Three cheers for the sunshine!

Finally!!  After what seems like a month of rain and cold miserable weather, the sun has finally decided to show itself!  But I see the writing on the wall, I can see my little scoot is probably going to be setting in the garage or covered most of the winter.  I just don't know if I can hack the cold weather mornings!  When you have to scrape the frost off of your helmet then it might be time to cut back some.  But if I were to drive in the winter, I think I might want to pick up a few of these articles.  Never know, Santa might be listening!

1. Jacket, something European, how about one from Armadillo Scootwear?  This looks like one sweet jacket, looks good and has the protection you need.  My current jacket is very nice for summer (Fieldsheer Mesh), but even with the windbreaker liner in and a regular jacket, its not very warm.
2. Gloves, from Corazzo.  Same thing as the jacket, looks and protection and warmth!  If you can't guess by now, all of my gear is warm weather gloves.  My current gloves have nice vents in the knuckle area which you can not feel until it turns cold.  Time for some more warmth.
3. Pants, still like my jeans but I think an extra layer of long johns would be perfect for short jaunts to work and back.
4. Boots, mine are still some decent hiking boots that I bought on the cheap at the local Wally World (I really hate to admit that) so I guess I will stick with them.  I did wear my Nikes today, they are the mesh kind and wow it was cool!
5. Finally, I am ecstatic over finding this...under helmet mask.  This is perfect!!!  I have a modular helmet and wind loves blowing under it.  

Eventually I will post more about my current  gear, complete with model shot of someone else other than me wearing it!!!  Be warm all everyone, I will try to post  more about cold weather driving and my impressions soon.  See you later!

Group Riding Part Deux

Fellow riders I do apologize for being so long in my update!  Between the last post and now I went to Florida to spend some time with the other side of the family and it was a blast!!  More on that later because I thought there are some interesting things to share.  Now for what I missed in posting a long time ago.
Eastside Scooters posted a group ride for September 5th (I am actually a little embarrassed to even post this!!) and it was led by fellow rider, blogger and generally nice guy Jeff P.  We met at ESS to munch on some yummy tacos from Mas Tacos and took direction on the ride and etiquitte from Jeff.

 

Pit Stop!

Our first part of the ride was going through our favorite local park at Percy Warner.  There was for this part fourteen riders who showed up for this.  Part of us got stuck behind some very very slow car and it took what seems like FOREVER to catch up with the other half of the group.  But we finally met up with the ones in front and we enjoyed a nice stop at one of the overlooks.  Enjoy the shots!

Live action shot, this was hard to do!

Another fun shot, yes I am moving!

 

The second part of our trip was for the bigger scooters (125CC and above) so we lost a couple of people from this part and picked up a couple more.  We headed off to Riverside Road along the beautiful Cumberland River with the intentions of stopping at Bush Creek Recreational area then going to to Norms Road House.  Good intentions but it did not quiet turn out that away.  Jeff missed the turn in there and about half followed him while the other half (including me) turned to the recreation area.  We all just looked at each other and wondered if that was it.  At this point, half of the half left for back home and the rest of us pointed our wheels to Ashland City to eat at the Riverview Restaurant overlooking the river and marina.  Of course we passed Jeff heading the other way about half mile out of the park but we kept on going.  Jeff, here is a picture of us enjoying an awesome meal, wished  you could have been there!!

Here is what these rides are about!  Good time with new friends!

My ride continued after this, so I hit the road once more with all speed back home, it was dark and my rear end was ready for something more than my scooter.  Overall the day was a blast, had lots of fun and was saddle sore for the next day or so.  Sad to day though, this was probably the last big ride that will happen this year.  If you are interested in riding with a group, keep your eyes open to the links I have posted to the right, if you don't see anything, post on the Scoot Nashville site, you never know who might be interested in going with you!

Here is a map of this ride, it is broken up between the group ride and my way back home.  Enjoy and be safe!

