Rocket on a Long Ride

Yesterday, the scooter club had a long breakfast ride planned.  We met up at Bojangles, then headed south to Palatka for breakfast at Angels Diner.  Angels is known as the oldest diner in Florida, situated in a small river town about 50 miles south of Jacksonville.

Because Boris had repaired a broken vacuum line on Rocket, and I tested it with a 50 mile ride to Baldwin and back the day before, I decided to take it on the ride.

For those who don't know, Rocket now has over 67,000 miles on it.  And since breaking the variator on the Scooter Cannonball Run in Arkansas, has given me fits.  The outer drive pulley came loose on the club ride to North Carolina in the fall last year.  Then it did it again returning from Gainesville a few months later.  The first one required me to get parts shipped in next day from George's Scooter Parts Co., so I could do the repair in a local gas station.  The second found me carrying the parts and fixing it in a parking lot in Brooker, Florida.

Then the carburetor began flooding while riding, doing this three times, twice stranding me on the road.  But much of this was clearly due to the vacuum hose.  The variator issues are a mystery, but I speculate that the variator nut was not properly tightened twice.

I was confident but you never know.  We headed out from Bojangles, taking one of my favorite rides getting out of town down Greenland Road then Julington Creek Road to 13.  We took that to 16 where we crossed the Shands Bridge to pick up Rick at a gas station at the corner of 17 and 16.  Then 30 miles of 65 to 70 mph into Palatka.

New rider Kevin with his new Kymco, purchased the day before.

Getting the riders ready to go.

State Road 13.  Often listed among the top motorcycle roads in the country.

Break along the way just south of Green Cove Springs

We ate our breakfast, flirting nicely with the pretty server.

Heading home we decided to go through East Palatka to pick up the end of 13 and ride it back home. I cut off at 16, took the Shands Bridge again and made it back home.  Rocket was perfect.

Parked at Angels

Rounding them up again.

Safely back home.

Later in the day, feeling sorry for Razzo, I hopped on it and did another 50 mile loop west of town.  It was perfect too. It sure is nice to have so many nice scooters.

On the Road Again!

Today, I stopped by Boris' warehouse to see if he and his brother Eric were making any progress on repairing Vanessa, the 2007 Vespa GT that I am buying from Leslie after my wife Sarah ran it into a Land Rover while turning at the end of our driveway.  It was heavily damaged on the front end, and to make her perfect to give back to Leslie, it would be a major undertaking.

She was seriously damaged.

Leslie kindly offered to sell her to me a couple of weeks ago.  The price was Blue Book retail value.  I was pleased to take her for that after letting her get damaged by making a poor decision.  I wasn't sure if she was sound enough to try to repair her, but let Boris and Eric give it a try.

When I arrived, Eric had Vanessa by the front door.  This usually means it is the scooter to work on that day.  It was and he quickly began disassembling the glove box enclosure.  It came off, then the radiator that began leaking immediately after the crash.  It turns out that the leak was from a damaged hose, not the radiator.  It was fine.

After clearing the way, using his fine tools, mostly a cut down 2x4, he began banging out the dents.  It started looking normal after some work.  He straightened everything to the point that the right turn signal fit and the horn cover too.  It was lumpy, but definitely rideable.  After hitting it with a grinder to get the paint and old Bondo, from an earlier accident, off the steel leg shield, he asked about paint.  I told him that primer would be fine for now.  I want it to look ok, but am more interested in riding.

Primer in place.  The turn signal and horn cover fit well too.

He did the primer, then reassembly.  With the only missing piece being the front fender, I started it and took a 15 mile ride through town and over the Hart Bridge, returning on Atlantic Boulevard.  She ran like a new scooter.  No pulling or poor feel.  It was great.

