In The Desert Scootin'

There's Somethin' About a Sidecar

2011-11-22T14:34:00.000-08:00

I've been riding riding scooter for 3 and a half years now. For most of that time I've been fascinated by sidecars, also known as "hacks" or "rigs." Who isn't? Right? Sure, I had people tell me that they're not all they're cracked up to be, but my interest continued.

Here's the Stella after I had ridden her to the rally.

My interest hasn't always remained high, though. I had the opportunity to ride/drive one about 20 miles in May of 2010. We were having a scooter rally and my friend Meta, who has a 2005 Stella with a sidecar, and I traded scooters so she could ride unhindered in one of the rides. I had been jonesing to ride one, so I didn't hesitate to let her take my Stella on the ride, so I could take the sidecar across town to the next rally location.

I was underwhelmed, to say the least. I had no idea it took so much work to control one of these things! Because there is no brake on the sidecar, every time I came to an intersection, the whole rig would swing violently to the left. Because the sidecar isn't powered, every time I would accelerate at any rate harder than a snail on quaaludes, the hack swung hard to the right. It was all I could do to stay between the lines.

Argh! Beware of the corners!

Cornering? "Fuhget abowd it!" I made a left onto a street with three lanes for cars and one for bikes and still almost ran over the curb! Right hand turns were nightmarish as well. I don't think that the sidecar actually went into the air on any of turns, but I have seen enough YouTube videos that I felt like it was going to. I think I made every turn at 5mph or less. I never knew how much roads sloped in one direction or another, until I was on that rig. That was yet another disturbing sensation. By the time I arrived at my destination, my arms were limp with the exhaustion of fighting the scooter.

My SIL, Raoul, my eldest grandson, Zak, and I on the hack.

Now that I had ridden a sidecar 20 miles or so and was, therefor, an "expert" I told some of my friends how I foolishly wanted one before I had piloted one, but now I knew better and would never get one. I knew those foolish sidecar fantasies would plague me no longer.

My daughter, one of the grand twins and I on the rig.

Apparently, sidecar fantasies are not easily eliminated. Time went by and my thoughts about them ceased being as negative. I have a daughter, son-in-law and grandson who all live in Cape Town, South Africa. When we first learned, in May, that they were going to come and visit, my wife mentioned, in passing, that sidecars and grand kids would make a pretty good combination. I wasn't too sure about that idea but it fell into one of the many lesser used parts of my brain and began to germinate.

My other daughter, mother of the grand twins, my other grand twin and I

Before I knew it, I was thinking a lot about sidecars again. I was googling them. I was watching YouTube videos. I even started following a blog about Hubert Kriegel, who travels the world on a Ural Sidecar Rig. I began think "What better way to transfer my love for scooters and riding on 2-wheels is there than taking them for a ride in a sidecar?"

As the time for the South African contingent's visit got closer, I asked Meta about borrowing her hack for the visit. She never hesitated a moment and said I could have Stella and "the Rocket" (her sidecar) for as long as I wanted them. In the end, we actually traded rides. Meta took my RV-250 and I took her Stella w/sidecar.

Zak loved all the scooters.

The kids were actually in town before we managed to make the trade. I met Meta at Scoot Over (Tucson's finest scooter source) and rode home. This was the same rig I had ridden 18 months earlier, but I didn't have quite as many problems with it riding to my house. Perhaps it was because there weren't as many turns. I also was real easy on the brake and accelerator.

I got home fine, but knew I had to practice a bit lest I scare to bejeebers out of my 2 year grandson. As I was sitting there on the bike, up drives a car with California plates. My daughter and SIL were expecting some friends from CA who wanted to see them now that they were in the states.

Here, dear friends, is the allure of the sidecar. I had never seen these folks before in my life. They stepped out of their car and I called over:

"You must be the Dunlaps. Want to take a ride in my sidecar?"

To which Kendra replied: "Are you kidding?"

"Nope." I said, and she jumped in.

It's great for picking up pizza, too!

I did advise her, once we were out of sight of the house, that she was the first person i had ever ridden in the sidecar. We zipped around the block and when we pulled up to my driveway, it was clear that Justin was ready for his ride. I took him around the block and when we got back to the house, I took them in the house to introduce them to the family. People will take off with total strangers, if it means they get to ride in a sidecar.

For the next ten days, I gave rides in that hack almost every day. I learned to anticipate what the scooter would do on take off and with braking. I learned to slide my butt off the side of the seat in the turns. I learned that even "cool" high school boys, smoking cigarettes, will point and shout "Look at that!" when I rode by. The more I rode, the more I enjoyed this scooter.

Smiles before & during each ride, tears afterward.

If the fact that Zak, my grandson, cried every time he got out of the Rocket is any indication, I would say he really liked it. Additionally, everyone else in the family liked it too. I am pretty sure that I don't want a Stella with a sidecar, though. I think it's a little much to expect a 150cc bike to pull the extra mass associated with a sidecar much less a passenger.

What is NOT to love about this?

I am finding myself attracted to the Ural. The fact that the Ural looks just like the hacks you see in the old movie about WWII kind of cements it in my head. I will be looking at scooter and various motorcycle w/sidecar combos over the coming months. I don't know how I'll ever afford one, but we'll wait and see how that goes.

2011-10-10T07:22:00.000-07:00

I went for a ride a couple of days ago and took my Go-Pro along. I was on my RV-250. This ride was listed in Arizona Highways Magazine, so I decided to go out and try some dirt road again.

I think my starter failing during that other ride was a coincidence.

Deeds Done & Dues Paid

2011-08-27T19:27:00.000-07:00

I haven't really had the opportunity to blog about it lately, but I've been having a LOT of scooter mechanical difficulties. The Buddy broke a belt on my way home from work, then again when I brought it to Sedona. The RV-250 lost its starter in the middle of the desert, leaving me stranded for a few hours. Then, earlier this week, Stella seized her crank on a ride to Sonoita with some friends, again leaving me stranded, but at least John K. stayed with me while we waited for my son to come pick me up.

So, it was with some trepidation that I left on a very long ride a few days ago. At every major point along the way, I was thinking about who I could call and where I could keep the scoot until I could come back to pick it up. Thankfully, the scoot ran perfectly for the entire 550+ miles.

Did I say 550 miles? Yes, I did. For details of how and why the route came to be that far and on those particular roads, please refer to my scooter club blog post: Of Prescott Twisties to Jerome to AZ Rim Country and Home. But why consider riding that far, knowing that it would take 14-16 hours in the saddle?

Here is a comment my mother made on my facebook status referring to the length of the ride: "And why is it you are doing this? I know you love to ride that scooter, but sometime-----" She wasn't the only person who asked either.

It was a cloudless morning when I set out

The fact is that there is more than one answer to that question.The first, and most obvious is that I wanted to ride the area. Yesterday seemed like as good a time as any. Actually I was going to do it 2 weeks ago, but it was raining the morning I planned and going.

The Weaver Mountains outside of Congress, AZ

Another reason is that I'm pretty sure I won't always live here in Tucson. I don't want to move away wishing that I had ridden a certain road(s) before moving. again, now was as good a time as any.

Frog Rock outside of Congress, AZ

Third, I just love to ride, and I love to ride where I've never ridden before. I had several days off work and this was a good time.

So, what is it like to ride long distance on a 250cc scooter?

I felt great as I left Tucson. I had found some roads outside of Casa Grande on which I had never ridden, as well and a new route around the southwest part of Phoenix. I was looking forward to what lay ahead. Never the less, every bump in the road, made me wonder if the scooter was about to die on me.

Being somewhat of a farm boy, originally from Roswell, NM, I enjoyed the ride between Casa Grande and Maricopa. There were lots a cattle and hay cutting and all the associate smells were there. I may be the only one, but the smell of manure brings on a certain nostalgia for me. The road itslef was straight and flat, but I still enjoyed it a lot.

Elevation and cloud cover started increasing as I left the Phoenix area, riding toward Wickenburg. One of the many things I love about riding in AZ are the mountains. A 50 miles ride can take up, then down several thousand feet, depending on where you are. Temperatures can drop 30 degrees and you can go from desert to pine forest. It is amazing to experience. On this day, I experienced it over and over again. What a treat.

Roadside Memorial along the White Spar Highway (AZ-89)

My excitement in creased as I left Congress, AZ. I knew that I would be climbing a big mountain (the White Spar Highway) and then, not far after that, I would reach the first of the roads I was out here for. The White Spar is an impressive climb. The I was limited to about 45mph top speed, because of the grade. I've read that this is a dangerous stretch of road, but there was little traffic when I was there. Riding down probably would have been a bit scarier.

Route 89 outside of Prescott.

I reached the top and wished there had been a scenic overlook for pics of the valley. As I am writing this, I discovered that there is one, but it is only available to vehicle goes DOWN. Another time, maybe. I pulled over in the little town of Yarnell to mount my Go-Pro camera. I really wanted to catch the twisties and share them with others.

Beautiful Blue Stella w/sidecar Combo at Prescott Scooter & Auto Source

My desire to share my rides is another reason I enjoy these rides as well. Since I have started blogging about my rides, I have had many people tell me that they enjoy each installment. I encourages me to know that I bring other people enjoyment by writing about my little scooter hobby.

Scooter & auto source also had this 150cc Tomahawk Replica

I learned from from my first video attempts in Sedona, so I changed up the way I was videoing. Rather than just letting the camera run, I only shot 1-2 minutes at a time. That way it would take forever to load and edit. The biggest problem I had with this technique was that it is hard to tell if the camera is on or off. There is no indicator light on the top or back of the camera, so I had to guess a bit. I did end up missing one to the better segments of the road. Here is my edited video of the segment of AZ-89 HERE.

I was thrilled to see a lot full of scooters as I rode through Prescott. I stopped for a bit and met Mark Tetreau, owner of Prescott Scooter and Auto Source. I love scooter people.

Storm heading toward Jerome

I cut my visit short because it had started sprinkling. It initially looked like the skies were clearer to the south, but once I got out of Prescott, I saw the storm clouds you can see in the pic above. I could see frequent lightening as well. I knew I was probably going to get wet.

Looking through rain squall toward Jerome, AZ

I found myself looking forward to the rain. It's probably just me, but I don't want to be a "fair weather" rider. So, I rode through the rain, up, then down, a steep, winding, mountain road. I kind of feel like I've "paid my dues." Another milestone passed. Also, I was pleased, because I had just ridden the other stretch of road that I wanted to ride.

I was a bit disappointed that it was pouring down as I hit Jerome. It's a very scenic little town. I might have gotten off the bike and walked around a bit had it been nicer.

Riding in the rain got my manual GPS a little damp

I had planned on stopping for a bit in Cottonwood, but I was right on the leading edge of the rain as I got there. I decided to keep going. It took until Camp Verde, another 25 miles, before I was into some partial sunshine. At this point I was just over 300 miles into my ride. I checked in with my wife to let her know that I expected the ride to take another 6-8 hours.

Rain squall near Roosevelt Lake

A lesson I learned while on this ride: Don't bet new glasses then take off on a 15 hour ride the next day. I wasn't having problems seeing, but they were too tight behind my ears. Over the course of the day, they were getting more and more painful. I'm sure the helmet didn't help, either.

More anticipation: I was now headed toward Pine, Strawberry and Payson. I had never been to any of these communities until my last trip to Sedona. This area is what is known as AZ Rim Country, because it is on the Mogollon Rim, and it is beautiful. It is also a bit under utilized because it is not really "on the way" to any place. The good thing about that is that there aren't big crowds. There are nice looking hotels and B&B's as well as a lot of campgrounds. The road quality all around this area is excellent, though. I definitely have plans to return to the Payson area with my wife.

