Gunge on My Stuff

This summer a couple times, I used Armor-all to do the black plastic on my scoot.  The only place where I ran into any trouble was the handlebar plastic.  I has developed some whitish gunge or oxidation which I think is a result of the Armor-all.  I asked around a couple forums and multiple folks recommended Mother's Back to Black.  I researched it on Amazon and it got mostly really good feedback.  I figure I'm not going to bother with that this year and I will just hit it really good this summer when it warms up, but I think I might give the stuff a try.  The best advice I can see it to make sure you follow the directions to the letter or it will run in the first rain.

Motor Scooter Parking Only!

The place where they had scooter-only parking was ValuMarket in Mid City Mall in the Highlands. It looks really nice and is up front next to the handicapped parking spots. Finally helping out the earth pays off a little! I saw this when I stopped to pick up a few things after the ride on Saturday with Ralph. Kat pointed it out to me or I would have missed it! I wrote an email to corporate to see if they plan this sort of thing with the other locations also. ValuMarket rocks, and they have my customer loyalty!

Reserved Scooter Parking

Wouldn't you know the Highlands would be the first area in Louisville to have dedicated scooter parking!

Objects in your mirror...

Take note, and please comply.  The life you save could be mine!

 

Suzuki Fuel-cell Scooter...

The Burgman 125 Hydrogen fuel cell scooter sounds still non-practical,
but it is nice to see companies still moving forward and trying to get
away from so much fossil fuels.

Full article is : http://techon.nikkeibp.co.jp/english/NEWS_EN/20091023/176757/

The Jokester

This is my buddy Ralph. He has a Piaggio MP3...its looks like a scooter with training wheels in front...really cool machine. Well the other day I got off work and I am stopped at a stoplight. I pump my breaks at stops so it draws attention from cars. I am at a complete stop, and I feel this *thump*! I immediately think "Some stupid cager wasn't paying attention and just tapped me!" I was pretty pissed...so I turn around and there is Ralph laughing his ass off!! I gave him the appropriate greeting (wave with special finger, and a "nice to see you" that started with "F***!!!") After he got his laughs out and I checked to make sure there was no extra Fruit in my Looms, we left as the light turned green. Its like two days later and now I can laugh (a little!) about it. Watch out for this tire-kicking jokester!

Oil change, ride & 11K

I met Vince over at Skyline Chili for lunch. We both needed to do oil changes today, and he was nice enough to volunteer his garage. We went to Walmart after lunch to get oil. I got two quarts of Mobil 1 full synthetic oil 10W30. We went back to his garage and did our oil changes. About when we were done he had some folks coming over to look at his Honda Reflex, which he is selling for a steal at like $2200. While he was showing the bike, my friend Jeremy called to see what I was doing. The three of us ended up going on a ride out toward Grundy that Jeremy had routed. It was a good ride with perfect weather (only a little cold) and I tipped 11,000 on my odometer. That puts me really close to the 20K mile mark! Back in town we stopped at TK's pub and had some bacon cheddar fries, and a beer. By this time it was dark, and I headed for the barn. ;o) It was a really good fall day.

Weekend coming up

I need to do my oil change this weekend, but the weather looks good,
so I hope I get to ride!! I don't have the kids this weekend, and
have not a lot going on.

Seat Cushion

One of the things I've done recently is to work on a custom seat
cushion. My friend Kathy, who is good at sewing, had some durable
black polyester material. Together we made a basic blueprint of my
stock Majesty seat and adjusted it to cover the area where I sit (my
arse is big, but not as big as the ENTIRE seat...). Next, she sewed
together a basic pocket-like sleeve where I could stuff various
materials to see what works best. The first attempt, which was
slightly more comfortable than the stock consisted of 3 layers. The
base was closed-cell foam (they blue mat used to put on the ground
under your sleeping bag). The center was your basic foam rubber. The
top layer was another layer of the closed-cell foam. As I said, this
method will allow me to try different materials to see how they
perform before I turn the pad into a finished product. If you have
any suggestions, please let me know. I have about 3-4 inches to play
with. I am thinking about trying some stiffer foam rubber, memory
foam, sponge, etc. I think I will keep the closed-cell foam base as
that seems to work pretty good. When the pad is all done and glued
together, I carve/bezel it down with an electric knife (yes, in this
case, it is my turkey-knife) which seems to work very well for this
job.