Lets roll the tape

Here is the link to my FB photo collection.  There are just a few of the pictures I have collected since I have started riding! Time to click Here!

Scooters is not just for two wheels either!  Check this guy out.



Also while perusing YouTube yesterday and I ran across a guy (here in America no less) who showed his audience some simple maintenance tips on his Kymco Super  8.  Check him out below.

Scoot Riding, its not just a solo activity!

I am so far behind in my writing it is not even funny!  Since writing last I have participated in 2 separate group rides with two different groups of riders.  Lots of fun and an awesome way to meet fellow riders.  Where else can you meet people you would  not ordinarily meet, whether at work, church or regular social circle?  The first event occurred through the riders at Music City Misfits.  They tend to go with the classic iron of Vespas and similar style bikes.  I think I can safely say mine was the newest style model, even though there was recent model Buddy's in the bunch.  Our day started out at the Ugly Mugs on Eastland Avenue, I arrived on time so I did not get a chance to try out the drinks and see if there was something to eat.  I spotted fellow rider Andy and munched on some peanut butter crackers till it was time to go.  We went over some basic rules and the route that we were taking.  I am going to admit at this point I got lost over where we were going, and the map I will post will show that!  We started off and our first stop, as typical with any group ride was at Krogers to fill up and off we went.  We made our way through the hills and valleys around Goodletsville, around Union Hill and Shackle Island.  We hit a good mix of 2 lane roads, major highways and country lanes.  Met a couple of Harley gangs and had a great time.  We ended our ride at a Sonic's in the Rivergate area and had late lunch together.  Now for what everyone likes to see...on to the pictures!  I also want to apologize to everyone I met and not mentioning in the pictures, names is not my strong point. :(

 

  

Hmmm...possible styling point from a 1966 Porche 912?

 

 

One more gas stop before we got done, someone had a thirsty bike!

Time to fuel up the humans in our group, I was starving!

Group rides is a lot of fun, keep in touch with websites that post such events, the ones in Nashville include KymCoJones, Eastside Scooters, Scoot Nashville and Music City Misfits.  If you know of any that I have missed feel free to leave comments!

Here is the map of this ride, it is vaguely accurate, if you know of a correction let me know!

View Misfits in a larger map

Night Moves

Aint it funny how the night moves
When you just dont seem to have as much to lose
Strange how the night moves
With autumn closing in

All apologies to Mr Bob Seger for taking his song "Night Moves" out of context but I thought it was the perfect lead on for today's posting.  I still consider myself a green horn when it comes to riding so my range of experience is not as broad as others.  I always considered night riding on the "dangerous" side of riding, I have had experience riding at twilight, which is definitely great and even some short distance with it dark, but never have gone  far with it completely black.  The other night I was at home and the wife and kids went out to a book store at Providence Place in Mt Juliet when I get a phone call at 7:30 PM from my wife telling me the tire on her van was flat!  Earlier that day I had to take my car out and it was having issues (poor thing has 250, 000 miles on  her) so I informed the Mrs for me to get there I will have to take the scooter and that it will take a bit for me to get there.  I suit up and head out.  

     My first thought is how am I going to get up there?  So I drew my little mental map of my route and hoped when I started going that I would not miss any turns and end up somewhere I did not belong!  I found out very quickly things do not look necessarily the same when you are out at night.  I had ridden the route in my car and parts of it on my scooter but never the full route, say the least I was a little nervous about doing this at night.  Another thing I realized is that I am not as visible at night as during the day.  My jacket is treated to be reflective and of course the bike has all of its lights.  You develop a paranoia and you think every driveway has a car ready to jump out and get you, well maybe not but I think you get the picture.