I was getting tired at this point. One thing that keeps me alert is the excitement of a new road. I left Payson then turned onto AZ-166 which would take me by Roosevelt Lake. I had never been on that road now had I seen that lake before. I remained alert as I approached, rode along side, then passed this beautiful lake. There are many large camping and picnic areas along it shores and most were almost completely empty as I went by.

I found this bridge next to the Roosevelt Dam to be quite beautiful

I reached Globe, AZ for some food and my final fuel stop. It is just over 100 miles to Tucson from Globe, night was falling and I had been riding for more than 12 hours.

More lessons learned:

1. Even a good fitting helmet gets uncomfortable after this long. The top of my head was feeling like it was burning from the continuous pressure.

2. Even a comfortable seat gets uncomfortable. My butt was also beginning to feel as if it were burning.

If you think you'll be doing a long ride like this, then plan for the fact that you will likely have to stop more and more frequently the longer you ride. I had been stopping about every 100 miles or so until now. I had to stop twice more before I got back to Tucson

The other thing I had trouble with, was driving at dusk. I found that I was pretty darn frightened. I kept imagining a deer leaping out from the side of the roadway. Once it was completely dark, I felt a lot better. I am glad the RV-250 has such great lighting.

Ride on,

Howard

Savoring the Switchbacks

2011-07-28T11:23:00.000-07:00

It took me a while, but I recently took a little vacation to Sedona with my wife. While there, I shot some video with my new Go-Pro camera. I learned a bit about shooting video and a bit more about editing it. Here is the first video I shot during the vacation:

I hope to be posting again soon. I also been posting recently at the Sky Island Riders site. I posted, already, about the trip from Tucson to Sedona.

Ride on,

Howard

From Scarab Ride to Sugar High

2011-07-21T12:06:00.000-07:00

So, once again, I have been lax about blogging. It's not quite as bad as it seems though,because I have posted a couple of times on my club site since last posting here. Today, I thought I would write about a couple of the group rides I was a part of in May and June.

The Rapture Ride

One of the scooter clubs in Phoenix is the Scarabs. We were invited to ride in their monthly ride and a couple of us decided to attempt the trek to Phoenix for this ride. Craig organized this ride and called it the Rapture Ride. (Remember the guy who said the world would end on 5/21?)

Arizona Falls - There is a lot of water around the Phoenix area.

Initially, we were going to ride up, but that meant getting up around 3am, riding 150 miles or so, doing the ride, then riding back home. We decided to truck the bikes up.

The author at AZ Falls - This is a great park!

This ride was most excellent. I have been to Phoenix many times, but I've never had the opportunity or inclination to just drive around and site see. Craig picked out a bunch of quirky points of interest and connected them together in a fun way

Here we are all parked at AZ Falls

Some of the places we checked out: AZ Capitol Building, the oldest house and the oldest commercial building in Phoenix, the Cross Cut / Williams Cemetery, Papago Park, Arizona Falls and a really nice, though difficult ride around Camelback Mountain.

The view from Camelback Mountain

A Lizard next to the road.

After taking a break at Arizona Falls, we headed for Camelback Mountain. I didn't get a pic, but we were there to get a look at Copenhaver Castle. We had a couple of novice riders with us and, unfortunately, a couple of bikes were dropped on the extremely steep road. Sorry guys.

We cruised by the Arizona Biltmore and the Wrigley Mansion.

Scooter gangsters at Hula's

Hula's French Toast

We finished this ride with brunch at Hula's Modern Tiki. I had the French Toast which has a hint of Kona Coffee in it. Very tasty.

After the ride, John and I rode to where we had left the truck. We loaded the bikes and made the 2 hour return trip back to Tucson.

My Stella's crash bars made the fit in the truck a little snug.

We both had a lot of fun and look forward to attending another Scarabs ride.

The Donut Ride

This ride had been in the works for months. I have seen other scooter clubs do rides where they cruised around tasting one particular item or another. I decided to do a donut tasting ride, but change it a bit. I created a critique form to give to everyone where we could judge each bakery, then at the end of the ride have "Tucson's Best Donut / Donut Shop."

Next to Le Caves

Since "Live to Ride / Ride to Eat" is our unofficial motto, we had a good turnout. I selected 5 local shops, then connected them with a somewhat interesting route. We met at the first shop. Critique forms and pencils were passed out and the tasting began.

This shop even had a little shrine, complete with coffee and a donut.

The ride was a LOT of fun. A group of scooters flocking in to a small donut shop attracts a bit of attention and we had fun explaining to the management of each shop, what we were doing.

At the last shop, I asked if anyone was feeling sick

This was a popular ride, so I'm now working on another "tasting" kind of ride. What should it be? Tacos? Sonoran hot dogs? Ice cream? We'll see.

My next post will probably be about a recent trip to Sedona, AZ. My wife and I went there for six days and had a grand time. I brought the scoot along and got some fine pictures as well as some video.

Ride on,

Howard

2011-05-22T10:39:00.000-07:00

I got a Go-Pro camera for my birthday this year and really hadn't used it yet. I do plan on using for some upcoming "You Are There" type videos on the Sky island Riders "Riding SoAZ" series.

I took it along with me on a one of the rides we did one the rally and included that footage in a rally montage I edited using the video and pics taken during our rally. The video has been posted on the various club sites, but I am posting here because some of the people who read this blog, do not read the others.

If you've seen it already, I apologize, if not, I hope you enjoy the video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBjkN9ggmNE

Ride on,

Howard

Of Fractures and Fun

2011-05-03T15:42:00.000-07:00

"Fractures and Fun." There's a couple of words that you don't hear together all that often. but they describe my life of the past 6 weeks.

First, the fracture part: On March 16, I was on the scooter, riding around behind Scoot Over, and. . . crashed. I don't know how or why. I presume that I hit a patch of grease of oil, but I just don't know. So, going 10-15mph, the scoot (Iron Buddy) went down on it's left side. I went over the front, broke my fall with my right hand/arm, rolled to my elbow, then over to my butt and up on my feet, grabbed the scooter and returned it to it's full upright position. All this happened in 5 seconds or less.

I immediately felt as if my right wrist was sprained. I helped unload a scooter from the back of the Scoot Over truck, then took the cowl off the Buddy's engine, replaced the spark plug cap and put the cowl back on. My wrist was really beginning to stiffen up. I decided that I had better head home before I couldn't ride.

By the time I got home, I was unable to take my gear off and had to have my wife help me. Naturally, I had to tell her what had happened. Being the good, caring wife that she is, she told me to go the Urgent Care as she was certain I had fractured my wrist. Being a nurse, I was rapidly coming to the same conclusion.

Long story short: I had fractured my right radius bone in two places. the first was at the wrist and the second was in the elbow. Additionally, judging by how much it hurt to move or breathe, I believe I fractured a rib on the right side as well. This put me in a sling and wrist immobilizer and out of work, for the better part of five weeks. The picture above is me, an hour or two after returning from Urgent Care. They splinted the arm, but the next day, the ortho doctor removed it.

The worst part of this was that i was supposed to ride in the Salton Sea Endurance Rally the following week. I had to cancel. Initially, I could only type with my left hand and so, didn't feel like posting anything about my little mishap.

So, where was the fun part? I don't know that I mentioned it, but we have been planning our second scooter rally, called "For A Few CC's more." The rally was this past weekend. My injury kept me off of work, but not out of rally planning. Thanks to my fracture, I was able to get out, find sponsors and plan rides in a lot more detail than last year.

I had debated on writing a separate entry just for the planning aspect of the rally, but I'll pass, since the rally is over. Suffice it to say, that we (4 of my loyal club mates and I) spent about 4 months planning the rally. The last month was hectic and required a lot of time, but we got it done. So, what did the rally involve?

We kicked it off with a ride. 9 scooters and a beautiful Triumph motorcycle participated. It was a bit windy, but it was sunshiny and about 90 degrees.

This ride crossed through some beautiful desert areas. We rode through Picture Rocks, then around behind the Tucson Mountains and returned to the Tucson area via Gates Pass.

This is the group stopped at a gas station for a couple minutes of rest and fuel for those who needed it. The ride was 52 miles and 2 hours long.

We finished the kick-off ride at Scoot Over, where we were holding our Meet & greet. Rally bags and t-shirts were passed out.

This is our shirt. Isn't it amazing. One of our local scooterists is a graphic artist. Everyone really liked the way the shirt came out.

Saturday started with an early ride, breakfast, then the most planned ride I've ever been associated with and I didn't even ride in it: the Tucson Oddities Ride. We selected a number of unusual locations around town, provided a pamphlet to tell everyone about the locations and took a long, urban ride. One of the spots was Valley of the Moon. I think I'm going to try and do a separate post with pics from all the locations.

Another part of the ride was Roller Coaster Road. I posted a video of it in an earlier post.

Our main venue for Saturday was Grace Community Church. One of our riders is a member there and they welcomed us warmly and gave us the run of the place. It's not a great pic, but they made a nice welcome sign for us, using our t-shirt design. We used their parking lot for our scooter "rodeo" and the inside for our spaghetti western dinner.

Our teeter-totter from last year was modified a bit, for safety. Most of the participants rode the rodeo course. Six even did the teeter-totter.

We also had slow drags. Above, Brandon and Damn Dirt Dave are pretty close. Dave won the slow drags and the rodeo.

Sunday was our ride up the Sky Island Scenic By-Way, aka Mt Lemmon. It is a beautiful ride. It is 26 miles and about 7000 feet to the top. The road twists, turns and climbs its way out of the desert and eventually into pine forest. At the top in the little community of Summer Haven. 18 bikes participated in this ride. I always have us ride up as a group. The ride down is done as individuals. I do this so that everyone can ride in their own comfort zone and skill level. I don't know if other groups ride mountains this way, but it makes sense to me. We meet up again at a coffee shop at the bottom.

The other neat part of this rally is that we gave the money from the raffle to a local charity. This year it was donated to Ben's Bells. I was able to give them a check for $543.00. I had deliberately looked for a local organization that was small enough, that our gift would matter. I think it will.

Viva Vegas

2011-03-27T10:17:00.001-07:00

For four days, from 2/25 - 2/28, I went to Las Vegas for the High Rollers Scooter Rally. It's the biggest rally I've ever attended. Picking a handful of photos for the blog from all the ones I took is the hard part.

It's more than 400 miles from Tucson to Vegas, so we decided to trailer some scooters up there. I got together with some friends from the GGR Scooter Club and we shared the trailer and a hotel room for the rally. The drive up was enjoyable as I got to spend some time getting to know some folks that I had never really talked to before.

In the trailer is Bald John, president of GGR. On the ramp is Smiley and that is his Rattler 110 being unloaded. John K. who rides with the Sky Island Riders and is a member of GGR was also along. At the base of the ramp is Grumpy. He's from GGR in California and mets us in Vegas.

In this pic is the reflection of the scooter parking area as seen from our hotel room at the Golden Gate Hotel located at the end of the "Fremont Street Experience."

This is the same parking lot from a different view point. This is taken Friday afternoon. There were a lot more scooters there on Saturday, but I was busy enjoying the festivities and didn't get back up into the parking garage.

There were a lot of scooters, but this was my favorite. It's a Heinkel Tourist and it's in beautiful shape. This is the scooter featured in the book "I See by my Outfit" by Peter S. Beagle.

Another view of the Heinkel.

There were scooters with weapons and gas masks. They are probably preparing for the zombie apocalypse, which a common concern amongst scooter folk, but I'm not sure why.

