October 16, 2013
I had the opportunity this past weekend to travel to Phoenix, Arizona. Sara's nephew got married to a lovely, young lady and we flew out to attend it. With the Summer like temperatures and clear skies all I could think of was "Where are my motorcycles. I need my bikes." Sadly they were 2,000 miles away resting in the garage. Riding there would have taken many days and is a little beyond my limits at this point in time. Of course I made up for it by doing a short ride to Binghamton (80 miles) on Monday enjoying moderate temperatures for this time of year and the Fall Colors lining the roadway.
I've had an epic year on the big scooter thus far, riding about 3,500 miles this season and enjoying fabulous gas mileage. I filled the tank on this last trip and checked with my handy calculator to discover this last tank yielded 74 mpg. So much better than a gas guzzling Prius or any other hybrid. I might not be able to ride in rain or snow but I'm making up for it when I can ride. Between the 50cc bike and the big scooter I have saved mightily on fuel costs this season. Of course there is the added expense of $60 for insurance, for both of them, for a year, but I can live with that. Since April I've put numerous miles more on my bikes than I have on the minivan and reaped large savings in the process. Not to mention miles of smiles while riding.
I don't know what the winter will bring but I'd like to hope that the little bike will still be used for grocery runs and other errands. It is a lot of fun and saves wear and tear on the autos. We'll see.
Posted by Jim Zeiser.
October 5, 2013
If you were with us last time, I was waiting for scooter parts to be delivered to fix Wild Turkey damage. Sure enough the Post Office dropped off the needed parts to make the big scooter whole again. The good news was that the deflector replacement went like clockwork, the bad news was I broke the glass in the rear view mirror fighting to mount it. I ordered a new mirror-again-and repaired the scooter this past Wednesday when it arrived. Only this time I was much more careful and installed it...
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Posted by Jim Zeiser.
September 28, 2013
I never do the usual things to get hurt, just the most colorful. This past Tuesday I was riding to work and enjoying the fall weather when up ahead I saw a most impressive sight. Wild Turkeys were gliding in for a landing across the road and landing on the shoulder on my side. At this point I was traveling at 60 mph and in no position to stop when I suddenly realized the first two I saw were not alone. Coming in on my left was a squadron of more turkeys and I was riding into a meteor shower o...
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Posted by Jim Zeiser.
September 20, 2013
The first thing is that the big scooter is really perking along this
season, as if you didn't know. Last night on the way home the odometer
passed 7,000 miles. This is more miles than I've done on anything in a
long time. I use 1,900 miles as the start mark of when I got it from
Marc which means that I've put 5,100 miles on it since July of last
year. I haven't done 5,000 miles on anything in ages. To put that in
perspective; the other scooter, my 150cc Bashan, now has 7,500 miles on
i...
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Posted by Jim Zeiser.
September 7, 2013
It's not earth shattering and this will be short. My big scooter completed fifty commutes to work yesterday for a stunning 1,750 miles of money saving gas economy. If I haven't bored you with this before I save about $6.00 every day I use the scooter over the minivan. It isn't that much if I use Sara's Scion but money saved is money saved. The commuting number isn't as impressive as last year but winter was much milder and allowed for an earlier start of the riding season. Heck, I even got to...
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Posted by Jim Zeiser.
September 3, 2013
I've had the most profound thought percolating in my brain in the last few weeks. I've been riding motorcycles for over fifty years and been around them longer than that. It's always been enjoyable and I've bonded with many of my bikes and enjoyed their way of doing business. Lately though I've found that I really have connected with the Chinese scooters and the 50cc bike more than I ever did my European or Japanese bikes. Now understand that I'm one of the people who scoffed at the notion of...
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Posted by Jim Zeiser.
August 28, 2013
Today was one of those days when you realize how much we use foreign goods. This morning my wife's Scion xB (a Japanese car) needed to be inspected. Rather than burn gas in the Plymouth (the sole American vehicle) I followed her on my big scooter (Chinese) to the garage. Later I rode into town to retrieve the car on my Giant brand bicycle (Chinese), loaded it into the car and drove home. A set of circumstances had me needing to go back into town, so I took the Bashan scooter (Chinese) as it's...
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Posted by Jim Zeiser.
August 20, 2013
I won't keep you in suspense about them either. First, my daughter came to visit again and rode my recently repaired Chinese scooter. She found it so easy after learning how to shift and ride the 50cc bike she asked, "Why did you start me out on the hard one first?" I explained that the Chinese scooter was out of commission during her last visit, but she gave me the "why are adults so stupid" face. We rode into town twice, me on the 50cc bike and her on the scooter. Every time a biker going t...
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Posted by Jim Zeiser.
August 11, 2013
It's been awhile since I've said that but it's worth repeating. I got to ride all the Chinese two wheelers this weekend and they're all functioning well. Yesterday I went into town to pick up subs for lunch, a job specially suited for the 150cc scooter. It has a wonderful luggage compartment under the seat and is just the right size for a group of sub sandwiches. It would also have been an easy task for the 50cc bike, but I was in a hurry and the scooter is just slightly faster than the mini-...
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Posted by Jim Zeiser.
August 2, 2013
I went to a Bike Night. Great fun. OK, let's expand on that. Up in Sherburne, about fifty miles from here, there's is a bike night. Riders come from all over to kick tires and swap lies and show off their bikes. I've been champing at the bit to go for four years and finally decided to do it. Bidding adieu to the family for three hours I made the trip on the big scooter enjoying the roads and scenery on the way.
Once I got there I found a mini-rally in progress. I got there an hour after the of...
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Posted by Jim Zeiser.
If you wish to comment my e-mail address is h1500e@hotmail.com. I'd like to hear anything-good or bad-that anyone would like to say. As they said in college, we're all lifelong learners.