     Now I am well on my way heading down the road and I am in the Percy Priest area when I come across this ominous warning

 

and I am thinking about what will one of these

do to me and my little bike!!  I have read the stories about these long legged rats crashing into bigger dual sport type bikes and the massive amount of damage they can do to bike and rider.  Now I not only have humans in big cars to worry about but now I have deer!!  Nerves are now on edge, riding through dark woods danger lurking in every deep shadow but I had to keep going, knowing my family is waiting for me, in a comfy bookstore safe from things that want to bump into me in the night.  Onward!!  I am now getting closer to my destination but quickly another issue comes eye-to-eye with me.  My face shield is quickly coming covered in bug splat!!  Bugs look a lot different when they are a couple of inches away from you, they are a lot bigger and messier!  Yuck!  So now I have bug juice, cars and deer all gunning for me at the same time so my comfort level is dropping considerably.  On top of having bug guts all over my screen I am now having to deal with oncoming traffic, and the glare of their lights so in a rare move I pull my face shield up just so I can see and fortunately for me I am no more than a couple hundred yards away from where I need to be!! Yea!  So the short end of the story the tire is changed and we both make it home safely.

Things to do before going out at night.

• Make sure you have the right gear on, no black jackets and black helmets, you need to be visible
  
• Know your route, things look different at night.
• Check your bike, are all the lights working correctly?
• Is your face shield clean?  Mine was before but it is a bug magnet, be prepared  to clean if it gets very bad.
• Let someone know you are going and give them a time when to expect you back
• Enjoy the night!!  

The nights map....

View Night Rider in a larger map

I awoke last night to the sound of thunder
How far off I sat and wondered
Started humming a song from 1962
Ain't it funny how the night moves
When you just don't seem to have as much to lose
Strange how the night moves
With autumn closing in
Bob Seger "Night Moves" on his album Night Moves

Who is that masked guy?

That  handsome fella at the top of the page is yours truely.  Pretty sharp photograph if I should say so.  The photo was taken on my Canon point and shoot camera by my fellow rider Jeff at KymCojones.  The guy is great with what he puts out.  This picture was taken at Percy Warner Park near where the Iriquois Steeplechase is ran.  The park is dominated by walkers, runners, bicyclist and scooterist who enjoy the winding roads back through the hills.  It's mostly a one way road and very rarely will you find a car making its way through there.  The park is very shady but there are areas where you have some very nice views.  I have probably had a chance to see a majority of the paved roads in the park, perhaps one day I will have a chance to peruse the unpaved parts!

Click on photo, great shot of Nashville

Reasons to ride

• You are still near Nashville, easily accessible
• Shady
• The curves gives you a chance to show off your scooting skills
• The scenery is awesome
• Cars are almost non-existant
• Did I mention its beautiful there?

What to watch for

• Being a city park, it is very popular with walkers, joggers, horses and bicyclist and you have to keep an eye for them.  Pay attention in particular to areas in the front part of the park, the further away from the entrances you go the fewer people that will be out.
• The curves are nice but a lot of them are blind, so another reason to watch out for the above mentioned people
• Don't let your eyes wander too  much while looking at the scenery, if you get too close to the wrong side of the road you might have a ways to go before you stop!
• Road conditions for the most part are good but being a city park, there are areas where the pavement is rough.
• Be specially careful if the road is wet.  Since it is shady, there is mossy like growth on parts of the road and it can cause slippery conditions.

Over all PWP is a great place to ride.  Its located in a beautiful part of Nashville, with great roads and awesome scenery.  Pack some munches and a drink on your bike and you can enjoy a great day scooting!

Jeff P and Andy at the overlook

Location:  It is located at 2500 Old Hickory Blvd

Hi There Scoot Riders

There comes a point in a persons life when you decide to step out and try something new, and it happened to me in May of 2009. I decided I was going to the other side of the tracks, I was going to learn how to ride 2 wheel transportation. I have been looking at and wondering about scooters for the previous year, learning about them, seeing what other people wrote about them and doing just general research about scooters. I enjoy riding and "getting lost" in the countryside. When your on two wheels you see things a bit different than what you see from your car. My blog is going to have some general information about scooters and gear but it is going to focus mainly on the ride itself. So sit back, strap your helment on and prepare for the ride!