Some beautiful Lambrettas brought down from Washington state. They were telling us in the hotel that their truck broke down en route, so they sold it to the tow truck driver, rental a u-haul and drove the rest of the way. Now THAT'S dedication to a rally.

Friday night two of the attendee's got married! I can't remember their names, but they seemed like a nice couple. It was a great time.

Here's a pic of their scooter "limo."

Saturday morning was cold and blustery. John and I decided to find something indoors to do. We found the Pinball Hall of Fame! It really took me back to my childhood. If there was an arcade nearby, I would be there.

Another row of machines. All of them are functioning and are playable.

Saturday afternoon at the Golden Gate parking lot.

Sunday morning was a group ride out to Red Rock Canyon. I was riding in the middle of the pack. This, obviously, is a pic looking forward......

This is looking back. I think there were 30-40 scooters along on this ride. It was a blast.

At a fuel stop, there was a group of crotch rocket riders. They really enjoyed coming over and looking at all the scoots. We had one sidecar rig with us, with the obligatory dog. The bikers loved that.

red Rock Canyon is beautiful. It reminded me of Sedona, AZ or the mountains about Albuquerque, NM. Pictured is John K. accompanied by our two scooters: my black Stella and his red Stella Fireball.

For the most part, we road through the park in groups of 2 and 3. Quite a few of us did stop at this plateau for some pics.

Stella and I stopped for a couple of pics.

At one point, John and I saw these Bighorn Sheep. What a treat.

At the end of the ride through the park, we stopped to get the group back together. Naturally, there a little bit of screwing around while we waited.

Once the group was back together, we went screaming through town for the gymkhana and concourse. There were more scooters there, including this beautiful Honda Gyro.

Some of the scooters gathered at Fred's Bar.

A pic of a scooter going over the jump on the gymkhana.

I'm not really a fan of Las Vegas, but I love scooters and scooter people. That made the trip worthwhile. I'm not sure if I'll being going back again next year or not, but I did have a good time this year.

Below is a youtube video done by Scooter Space. It gives you a good idea of the flavor of the rally. You can see my Stella at 0:33 in the video.

U-Haul to U-Ston (Houston)

2011-02-20T10:24:00.000-08:00

My oldest son moved to Houston a couple of months ago, but only took a car full of stuff. So, he flew back to Tucson, we rented a u-haul truck, loaded up his household good and drove it to Houston, actually, Kingwood, TX on the north side of Houston. It's about 1100 miles door to door.

If you've read my blog entry about the Iron Butt Ride, you know that I hate driving through El Paso. You can't by-pass it to the south, because of Mexico being in the way. I knew I could go through Las Cruces and go around that way, but that is probably an extra 100 miles. After a bit of research, I found Transmountain Road, aka Route 375. According to Google, it is 5 miles and 10 minutes further. Friends, I will NEVER, drive I-10 through El Paso again!

This is a view looking east from a little rest area on Transmountain. Fort Bliss is out there. I have several scooter friends in the Las Cruces, El Paso areas and wish we would have had time to seen them. We re-entered I-10 at N Americas Ave and resumed our eastward trek.

Stopped at an interesting Rest Area. This is a cool mural on the wall. Our plan was to drive as far as Ozona, TX (about 600 miles) and drive the rest of the way the 2nd day. 25-30 miles east of Fort Stockton, we got a blowout. We called U-haul and they sent a tire guy from Ozona (75 miles away) to come help. After a 3 hour delay, setting along side I-10 in the dark, we arrived at our hotel around 1130pm.

Thanks to Yelp!, I located the Cafe' Next Door and we had a very tasty breakfast for exceptionally good prices. ($4 for my 3-eggs ham and cheese omelet with taters and toast.)

We stopped for fuel and more coffee in the town of Junction. Fueled up next door to Coopers. I just had to take a picture of their sign. If I have to explain to you why it's funny, you shouldn't be hearing it, so please don't ask.

My son was born in San Antonio, but hasn't been there since he was 2 or 3 years old, so we decided to take some extra time and sightsee a bit. Naturally, we stopped at the Alamo.

We took a boat along the Riverwalk.

Stopped for lunch at Casa Rio, the oldest restaurant on the Riverwalk. Foursquare folks gave it mixed reviews, but we decided to try it as much for it's locale as for the food. We weren't disappointed. The food was super, prices were very good and so was the service.

The worst part of San Antonio is driving the Texas Hill Country and not having a scooter. I didn't ride when we lived there, but I can see how there are many great rides there.

Here is the street where my son lives. After living in Arizona for a few years, seeing trees and water are quite the treat. I know it's humid, but it sure is pretty. We took a few back roads in the little bit of time I was there, but it sure looks like there are some good riding roads here as well. In town, not so much. The highways in Houston are a nightmare.

In the one full free day I was there, we decided to take a trip to La Porte, TX to see the San Jacinto Battleground. On the way, we saw a sign for the USS Texas museum and stopped there as well. I had never seen a REAL battleship before and had a blast.

Here's a view of the San Jacinto Memorial taken from the park area near the Texas. If you look carefully inside the globe, you can see the US and TX flag flying.

This is looking from the memorial, right back where the previous photo was taken. That globe and flag pole are are the end of the reflecting pool. You can see the Texas in the upper right hand corner.

This is me, enjoying my tour of the Texas. These are the aft turrets, each housing 2X14 inch guns. Because we were the only people on the ship, at the time, we got a "behind the scenes" tour and got to go behind many locked doors.

After our little excursion, we started home. We were feeling hungry and stopped at the "Crawfish Shack" for dinner. This is a fun place. All the table are outside with wood chip floors. I had a great time with Nathan and we both learned some fun stuff about Houston and Texas history.

I'm looking forward to my next trip to Houston

Remiss Resolutions

2011-02-01T09:28:00.001-08:00

Okay, I have been a bad blogger and have not posted in 2 months. I have absolutely now excuse for the first month, although, I suppose I could try the old "Hey, it was the holiday season" ploy.

Nah, I'll just take responsibility for my lack of action.

Now, I do have a couple of good excuses for the second month. Here they are:

On the left is Lucius and on the right is Serenity. They are my grandtwins. My daughter and her husband moved in with my wife and I after finding out that they were having the twins. They were born on 1/12.

I expect that the picture above will be re-enacted multiple times over the coming years. Lucius shaking his fist and Serenity yawning at him. What do you think?

So, on to my 2011 scooter resolutions. Above is my current stable of scooters. The nearest is my newest bike, a SYM RV 250. I'm still getting used to it and have only put about 500 miles on it thus far. Behind that is the Genuine Stella. Just beyond that, partially covered is Iron Buddy.

Having added a 3rd scooter at the very end of 2010, I do not resolve to add another scooter to the current herd. I do love to ride so most of my resolutions will involve putting more miles on the scoots.

Today, 2/1, I went out and photographed the odometers of each bike. Above, Iron Buddy has 20,855 miles. I resolve to have more than 24k miles on I.B. by the end of the year.

I turned over 10k miles on the Stella on 1/12 and have added another 71 miles on her. I resolve to have 14.5k miles miles on her by 2011's end.

The '08 RV250 have a whopping 2,383 miles as of this morning. (I bought it with 1900 miles on the odo.) I resolve to have in excess of 7000 miles showing by the end of the year. I am, therefor, resolving to ride a minimum of (hmm, let's see carry the one, cross multiply, add the square root of pie..... ) 12,191 miles. That seem like a good distance to attempt.

Here's another pic of the RV250. They are pretty bikes. I'm getting 65mpg and have gotten it up to 80mph (indicated) with no difficulty at all. That gives me a 200 mile range and I can travel interstates without too much difficulty. All things considered, though, I still prefer my small wheeled scooters.

I also resolve to do my part to help this year's Sky Island Riders' rally to be our best yet. (It's only our second, so I'm not setting the bar too high.)

I further resolve to design and build a scooter theme rocking toy for the twins to ride when they are ready for it.

Ride on,

Howard

Arizona Adventures Part III

2010-11-26T14:07:00.000-08:00

I left off last time at the Coronado National Monument just below Geronimo Pass. The Nice lady at the visitor center and I talked for a while. She asked what my plans were and I told her that I was just out exploring for the day. She asked how I felt about birds. I told her that I'm not a bird watcher per se, but that they're okay.

She asked how I felt about Sandhill Cranes. I have fond memories of them when I was little, growing up in Roswell. The Sandhills would land in out fields every fall. I commented that I didn't think they would be here yet on their annual migration. She replied that there were several thousand in the area already and gave me directions.

I had to go through Bisbee, then on to the north and east of there. I was already planning on going to Bisbee, so decided, "What the heck, might as well." So off I went.

I left the park, til I hit Route 92 and turned toward Bisbee. The first little town is Palominas, AZ. I don't know what this domed building was originally built for, but it is deserted now. The sign at the entrance has only the word "church" on it, and that probably wasn't what it was originally anyway.

Several months ago, there was an article about Jimmy's Hotdog in Arizona Highways. I love hot dogs and when I drove past Jimmy's on my way into Bisbee, I made a u-turn and went back.

(Click on any picture to enlarge it.) I ordered a Chicago Dog and a Frito Pie. Both were very good.

That's Jimmy. He and his family are from Chicago and they "import" virtually everything they serve from the Chicago area to make sure it is as authentic as it can be. I love it. If you're now living here in Arizona and are pining for some real Chicago foods, go to Jimmy's.

After my tasty meal at Jimmy's, I meandered over to Central Highway. Passing this little house with a gallows with noose outside, resulted in another u-turn and a couple of pics. Is it left over from Halloween, or is it some kind of warning?

Are a couple more miles of dirt road, I found the sanctuary where the Sandhills reside for the winter. Most of them are out feeding for the day, but there were still several hundred here. They are impressive bird with wingspans up to 8 feet.

I had decided not to return to Bisbee. I checked out my map and saw to road that led back west to Tombstone. I had never been on either one and picked the one which appeared, on the map, to be a bit more windy. Gleeson Road was a few mile north of the bird area. I could return the way I came, but, instead, decided to follow another dirt road which went in a northerly direction. Not to bring politics into my blog, but I did come upon a couple of asses.

I passed this cool looking church on my previous adventure to the southeast corner of the state.

I turned on Gleeson Road and found this freshly dead rattle snake. It's just a foot or so long.

Gleeson is a ghost town. I don't know what this used to be, but it was pretty big. It had a nice pair of columns at its entrance.

The old dry goods store is still in pretty good shape.

Here is another one of the buildings. In the top right corner of it's front are the words "Joe Bono." I'm not sure what happened to Joe, but the building his business used to be in, is one of the few left in Gleeson.

The cemetery is very large. Surprisingly, there were headstones as new as 2002. I guess people who used to live here, wanted to buried here. Gleeson must have been a nice place where fond memories were formed.

Here's another view of the cemetery. Shortly after leaving Gleeson, the road turned to dirt. I continued driving toward Tombstone. I got the feeling that the van was making sounds it didn't usually make.

I stopped to look around and found that I had a flat. Well, I knew I didn't have a jack, because the one that came with the van broke the last time I changed a tire. Secondly, I was in the middle of nowhere, and didn't feel that I could get a service truck to my location. I decided to drive on it until I was close to Tombstone. Long story short, I drove til I hit pavement, the 3rd car that came past stopped, went and got a jaw and I put my spare on and started driving toward home.

I took Route 82 back toward Sonoita, because I didn't want to take the spare on 75mph interstate. Shortly after turning onto 82, you pass the ghost town of Fairbank. Quite a few of the buildings are still here, including the original schoolhouse.

