Just another wobbling psycho

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Veda
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Just another wobbling psycho

#1 Unread post by Veda »

August 6, 2006

After much jealousy watching Nalian ride off on her motorcycle I went out and got a SC00t3R!#!

I've wanted a scooter for years, but was always scared off because I didn't know much about them. Given the length of my commute to work I knew I would need a larger scooter, which would require a motorcycle license to drive. So I forgot about my scooter lust for a few years. But then with Nalian and her motorcycle I had been reading all the motorcycle forums and books and got really excited about the idea.

On Friday I went down the registry and took my motorcycle permit test. I was a little worried I was going to fail that. While I did study the booklet, so many of the questions seem very random. They range from easy, "What does a brown road sign indicate?" (ans: recreational areas) to questions about the exact laws for riders under age 18, which I did not get right.

I was hoping to find a scooter over the weekend, but wasn't sure I would be successful. From my online research I decided a Yamaha Vino 125 would be my top pick, but I had read that there are usually waiting lists for them. I figured I wouldn't be able to find one and would have to pay a lot more money to get a Vespa with similar stats to the Vino. Fortunately, I lucked out. I stopped into the local motorsports dealership and told the salesguy what size scooter I was looking for and he was like, "well, I have this Yamaha Vino out back..." I sat on the Vino and it felt like it was the perfect physical size. Unlike the motorcycles I had sat on, I felt like I could manage the weight of the Vino. It's about 220 lbs. and I think I could easily pick it up if it fell and manuever its weight beneath me without fear of it knocking me over. The salesguy also quoted me MSRP, which I knew from my research was a good deal. I read lots of stories of people paying way over MSRP because they are in such high demand.

So I thanked the salesguy for showing it to me and left. The whole way home I wanted to turn around and go back for it. When I got home Michele was already home and I made her go back to the store with me to get it.

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Veda
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#2 Unread post by Veda »

August 13, 2006 - 9 a.m.

I went for my first real scoot Friday night. After a bit of parking lot practice we went on a short ride into the next town over and back. Nalian followed me around on her Harley, which must have been a funny site. Going "fast" (read over 20 mph) is scary! One thing I wasn't expecting was how the bike handled bumps. Unlike in a motorcycle you have nothing to grip your legs on, so at bumps I was bouncing off the seat! All in all it was pretty uneventful though. I need to work on looking where I turn. A couple times I got stuck staring at the things I was trying to avoid and ended up going straight at them. In the parking lot I ended up hitting a curb because I was fixating on it. Then I accelerated. Yeah, I don't know why. Other than that, no problems. One of my worries was going fast where necessary. I was afraid that if 20 mph felt so scary, 40 must be horrifying. Fortunately, it really felt the same. I was also able to accelerate just fine, which was Nalian's fear given the small engine size.

Once Nalian gets up we are going to go for a longer ride. I would like to start riding it to work this week but we'll see how today goes.


6 p.m.

Went on my 2nd and 3rd scoots today! This morning after breakfast we scooted about 10 miles to Lexington to get coffee and then came back. I was feeling a bit more confident today and just kept reminding myself to look where I wanted to go. On my first scoot I had some problems with turning and not looking into the turn leaving me almost running into objects. That wasn't so much of a problem today. The ride was a good combination of urban traffic driving and open road. We road up Mass Ave in Arlington which is a 4 lane (2 in each direction) busy "main drag" type road. It was a little unnerving to drive side by side with cars, but not really a big deal. Once we got beyond Arlington the road opened up a bit more and we were able to get up to 40mph and take some good twists in the road.

Up until today I was feeling pretty nervous about the scooter thing and wasn't sure if I'd be able to handle it. After the coffee ride I was feeling much more comfortable. When we got home we were supposed to be going to the gym but I really wanted to keep riding as did Michele.

We ended up heading up to my office because I wanted to do a trial run of the route and then we continued on to my parents house. It was probably 45 miles round trip. About half the route to the office is winding back road with not a lot of traffic. I was a little leary that the scooter would be able to maintain the speed limit of 45mph going up hill. Fortunately, it did fine. I did have to open the throttle all the way but I expected it to be a stretch given that I was going uphill and into the wind. Other than that I had no problems with speed or acceleration and I really wasn't pushing the bike other than for a few seconds just that once.

I put my first tank of gas in the scooter... $1.78! It was really only half a tank though. Adding gas was easier than I thought. I was afraid I wouldn't be able to tell what was going on and overfill it, but really you can totally watch and see what you are doing.

I got a few waves from motorcyclists and I saw another scooter and the rider saluted! I had no problems on the trip other than the fact that it was just too short!

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#3 Unread post by Veda »

August 17, 2006

I have been riding my scooter for a week now and am feeling much more confident on it than when I first started. I've been riding back and forth to work and whenever I have time after work. Unfortunately, since I only have a permit I have to be home by dark!

After reading so many motorcycle and scooter forums I was convinced I was going to fall and get run over right away. It seems like the scooter forum people, especially, just fall all over the place. Fortunately, I haven't really had any close calls. I'm starting to get good at weaving around the "scooter eating potholes." I also think I'm getting better at bracing myself for the potholes I do hit. It's too bad the scooter doesn't take bumps all that well, I tend to bounce out of my seat on the big ones.

So far, I haven't had any problems with cars. For the most part people seem to give me quite a bit of room and I've been cut off much less than in the car. Maybe I just look unsteady and they're afraid to get close. I did have one run in with an SUV trying to merge on top of me, but I could very well have been sitting in her blind spot and we were going slow enough I could navigate away just fine.