Saturday ride-forgot to mention the distilleries!!

I forgot to mention this...

 

We rode by at least two seperate distilleries on Saturday. I'm quite sure I smelled Barton just throught Bardstown on 31E...  Not my favorite, but drinkable and there is some in my cupboard right now.

Overcoming scooter stigma?!?!? Yeah, ok...

I started to be annoyed at this web article by Will Johnson, but ended up liking it.  In his article Johnson states such facts as...

 

"I understand scooters aren't the sexiest vehicles ever." of which I would have to disagree.  Lois is about as sleek a vehicle as you'd ever see...curves and everything, man.

"They just don't have that badass quality motorcycles do."  True here, I just can't bring myself to care about it.  I guess it's what you can do with a little scooter that is much more difficult on a 'big-boy bike' that makes me all meh inside about bigger bikes.

"One problem is scooters make you look fat." This statement is heavily moderated by the size scooter you buy.  You have to get one that doesn't make your ass look big (i.e. a 300# guy on a 50cc just looks silly.  Put him on a Honda Silverwing instead...)

"If your parents are too stingy to buy you a Honda Civic, chances are they can afford a little Yamaha Jog." Man, this could be me in 6 years!"

"I can comfortably fit a second person on the back. It works, because I can offer someone a ride home from a party but there's no way I'll be swamped by a crowd of party-goers looking for a designated driver." This is the type of think that makes a scooter a smart vehicle...a thinking-man's motorbike.

"Scooters may not have the same sexual kick a motorcycle does when you pick up a girl for a date, but she still spends the trip hugging you from behind." You hit the nail on the head, Johnson.

"Rain sucks on a scooter, though..." One word.  Gear.  Learn it, love it, live it.

"Seriously, you should give it a shot."  Unanimous agreement!!!

Full article can be viewed here:  http://www.martlet.ca/article/20041-overcoming-scooter-stigma

Bozo & The Victory Vision

My buddy Steve sent this picture to me.  I think it is too funny!

 

Ended up in New Albany

Kat and I ended our short ride this weekend in New Albany at Honey Cream doughnuts. It was a bad-for-you end to an otherwise ok day. I got about 47mpg riding 2-up on my 2008 Yamaha Majesty. That is not really that bad!

Rural Kentuckiana Toilets

This is the 2nd time I have been to a little podunk town in either Kentucky or Indiana on my scooter, and the public restroom has a sign asking people not to throw (assumedly TOILET) paper into the toilet. Putting human waste in a trash can makes me a little creeped out. I am not generally a "germy" person, but I would not be able to sit on the throne in a place like this!!!

Saturday ride-gasoline clothes iron!

Sometimes you see something in an antique store that you think is cool. Now I would never care to own a gasoline-powered clothes iron, but think about it...it is wireless...

Riding around Kentuckiana has its perks. You can see interesting architecture (and not all old barns and feed stores!), you can find good food (if you keep your mind open), and the land is pretty enough to make it truly beautiful...even on a gray day like Saturday.

Saturday ride-Cool buildings

After lunch we rode around Kentucky a bit more then went across the bridge that goes from Brandenburg over into Mauckport, Indiana.  We rode out toward the Hoosier National Forest and stopped at an old barn converted into an antique store.  That's where I saw this cool gasoline-powered clothes iron.  We saw a couple of tiny rural post offices and a church with painted-looking stained glass windows.  The weather held out all day, but it was cool, and also cloudy until about 5pm when it was time to "head for the barn".  We only encountered just a little rain before noon, but it wasn't bad enough to pull off.

Saturday ride-Custer, KY

On Saturday, Kathy and I took a short ride.  We rode out towards Hardinsburg, KY visiting a couple of those old buildings I like.  We stopped in Custer, Kentucky for lunch at The Feed Barn which is really just a deli-counter inside the Custer General Store.

Rain

I got stuck riding in the rain tonight. It was no big deal. This time I took the time to put on my gear, and I kept about 95% dry. I think between the waterproof liner for my jacket and the Colorado Chaps, I was comfortable and had no difficulty making the two stops I had to make on the way home. Thats my 2¢.

Offroad Majesty

After the 13th, I feel like I need this emblem from a jeep on the side of my YP400...

