Who gets it?

Is Yamaha the only one of the big three that gets it? Consider, they have the 50 cc Vino, with a carburetor,the 50 cc C3, with fuel injection, the 50 cc, two stroke, Zuma, and moving up Yamaha has the Vino 125, the 250 cc Morphous, and the 400 cc Majesty.
Yamaha has a scooter for any need, for any one, for intercity commuting, to day long touring.

Honda has the 50 cc Metropolitan, and Ruckus, and then they go to the 582 cc Silverwing.
That is what I can find for Honda 2008 scooter lineup from the Honda website.

Suzuki has only the Burgman in 400 cc and 650 cc nothing in the small and medium size scooter classes.

In my opinion Suzuki is missing out on a lot of market share by not having any offerings below 400 cc, and Honda has left out the medium sized scooter market.
Yamaha seems to have a better grasp on what the scootering population in America wants.

If Honda would have offered something in the 125 to 200 cc class I would be riding a Honda instead of a Yamaha.

I did not mention Genuine or Kymco as I do not feel the have the dealer network to be a truly major player in the U.S. Although by all accounts they do make a quality product.
When Kymco get the dealer network they will have more offerings in more sizes than the others. Just recently a Kymco dealer opened here, a review of this dealer is coming so stay tuned.

As the cost of gas continues to climb more people will look at scooters for transportation probably to and from work mostly. That in force the manufactures to rethink the U.S. scooter market, and local the rethink how the view the scooter. That will be a GOOD day.

Tour Master "Jean" Textile Pants

Tour Master "Jean" Textile Pants are on sale at newenough.com for $39.99

in sizes from xs to xxxxl. looks like a good deal.

I am in the market for some new riding pants

600 Denier Carbolex® shell with 1680 Denier Ballistic Polyester knee panels for comfort, durability and abrasion resistance
Durable 1680 Denier Ballistic Polyester seat panel helps to minimize slipping
Rainguard® waterproof/breathable barrier
Double-stitched construction throughout
Removable CE-approved knee armor with TM’s exclusive Three Position Knee Armor Alignment System
Removable soft hip armor
Dual-stretch panel waistband with belt loops and rubberized inner waistband so your clothes stay tucked in
Two hand pockets with right hand change pocket and two rear zippered pockets
Fully lined

Seatbelt Patrols.

While going to church today I saw on the freeway warning signs, the one they put traffic alerts and amber alerts on, that they were going to start nightime seatbelt patrols.
I have no problem with them doing that, but feel that there is a better use of an officers time.
I wouldn,t want them to go after aggressive drivers or look for drunk drivers or anything like that.
End of rant.

Pulled over because I ride a scooter.

Sometimes we all get bored, even cops. Don’t stop reading; I’m not going to bash cops. One of my lunch buddies is a cop.

Some background for this story, I am 6 foot 4, and north of 350, and ride a Yamaha VINO 125, a scooter. I will freely admit that I am the upper limit for this bike, but it is the perfect fulfillment of my needs, but I digress.

I was riding home from work one night minding my own business, doing the speed limit.
I look in my mirror and see the police car that I just passed going the opposite way, slow down and turn around, and start going my direction.
A few minutes later I see blue, blue blue, lights in my mirror, so I pull to the right so he can pass me. He follows me into the right lane, so I figure he wants to talk to me. I pull over, and so dose he. At this point I am wondering why I have been stopped, I think back over the last couple of minutes to see if I have broken any laws, and can think of nothing that I have done.

I turn off the engine and am removing my helmet as he walks up. He politely asks me to get the bike, which I do.
When asked why he has stopped me, he replies “I just wanted to see if you really were as big as you looked. I’ve never seen anyone of your size on something so small before.”
I laughed and we spoke about scooters, what mileage I got, how fast it would go, what was my range per tank, and so forth.

I thanked him for supplying me with a funny story, and went home.

For Blog Action Day

When I saw the request for bloggers for blog action day I thought that sounded like fun, so here go's.
I started riding a scooter to save money, gas was close to three dollars a gallon at the time, and my truck gets 20 MPG where my scooter gets 80 MPG. I am now spending less than 10 dollars a month on fuel.
My truck a Toyota Tacoma has a 2400 cc, four cylinder engine, my scooter a Yamaha Vino 125 has a 125 cc single cylinder engine. This means that I have 75% fewer pistons, with an engine that is 95% smaller, and gets four times the mileage.
Instead of putting pounds of emission into the air I am putting ounces out over the same distance. I also have a smaller vehicle and that mean that my damage to the road is a lot less.
So I am not only polluting less but with less wear on the road I am doing my part there also, they don't have to repair the road as often, so that means, they have less pavement to dispose of, and also less pavement they have to make, which in turn means less traffic just sitting there with their engines running, pumping out exhaust and not getting anything for it.
I started riding to benefit myself but it turns out I am benefiting the world and my fellow humans also.

Mobil 1

I made the switch to Mobil 1 a while back but did not have a place that could analyze oil samples, I have sense found a place locally. My first two tests involve Yamalube 10w40 and Mobil 1 10w30, I know the weights are a little different but I don't think that matters. I change my oil every one thousand miles. What I noticed was that the Yamalube dropped two grades from 10w40 to 10w20. The Mobil 1 stayed in grade that being 10w30. The wear metals that were tested for and showed up, Mobil 1 showed a drop in all of them.
Iron a 25% drop, from 12 ppm to 8ppm, Lead a 400% drop, from 4ppm to 0ppm, Copper a 30% decrease from 15ppm to 5 ppm, Chromium a 300% decrease from 3ppm to 0ppm, Aluminum a 300% drop from 3ppm to 0ppm, and Tin a 200% decrease from 2ppm to zero ppm.
I know that this is only one test for Mobil1 but I am less than 500 miles from my next oil change and will have that oil tested also. I do believe that these results will hold up at the next test.

Cool Weather Part 2

The biggest thing I have noticed with riding in the cool weather, daytime temperature of 60 or less, is that as the temperature falls my fuel mileage go's down. I have checked all the thing such as tire pressure, oil level, and air filter all of these are good or within limits, so its not that. As a plus I do get my power, not that I can prove it with a dyno., but my acceleration is better. I believe this is due to colder air being more dense, meaning that it has more oxygen per volume than warmer air, the down side is the fuel is cooler so it doesn't atomize as well.
I do enjoy riding in the cooler weather, but caution must be advised, the days are shorter, and we have more rain this time of the year. At night the man hole covers blend in really well especially if wet. So lets all be careful and enjoy this time of year.

Cooler Weather Part 1

One of my co-workers told me his girl friend asked if I was still riding "That Scooter" as she called it. He told that I was still riding, she said I was insane. I can see her point, it is cooler and the rain has started to fall up here, but I only stop riding when there is ice on the road.One thing I have noticed, due to the cooler weather the cruisers are thinning out, going to work I used to pass 12 to 15 now lately I am only seeing 5 or 6, maybe they don't want to polish all that chrome again and again due to rain. That's not a problem when you ride a scooter that has allot of plastic body work, it's just wash it and let it drip dry.