Visit to Don Spencer, V.D.

After work, my friends [name omitted] and [name omitted] and I met at Don Spencer's house. Don is the self proclaimed V.D., the Vespa Doctor. Well we gave him a shot for the opportunity to help figure out this "Chinese puzzle" that has baffled one small engine mechanic, two motorcycle mechanics, and three Aprilia scooter techs. Don asked if it was a Vespa, and what year. When I explained it wasn't, he told me flat out that he didn't want to work on it, nor even help by supervising my working on it. He did give us a ride in his 1920-something car. End of the visit left me feeling frustrated and angry that I had wasted both my time and also my emotional energy being positive--hoping for a solution. I have three other shots to get it fixed...

Followup on Stranded

Well, the hitch did not work out.  He had some electrical issues.  I ended up renting a Uhaul truck one way for an exorbitant fee (with about $75 in gas too).  I am supposed to be the founder of the Louisville Scooter Group, and now I am questioning the wisdom of it all.  I know I have to get this scooter running, or get on another one soon.  Its the summer and this is prime riding time.  It's also a heavy hit to the household budget to go from $20 in gas per week to $50.  I am starting to feel for the first time that perhaps it was a mistake to go with a Chinese Scooter.  My decision was based on the fact that I could do the mechanicals myself, so I'm not feeling a lot of shame for the decision.  This scooter has been to 4 mechanics and none of them know what is wrong with it.  One was a specialist in both vintage and modern Vespas, two were motorcycle mechanics, and one was a general small engine/motorcycle/scooter mechanic.  If none of those people know what is wrong then I refuse to feel stupid.

 

This is a very bad weekend and a bad week.  I have to attend the regular Tuesday night LSG meeting tonight.  My laptop is needed if nothing else.  I am starting to consider weeding myself slowly out of the club.  I can delegate things bit by bit until I can just fade out.  They have voted to make meetings later anyway, and that is going to cut me out from attending through the week when school starts.  Might as well get them used to not seeing me around.

Failure at Gasoline Rally

My scooter had been having some problems...it would die at stops. I didnt have the time before the rally to run down the problem so I took it to a mechanic. Well, I believe they did something to the carb to compensate for the problem, and it ended up stranding me. Friday up was ok, but still had the initial problem. Friday night after check-in, I had a LOT of trouble getting it started. It took me like 45 minutes and I was seriously concerned at that point. Well I rode back to the hotel and went to bed. I got up on Saturday which was the actual day of the rally, and although I got it started, i had to hold it at full throttle to keep it running. If I let off any, it foundered and died. So I knew I was in reality stranded. I told the rest of the club bye, and they went to the ride, except for Jeremy who was sick and came back to the room and went to sleep. Stomach virus must have gotten him because he was still feeling nauseous this morning. Well they came back and told me how awesome it was, and then took a break for a couple hours, then went to the dinner/after-party. I just stayed in the room and watched TV (all day Saturday). Well I called my girlfriend to ask if she might pick up the kids and dog if I dont make it home in time and she was concerned. She had stuff to do with her daughters and I told her that I would try to figure something out. She called me back later and told me to call her brother who lives up here in Indianapolis because he has a trailer hitch. He said he could come get me and the scooter this morning! I called him when I woke up at 8am. He did not call me back for a while so I called my girlfriend. She said he forgot he was on call, so cannot take me home. I'm very worried now about getting back to the kids on time.. We'll see what happens.

Weekend Two-Bridges 2 - flat tire

We had Jeremy with is 50cc which does fine, but you don't want a line of cars and trucks behind you so on occasion I will pull off the side and let faster moving traffic by.  We got almost in to Corydon, and JD said my tire looked low.  Well I just thought it was me on the scooter, but he said "no, you need some air."  Luckily there was a service station across the street and they looked like they were open so I went and asked to use their air.  The guy working there said no problem.  I went to air up my back tire and I could hear hissing.  I had a good-sized hole in the tire!  I thought I was completely screwed, but the guy had a patch kit.  He bragged on the hole-plug kit and we asked "so how soon should I replace this...will it make it back to Louisiville?"  He told us a story about the trucking company down the road that hauls for the rock quarry.  One of their big dump trucks had a slash in the side wall about 5 inches and they just stacked these plugs one on top of the other until it was filled.  He says the chemical galvanizes the rubber to the tire's rubber and it will hold forever.  The one on the dump truck (which from his explanation you're not supposed to plug a hole in the side-wall with most plug kits) lasted until the tire was completely worn out!  He said just to run like it had never happened!

Weekend Two Bridges Ride

This past Saturday I led our scooter club on an all-day route. We met at a Scooter retailer called Scootopia. They sell Aprilia and Adly scooters. We went across the George Rogers Clark bridge into Indiana and then all around Floyds Knobs, and out to Joe Hubers farm & winery. Then we rode a winding path of back roads up to Corydon Indiana where we met some more members for lunch. After eating at The Real Enchilada, took another route over the Mauckport bridge back into Kentucky. We took more back roads and about 4pm, the folks we had picked up in Corydon were beat, so I skipped the rest of the ride for a more direct route back into town. At max we had seven scooters and nine riders! It was a really cool day. We ended up at Flanagan's in Louisville. Right when we got back into town, my license plate (which had been vibrating off all day) fell off and my friends [name omitted] & [name omitted] risked life and limb to get it back. Sunday I met [name omitted] and George at E.P. Tom Sawyer park to talk and watch the R/C airshow. I was beat.

OOPS! June 4th

I parked outside work one day after they re-surfaced the lot at work. My center stand sunk in!

Fried on June 1st

I took this after our last riding weekend two weeks ago. Both my arms got so fried! I actually had little bitty blisters... Must remember sunblock or get some hot weather protection.

May 23rd - Impellizeris

This was taken the night I went out to dinner with [name omitted] and [name omitted]. We got a little soaked getting home.