Dye from Motoboss gloves

This is the 2nd time I have been in the rain with my newish Motoboss gloves ($14.99 at Cycle Gear on sale). Both times the dye has come off badly on my hands...so bad that when I am done, I can wring black water out of them. If I could just keep them dry, they would be good gloves. On the way home from the "ride" which was only about 4 miles long due to weather, I got completely soaked to the bone. I stopped at a bank drive through to stow my GPS from out of the Aquabox, and take my phone out of the semi-waterproof jacket pocket. I also took my mp3 player out of its baggie and put it away while I was under cover. Everything but me was protected from water so it worked out well.

Tuesday night ride

I'm going to be leaving in about an hour for the Louisville Scooter
Group Tuesday night ride. We ride about every Tuesday in good
weather. It calls for some possible rain, so I hope that holds out.

I just found a place that makes a little icon thing of "places I've
been" so I filled in my states! It looks pretty blank to me right
now, but I hope to check one or two more off before good riding
weather is done.

This weekend I might take a day ride just me (and perhaps Kathy as
passenger) on a little run around Kentuckiana scooter ing around to
some of those general stores and old country stores you see around. I
have been to several, like Rabbit Hash General Store, the Ole Country
Store in Sulphur, Laconia General Store, etc. There was even this
little gas station in Bloomfield which is completely modern, but they
have a little bench area to the left of the registers where a farmer
or hunter can sit and drink a cup of coffee. They didn't have a wood
burning stove, a checker game, or an old dog laying on the floor, but
it was still warm and welcome.

More pictures from the Dragon

These are from a company that just sets up in a turn and takes shots.

http://www.photoreflect.com/PR3/AlbumSlideshow.aspx?a=624508

You can see the guy who had the eagle paintjob, and Vince leaning in
hard and waving for the camera.

Vince's Pictures

Here's my friend Vince's pictures of the weekend:

http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=tail%20of%20the%20dragon%20trip&w=33477989%40N05

He got some really great shots...and funny stuff like me feeding
peanuts to the chickens!

Kathy the Christmas tree

It got much worse for her than this, but you get (no pun intended) the picture...

Burgman/Dragon Rally

This past weekend was really good. My friend Vince and I rode to
Vonore, TN to the Burgman/Dragon rally. The ride up was fairly
uneventful though it took us from 7am to 5pm to get there with no long
stops. We got some good country lanes and even a few gravel roads
that were not too bad. The meeting was at 7pm at the Countryside
Restaurant. They had good food reasonably priced. Vince went to his
hotel after that and I stayed with my friend Kathy in Knoxville.

Meetup for the big ride on Saturday was at the Grand Vista Hotel in
Vonore. Kathy came along in her Dodge. We left at 9am and rode all
round the Smoky mountains, especially the big-attraction routes of
SR-165 known as the Cherohala Skyway (a very scenic road with lots of
pull-offs for pictures) and the biggie (for me) US-129 aka "The
Dragon".

On the way home we ran up into Virginia, for no other reason than just
to say we've been there. We took US-421 off and on from Virginia into
Kentucky (then further on in toward Berea) and it is a great ride. At
one point on the way back, we found a great little side road that went
to gravel, then finally into a pay-lake. At the pay lake, the GPS
routed me out onto a dirt path. There was very little gravel, just
mainly brown creek-rock! I hit a good sized rut in the road and got
stuck. Vince helped me get the bike out and it was either this rut or
another like it that tore up my front fender. It is loose, but not
really broken. Some tabs are broken on the inside and should be an
easy fix. I didn't find this out until Midway, KY when we pulled off
to fuel.

Another thing is somewhere along 421, I saw a cool mountain spring
coming out the side of a hill. I stopped and got a drink. I also
filled the two plastic bottles I had with it to take home to the kids.
There were lots of cool sights seen this weekend, and good roads
(except for the dirt motorcross track we ended up on!).

Pictures here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/the1weasel/BurgmanDragonRally09?feat=directlink

The Prize

Too tired to tell all the stories right now. Just wanted to show the reason I did The Dragon...its all about the patches, pins and THE STICKER!!!

Heading thru VA

Virginia

The Dragon has been slain

it was an awesome, exciting, adrenaline rush of a ride.

Deals gap

Getting ready to ride the dragon