On July 25 I made my first unaccompanied really long trip on my scooter. I rode from Tacoma Washington to Beaverton Oregon. I was unsure what to expect, so I spoke with several motorcycle riders that I know, and all recommended that I take a tire repair kit, and a tool kit, I all ready have those.
The Saturday before my trip I changed my engine oil and final drive oil, checked all bolts and threaded fasteners and lights. Every thing was in order.
I used Mapsource for my gps unit and planed my route. Because my scoot is a 125cc I knew that I needed to avoid all freeway. That is one of the custom route planning tools in Mapsource.
Mapsource said it would take right at 3 hours, I was thinking 5. I was planning on maintaining 40 mph average. With wrong turns turns that I made the trip down was 4 hours 44 minutes and 177 miles my moving average speed was 36.8 miles per hour.
On the return trip north my time was 4 hours 14 minutes and 168 miles with a moving average of 40 miles per hour .
In town on my daily commute I average 81 miles per gallon, but on my trip I got 82.6 miles per gallon, with my throttle pined wide open.
I did stop for fuel more often than I would normally because I was not sure where the gas stations were, and my fuel tank only holds 1.2 gallons, thats not room for error.
I want and would do it again if the opportunity presents itself again, it was a blast.
Showing posts with label scooters. Show all posts
Showing posts with label scooters. Show all posts
Sunday, September 7, 2008
Friday, February 15, 2008
Joined a scooter club.
The area in which I live has no scooter clubs, so when Gary formed The Easy Peasy Scooter Posse I knew I wanted to join.
"EPSP was started by myself last year. It was just an idea that's grown into a club. The idea was to start a group that isn't all Vespa or all Honda or all modern or all vintage. I wanted to start a club whose members appreciated all makes and models of scooters without any prejudices. I see so many groups out there that lean this way and that way and they end up excluding people. So, I wanted to start a club that states from the outset that all scooters are accepted and appreciated, without question. Even if you have a Vietnamese restored scoot, we still love you. I created a patch for our club and had a limited run of them produced. The patch is a three-inch diameter patch and is the same as my avatar. I've been assigning membership numbers to whoever buys a patch at five bucks each. I had just 50 patches made and so the cost, including set-up fees runs me very close to breaking even. If you want to be a member, PM me your address and I'll send you one, along with the EPSP Mission Statement, and your EPSP number. I'll eat the postage. We have 23 members thus far, from California, Minnesota, Ohio, and W. Virginia. I just wanted to extend an invitation to those who might want to be part of the posse. The mission statement is this; Easy Peasey Scooter Posse What it means to be a member; We have fun We enjoy all types of scooters without regard to manufacturer We respect one another We help each other when needed We don’t differentiate between vintage or modern No dues No meetings No crybabies." The founder Gary Didler wanted a club where all would feel welcome, and in his statement makes that appearant.
That was from about a year ago now there are 57 members from 16 different states. I would call that a nation wide club.
This is not a one scooters only club, we have members that ride Veapas, Yamahas, Hondas, Kymcos, and several others, we also range from 50 cc to 400 cc. The one thing we all have in common is our love for scooters and riding them.
Its nice to have a group that you can talk to about your scooter and its problems, or get some information about riding gear, or any other topic you can think of.
Here is a shortcut to the EPSP fourm http://epsp.us/index.php so come by and take a look.
"EPSP was started by myself last year. It was just an idea that's grown into a club. The idea was to start a group that isn't all Vespa or all Honda or all modern or all vintage. I wanted to start a club whose members appreciated all makes and models of scooters without any prejudices. I see so many groups out there that lean this way and that way and they end up excluding people. So, I wanted to start a club that states from the outset that all scooters are accepted and appreciated, without question. Even if you have a Vietnamese restored scoot, we still love you. I created a patch for our club and had a limited run of them produced. The patch is a three-inch diameter patch and is the same as my avatar. I've been assigning membership numbers to whoever buys a patch at five bucks each. I had just 50 patches made and so the cost, including set-up fees runs me very close to breaking even. If you want to be a member, PM me your address and I'll send you one, along with the EPSP Mission Statement, and your EPSP number. I'll eat the postage. We have 23 members thus far, from California, Minnesota, Ohio, and W. Virginia. I just wanted to extend an invitation to those who might want to be part of the posse. The mission statement is this; Easy Peasey Scooter Posse What it means to be a member; We have fun We enjoy all types of scooters without regard to manufacturer We respect one another We help each other when needed We don’t differentiate between vintage or modern No dues No meetings No crybabies." The founder Gary Didler wanted a club where all would feel welcome, and in his statement makes that appearant.
That was from about a year ago now there are 57 members from 16 different states. I would call that a nation wide club.
This is not a one scooters only club, we have members that ride Veapas, Yamahas, Hondas, Kymcos, and several others, we also range from 50 cc to 400 cc. The one thing we all have in common is our love for scooters and riding them.
Its nice to have a group that you can talk to about your scooter and its problems, or get some information about riding gear, or any other topic you can think of.
Here is a shortcut to the EPSP fourm http://epsp.us/index.php so come by and take a look.
Thursday, October 25, 2007
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.
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.
Thursday, July 26, 2007
Many Scooters
Today as I was running errends I saw five other scooters, 1 Elite 80, a Zuma, and three other Chinese scooters. Here in Tacoma I don't see many scooters on the road, but at work there are four other people that commute to work on scooters, and about two or three dozen that do so on bigger bikes.
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