January 29, 2012
The weather here the last few days has been milder than in years past. Yesterday we needed a few items from the grocery store and the short list of things was scooter friendly. I didn't even bundle up or use my leather jacket, just the ski style jacket from K Mart that I wear all the time. The scooter fired right up and was raring to go when I went to the garage to try it. I let it warm up as I put on my helmet and gloves and the engine picked up speed as it warmed. I've noticed that the engines in my Chinese vehicles get better and stronger with age and the scooter is no exception. It has a friendly growl when running down the road, the mark of a happy engine.
People looked at me when I pulled into the store lot, not certain what to make of a scooter in January. I just went about things like it was a day in May despite the calendar and it probably baffled many observers. I was just happy to be out riding, saving gas and not putting miles on the car. As with any short ride it ended too soon but it bodes well for the season to come when I'm already putting miles on my two wheelers in January. The sun is shining outside already today and the weather report is for mid-thirties. A short list of grocery needs is on the kitchen table already. Maybe another ride is in the offing?
Posted by Jim Zeiser.
January 25, 2012
When it gets near the end of January I start to get ichy to ride again. The Yamaha is sitting in the garage slumbering with a float charger on its battery and the scooter is also waiting to be used again. I keep seeing the price of gasoline rise and it makes my throttle hand twitch. Last year at this time I was dreaming of trips on the Big Ruckus, now gone, and planning to fit it with a windshield. Now my head is swirling with ways to make the Exciter (model name of the Yamaha) more comfortab...
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Posted by Jim Zeiser.
January 15, 2012
It got up to 25 degrees at the beginning of the week and I had errands to run in Town. It enabled me to add another 16 miles to the scooter's odometer and get out for a January ride again. I had to renew my drivers license which would be an odd thing to do on a scooter if it didn't also include renewing my "M" (motorcycle license) designation also. I was still a sight stumbling into the DMV with helmet hair, paying the renewal fee and having my picture taken. The eye test was fun too as my ey...
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Posted by Jim Zeiser.
January 8, 2012
I was charged with making lunch today and after filling glasses with milk noticed we were low. It was quite discouraging since I had gone out already on a grocery run but failed to notice we would need another gallon of milk before the day was out. It was thirty degrees and cloudy with an occasional flurry outside. I just couldn't bring myself to burn more gas in the cars so I decided to take the scooter. I was dressed warmly for the trip so except for the odd gust of wind the ride was fairly...
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Posted by Jim Zeiser.
December 31, 2011
It's New Year's Eve and it's 45 degrees. Just for laughs I went out to the garage and started the Yamaha 250. Yes, I said started. Apparently my strange little drill works most of the time. When winter is over it will be interesting to see what works on a warm engine. I'm looking forward to using it to go to work or longer rides into Binghamton. The safer thing would just be to use my wife's Honda Rebel but the Yamaha is a much more interesting ride. I will take some pride in using a formerly...
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Posted by Jim Zeiser.
December 21, 2011
This is the first day of Winter and of all things, it's raining out. We've only had a couple of small snows and the white stuff melted fairly quickly. I heard it was supposed to be in the mid to upper forties tomorrow so I went out to the garage and tried to start the Yamaha. I've let it sit for a couple of weeks in the cold and it only popped a couple of times. I guess it's time to try again and get it going before Spring sneaks up on me in a scant three months. The scooter has been on the r...
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Posted by Jim Zeiser.
December 11, 2011
We needed some things from the grocery store today and it wasn't enough to warrant using the car. Solution: use the scooter. I wouldn't let a little thing like 34 degrees stop me or that the scooter hasn't been moved in over a week. What I did discover is that 20W-50 oil really puts a drag on the engine so when I went to start it the motor spun very slowly. Even still it fired up and off we went. The sun shimmered on the recently fallen snow adding a holiday festivity to the ride. I was bundl...
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Posted by Jim Zeiser.
December 6, 2011
Last year at this time I could look out my window and see about four inches of snow on the ground. The weather has been completely different this year. Today it got up to 56 degrees and in honor of the occasion I took the Yamaha out for a spin. It was another success and the bike seems to get stronger each time I use it. I've developed a starting drill straight out of the British bike era to assure that it starts. I remove the trickle charger, turn on the key, flip the kill switch to run and ...
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Posted by Jim Zeiser.
November 28, 2011
I had the chance to ride the Chinese scooter to work yesterday and it was a great ride. Of course December is coming and I'm no hero so I'll be using the vehicle with heat pretty soon. It was gratifying to note that at the end of the ride the scooter had 6,072 miles giving me my official 2500 riding miles this season, just on the scooter.That number is acknowledged to be the average number of miles motorcyclists ride in a year. When you take into account the miles I put on the ill-fated Big R...
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Posted by Jim Zeiser.
November 20, 2011
Today was the first time I rode the old Yamaha 250 and it didn't stall out on me. Faithful readers will remember that this was the $225 special I bought from Craigslist the day after I sold the Kawasaki. It was evident as I worked on it that this poor beast hadn't been run in years and received little or no care in that time. I have it sitting on a battery charger from KMart that maintains the voltage and start it up every other day or so just out of curiosity. It has dirt bike tires on it be...
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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.
