily. Simple solid and reliable.

It took me five years to come to terms with the fact that it was slower and less reliable than I could stand and miraculously I got rid of it in a trade with a  bright orange Vespa S150, a 2008 scooter with 326 miles on the clock and like brand new .

I didn't really need it as I have been using my wife's ET4 consistently over the past 13 years but I love the color and the style of the S150 and it has the same motor, a simple air cooled two valve motor with the addition of a fuel pump for some reason. I figured it would be as rock solid as the ET4 and five thousand miles later it has proven to be just that.

I find myself always picking one of the Vespas over the 865cc Bonneville for my commutes these days. Thy are light comfortable and easy to ride. They don't have a clutch which relieves my arthritic left wrist and they will hold a true 60mph on Highway One on the flat in neutral wind conditions, easily enough to keep up with traffic. And not so powerful to tempt me to speed or pass even at speed, or risk getting a  ticket.

I like having two rides so when one is in the shop getting new tires or in the case of the ET4  new exhaust muffler, suspension and carburetor I have a back up to commute. Tires wear out fast on these ten and eleven inch rims so I can spread changes a bit further apart by riding one then the other. I tend to favor the ET4 which with about 30,000 miles on the clock has a looser and slightly more powerful engine. It holds sixty actual miles an hour even into headwinds where the newer S150 loses a few mph...

For some reason it has taken me a while to come to terms with the ET4's  funky aesthetics and the lack of a gearbox but when I think back over the years it has been exactly what I wanted ina  Vespa, reliable, fast enough and easy to ride and I have overlooked it because I am an idiot. On top of all that though the paint shows signs of aging around the edges it looks amazingly fresh and new even exposed all it's life to the corrosive Keys atmosphere. Indeed nowadays with disc brakes front and back, water cooled four valve engines with braking systems the old ET4 has itself become a classic, the first of the four stroke automatics first designed twenty years ago. I have earned to chish my alabaster classic and am happy I still own it.

I'm not sure where all this leaves the Bonneville my workhorse of the past decade. Cheyenne was happy to stay home the last years of her life, car trips wore her out so I was free to take off on two wheels. Young Rusty by contrast is ready to go anywhere with me anytime. To take off on two wheels is to betray him, besides it is much more fun arriving somewhere with an eager brown dog in two than by myself on two wheels. This is a truth I cannot deny so mist of my riding now is between Key West commuting and shopping and Marathon to meet my wife at her job. The Vespas handle that just fine and when Rusty sees me put my helmet on he knows its a trip without him (and therefore no fun AT ALL). I miss my 1979 two stroke P200:

I turn sixty on Halloween so I suppose change needs to be acknowledged. Long trips by Bonneville are suspended for now...

And I do acknowledge that I am changing at least for now. I don't anticipate a future of not riding and in retirement I foresee a lot more touring and traveling and day trips and so forth. Rusty will be older and I will live in a  place where a day trip by motorcycle will be satisfying and get me home in time for a romp with my older buddy.

But for now my sweet spot is a Vespa 150, air cooled and old fashioned but modern at 60 mpg and 70 mpg, thus surprising the commuters in big slow trucks and distracted drivers of sedans suddenly passed by a hairy old hobbit on a moped on the Overseas Highway.

I feel no rush to make myself youthful with 800 pounds of loud heavy awkward motorcycle.

and my Italian adventures remind me I don't need 170 horse power every day.

Weird I know but I am happy at the moment with 12 horse power...