Warning: Do your eyes deceive you??

Check out this link:

http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tfl/corporate/media/newscentre/motorcyclists.shtml

Where I've Been - Hillview, KY (Bullit County)

I was going to go all the way to Shepardsville, KY (which was only about 9 miles away) but between my severely limited ride time, and the wind gusts up to 40mph, I didn't feel like I should.

Where I've Been - Louisville, KY

I know what you're saying (duh) of course I've been to Louisville. But I'm going to start a collection.

Oh well...

Looks like I'm not going on my ride today. Bummed about that, but my girlfriend is off too, and wants to spend time together. She won't/can't/don't ride, so...

The 411 on Oil Changes

I was at 411 on the odometer, which is actually closer to 370 miles, so I changed the oil last night after work. I'm going to put some miles on this morning after I get the kids off to school, and I wanted fresh clean oil to do so. I'm going to try and flush out the radiator at my girlfriend's house this weekend if I can. I also want to change the gear oil again. It was pretty cold when I did it last time at PDI, and I may not have gotten it all out. Same for the radiator--I drained it and added new, but I didn't actually flush it out. With any luck, I'll be posting later today: pictures of where I've been. There is this really friendly forum I visit called powerscooters.org. Rich and Earl moderate the boards, and Earl had this cool idea. He lives in TX and he's making an A to Z collection of place names where he's been. He takes pictures of his scooter in front of the "Welcome to Austin" or "Austin Pop. 250,000" (or whatever-I don't know the population of
Austin). I'm gonna try and do the same thing.

This makes a fantastic point

I'm recently on two-wheels part time. Please take a moment to do this...

http://www.dothetest.co.uk/

It could save my life, or the life of some other 2-wheeler you know.

Kelly

Photoshop Madness

This picture was made by Dana. It's pretty funny.

Ran out of Gas

I was purposely running very low on gas today coming home from work. I wanted to cycle through all the (possibly questionable) fuel in my tank, plus I wanted to see how the gauge was reading, and also how many miles before I have to fill up. Well, here's my conclusions.

1. When you run out of gas, you should be prepared for your engine to die without warning. I was not. I thought it would sputter or something and give some indicator that it was going down. I was in the left hand lane of a 4 lane road. There was (luckily) a gas station directly off the street, but to the right, so I had to beg to get over.

2. My odometer reads 1.1 miles for every real mile (approximate), so I had 191 miles on the odometer, but that was actually about 172 miles.

3. I used 3.363 gallons to fill up (the YP260 manual says 11 liters which is 2.9 gallon tank capacity) all the way to the top, which I believe is where it was when I hit the trip meter.

4. That gives me 51.1mpg. That in itself is nothing to sneeze at, but I had hoped for closer to 60mpg. I'm told when I get to 1000 or so it should improve? Also, it should run better and get better acceleration.

Pictures

I finally got around to taking some pictures of my scoot. Enjoy:

http://s270.photobucket.com/albums/jj115/the1weasel/?albumview=slideshow

Miles

Note on the previous post--zoom out to see the whole route if you need
to. I don't know why Google Maps does that.

I am approaching 400 miles on my scooter odometer now. I have 180 on
the trip meter--and that was set at my last fill. I'm going to see if
I can get to 200 without filling up. That would put me at about 180
actual miles!!! The tank is supposed to hold 11 liters--that's 2.91
gallons. That would be 62mpg! I am carrying an emergency 22oz. fuel
can of gas just in case I feel like I'm running out.

My trip Sunday

I took a 60 mile trip Sunday. Here it is:

http://tinyurl.com/2n8q8c

First I rode from home about 10am, to have coffee with my sister, then
lunch at Skyline Chili on Bardstown. I went across the 2nd street
bridge (35mph) to Indiana and stopped about 1pm at an old comic book
shop I used to hang out at when I lived there, called Empire Comics.
After that, I went to see my brother who lives over by the library.
Then I went for a ride down by the river all along the length of New
Albany. After that, I went to see Joe & Dana--this was about 2:30.
From their house, I went back towards home over the Sherman Minton
bridge on I-64 (55mph). The scooter handled fantastic the whole time,
but I like the in-town driving much better--it's enjoyable rather than
the highway where you just want to get somewhere quick. I got off at
the 9th street exit, took my route down through town to Bardstown road
again, turning this time at Taylorsville road and riding nearly the
entire length of it (the town portion anyway..it goes all the way to
Taylorsville, KY). I drove back down Hurstborn and stopped for a
sandwich at Culver's. I didn't have much time left, but I took
Watterson trail to Hurstborne over the Fegenbush and rode the back-way
to Outer Loop and home. It was really nice. Then I got in the car to
drive over and get the kids.

River Road, Ohio River, Rail Bridge

This is the Indiana bank of the Ohio River under the rail bridge.

Highlands

This was in the Highlands...

Alarm problems...

I am officially disappointed with my dealer. I sent him an email about how my alarm is not working properly. He said the old standby "just don't use it." Well I am of the mind that if you pay for something, and its not working, you ought to get a new one or a refund...just as if the tire was cut, the seat was broken in half or the carb doesn't work. I know some of you are saying "but it's a Chinese scooter dealer" and to that, I say I know, but I did months of homework, asked probably a thousand questions before I purchased. I went with the one that I found most highly recommended by the most people. Scootdawg forum praises my dealer up and down...