I liked the late afternoon light. Look carefully and you can see the nearly full moon above this old building.

Here's the moon again above the hills.

I liked the way the shadows were falling on the sides of the hills.

Amber waves of grass with grazing cattle in the late afternoon.

This completed my little adventure. I got new tires a few days later so I'm ready for the next drive. My wife wants to come along next time. That should be fun.

I hope you enjoy the photos. If you want more specific directions to any of these places, drop me aline.

Ride on,

Howard

Arizona Adventures Part II

2010-11-23T20:55:00.000-08:00

The week after driving out to the far southwest corner of Arizona to get pics for my travel blog and to scout some territory for possible upcoming scooter rides, I decided to do another ride, just a tad bit closer to home. this route would take me almost due south very near the Mexican border, then east, around the south side of the Huachuca Mountains, east to Bisbee, then north(ish) to Tombstone and then lazily returning home. Like the previous week's trip, I was taking my van.

I had ridden to Parker Canyon Lake almost a year ago as an early training run for the Iron Butt ride. In looking at the map, I had noticed that there was a very minor road that went south of there and looped back to the east and came out near Sierra Vista. I didn't have the time, then, to ride it, but i logged that info for another day. That day had come.

The ride down Scenic Route 83, aka Sonoita Highway, is always beautiful. Sonoita is Arizona wine country. There are rolling hills, which (this time of year) are covered with amber waves of tall brown grass.

How many vineyards have a large yucca in the middle of them?

Once I got to Sonoita, I decided to check out a detour around to Elgin, AZ, which is the center of the wine growing area. I don't drink wine, but having spent some of my early years on a farm, I can appreciate agriculture. The drive around Upper Elgin Road did not disappoint me. I had been here before, but once I got to Elgin's only significant intersection, I turned due south. My Arizona map told me that turning either way would return me to Route 83, so I went the way I had never been before.

I reached 83 and continued south, toward Parker Canyon Lake. Our scooter club in contemplating a camping ride there in the spring, so I wanted to check it out, with that in mind.

Not far from returning to 83, I passed through the quasi-ghost town of Canelo. The road begins to climb along the west wall of Lyle Canyon. I snapped a couple pics looking down into the canyon and drove on.

I approached what is one of my favorite areas. There is a ranch house which these beautiful corrals, which look like they are 100 years old. There are some stone walls around there as well.

The road narrows significantly here and the road begins to climb along a series of tight switchbacks. It would be treacherous here if there were ice on the road. Since it is around 5000 feet elevation, ice would be a real possibility in the winter.

A long straight stretch of dirt.

I drove around the lake, took mental notes and took some pics.

Looks like it will be a good place. Now it was back to the point I had seen on the map; the place where my adventure began.

I knew from Google Maps that the bottom end of route 83 was dirt.

I came across a snake sunbathing in the road.

There is a little community around the lake. After only a couple of miles, I had left most of the signs of civilization (except the road, of course) behind.

I don't know how old the bridge is, but it looked cool.

As I reached the top of a hill, I could see a large expanse of grassland off to the southwest.

As the road continued, the scenery became increasingly amazing.

You can see the road I came in on going down the side of the mountain.

Pics don't do it justice, but as I gained elevation and could see more and more of that grassland area, it was reminding me of Africa. I was imagining elephants, giraffe and lions roaming around down there. It was incredible.

I passed the sign that told me I was gazing down into the San Rafael Valley.

I finally reached the top of what I now know is called Montezuma Pass. The view from this point was astounding!

Scary signs like this are everywhere.

I had a nice conversation with a young Army private who is assigned to an observation post (O.P. as we called them in the Army) at the top of the pass where they can look directly down in to Mexico and watch for illegal activity. I asked how much further it was to asphalt and was told it was less than 10 minutes.

It was more like 15 minutes and the went down a series of wicked switchbacks, but it sure was fun. There was stream trickling down the middle of this little canyon.

Down at the bottom of this is the visitors' center.

Border Patrol agents cruising on their ATV's.

I passed a sign that said something about a trailhead that leads to Coronado Cave, then I arrived at the Coronado National Memorial visitors' center.

Top center of this pic is Geronimo Pass as seen from the east side.

The rangers there were exceedingly kind and helpful. I mentioned the fact that they were kind of off the beaten path and she replied with a smile, "No one EVER comes here by accident." she is very right. You have to make the decision and plot your route to come here, but it is SOOOO worth it. I don't know when I'll get back, but I am sure looking forward to it.

This was only the first half of my adventure that day. Two more ghost towns, sandhill cranes, Chicago come to live in Bisbee and a blowout were in the next part of that day.

Ride on,

Howard

Arizona Adventures Part I

2010-11-18T19:02:00.000-08:00

As you may recall, I am in the process of writing a series of articles about riding/driving in Southern Arizona entitled "Riding SoAZ." It can be found on our scooter club website. I have been trying to use my own photos for all of it as well. (I haven't quite succeeded, but the vast majority are mine.) Well, I realized as was getting into the next few sections, that, not only do I not have any photos of much of the area, but I actually had never been to several of the locations as an adult. So, I decided to head out to far corner of southeastern AZ for pics and a feel for the territory.

Unfortunately, I could not ride my scooter. The first area I wanted to cover was to be about a 500 mile trip. I have gone that far on the scoot, but it would take too much time to do so in a single day. Add the fact that I needed to explore a bit AND take pictures and it is really out of the question for a 150cc scooter. So, in the mini-van I hopped.

My travel pieces tend to ignore the interstates. Looking at the above pic taken between Benson and Willcox, can you blame me? However, I wanted to get to the area in question as quickly as possible, so I-10 it was. The plan was to go just into New Mexico and take Route 80 south. I wanted to go to the towns of Portal, Rodeo and Douglas first.
When I got to San Simon, AZ, I saw a sign that said "Portal - 25 miles." Ever keen for an adventure, I exited the interstate and headed south on some black top, which as you can see above, quickly turned into dirt 4-5 miles later. No problem. At least you can see oncoming cars a long ways away by looking for dirt clouds.
"Warning - Forest Road #42 Impassable to ALL vehicles over 28 feet long." At least the road would probably be fun to drive. Those are the Chiricahua Mountains in the background and Portal is located on the east side of them.
As Yogi Berra says, "When you come to a fork in the road..... take it." So I did. I went left where the sign says it's 9 more miles to Portal. The road was a tad rough in spots, but the scenery was great.

I arrived in Portal with no difficulty. The Portal Store, Cafe' and Lodge is the main hub of activity. The store in tiny and there is no fuel. If you're headed this way on a smaller bike, gas up in Willcox or San Simon. There is also fuel at "Road Forks" which is where Rte 80 meets I-10. (Remember the original plan?"

I wonder how good the rock selling business is there? If you look very carefully, the sign also says "Free Local Delivery." That clinches it for me. I proceeded past Portal going west. I was also here to see Cave Creek and check it out as a possible scooter club destination.

Yup, there's a creek here.
Critters, too. That's a pair of little bucks scappin'. There were several other head in this little herd of mule deer as well. It was fun to watch.. I enjoyed the amazing scenery in the canyon, then went back through Portal, back to Route 80 and actually into New Mexico briefly.
I was surprised to see this large monument on the road side. I looked at it closer and it the "Geronimo Surrenders" monument. Cochise was also very active in these parts.

If you closely in the center of this pic, it is said that Cochise's spirit is so strong, that you can see his face in the mountains. Can you see it?

I continued south on 80, noticing old railway bridges on the west side of the road. I tried to get a pic of the old rail bed. Can you make it out in the pic above? I think I need to get a bit higher. I was standing on the side of the van, but it's just not enough. On in to Douglas I went.
The Douglas police station is actually the old train depot. Very cool in my opinion. Douglas is right on the Mexican border. I had gone as far south as I could. Now my plan was to loop back up the west side of the Chiricahuas, up the Sulphur Springs Valley then over to the Chiricahua National Monument.
There is a lot of farming and ranching the Sulphur Springs Valley. Afterward, I looked up some additional information about the area. One article said that they had solar powered irrigation here in 1904! Amazing!
Just as you enter the national monument, there is a tiny cemetery. I love old cemeteries. This wouldn't be the last one of this trip, either.
I began climbing and came into pine trees. I always love driving from desert into trees. The rapid change never ceases to amaze me.
Chiricahua National Monument is known for it's amazing rock formations. They are everywhere.
I managed to wave to myself.
I snagged the pics I wanted, and headed back to Tucson. It was a lovely trip. It would have been better on a scooter, but I'm trying to remedy that as well. I am in the process of trying to sell one scooter, in order to buy a bigger, faster scoot. I'll let you know how that goes.

I actually took these pics on 11/8. today I took another, similar drive today, 11/8. I'll try to post those and the associate adventure, tomorrow.

Ride on,

Howard

Fall Classic Frenzy

2010-11-09T07:49:00.000-08:00

This past Friday and Saturday I attended my 5th scooter rally of 2010. For someone who has said he's not really into rallies, I sure went to a lot of them. Well, five seems like a lot to me. I went to one two years ago and two last year.

This one was the Fall Classic, aka the Tucson-Nogales Rally. This it's 23rd year which, I'm told, makes it one of the nation's longest running rallies. It is a weekend "camping rally." For many years the rally started with a Meet & Greet at the historic Hotel Congress in downtown Tucson. Due, in part, to recent renovations, there is no longer as much room for scooters as in the past, so it was moved to "The Hut."

The Hut, obviously, is a tiki-themed bar on 4th Ave. The giant tiki head was moved to here from a local miniature golf course that closed. I think it's an awesome addition. Additionally, it's quirky enough to make it a perfect venue for quirky scooterists, don't you think?

The 2008 Fall Classic was the first rally I ever attended. I enjoyed looking at all the scoots, but didn't really feel like a part of it. After almost 3 years of riding, I finally know enough other scooterists to feel more like a part of things. I've never had any desire to camp with the rally, but after feeling welcomed into "the fold," I may be willing to give it a try next year.

The meet and greet was great fun. We had some DJ's spinning classic northern soul music. Clubs from around the southwest were present. I got to meet some new people and see some scooter folk I hadn't seen in quite a while.

Saturday morning is when the "Nogales" part of the Tucson-Nogales Rally happens. Nogales, AZ is about 50 miles south of Tucson on I-19. Every year the rally makes that 50 miles into about 100 by riding east to Vail, then south, through Arizona wine country, to Sonoita, then back west to the campground. It is a beautiful ride and the weather was perfect. temps were in the upper 70's. But it was not to be a perfect ride for me. . . . . . . . (Insert suspenseful music here)

Iron Buddy and I set up to shoot a short video of the ride out from the Hut. I pulled into the rear of the group after they all passed me, then got stuck at a light. There were a couple of other lights that I got stopped at, so when I finally hit Aviation Parkway, I hammered the throttle to catch up. I had gone a mile or so and was just catching the back of the pack when my drive belt exploded and Iron Buddy and I coasted to a stop.

I figured my day and the rally were lost. The Scoot Over sag wagon pulled up and when they told me that they had no replacement belts on board, I knew I was done. As Jason pulled away, he told me the shop was open and to give Ron a call.

As I began pushing my poor scooter to a main street so that I could be found more easily, my phone rang. It was Ron, at Scoot Over. He told me not to worry and that they were sending the truck over to help me get back on the road. Huzzah!

Long story - short: I got picked up, got to the garage where we replaced the belt. We called and found out where the group was and I left trying to catch up. I didn't make it out of the parking lot and the rear wheel locked up. DRAT! Limped back to the garage where we found that my NCY performance clutch was jacked up. We replaced the clutch with a stock one and off I went again, almost an hour behind the pack.

