Perfect Morning

Walking Cheyenne another sunrise. Cool and breezy, as winter should be in Paradise.

Cheyenne

What my dog gets up to when I'm at work.

A Kettle Of Vultures

I am told turkey vultures have their own collective noun and when they are seen spinning in circles in the sky they are said to be a "kettle."

I saw this lot doing their job on Blimp Road, on Cudjoe Key, that job being cleaning up other people's mess.

It must be winter: the turkey vultures are back.

We are programmed to find vultures repulsive but they are actually quite elegant in flight.

And very useful: if not for them someone else would have to clean up the road  kill.

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Vespa On Big PIne

I had chores to do on Big Pine Key and Cheyenne was well walked and tired so I figured I could work a bit more on the running in program for the new/old Vespa. Cheyenne kept an eye on things as I fiddled with tire pressure and added some temporary luggage capacity on the form of a crate I had lying around. I will probably switch to a top case later but for now, a crate and a cargo net over it work fine.

 I went by the bank and figured I could take some time to myself and ride around. One not-so-short-cut required some travel by dirt road. Easily done:

Per my instructions I varied the speed as I motored the back roads of Big Pine Key working hard not to over tax the new engine by running it in properly.

The bridge between No Name Key and Big Pine Key was lacking its usual complement of anglers so I stopped for some pictures of my 1979 Vespa 200. 

 It seems to run quite well however the down shifting especially between 3rd and 2nd gears seems to continue to be unnecessarily notchy. I had tried to adjust the clutch but on mature reflection I think I have  a loose gearbox cable. Naturally there is a video on U-Tube describing the fault and the remedy.

A German company that ships vintage Vespa parts worldwide has a series of how-to videos for old Vespas. SIP does a lot of these tutorials dubbed into English by a heavily accented German voice. They seem to be very useful:  so far so good.

The Vespa changes gear by means of a clutch which operates in the normal way on the left hand grip. But also on this side of the handlebar are these marks, 1-N-2-3-4 so that when you pull in the clutch you can twist the grip, and by doing that you pull or push two cables on a tube inside the handlebar grip. It is ingenious and simple and when properly adjusted, very smooth. It also means my feet aren't fiddling with a pedal to change gear and sit protected behind the huge leg shield. Just like the designer planned it to be: not like a motorcycle.

I seem to have assembled quite a fleet. I have never had so many two wheelers at my beck and call. Next to the Bonneville is my wife's 150ccVespa ET4, a four stroke automatic capable of almost 65 mph. I hope my vintage Vespa will yield similar performance on Highway One.

I have to ride quite a few more miles before we will know the real top speed of the latest addition to the fleet.

Key West

I am told the weather sucked in Key West while I was gone. Nothing much changed and Cheyenne enjoyed walking her city once again even though it was considerably warmer than places Up North.

Chickens and trash, staples of  Key West  living.

I thought that having to fidget under the hood in the cold hour around dawn was a bit much. He seemed okay with it.

Simonton Beach,  a  boat launching spot for vehicles intrepid  enough to launch over sand, or for smaller craft like kayaks which are used sometimes as dinghies by people living on their boats in the harbor.

They tell me it rained a lot while I was gone but they aren't impressed by my stories of surviving rain in 40 degrees in Richmond, Virginia.

Fairvilla the purveyor of sheer underwear and sex toys has closed. I can't make up my mind if it is a sign of the aging of Key West or a not active economy or perhaps an owner looking for a new challenge, or rent that was more than  usually unreasonable. Lacking any knowledge whatsoever of the circumstances all I can say is I am surprised.

CVS on the other hand is going from strength to strength and is planning a very large store on the corner of Duval and Front to replace its current location across the street. Looking at the cruddy state of the building the chain plans to occupy I find myself thinking maybe it won't be all bad.  On the other hand the more pressing issue is the relentless increase in chain stores on Duval Street.

Harpoon Harry's on Caroline Street continues to follow its own slightly eccentric path. I preferred Barbie in Bondage but she got kidnapped so I guess Iron Butt Barbie is the next best thing.

Cheyenne took a breather outside the diner. I crouched next to her and got this Labrador's eye  view of the street outside Harpoon Harry's.

It looks different.

I prefer Key West seen from adult height.

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North Florida Vespa Ride

I was offered a couple of hours to myself, a Gate brand gas station near the hotel was listed as selling ethanol-free gas so I was set. I had to see just how this my third attempt at owning a Vespa was going to work.

