It has been an eventful year, riding wise, for my fleet of two wheelers and me. The topper of the year was my daughter Cheryl coming to visit for the first time in ten years and riding a pair of Chinese two wheelers. I won't ever forget the ride to Wendy's to meet my buddy Marc and his family for lunch. Sara on her Rebel, me on the 50cc bike and Cheryl on the 150cc Chinese scooter. Cheri took a picture of the six of us and labeled it "A meeting of the motorcycle gang" on facebook. It got a lot of likes and attention both on her timeline and mine. Cheryl now becomes the third generation in my family to ride, hopefully it's an ongoing activity in the Zeiser clan. You can see Cheryl's first ride in the Youtube video above.
Next in the honorable mention category is the miles I compiled this past season on my big scooter. It saw sixty-eight commutes to work for a grand mileage total of 2380. The significance of that lays here. The average motorcyclist in America rides about 2500 miles. I almost did that much in simple work commutes. On a Chinese scooter which is not a renowned Country-yet-for motorized vehicles on the streets of America. The actual total number of miles I piled on it this season was around 3,750. In addition I out another 1,000 on the 50cc bike and 325 on the 150cc scoot after its revival. Looking at those numbers tells me I rode 5,000 miles on my bikes this season. It's been a long time since I accrued that kind of mileage in a season.
Which leads me to other memorable moments. I took the 50cc bike, which we call Rocket, on a pair of eighty mile rides. One a mission to bring audio equipment to my son at his job at a 4H camp, the second to Binghamton to buy a tool at a bargain price at Harbor Freight. If someone told me four years ago when we bought it that a tiny engine from China would enable me to do that, I would have laughed at them. On both trips I saw speeds in excess of 50 mph and fuel mileage at 130 mpg. Rocket gave me many fine moments as it traveled on both State Highways and Interstate 86 (Route 17) on its way to bringing me to Hancock for a flu shot. It also is the first of my fleet to enter Pennsylvania on that trip, just across the Delaware River from Hancock.
I used my big scooter, named Galileo, to ride to Binghamton on a few occasions for doctors appointments. Using it made a humdrum trip an adventure. Galileo also traveled to Sherburne for a pair of bike nights at an ice cream/fast food shoppe. It had the distinction of being the only Chinese scooter both times.
Which brings me to my last moment worth mentioning. The revival of my 150cc Bashan scooter, which I named Lazarus. It suffered a cracked cylinder head on its engine from my clumsy attempts to repair it four years ago. The thing that makes Chinese scooters so convenient is that parts are cheap. A fully equipped cylinder head was fifty bucks and the scooter seems even more peppy than it was before. It has close to 8,000 miles on it and has been convenient for errands that don't require a large carrying capacity.
Chinese scooters and motorcycles all suffer a terrible reputation for durability and reliability but I have to contest that. I've only had to call for a pickup truck once when a part broke on Galileo shortly after I bought it. You will sometimes have things like that happen on a motorcycle bought used. Since the repair I've gone almost 5,000 miles and it's been humming right along. In total my Chinese fleet has a total mileage of 18,000 miles in the five years I started riding the members of the fleet.
I'm sure there were other moments that will come to me after I finish, but those stick out in my mind.

Sara has begun Chemo therapy and she's had a hard time with the initial treatment and a stubborn cough from a respiratory infection. We're hopeful, and her Oncologist seemed more upbeat now that the results of her blood tests and biopsy are in. We're saying our prayers and keeping our fingers crossed. Thanks to all of you for the prayers and good thoughts. It's been very comforting.