The ride stops in Vail for 20-30 minutes, then again in Sonoita for 20-30 minutes before riding into the Campground near Nogales. I figured if I ran really hard, I might could catch the group at Sonoita. I rode the shortest way I knew and I actually caught them in Sonoita. It was a glorious sight when I topped the hill and saw all those beautiful scooters!

Unfortunately, they were pulling out just as I pulled in. I was hungry, thirsty and in need of fuel. I addressed all three areas and raced out of town. "I caught 'em once, I'll catch 'em again" i thought as I began to ride. And i did catch them about 10 miles outside of Nogales. I kept passing scooters until I caught up with John, who was riding my Stella (another story of broken scoots.) We rode together to the campground.

I was having a great time. There was the human taco (a Pharoes prospect)

Here's one of the "Rally Dogs." He came up with Jason in the SAG wagon.
Here's much of the camp as seen from the hill to the south.
Ahhh! the chuckwagon. This was the first year I hung out long enough to eat. It was pretty darned tasty.

After running WOT up I-19 for 45 miles, Sean's Riva finally asked for a break.

There was a beautiful sunset that evening. Sean and I got a great view as we waited for his scoot to cool down.

I would have preferred to have ridden WITH the rally all the way. It is nice, however, to know just what the Iron Buddy can do. I hope to make it to five more rallies in 2011, but I don't know if I will. I do know that I will attend the 20011 Fall Classic and I'll be looking forward to it.

By the way, here is the unedited video of the ride out, that wound up putting me at the back of the pack.

Ride on,

Howard

Rally Road Trip

2010-10-25T14:41:00.000-07:00

The Great Southwest Scooter Fiesta was held this past weekend. This is the second time it was held and it is hosted by the Greater Phoenix Scooter Club. Our Tucson club has done a few things with the Phoenix club and so, a few of us decided to make the trip to support this rally.

Although Arizona has great weather suitable for year-round riding, (at least for some of us) there are not that many rallies. Therefore, I try to get to as many of them as I can. I think it's important so that people are encouraged to continue planing rallies in the future. Tucson is home to one of the longest running rallies in the nation: the Tucson-Nogales Fall Classic, but that is another post.

There were four of us who decided to make this road trip. Since we all (initially) had all of Friday off, we decided to make a bit of an adventure out of it and take the scenic (aka "long") way to the Phoenix area. Using the most direct route, it is about 121 miles from Tucson to Gilbert. The route we took was approximately 200 miles.

John was having scooter problems and had asked to borrow my Stella. No problem, now I had both of my scooters going to the rally! John met me at my house to load up our scoots for the weekend. We then drove to Catalina, AZ, to meet up with Stan and his Honda Helix, then we headed north. At the last minute, Sean's final exam at school was changed, so he decided he would just meet us in Phoenix Friday evening. there would be three of us riding up together.

If you've seen any of my "Riding SoAZ" posts, I've mentioned taking Route 77 out of Tucson before. 77 is rural and if you take it all the way, it eventually ends in Holbrook, AZ, about 60 miles east of Flagstaff. Our journey only had us taking it as far as Globe, though.

Taking the Stella (60mpg) and the Iron Buddy (70-80mpg) necessitated that we stop relatively often for fuel as well as for butt rests. Also, we had all day Friday to get there and so, weren't in a hurry. I had built some extra time into our schedule for site seeing, picture taking and the like as well.

Outside of Oracle there is a 12 mile stretch of 7% grade downhill. I've done this on the scoot before, but it was even more fun with a group. We stopped for our first fuel in Winkelman, a little mining town. There was a lot of climbing from here to Globe (from 2000' to over 5000') but all three scoots did fine.

Winkelman, AZ

Stan took over the lead in Globe because he had a a couple of places he wanted to show us in Miami, which is just west of Globe on US60. Stan lived there a few years back and he is an excellent tour guide. We stopped for bit in Miami and listened raptly to Stan's stories of Miami's past.

Antique Store in Miami

Looking down Main St in Miami

We climbed again from Globe to Top of the World, AZ. You climb some pretty steep grade as you pass the mine outside of Miami. After Top of the World, it's all downhill to Superior. There are a lot of trucks around here so I was always looking behind me for fear that a truck would lose its brakes and come careening down toward us.

There was additional excitement when we hit the tunnel nearing Superior. The warning signs advised us to turn our headlights on as the tunnel lights were out. They were right. The lights were out and our little headlights didn't light they way too much. It was seriously dark in there.

Superior was a fuel and food stop, but first Stan took us on another short tour. Superior was where the movies "U-Turn" and "8-legged Freaks" were shot and Stan showed us some points of interest. We went to the Buckboard Cafe for lunch. The service was good but the food was not all the good. Our treat here was going to the World's Smallest Museum. It's pretty hokey, but in a fun, Route 66-Americana, kind of way.

World's Smallest Museum in Superior

From Superior, we zoomed toward our hotel in Mesa. It started to sprinkle and bit and the skies had been very dark since before reaching Globe, but those few sprinkles were all we got. The weather for the rest of the weekend was amazing.

From US60 we took Old West Highway to Apache Trail (which is old US60). What a treat, If you live in or visit Phoenix, you should take a drive down Apache Trail. It's like a time capsule from the 50's or 60's. There are lots of cool restaurants and old motor hotels. We passed by the Buckhorn Motel and we all dearly wished it was still open so we could have stayed there.

After checking in and resting a bit, we went over to the rally's first meet-up at Victory BMW and we then rode to dinner at Joe's Real BBQ. It was good seeing some scooter friends from the Phoenix group again. Waiting in line is never difficult when you're shooting the breeze with friends. The food wasn't as good as I remembered last year, but it wasn't bad.

Friday night at Joe's Real BBQ

Sean got out of school later than planned and texted at 6pm to say he had finally left Tucson and would meet us at Joe's, so we waited.... and waited ...... and waited. It takes some stones to ride a small scooter 120 miles in the dark, and that's what he did. Joe's was closed and the parking lot was empty, but Sean arrived around 9:30. We saddled up and rode safely to our hotel.

Stan had written a few places down where he wanted to try to eat while in Phoenix. As it turned out, Matt's Big Breakfast (featured on the Food Network's Diners Drive-Ins and Dives) was on his list AND was a meet up location for the rally. Google informed us that it would take at least an hour to ride to Matt's, so we knew we had an early start coming. Sean and John wimped out as Stan and I set our alarm for 5:15am.

I figured that at 5:30 on a Saturday morning it would be fairly easy to ride US60 on the scoots. I was wrong. There was traffic than I figured and it was a bit scary. An hour and 5 minutes later, Stan and I made it to Matt's. I was pretty pleased with my breakfast, but Stan wasn't impressed with his.

It was "every scoot for itself" for the ride to Joe's Farm Grill (the rally's main event) so Stan and I plotted out a different route than the one we came in on and headed for Gilbert. neither of us knows much about the streets in Phoenix, but it didn't matter. That's one thing I like about the guys I rode with, they are always ready for an adventure.

The Lawn at Joe's Farm Grill

Scooters Lined up in front of the coffee shop at Joe's

We made it to Joe's with no problem, parked the scoots and began to take in the rally activities. In my opinion, Saturday's highlight was the ride to Saguaro Lake. We left around 3:00pm and 20-30 scooters headed out for the lake. Once you get out of town, this ride is beautiful. There are amazing desert views, then cliffs, then you arrive at the lake. We did this ride last years and it is excellent. The road has some nice twists and turns in it as well.

Our bikes at Saguaro Lake

The four of us Sky Island Riders finished the ride and found our way to Vito's Pizza Place for dinner. we all agreed that the food here was very, very good and the prices were reasonable. The service was good, too. An additional bonus is that they have a scooter painted on the outside or the restaurant. How cool is that?

Vito's - Check out the scooter on the wall

Sunday morning's rally ride was another ride to downtown Phoenix. We figured that since we had already ridden there to go to Matt's, we would load up and head toward home.

Have you ever noticed that saddle time, and its associated butt pain, is cumulative if you don't take at least 2-3 days off? I have. As we started riding toward Tucson, I needed to stop more and more frequently to stretch.

On the way out of town we stopped for fuel, then again at the 5 & Diner for breakfast. I think we were all very pleased with our food and Pebbles, our waitress, was a delight. We took Power Road south to Hunt Highway, then southeast toward Florence.

Just outside of Florence is Poston Butte, aka "F" Mountain. We thought about trying to riding to the top, but the trail is too steep and rocky, so we hiked it. We had no idea it was called Poston Butte until I looked it up while writing this. I was raised in Arizona and didn't know that Charles Poston is known as the Father of Arizona. Did you know that? Apparently he wanted to build and Temple to the Sun at the top of this little mountain.

From "F" Mountain, we rode the 2 miles in to Florence, got gas and stopped in the little park to rest a bit more. Since we were in Florence and none of the other guys had ever been there, we then stopped in at the Florence Prison gift shop. It's a fun little place and if you buy something that an inmate made, the proceeds help the inmate pay restitution to his victim(s).

Hunt Highway dumps you out onto Route 79 which eventually dumps you out onto Route 77 which becomes Oracle Road. the more I ride on Oracle, the less I like it. We have had a couple of close calls on group rides. Traffic moves fast and there isn't that much to look at, so I decided to take the Park Link Rd cutoff and come in to Tucson via the I-10 frontage road. this adds a few mile to the trip, but I felt like it would be a bit more fun and possibly safer. Plus, I was the only one of the four of us who had been on it before.

I got home about 7 hours after leaving the hotel. We had logged in over 500 miles during the three days and had had a great time. Both of my scooter ran great. None of us had any mechanical failures. We had some good food and shared some funny stories. To me, that equals a great weekend.

Ride on,

Howard

Pimping My Ride

2010-09-29T09:29:00.000-07:00

I have just finished the biggest part of my Buddy's customization. I hadn't posted anything about it because....... uh, I don't know. I was wanting it to be secret, but I'm really not sure why. I guess I just wanted to be able to make a production out of the unveiling.

So, here's how it happened: I badly injured my Buddy a couple of months ago. I was changing variator weights (something which I've done a number of times in the past) and somehow managed to put the variator plate on a little crooked, or catawampus as we say back home. I tightened all the nuts and took off for a test drive. The plate seems to have straightened out. Probably when I hit a bump just right. This caused the formerly tight nut and variator plate, to be just a tiny bit loose, resulting in some wobbling, vibration and gawdawful noises coming from of the aforementioned variator plate.

I got the scooter shut down as soon as I could get off the road. Long story short, the variator plate welded itself (through the wonder of friction) to the crankshaft. I was unable to remove it, now were the fine folks at Scoot Over. So, through every fault of my own, I needed a new crankshaft and variator.

The crankshaft is not an expensive part, in itself, however (Ever notice how that word "however" frequently means that your bank account is about to be assaulted?) it takes a LOT of labor to get to it. The engine case must be split open, hence you spend one amount on the crankshaft and much more than that on labor.

Ron, the mechanic at Scoot Over, and I have discussed modifying my motor for more power and since the entire motor was about to have major vehicular surgery, we decided to do the modification and save me the cost of labor to open the engine case at another time.

Ron did a little research and presented me with several options:

Upgrade to the 161cc motor. This is common for the 125cc scooters, but since I have a 150cc Buddy, it doesn't really give much increase for the money spent.
Upgrade to the 171cc kit. This option is less common and for a bit more money for the kit, gives me a 21cc boost.
Upgrade to the NCY 62mm cylinder kit. I had seen references made to this kit, but have never heard of anyone ever having installed it on their scooter. Hmmm, what might be a one-of-a-kind motor? I had to have it.