Anyway, the thing that I am mad about is this: I sent him another email asking for instructions because I felt like I was just not using the fob right to arm/disarm/start the scooter. Everybodys had trouble and most people don't use them. He said "just call me and I will walk you through it." Well, this morning, when I arrived at work, I thought I would just TEST the alarm. I armed it using the lock button. I went in to work. Came back out just now at lunch and guess what? It was still armed, but none of the buttons on my keyfob worked. I could not shut it off. I called my dealer on the cell phone and he answered. We went through all the steps on how to use the alarm and (of cours) nothing worked. He had no clue what to do any more than I did. I was very disapointed. He suggested getting up under the scoot to try and take out the fuse that goes to the alarm. That was not happening in the parking lot at work while the scooter was screaming at me "thief! thief!" Finally we come to the pearl of knowledge of this post:

IF YOUR SCOOTER ALARM IS ARMED, AND YOU CAN NOT DISARM IT, THIS IS WHAT TO DO:

You should very carefully pop the seat on your scooter to get to the battery compartment, and take off the negative or postive lead. This will kill power to the alarm and "reset" it. It may chirp at you if you are not careful enough...you can't put much pressure on the scooter at all.

Note: Starting the scooter with the key will not work. It will continue to happily alarm and shut off the engine.

Update: My dealer replied that "electronics are not under warranty" and that it would cost a lot of money to special-order one from China.

Warning: Please read through my blog if you are going to buy a scooter from Valley Scooters. They may yet be the best of the dealers out there (which probably isn't saying much), but I am disappointed in the lack of knowledge from John D. about my particular scooter. Its like he's never even seen one--which since he's mainly a drop-shipper, may actually be the case. He does talk like he's been working on them for years.

200 "miles" on the Odometer

Today after I got the kids to school, I drove back to the apartment and (with a little starting fluid) got my scooter running. I drove it to work. After work I had to give it a little more starting fluid then I drove it down Grade Lane and Fern Valley Road to Shepherdsville Road down to Hollywood Video to drop off movies. Then I drove from there, back down Shepherdsville Road all the way to Outer Loop and back to the apartment. I jumped in the car to go pick up the kids. Here's a link to the route I took today: CLICK HERE. Google maps says it's about 24 miles. I now have just a little over 200 on the odometer. I will probably change the oil again this Sunday if I get up to 300 on the odo.

No more Almost-Frostbitten Fingers!!!

There is this web site for m/c gear called www.jafrum.com and they
have stuff SUPER CHEAP. I got these leather gloves with 3M Thinsulate
and waterproof covers for $14.95 and free shipping! I have some thin
leather roper gloves for when its warmer, but by the time I got to
work, my fingers were really sore and felt almost locked in place.
This morning I almost couldn't get my gloves and helmet off! These
ought to do the trick!

Valley Scooters Customer Feedback

If you follow this link, it will take you to the customer feedback for
the dealer I ordered my scooter from. Overall, it seems they are
doing above average. On a scale of all internet scooter dealers this
may well be outstanding.

http://shopping.yahoo.com/merchrating/user_rv.html;_ylt=AkByVkRN1tkLp3oA7U1Fa48T08Uu;_ylu=X3oDMTBxNTNwbHVrBF9zAzc4NDcxNjU2MwRzZWMDbWVyY2hpbmZv?merchant_id=1017291

Snowmobile???

We are getting four to six inches of snow, so the next possible day
for me to ride is probably going to be Monday. Then again, just
because there is a little snow doesn't mean the roads will be bad. As
long as its not too wet and sloppy I will be ok. I have determined
that I will not let cold alone stop me from saving money on gas!!

This was my first night run on the scooter

CLICK HERE! I went from home to return some movies at Hollywood Video. It was getting dark, and it was dark by the time I got home. About 40 degrees and rainy, but not pouring. I was intending to test my weatherproofness of my jacket. It works but it is not suitable for low temperatures. Well, I did remove the liner, but... Also need better gloves if I'm going to keep riding in colder weather. My hands still hurt and I have been home for about 15 minutes. The speed varied from 35 to 55 mph. The scooter kept up well, but I ran with the brights on all the way home. It was almost necessary just to have adequate visibility. It was only about 13 miles round trip and it took me about 45 minutes. There was some pretty good gusting of wind. It supposed to get down to 33 degrees tonight. I hope its tolerably warm tomorrow. I want to ride the scooter to work.

My first 100 Chinese "Miles"

Generally speaking, the odometer on this scooter is not going to be real accurate, at least not in U.S. miles (probably closer to kilometers) but I've got my first 100 down now! I used it today to deliver Girlscout cookies for Lexie. I still have to go over into Indiana and deliver more, but I don't think I should drive it across the bridge just yet. I am not going to press beyond my skill level, which is currently negligible. I'm taking the car (or 'cage' as m/c people call it... Perhaps in a couple weeks...