In addition to that, while Eric was fixing Vanessa, I had Boris look at Rocket.  He immediately found a broken vacuum hose coming from the evaporator canister.  These breaks cause running issues and was probably the cause of the three flooding and stopping issues with Rocket recently.  After this repair, I took it for a fifty mile loop to Baldwin, then south to Normandy Boulevard and back home.  Perfection is the only word to describe it.  I am taking Rocket on the 7BSC ride to Palatka tomorrow  and am confident that it makes it,

Bermuda Visit by the Veatch Girls

Sarah's mother passed away a couple of months ago.  She had cancer and it ended a long struggle.  She was among my favorite people of all time, always smiling and fun to be around.

Since that time, Sarah and her family have been going through her house and we decided to go through our photographs to find memories for the small service this past weekend.

One thing we found were photos from a Christmas visit to Bermuda in 1992, by Sarah's mother, Sue, her two sisters Betty and Barbara, and their mother Freda.  It was when we lived there while I worked for the Ministry of Works and Engineering, Bermuda Government.  Kylie was born in August that year so she was still an infant and the girls were there mostly to see the new addition.

The hit of the photographs were centered around my daily transportation, a Suzuki FB 100 motorcycle.  At 100cc it was hardly a motorcycle, but the laws of the time made that the largest displacement allowed on the island.

The girls all posed on it while parked in a scenic location and all but Barbara rode with me for a short stint.  When Freda had her 90th birthday a few years later, one of the highlights of her life, pointed out by her in her own commentary, was riding on that bike.

This was my first motorcycle.  I bought it for $850. in November, 1990.  Then rode it every day until I sold it for $450. in December 1993 as I was heading back to Florida.  It was worth every penny.

The visit was priceless.

Sue

Barbara

Kylie made a book of Sue's life with this as one of the photos.  

That is Freda riding with me

Raining Blood

Late in the afternoon last Friday, I was planning to ride my Honda to Orlando to meet up with Sarah and Kylie, who had driven down earlier, and Sam, who was flying in from Chicago.  The reason was to bury Sarah's Mother, Sue.

A half hour before leaving, Kylie called from the road to tell me that I needed to bring three shoe boxes full of photographs, and that I probably needed to drive the Miata.  I thought not, as I really wanted to ride and the Honda hadn't been anywhere in a while.

So I got out a soft suitcase and put the photos into that, zipped it up and tried strapping it onto the bike.  The Honda, a NC 700X has a storage box where the gas tank usually resides and my plan was to use that for the clothes that I needed.  While trying that in the garage, I knocked my yellow helmet to the floor.  I hate doing this because it usually breaks something.  It has a bunch of little vent covers and visors that can break easily when they hit concrete (odd for a safety device, I know)

When it hit the floor I was angry with the situation and myself, so I bent down to pick it up.  Because I was a bit mad, I began to stand bolt upright when the back of my head hit the bottom edge of a shelf that runs along the back wall of the garage.  It hurt.  A lot.  I put the palm of my hand on the spot, then checked it out and it was covered in blood.  Then, from my hair, the blood started raining down.  I have never bled so freely.

I went outside and it was dripping all over the driveway and brick sidewalks that have come with the new duplex.  It started to slow so I began looking for a hose that I had disconnected to mow the week before.  I hooked it up and started to try to clean the spot and get the blood out of my hair.  The first water was brown from the mix of blood and water.  It stung a lot when the water hit the cut.

At that time, I still wanted to ride but was dazed a bit.  I noticed that the fuel tank was not full, so I took the spare tank used for filling the lawnmower and filled the Honda tank to full.

But after a few more minutes I realized that I would soil the inside of the helmet with the remaining blood and knew that Kylie was right and driving would be the better way there.

So I put the bike away and drove.

It rained most of the way home on Sunday so, good decision reinforced.

The shelf in the background.

The wound, five days later.

Also showing thinning hair.

Russ Dixon, Man of the Scooter

Every club has one, or definitely should.  He is "that guy" who organizes everything, helps everyone and is a wonderful all around guy.  In the case of 7 Bridges Scooter Club, he is the unofficial president of the club.  Only unofficial because we have no officers, no rules, just riders.

Russ joined the club many years ago, back when it was called Boris and the Funky Bunch, long before I started in 2008.  He plans the destinations of the Tuesday rides.  He plans the destination, sometimes asking my thoughts, for the Sunday rides.  He usually picks the route, that I sometimes gently change, for both.