So began my journey. I had Ron order the kit. Additionally, I added the 61mm Big Valve Head and the new crank shaft.

After completing the Saddle Sore 1000, Iron Butt ride, we decided to start calling my Scooter "Iron Buddy." So, while Ron was rebuilding my scooter's power plant, I started thinking of how to make my scoot look Iron - esque. I have never liked the blue color of the St Tropez and early on had gotten some quotes to repaint it. A simple, one color paint job was about $400, but a two-tone metallic, mildly customized paint job was quoted to me at $3000! I can't afford custom paint work.

Shelby, at Scoot Over, referred me to Signs Now to look at a vinyl wrap. After looking a lot of images, my wife and I picked out a rusty, rivetted, steel plate graphic image. I had kind of a "Mad Max" meets "steam punk" in mind. After getting a sample printed out, I went to Scoot Over and held it up against the part of the Buddy that couldn't be wrapped. It didn't match at all, but Ron suggested that it would look good with the "Sunset Orange" Buddy body panels. It did.

"In for a penny, in for a pound" as the old saying goes, so I had Scoot Over order the new panels. Now the Buddy would have a "new" motor, new look panels on the front and rear and brand new panels in the middle.

There were some bumps in the road. The 183cc kit wouldn't just "bolt on." The cylinder had to be bored out to accommodate the new piston. That took a while. Sign Now had a printer go down and the other one run out of ink as well as a couple of high profile, high dollar jobs that put Iron Buddy on the back burner for a few days.

Finally, after a bit more than a month, all the parts were in place. Scoot Over was kind enough to let me keep Buddy in their garage and provided with the tools and expertise required to put Iron Buddy back together. Unlike Humpty Dumpty, this was going back together again!

It took about 10 hours, but I did it. Naturally, the first thing I did was to ride over the the GGR scooter club garage to show him off. Then I got the cameras and took some stills and some video. I didn't just want to post a couple of still pics on Modern Buddy and Facebook, so I made a little movie. It's only the second movie I've ever made, but I think it gets the point a cross:

Am I done? Of course not. The wheels are still blue. I think I will just paint them for now, but I am going to look for custom wheels. Ron and I are also looking at a new carburetor.

Ride on,

Howard

Camera Mount Mayhem

2010-09-14T12:21:00.000-07:00

As mentioned in my previous post, I have been working a lot the Riding SoAZ series on the Sky Island Riders site. One of the things I had wanted to do, in order to make it different for most travel blog entries, was to put short videos of some of the roads the I talk about.

For this, I purchased a cheap video camera from Big Lots. I didn't want to risk a expensive camera falling off the bike in the middle of a bumpy road. Found this inexpensive Polaroid. It was actually the second one I tried. The quality on the first was so appalling that I returned it and got this one.

Now the problem was how to attack the camera to this scooter:

In order to get the sensation of riding on the road, I wanted to attach to the front of the scooter. Stella has the front rack and it should be easy, right? Wrong!

First obstacle: How to attach the camera to the rack. I could simply tape the camera on, but that gets sticky residue all over everything. Plus, every time I needed to review what I had just filmed, it would be a pain in the butt to take the camera off, review, then re-tape it. I needed something else.

I decided that I needed to create some kind of cradle in which to put the camera. Then I could attached the cradle to the bike and remove the camera whenever I needed. So, I did what anyone else would do: I grabbed an empty cereal box (Apple Cinnamon Cheerios for the record.)

I cut out the front and folded it to the size of the camera then taped it together with packing tape. I wasn't thinking about it at the time, so I don't have pics of the phase of the build. I then cut out a hole for the lens and another hole, on the opposite side, for the controls. I didn't bother with a window in the box for the camera's screen, since I would be riding as I filmed and it wouldn't be safe to be trying to watch the screen.

I made my first attempt to attach my new "cradle" to Stella's rack. I ran in to two problems. First, the bars on the rack are horizontal. I had cut holes on either side of the cradle and inserted zip ties, but in that configuration, I could only attack to something vertical.

Second, I realized that if I did attach to the rack, anything done tight enough to hold the camera securely, would crush the cardboard as soon as I pulled out the camera. So, I kept thinking. I gathered more supplies:

Zip ties, duct tape (You didn't think I'd try any project without duct tape, did you?) bandage scissors, screwdriver and that corrugated plastic stuff. We had some left over from one of my wife's quilting projects.

I decided that I needed a rigid "cradle" to protect the first cradle from be crushed. Additionally, I needed a way to secure this new cradle to a horizontal bar. (Horizontal Bar - Is that a place people who are ALREADY drunk to go and party?) At any rate, I folded a couple of corrugated plastic strips around the bottom of the cardboard box and secured it with duct tape. ( Insert appropriate work grunt here.) Now it looks like this:

The pic on the left shows the back of the box and camera with the controls visible. The middle pic shows a profile view and the last pic is of the front of the whole setup. Now to attach to assembly to the rack. Where are those zip ties?

The pic above who two zip ties facing opposite directions. I wasn't sure how to place them until I got it on the bike. It mounted on pretty well, until I realized that, in my creative excitement, I had forgotten to think of a way to secure the top of the cradle as well as the bottom. Some more corrugated plastic, zip ties and duct tape later and voila':

I cut two short strips of plastic and taped them on either side of the back of the box, then fed the zip ties down through the corrugs (or whatever they call those tunnels in the cardboard.) Likewise I cut slits in the bottom pieces of plastic and fed another pair of zip ties through there. This allowed me to attach easily to the horizontal bars.

The final hurdle was aiming the camera. Lateral placement was a given. The camera is looking the same direction as the scooter. Vertical aiming was a slight problem. If you look at the two pics above, you can see the springs. The part of the rack I have attached to, is spring loaded and you pull it down and the spring helps you secure things you may be carrying. It neutral position is slightly more than 90 degrees. Wait! Let me get some more zip ties:

They we go! I used 3 zip ties to pull the rack forward a bit. I made several test runs down my street to check the aim and carefully adjusted the ties until the camera's view was what I wanted. The camera fits in the box pretty snugly (so it won't bounce out) so I put a hole in the bottom of the cradle and use the small screwdriver to push it up and out between shots.

How does it work? Here is one of my first attempts:

Ride on,

Howard

Busy, Busy

2010-09-06T09:00:00.000-07:00

I am certain that the title for this entry "Busy, Busy" has been by many bloggers for a lame excuse on why they have written nothing in quite a while. I am no different. I do have an an excuse, so, please, allow me to tell you what it is. After all, if an excuse told in the woods, and there was no one there to here it, was there really an excuse at all?

As you may know, I also write the blog for our local Tucson scooter club, the Sky Island Riders. Much of the stuff on the website is club specific: photos, video and our forum/bulletin board, for example.

In my mind's eye however, I have also wanted the blog, and it's associated data, to become a resource for people who live in, or travel to, Southern Arizona. Not just for scooterists, either. Motorcyclists, bicyclists or even people who just want to enjoy our state. That is one reason I started the "Ride Maps" tab. It lists maps of various rides around Tucson, but also include routes to Phoenix which don't require the interstate.

Three months or so ago, I thought of another idea. I thought of writing a series of posts about riding/driving in Southern AZ, which I have entitled "Riding SoAZ." I first defined Southern AZ, then subdivided that region into smaller areas to write about. I had decided to make each post about 1000 words long and add photos and hot links to the various points of interest that have websites. Most of the photos are my own. (Which means the quality isn't that great.)

Part VII is posted now and part VIII is almost complete. If you haven't already checked it out, you can find Part I here:

Riding SoAZ

I didn't quite finish writing about riding in Tucson, but felt like people who were reading to learn about outlying places might get bored, so I moved to the rural areas and I will return and finish Tucson later, probably after I finish the rural areas.

So, that is my excuse for not writing here lately. Is it a good one? I've written well over 10k words for Sky Island Riders, not to mention the time on the scooter to go out and get photos.

In other news, the editor of "Iron Butt" magazine had contacted me shortly after I completed the Saddle Sore 1000 and asked if he could publish my story. I thought long and hard about it (about 1 second) and said "Yes!" I have never been in a magazine before, so this sounded quite exciting.

Well, the day before yesterday, my copy finally arrived. He actually used my blog entry from this blog. I don't know what it says about my writing or his editing, but the magazine article is virtually unchanged from my original entry. So, without further adieu, here's the cover:

Naturally, I quickly flipped to the table of contents to find my piece.
There it is! Page 46! No picture here, but I flipped to page 46:
I am kind of flattered that it is called "Extreme Rides."

I really enjoyed the entire magazine. I have always enjoyed long hours in the saddle of my scooter. I don't put in the miles that the motorcyclists do, but I have put in some major hours.

Future Fun

2010-07-21T08:47:00.000-07:00

I am really stoked. I have started working on next year's scooter rally. As you may recall, our club hosted a scooter rally, this past May. It was the Tucson May Day Rally. I was a little disappointed at first, but I eventually realized that my expectations had been a bit too high. After a couple of weeks, I realized that it was a pretty darn good first effort. Not wanting to be a “flash in the pan,” we had an after action meeting and talked about what went well, what could have been better, etc, etc, in anticipation of another rally.I had wanted to do the rally as a fund raiser for a local charity, but started too late and couldn’t get it together.

I decided that I would started earlier this year and have actually been thinking about the 2011 rally quite a bit. I have already decided to change the name, but not the date. May Day doesn’t really mean anything anymore to most Americans and so, coming up with some kind of consistent theme for a “May Day Rally” is difficult. Since we are located in the southwest, some kind of western theme seems appropriate. This makes the choosing of venues, destinations, patch/logo designs, games etc, a lot easier. I’m fairly certain that is the direction we will be going.

Regarding charities, I had mentioned my search to the club and asked if anyone new of a local charity that might be interested in working with a rat-tag bunch of scooterists on a rally and raise a bit of money as well. Up steps Paul Tumarkin who mentions that he knows someone at Beads of Courage (hereafter referred to as BoC.), who just might be interested. BoC works with seriously ill children. As a nurse and father of five children myself, this organization appealed to me.

Long story, short, Paul contacted Jean Baruch, from BoC, who expressed interest in the concept and we had a meeting together, today, between the three of us. I think the other two are as excited about this project as am I. Jean and BoC have a network of contacts in southern Arizona that, I feel, complements mine. Our goals and values seem to be compatible. We all have big plans and high expectations from our respective organizaions.

Jean is new to the idea of scooters and scooter rallies, so I told her how the May rally went and why we did things the way we did. She was very receptive and seemed to agree with my ideas of having a family-friendly, community centered event. She asked appropriate questions and when it came time to speak of the 2011 rally, she and Paul, already had some great ideas!

I want to be able to raise money for a charity, but at the same time, I want to be able to host an exciting, quality rally for scooterists. Using BoC’s status as a charitable organization, I think we will be able really get a lot more business to donate goods, services and $$ to make this rally ROCK!

Another exciting idea that came out of this meeting are some ways to integrate artists, scooters and kids into this rally. This way, we will be able to reach people who would never have any interest in something that was aimed at just scooters.

I am very excited about this rally and about meeting and working with new people.

Borrowed Rides, Test Rides and Reviews

2010-07-17T08:52:00.000-07:00

As I've mentioned in at least one previous post, scooter people are great folks. In the context of this post, I'm referring to the generous, sharing (and foolhardy) spirit that results in those scooter people who allow others to ride their scoots. I've run into a lot of those in the short time I've been riding. I've also done a couple of formal test rides/reviews lately that I wanted to mention.

