January 2, 2013
I hope you all had a happy New Year. I'm sitting here with the tally sheet for two wheeled commuting in 2012. While it won't knock your socks off, I'm fairly content. The 150cc scooter was used 27 times for trips to work before the cylinder head started to seriously leak and stopped it. The ill fated Yamaha 250 was used once. The Honda Rebel made eight trips while the 50cc mini-motorcycle made nine runs over the hills. Lastly we have the big scooter, Galileo, at a colossal 43 trips between the beginning of August and the end of the season. This all totals out to 88 commutes over the course of the riding season or about 3080 miles. At a savings of $6.00 per trip over using the minivan I pocketed $528. That might not sound like alot but think about the bigger picture. Over the course of 10 years I'd save about $5300 and that's not to mention not driving the car an additional 30,000 miles. I'm sure that's a simple picture not taking into account the maintenance required on a bike or scooter over that time. I only know that in the past I've been able to keep some low priced cars longer than expected by shifting miles onto my motorcycles.
I also have a lot more fun riding a bike or scooter than I do driving a car. So the small financial savings is over shadowed by the pure "Grin Power" I collect from riding. I don't know if I'll approach that number of commutes by bike this year given how the weather has been more severe already this winter, but who knows? Records are made to be broken.
Posted by Jim Zeiser.
December 29, 2012
Happy Holidays everybody! I hope your holidays have been fruitful and enjoyable. Mine have. I'm sitting here listening to the soothing tick of a new cuckoo clock that Sara bought me. It's a real hanging weight, German made model and it's a beauty. The scooter and Cub clone sit in the garage with several inches of white stuff clogging up the driveway. Unlike last year this hasn't been a mild winter. Temperatures in the teens and twenties have kept my two wheeled fleet in dry dock and all I can...
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Posted by Jim Zeiser.
December 19, 2012
Yes, I know it's not winter until Friday but when it's 32 degrees outside and I ride, that's close enough. I needed to get a few groceries at the store and even though it was tempting to take the minivan I decided that I was taking the 50cc grocery getter. I was dressed warm enough for a seven mile ride but I had a few minutes there at the start to make me wonder. You know how you feel when you jump in a pool on a hot summer day. It feels like a refrigerator for a minute until you get used to...
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Posted by Jim Zeiser.
December 10, 2012
I had the occasion to do some work on the big scooter to keep my battery from dropping dead. As another owner of a CF Moto Fashion described it. "There's a vampire somewhere in the system sucking the life out of the battery." To combat the drain on the battery I installed a quick connect plug for my trickle charger on the scooter's battery and so far, so good. I tried to start it after letting it re-build a charge and it fired right up. On my last Kawasaki I would let the battery hibernate du...
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Posted by Jim Zeiser.
December 3, 2012
It's fifty degrees outside, the sun is shining and I don't have anywhere to go. Well, that's not completely true, In half an hour I have to take the Black Lab to the Vet for her shots but she won't sit still on the back of the scooter and I have to use the car. During the summer many great days go by unridden but somehow it seems a waste to not drag something out to ride when a day like this comes along and there isn't anyplace to go on two wheels.
Last winter I had many opportunities to hop ... Continue reading...
Posted by Jim Zeiser.
November 25, 2012
I'm sitting here looking out the window at a light dusting of snow on the ground. My Black Lab is overjoyed but you can see the dubious look on my two Yorkshire Terriers. It's about thirty-one degrees right now and the streets have a light coating of road salt so my big scooter is confined to the garage right now while the 50cc mini-motorcycle awaits its next assignment. These are just the beginning of the dark days of Winter and I have to reflect that this year was a fairly mixed bag of even...
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Posted by Jim Zeiser.
November 18, 2012
I know it's almost a week away but here the week will be quick. One stepson is home from college for the week already and the second one will be back soon. It's been cold lately so the big scooter has only been to the job once this week but it did cross 4,000 miles. I had the 50cc out the other day for a shopping trip and it showed, once again, its worth. The temperatures were hovering around 30 degrees and it was running a little strangely. I thought maybe it needed gas since I couldn't tell...
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Posted by Jim Zeiser.
November 10, 2012
After last weeks torture session I decided to get smart and start using my resources a little better, For years I've had cold weather gear for riding in uncomfortable temperatures. In the distant past I rode a motorcycle in cold down to ten degrees in less pain than last week. First up was to pull out my leather mittens. These gloves have proven themselves on the ski slopes of Whiteface Mountain at twenty below zero. Next was to unearth my riding boots. Sneakers may suffice on a scooter in th...
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Posted by Jim Zeiser.
November 3, 2012
Last night I had the distinct pleasure of experiencing my first finger defrost in a long time. Get the sarcasm? My car is in the shop-again-and I had to get to work on Galileo, my big scooter. During the day the temperature was hovering around 50 degrees and there was a light drizzle. As I got ready to leave for work I discovered that my heavy gloves were still wet from the day before. I had to use the 50cc bike to do some shopping and it had been pouring rain. Yes, the car was in the shop th...
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Posted by Jim Zeiser.
October 28, 2012
Ever since I got Galileo, the big scooter, it has served in more purposes than a commuter. I've used it for errands, bank runs and as a passenger vehicle. Sara likes the back seat and has ridden with me three times so far since I got it. Today was the longest ride yet. We set out under a slate gray sky to pick up some dolls that a friend of Sara' was doing some sewing on, and the air was damp and chilly. The scooter handled our weight and seemed more steady than usual in side drafts and when ...
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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.