Whenever anyone has issues with their scooter, Russ will help.  If there is a breakdown on a ride, he is the one who stays behind until it is fixed or, at least, resolved positively.

When my drive pulley went out in Washington, Georgia, he was the one on the ground getting dirty assisting me in getting it fixed.  He thought to call George at Scooter Parts Co. to get the parts sent quickly.

Always there to offer a hand.

Russ has four scooters.  A beautiful Vespa 200P that he restored ten years ago.  A Stella and two moderns, a 2005 GT and a 2014 GTS Super.  They are all kept in top shape and he rides them according to the planned route.  He is a true man of the scooter.

He is currently semi retired, a position that allows much more time for scooting.  That can't be bad.

Our fearless leader, checking on the flock.

Two Near Misses

I have had an interesting week since returning from Wisconsin.

There were two incidents that were potentially dangerous, but I realized the mistake quickly, made corrections and continued on.

She first was after meeting with new clients.  The couple have a hunting lodge on the fringe of town, a fifteen mile ride from my office. They want to add to the master bathroom and closet. On the way back to work, I was speeding down I-10. No car passed me for the entire way but I did notice a white VW Passat gaining on me as I approached a car to pass. Going 75 mph, I checked my mirrors and began the lane change when I noticed this car exactly where I was going. We got close. It surprised me but I got back in my lane easily. I looked at the entire lane when passing on the remainder of the ride.

The second was this morning. I went over to our new duplex to mow and clean up the yard. I needed to go to Home Depot for some things and got Rocket out of the garage for the trip. We have an old wood gate separating the back yard, where the garage is located, from the front. I have rigged a bungee strap to hold the two gate leaves closed.  On this passing, I bumped Rocket's front tire against the operable gate leaf to push it open, then rode quickly through to get past before it closed. When doing this, the hook on the free end of the bungee caught on the left mirror. It stretched greatly and would have brought us down, but I sensed the danger and hit the brakes. The bungee was stretched to the max, but we escaped unscathed.

Counting my blessings today.

Returning to Madison

Sam had to be back in Chicago Sunday night for work on Monday.  I had to return the fine GTS to the Sullivans too, so we headed out from Sparta on our own Sunday morning.  Sam selected the route that kept us off highways entirely while running on mostly state roads.  We did go through the Wildcat Mountain Park again and took advantage of those twisty treats.

Wildcat Mountain.

I took this photo, then quickly realized that the corner was coming up fast and quite sharp.

I braked hard and made it easily, but then put the camera down until we were back on the flat roads.

Darth Sam

One of the small towns we passed through

More beautiful Wisconsin farmland

New Glarus, 17 miles

We headed to New Glarus, a town founded by Swiss immigrants in the mid 1800's, just like my great grandfather Hans Heinrich Leuthold.  Sam wanted to go there for other reasons, namely the New Glarus Brewery, his current favorite.  We did a sampler of three beers each, then he bought a six pack to take home.  We then went into town for a lunch of bratwurst at a Swiss restaurant.  From there I sent him on his way home.  He texted me five hours later saying that the three hour ride took longer due to huge traffic of Chicago residents returning home from the weekend.

Sam at the New Glarus Brewery.  Nice shirt.

Sam in New Glarus

The Swiss Historical Village in New Glarus.  We didn't go in

The approach to the brewery.

Downtown New Glarus

I started for Taliesin again but abandoned and decided to find a hotel to relax, then take the Sullivans to dinner at the restaurant of their choice, a nice Japanese restaurant just north of downtown Madison.  We had the fine dinner, then they dropped me off at the hotel and Robert rode the scooter home as Nora drove the car.  It was wonderful of them to loan me the scooter for the time I was there. It was perfect for me and the rides planned.

On my ride back to Madison after sending Sam off to Chicago

More Wisconsin farmland.  The greenest place I have ever seen.

Comfort Inn Madison

On the way to dinner I shot this from the back seat of the Sullivan's car.