Perhaps 6 months after I started scooting, I was at my local scooter shop and my second home, Scoot Over, when a guy riding a Big Ruckus pulled in. I had never seen one up close and was asking a few questions about the bike. The guy tossed my the keys and says "take it for a ride." I hesitated, because no one had ever done anything like that before, but he says "Really, it's okay. Have fun with it." Then he turned around and walked into the shop.

So, I went out and rode it. I was fun, but not as much fun as my Buddy. The Big Ruckus is 250cc and, as you can see above, has a lot to carry around. Subsequently, it is fairly slow accelerating from a stop, but it does have a decent top end. I love the rugged, industrial kind of look to them.

I mention the above incident only because it was the first. In the past month, similar incidents have happened and that's what resulted in this particular post. On Independence Day, Scoot Over hosted an awesome picnic. Some 25 scooters and their riders showed up. Naturally, we were all admiring one another's scoots.

One scooter I am hoping to own one day, is a vintage Lambretta. A young man at the picnic happened to have one and don't you know that he offered to let me take it out for a spin. So I did.

The one I rode in the blue and white Lammy in the middle of this pic. I love the long, low, sleek look of the Lambretta. I'm sorry, but I don't remember the year of this scoot, but it was a fun ride. One thing you have to get used to on vintage scooters, are vintage braking systems. Those drum brakes are a far cry from today's front disks.

A short while later, at the same picnic. I was offered my first ride on a moped. We have a local moped club (Las Tortugas aka The Turtles) and I had commented a few times that it must be fun to ride with them. The moped in question was a J.C. Penney "Pinto."

The moped is much different from a 150cc scooter, but still a lot of fun in their own right. I wast sure what to do with my feet. It felt weird to be moving along under power and yet, have pedals. I guess you get used to it. I am considering the possibility of adding a moped to my stable of 2-wheelers. I think riding with Las Tortugas sounds like a blast.

Last week, I was at Scoot Over when the new 220cc Blur arrived. The scooter community has been eagerly anticipating the arrival of this sporty scooter for a while. It just so happened that Ron finished prepping the bike just after I arrived. James offered me a test ride. There was no way I was turning that down. Here's the new Blur:

I am pretty old school when it comes to scooters, but I still appreciate the look of the Blur. I really like the grey and black. It reminds me of the Volkswagen Scirocco I owned years ago. As you would expect from 220cc, the Blur accelerates well. "Roll-on" acceleration is particularly good. The seat is as hard as a rock and I would be modifying or replacing it or ASAP if I had one. Riding position is forward and aggressive, like a sport bike. This takes some getting used to, but it does make for some nice cornering traits. Thanks to Scoot Over for letting me test ride it.

I stop by a nearby motorcycle shop from time to time because they carry a limited number of scooters from the Japanese companies. I was in there this week looking to see if they had a Yamaha Majesty in stock. (I've decided that I want a maxi-scoot in the stable as well.) While there, I was offered a test ride on the 2010 Can Am Spyder. The Spyder is a 3-wheeled, tadpole-style trike with a 1000cc sport bike motor. They look like this:

It was a blast to drive, uh, ride. I did a formal review of my experience on our club webite, here. I don't see myself ever having one, but if you get the chance to take one for a spin, do it.

I love being in a community where our rides are so diverse. I have nothing against homogenous groups like Goldwing, or trike, or moped clubs, but riding one another's rides is kind of moot, since everyone is on the same thing.

Ride on,

Howard

Iron Butt Ride Reflections

2010-06-14T16:39:00.000-07:00

It's been a month since completing the Iron Butt Ride. I won't know if the ride has been confirmed and accepted for another month or two. I have been asked a lot of questions about the ride and I've had time to reflect on it. My wife say it was a foolhardy thing to do. I agree with her. So, why did I do it?

Was it to get my "15 minutes of fame?"

Didn't we all want to be famous when we were kids? Some people never outgrow that desire. But, no, I don't think that was the reason. Don't get me wrong, I do enjoy having some degree of notoriety. But, the scooter community is pretty small, so, if it's fame I wanted, I would probably need to try something different.

Because it's there!

This is getting a bit closer. When I was still riding bicycles (I blew me knee out and can't ride anymore.) I was wanting to ride ever longer distances. I finished my first century ride (100 miles) and immediately noted that there were rides of 250 and even 500 miles. I had decided I wanted to work my way toward those. I wasn't wanting to set world records, but I did want to do something that most people hadn't done. I've always been a pretty average guy: average intelligence, average athletic ability, average height, build etc, etc. I did manage to marry a way above average wife, however. So, I guess I saw that Iron Butt ride and decided it would be a chance to do something that the average guy doesn't do.

That Middle Age Crisis thing.

I was a pretty good kid. I didn't take a lot of risks. There were things i wanted to do .....but didn't, girls I wanted to ask out ....but didn't, parts I should have auditioned for .....well, you get the idea. As a young man, I joined the Army. I wanted to be infantry or a tanker, but those skills don't translate well into the civilian world, so I passed. As an adult, I saw an excellent opportunity to start my own business, the need and the demand were there, but ...too risky. These are not things that I regret everyday, or at all, for that matter. They just are what they are. (I did take one huge risk as a young man. I fell in love with a beautiful, intelligent and witty young lady. The risky part was that we eloped when she was only 16 years old! That was over 26 years ago and she's still just as beautiful, intelligent and witty.) What does this have to do with Iron Butt Rides? Well, I knew that there was some degree of risk involved with this ride. Riding at night and on the interstate involved risk. I suppose that drew me to do it as well. Maybe I felt as if I owed myself another risk or two.

So What?
There isn't a lot of "exploring" or "discovery" that can be done by the average guy. It seems, sometimes, that everything has been done. But know what? It hasn't been done by me. I can explore my personal abilities and limits. I don't know that I've caught the Iron Butt "bug" but I will continue to ride. I will ride places to which I've never been. There won't usually be people there to congratulate or take video of me, but it won't matter. I ride because it pleases me and it probably makes me easier to get along with.

Ride on,

Howard

Epic Post for an Epic Ride

2010-05-16T16:13:00.000-07:00

As you may remember, I had set a goal to ride a 1000 mile “Iron Butt” ride, technically, a “Saddle Sore 1000.” This is a ride described by the Iron Butt Association as 1000 miles and must be completed in less than 24 continuous hours from the official start time. It is NOT based on actual riding time. At any rate, yesterday(5/15/10), I completed the ride, which I started at 1829 on 5/14/2010. The total elapsed time was 23 hours and 40 minutes.

First, a word of thanks: Thanks to my wife who, in spite of her better judgment, allowed me to go on the ride. Next, to my children, Nathan, Harmony and Joshua, who accompanied my on every mile in the “chase vehicle” encouraging me, keeping semis off my back, and keeping friends, family and others up to date with text messages and twitters. Finally, I need to thank Mike, Shelby and Ron at Scoot Over (goscootover.com) for their support. They gave me advice, free service and discounted tires etc to allow me to attempt this ride. THANK YOU everyone! I literally could not have done it without you.

PREPARATION

I'd been mentally preparing for a year or more. Actually physical preparation has been going on for a couple of months. I had told Mike, at Scoot Over, about the ride, so they agreed to “sponsor” the ride. They gave me a tune up and did some minor adjustments after my 500 mile test run in April. They also gave me a new rear tire for their cost.

I was concerned about visibility at night, both seeing and being seen. To be seen better, I went to a bike shop and bought some highly reflective tape and “dots” and liberally applied these to the rear, front and sides of the scoot. I have a reflective vest and I also bought a “Viewpoint Flashpoint Ultra” LED bicycle taillight which I attached to my vest. I figured to have it flashing at night. Is it legal? I don't know.

To help me see at night, I attached a bicycle headlight to the right hand side of the front cowl of the scooter. I finished the 500 mile ride at night and developed a fear of hitting an animal or something at night. The light point slightly to the right in hopes of giving me an additional split-second of reaction time in the event a deer or coyote were to run in front of me. I attached it with stick-on Velcro and, of course, duct tape. The picture was taken AFTER the ride and it all held together well. Did the light make any difference? Not likely, don't waste your time if you want to see better at night. Get a “real” headlight.

Route planning – I learned, after the test ride, that stopping too frequently is a time killer. For that ride, I stopped every 50 miles. My gas gauge isn't as accurate as it used to be, so I new I could go further between stops. I also learned that the Buddy doesn't get the gas mileage that it once did, so I couldn't stretch it too far. I decided on 70 mile “legs.” This worked out pretty well. Tucson to Wilcox, AZ to Lordsburg, NM to Deming, NM to Sunset View, NM to Fort Hancock, TX to Van Horn, TX are each about 70 miles. The final leg from Van Horn to Pecos is 90+ miles with no towns in between, so I knew we would be stopping on the roadside and filling from gas cans. I brought 4 extra gallons of gas along.

Timing – I decided to leave around sundown. I wanted to finish the ride in daylight, where my natural biorhythms would help me stay awake. I am routinely awake til midnight so I knew that riding til 1:00 or even 2:00 am wouldn't all that difficult for me, consciousness wise. I still worried a lot about night riding.

DEPARTURE Tucson - Wilcox

Fellow rider, Sean Lynch, met us at Mr T's Fuel to see me off and ride the first few miles with me. Additionally, he acted as witness for my Iron Butt paperwork and he presented me with a nice Gremlin Bell. (see http://www.gremlinbells.com/ for more info if you've never heard of them.) We didn't have a zip-tie, so the bell road along inside the storage bin on the scooter. Combine that with all the prayer that my wife was providing and everything turned out great.

My official departure time, according to the receipt, was 1829. Off to Wilcox! The temperature was about 90 degrees. At the time I was leaving, I honestly figured I could do this in about 22 hours. If I averaged 50mph, that is 20 hours of travel time. Average 7 minutes per stop, times 15 stops, and that gives me about 2 hours to spare. Silly me.

Starting odometer reading: 15,979

Sean accompanied me for about 15 miles, I waved as he left the exit. The first thing I notice is “Man are these cars and trucks moving fast.” The speed limit on Interstate-10 is 75mph. A short ways outside of Tucson, I hit the fastest speed I've ever done on the Buddy, 75mph, indicated. That is about 67 “real” mph. This was on a long, 5% grade going down into Benson, AZ.

As the darkness settles in, I thought of three things: 1. “It's getting cold out here.” 2. “I forgot to turn my brand new, super bright LED, blinking taillight on.” and 3. “My shoulders hurt.”

Wilcox – Lordsburg, NM

I was cold by the time I go to Wilcox. I ditched my summer weight gloves and put on my heavier, leather gloves with wool inserts. I also put on the wind breaker that I used all winter. One of the reasons I waited until May, was I wanted night-time temps of 60 degrees or better. It's one thing to ride to work for 30 minutes with temps in the 30's, but another to ride all night, I figured. Warmer clothes on, I added 1.2 gallons of gas to the scoot, turned on the taillight and hit the road.

Lordsburg, NM – Deming

My first thoughts of quitting occur, for two reasons: first, I was so cold that shaking chills had started. My teeth were chattering. However, every time I would seriously think about pulling over, packing it in and waiting for warmer temps, I would hit a pocket of warm air and start felling better. Once at Deming, I put the liner in my riding jacket.

The other thing that gave me pause, was that my motor started missing out at times. This had happened on the test ride as well. Ron, at Scoot Over, had looked for the cause, but couldn't reproduce it. I asked on Modern Buddy, my favorite scooter forum, and still couldn't find and fix it. I did replace my fuel vacuum petcock, thinking that might help with that AND my mileage issue, but it apparently fixed neither.