I put two and a half ounces of oil in first, then I loaded one and a half gallons of gas (which came to $5:41) and added a further one and a quarter ounces of oil for the half gallon of gas. My theory is to put oil in first to get the stuff mixed, then make up the rest at the end. The oil in the gas lubricates the engine do it is critical to get it right. Most Vespas like mine have a separate oil pump to feed oil to the engine but I wanted the simplest model I could find...and I got it.

I took County Road 208 west toward the St John's River, and it was a good choice with very little traffic, and speed limits far beyond my break-in speed. Once run in this little engine will eat 55mph for lunch.

The old fashioned engine is supposed to be used lightly at lower speeds, no higher than 35 to start, always varying the speed and increasing gradually after hundreds of miles. B-o-r-I-n-g. But necessary.

Commuting on Highway One will be a trial at these speeds but slowly slowly I will get this thing run in and done. Then we'll see how the cages get out of my antique's way!

There is no ignition key yet as the proper ignition switch failed to arrive from Italy and Gene the restorer won't substitute Indian-built bits. Mind you there is no battery here and the bike runs directly off the magneto, so a fake key is no big deal. Twist the slot and press the kick starter and this thing putters obediently to life. When the zombies take over the world this little tank will carry me to freedom when more sophisticated machines run out of electrons.

Just because I was rattling along at 35 didn't mean I couldn't wriggle around in the bench seat and play with my camera... I was alone with my Vespa, with a cooling setting sun and lots of lovely light.

I was put in mind of Scooter in the Sticks where Steve says he is inspired to stop and make pictures by his slow speed meanderings and the ease of use of the Vespa. And mine is even lighter and easier to park than his modern heavyweight.

230 pounds complete with spare wheel ready to go, twelve horsepower two stroke single cylinder engine, four speed gearbox, theoretical top speed of 63mph (100kph) and a possible 60 miles per gallon. The ideal commuter with little maintenance and a long heritage as a tough daily rider in harsher conditions than those found in the Keys.

When this scooter first appeared in 1977 I was horrified at how square they made the lines. Nowadays the P series Vespa looks lovely and traditional to my eyesight, warped by the passage of time.

Traveling as slow as molasses look what I come across...BBQ to go...I pull a quick u-turn...easy to do on my ugly duckling and putter up to the front door.

"You ride that thing everywhere?" asked the guy in the stripey top. "Not yet," I said, "but I want to." $14 later I had half a rack of ribs dangling from the seat hook.

Well, I had to have a quick taste. Delicious. This minor episode put me in mind of a chapter in T E Lawrence's collection of stories called The Mint, including a tremendously evocative description of riding at speed. Absurd I know as I tottered around trying to keep my Italian stallion under 40mph, but Lawrence described picking up bacon and eggs as he traveled and here I was with my bag of ribs. Ha! This bodes well.

I traveled about thirty miles in a circle through farming country west of I-95 and I was glad to get back to the hotel temperatures were dropping with the sun and I was ready. The scooter promises a good ride. Vibrations smoothed out significantly the closer I got to 40mph and I pulled out my phone GPS to calibrate the surprisingly accurate kilometer speedometer. The riding position is nerdily vertical and puts a lot of stress on the left wrist when pulling in the clutch and shifting the four speed gearbox on the handlebar shifter. Changing up is relatively smooth but I will need to work on downshifts which are notchy and finding neutral needs to happen before coming to a stop. Practice and breaking in will make this smoother.

It takes but a hair of accelerator to keep the scooter rolling at an indicated 60kmh which on the GPS is 36 mph, and it's easy to see how peppy this engine will be once the break-in is completed. This is not a modern scooter built for people who drive vars and expect smooth electronics and information screens. The Vespa is delightfully crude and seems go progress with a certain masculine certainty. I enjoyed the ride a lot, even though I like speed.

I got the P200 because it is significantly faster than the 150 or 125 models. I also wanted factory stock for maximum reliability. I am looking forward to traveling and seeing and photographing things with this scooter.

It is not a substitute for my Bonneville which I love as a completely different ride, but I do like the relative complexity of mixing fuel, managing the shifter and actively using a 35 year old scooter.

So far so good. Gene at Scooters Originali in Allentown Pennsylvania did me proud.

Further reading:
Features of the P200
Why I Like this Vintage Tourer
La Vida Vespa
Stergios Gogos (use the Google translation button on the page and it works quite well).

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