I am pretty impressed by the scooter's performance so far. I feel like I have a lot of low end power. Before I got the scooter I was worried that it wouldn't be fast enough to be safe. That hasn't been a problem so far. I glanced at the spedometer the other day and was going 52mph on flat ground and I didn't have the throttle open all the way. The only limits I've hit is going uphill into the wind I get stuck around 45mph. That's plenty fast for anywhere I need to go around here.

I'm still glad to have such a light bike. It weighs only a bit over 200lbs. and I feel like I can handle that just fine. I do see the downside to that low of a weight, such as the afformentioned potholes or riding in wind. The other day on my way home from work I did feel the wind move my bike across the road, which was a little scary. In the bikes defense weather.com said their were wind advisories for the area.

I still need to work on my turning. I'm fine with twists in the road or going in circles around rotaries, but I still have a hard time with 90 degree turns. Especially at any sort of speed. I'm also kind of waiting for my close call. I feel decentley confident, but I've haven't had a challenging situation to face.

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#4 Unread post by Veda »

August 19, 2006

Today we had a great day filled with two wheeled activities. We started out fairly early with a trip to the Harley dealership so Nalian could pick up a wrench. I parked my little scooter in between all the Harley's in the motorcycle parking out front. Too bad I didn't take a picture.

We then rode up to my parents house and had lunch with them. After lunch we continued on our journey. We had intended on taking a nice ride up the coast, potentially to Gloucester but I made a wrong turn and we ended up riding around downtown Salem and Beverly in stop and go traffic. That was kind of lame, especially since it was hot and humid. We were feeling pretty worn out so we stopped at a Starbucks and rested for a bit. Once we came back to life we were able to navigate onto some less urban roads and finally made our way to the ocean and our planned route. Unfortunately, at that point it was getting a bit late and starting to look like it might rain so we had to turn around and head home. I still haven't been devoured by a scooter eating pothole, but it was close on this trip. Someone fix the roads!

All told we traveled about 75 miles. The best part, I calculated my mileage and I got 95mpg!!

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#5 Unread post by Veda »

September 10, 2006

Friday night after work we went for a short ride on the bikes. I got to ride after dark for the first time and that was a fun experience. I had no idea that your shadow tries to race with you as you pass under street lights. At first it confused me... "is there another biker in my blind spot?! Is he passing me?! Where'd he go?!" I guess this proves I never rode a bicycle as a kid, since everyone else in the world seems to know about that. Oh, and don't forget about the seeing the kamikaze bugs dive bombing you and glowing from the headlights! Who knew?

Saturday we got up early and had to drop the both bikes off for service at their respective dealerships. After that we went for breakfast and then drove around to a few different bike shops looking for some gear. I ended up getting a pair of Sidi boots, which I am very happy with. I had been wearing my hiking boots every time I rode and having to lace them up every time was driving me crazy! It was really nice to be up early and out running all our errands before noon.

In the afternoon I went back to pick up the scooter and then I rode it to the gym. Weather wise it was warm but really a perfect summertime day. Just the weather I was hoping to have before we have to go into fall. In the evening we caught up with some TV and then I watched some ridiculous movie with Aaron Carter and dirt bike racing.

This morning I spent quite a bit of time getting caught up on some paperwork/bills/email/etc. After I finish writing this I am going to take my scooter up to a parking lot and practice some figure 8's and low speed things for the license test. I was planning to try and schedule that for next weekend or the weekend after. I am pushing to do it soon because I know it will start getting dark before I leave work pretty soon and I'm not supposed to drive after sunset on my permit.

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#6 Unread post by Veda »

September 17, 2006

:scooter: Today we took our longest ride yet out to Fitchburg, MA. The route we took was about 100 miles round trip and we were gone for 4 or 5 hours all told. We found some nice "country" roads. It's so easy to think of MA as being an urban place, because that is what we are surrounded by on a daily basis, but you really don't have to go very far out of Boston to get into relatively rural places. We made couple of stops along the way, once for a sugar fix and later for lunch. There was also a stop at this nice little motorcycle gear shop/cafe. I was very impressed that their men's and women's selection were equal in size! Not something you find at most motorcycle shops. We had hoped to stop for some photos, but I'm not very good at stopping once we get going. We're thinking of doing the same ride again in a couple weeks once the leaves start to change.

I scheduled my license road test for a week from tomorrow. I need to practice my figure-8's and what not. I hope that goes well.

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#7 Unread post by blues2cruise »

Nice little scooter and a great looking jacket. It looks like one of the Joe Rocket jackets....I'm jealous because they're made for small people. :wink:

Good luck with your test.
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#8 Unread post by Shorts »

Veda, it sounds likeyou're having a pretty good time with your new scooter. It's crazy how quickly riding and gear and routines gets so assimilated into your life and schedule.


:unsure: Shhh, don't tell anybody but, I've seen that Aaron Carter/MotoX movie you speak of. Sometimesits like watching a train wreck, you know it isn't good, but something compells you to watch anyway.


How're your boots working out? Did you end up getting a pair of Sidis?

Edit: Duh, you repliedto my boot post and said you did :mrgreen:

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#9 Unread post by VermilionX »

Aaron Carter almost destroyed supermoto for me.

but then i watched nicky hayden's vid so many times and then i liked it again. :laughing:



ok... now when are you gonna get a real bike?


























J/K... have fun out there! :D
Bikes Owned:
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VMAX
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#10 Unread post by CNF2002 »

Wow! Your blog makes me want to buy a scooter for around town.
2002 Buell Blast 500 /¦\
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[url=http://www.totalmotorcycle.com/BBS/viewtopic.php?t=11790]Confessions of a Commuter[/url]

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