The other issue that came up during this leg was speed. From Tucson to Deming is a steady climb. Yes, there are a couple of very nice downhill areas, but overall, it's climbing. Somewhere west of Deming is the continental divide, elevation 4580 feet. My speeds were frequently in the 50-55bph (buddy units per hour) meaning real speeds of 40-50mph. This was not good since I have to AVERAGE 50mph.

Deming, NM – Sunset View, NM

I'm not actually sure of the town. I was looking for the Artcraft Road exit and was almost there when I ran out of gas... the first time. I quickly pulled over, popped the seat and poured my 1 liter emergency bottle into the tank and took off. I made it 68 miles. Hmm, it's was a little too late to rethink that 70 mile per leg scenario. We went down two exits, to Artcraft Road and gassed up. Unfortunately, the lobby area had closed for the night and my daughter and I both needed a bathroom, so went went down two more exits and stopped again. Time lost. I was still a bit cold, so I put my rain pants on.

As the picture attests, I was beginning to look like the Michelin Man.

Sunset View, NM – Fort Hancock, TX

Throughout all of my route planning, I tried to figure a way to NOT go through El Paso. It's not that I've ever really had a bad driving experience there. We used to live in 1984-85. I just wanted to by-pass larger cities. It was as we were going through El Paso at 2:00 am local time that I realized I had not tried hard enough to by-pass this place. Yes, it was Friday night, but it was 2:00 am for cryin' out loud. It wasn't nearly as bad as it would be later on that same day, but maybe that's what made me uncomfortable, “If there are this many cars at 2:00 am, what will it be like 8 hours from now?” Most of I-10 though El Paso is 5 lanes wide and moving fast. The right lanes frequently “Exit Only” and then begin again at the next on ramp. I elected to stay in the middle lane all the way through the city. This perturbed a couple of people, but nothing serious.

The gas station in Fort Hancock was closed, but thanks to the magic of debit cards, we got fuel anyway.

Ft Hancock – Van Horn, TX

All the way to Van Horn, I was trying to visualize my google-map in my head. For some reason, I was recalling that the I-10 and I-20 split was west of Van Horn. A short ways outside of El Paso, there had been a sign for the exit onto Texas Highway 20. The further I went toward Van Horn, I started wondering if it had said I-20 and I had missed it. I was getting quite concernedand was trying to adjust my route in my head.

Once at Van Horn, I quickly went inside and asked how far it was to the I-10/20 interchange. “40 miles.” was the reply. With no small amount of trepidation I asked “East or west of here?” I sighed with great relief when he said “East.”

I was still cold, so it was at this truck stop that I got my first and only cup of coffee. Always wary of time, I mixed ice with it and some hot chocolate so it wouldn't upset my stomach. I downed the mixture then chase it with some ice water that I needed to take more Motrin. My shoulders were killing me, still. The net result of warming myself with coffee? Zip.

We gassed up the support vehicle (i.e. my 1997 Dodge minivan) here as well. This and the fact that I needed rest and something hot/warm to drink resulted in a 20 minute stop. Time!

Van Horn to Co Rd 216, somewhere South of Toyah, TX.

Dawn occurred shortly outside of Van Horn. Notice that I didn't say “the sun rose.” It was cloudy and dark. The difference was that now I could see a bit of landscape outside of my headlight beam. It wasn't much, but I did draw some comfort in it. However, it started as cloudy, as we turned onto I-20, it began to get foggy and as we approached Toyah, a fine mist developed. Additionally, speed continues to plague me. East of Van horn is Plateau. So called, because of it's location. We steadily climbed from Van Horn to Pecos.

I knew that I couldn't make it to Pecos without gas. I had told the kids that we would go til I ran out, pull of the road, gas and go. However, the speed limit in west Texas is 80mph. I decided to pull off when I got low, rather than risk running out of fuel on an overpass or other dangerous spot.

HALFWAY PECOS, TX!

The earlier mist advanced into a drizzle. The mist was a pain, because I had to keep wiping it off my helmet visor, but at least the road had been dry. The drizzle eliminated the dry road. Now, I was continuously wiping the visor, plus every time a truck blew past me at 80mph, I had to avoid or endure the spray from his tires. I'm wet and now I'm cold again, but I didn't want to stop, yet again, just to put on my rain jacket.

The “Flying J” in Pecos is apparently the place to be on a Saturday morning. Because of overuse, my debit card was locked down. (They warn you about this on the Iron Butt website.) I had to stand in line to prepay, then stand in line again to get my change and my receipt. I just noticed as I'm writing this, that the “prepaid” receipts don't have the time on them. I hope the Iron Butt people take note. I also had to find a witness. The young lady at the counter was swamped, so I asked another patron. Thank you Jeremy Ramsey.

Another person in line said, “That scooter sure is fast. I passed you guys back on I-10. Now you're here” Of course, he probably had the luxury of sitting down and eating real food. I ate another granola bar, fired up the bike and headed for home. It was now 11 hours and 30 minutes after we had left home. So much for that 22 hour idea.

I had two things going through my head regarding the time: “There was a lot of uphill on the way here, no we get to go down and we will make up time.” and “You may go a bit faster, but you're tired and sore and will likely need more time at each stop.” Time!

Pecos – Kent, TX

It was still drizzling, but I chose not to put on the rain jacket, because we only hit the drizzle the last few mile before Pecos.

Again, I decided to pull off the interstate before I ran totally out of gas. Put in enough gas to get to Van Horn and off we went. More drizzle.

Kent – Van Horn, TX

I wasn't hungry, but decided to grab something to eat anyway. I went into the Wendy's inside the truck stop and got a chicken “Go-Wrap.” I ate most of it, took 2 more Motrin and away we went.

Hooray! The sun came out. Once at Van Horn, I took the rain pants off.

Van Horn – Ft Hancock, TX

An army convoy, presumably from Ft Bliss in El Paso, pulled out of Van Horn right in front of us. In a car, you pass these guys because they are only allowed to drive 55mph. I knew I was not usually going 55, so I figured I would just join the convoy.

This section might be the most fun. We hit that downhill I referred to earlier and suddenly I was going 60mph, whee! Let's make up some time. We got to a steeper downhill section. I looked and there were no cars or trucks bearing down on us, so I got into the left lane went to make the first pass of the trip. I figured to pass the whole convoy. NOT!

I made it past about 3 vehicle when I noticed a semi coming up behind the van. Is it legal to merge in with a military convoy? I don't know, but that's what I did. The van squeezed in with me and let the truck go by. From that point on, I would draft the vehicle in front of me and keep an eye on fast moving traffic. When I got an opening, I would give it the gas, tuck as low as I could get and pass the next vehicle. I did this all the way til I got in front of the entire convoy.

I stayed in front of them, too, that is until I ran out of gas, again, exactly 1 mile from the “Ft Hancock 1 mile” sign post. Once more, I poured the liter bottle into the tank, hopped back on and rode into Ft Hancock.

Ft Hancock – near the Horizon City Exit, El Paso

I didn't want to risk running out of gas while on 5 lane interstate in El Paso, so I pulled onto the shoulder of the road and executed a quick pitstop. A quick fill from the gas can and off we went, with some degree of nervousness, into the city.

Near the Horizon City Exit, El Paso – Anthony, TX

“I'm alive!” I shouted to the kids as I parked at the pump at the Anthony Flying J. The sprint through El Paso was the most frightened I have even been on a scooter. I was again tempted to quit the Iron Butt, except, I knew that even if I quit and somehow found a way to get off the road, I would still have to go the rest of the way through El Paso. I kept having nightmarish visions of being sideswiped by a car then being run over by my own kids. It was awful.

Quick mental calculations (as quick as you can calculate after no sleep and 700 miles of scooter riding) showed that we were cutting it close. It was 12:30 pm,Arizona time. That meant we had 6 hours to cover about 250 miles. I couldn't remember exactly how far it was to Tucson. I chose Anthony to stop because it was clser to Deming than Artwalk Road and I didn't want to run out of gas again.

Anthony, TX – Deming, NM

That next sign read “Deming – 84 miles” Drat! Wrong again. So we pulled off at a picnic area. I ran around in circles, flapping my arms, in order to loosen the muscles of my hips, thighs and shoulders, while Nathan filled the scooter from a gas can. We couldn't skip the Deming stop because the van needed gas again as well. My pain is getting very, very intense. The Buddy is a great scooter, and I love it, but it is NOT a highway cruiser.

I am seriously doubting that I'll make it in time. An alternative plan comes to mind. I could stop the ride in Vail, AZ. That will buy 20-30 minutes. I may make it yet. Because I am having to prepay for gas and because both vehicle need fuel and because I need to eat something, this stop is longer than I would like, probably 15 minutes of precious time. I toss of piece of cheese and a small bag of Fritos down my gullet and we're off.

Deming – Lordsburg, NM

This section is unremarkable except for the fact that the scooter seems to be running a bit better. Also, as we left the gas station, I realize how much pain I'm in. I pull off and get some Aleve, from Harmony.

Lordsburg, NM – Exit 352, AZ

No time to stop at Wilcox. It has now become a real possibility that we won't make it. There are three large hills between here and home, just west of Wilcox, Texas Canyon, east of Benson, then the steep climb out of Benson, the same one that I went 75bph the night before.

The last mileage sign said it was 90 miles to Tucson and we had 2 hours remaining. I don't know how much gas I have available in cans, but made the decision to skip Wilcox, simply because of the time it takes to get off the road, over to the station, pay, fuel and get back onto the road. I know there's a rest area at the top of Texas Canyon. I planned to top off there and race to the finish. More arm flapping and running in place. Pain! Time!

Exit 352 – Texas Canyon, AZ

I ran into a swarm of something west of Wilcox. I started getting pummeled and ducked behind my windscreen. As we were gassing up at the rest area, a couple walked up, asked what we doing, then asked, “We were right behind you outside of Wilcox. Did you go through the same swarm of bugs we did?” Funny.

I flapped my arms some more and told the kids that I would decide at the Vail exit, whether or not to I would try for Mr T's. Again, I note that the scooter is running stronger. Have you ever seen how a horse acts after you've been riding for a while and then the horse realizes you're heading for home?

Texas Canyon – Finish!

The same grade of hill that resulted in 45mph speeds last evening, barely slows me to 52mph now. My son tells me that I hit 68 real mph down the hill into Benson.

I have my first close call while zooming down the hill. The entire trip, big rigs had been giving me a lot of room. Some even honked and wave. While I was going down this hill, tired, sore and hanging on for dear life, a truck truck started past me, then began drifting into my lane. He quickly corrected, so I think he might have been checking his radio or texting or something.

We got to the Vail exit and my watch said 1755. That meant 34 minutes to cover what I estimated to be 12 or 13 miles. Go for it!

I began to get very nervous coming in to town. The traffic was unusually heavy and fast. You're always reading tragic stories about people being killed just a few miles from their destination. Finally, I pulled into the station. I made it with 20 minutes to spare, according to my watch. I filled my tank from the exact pump as 23 and a half hours previous and, “damn!” it didn't give me a receipt. That's okay, I needed to get a witness for the paperwork anyway. I went in and had Jon Drake, sign my form.

Finish odometer reading 17,125

According to the Iron Butt site, it will be 2-3 months before I get the official notification. It is even possible that they they will not count my ride. I sure hope they do, but one thing is certain, my kids and I will have something to talk about for a LONG time.

2010-05-09T16:07:00.000-07:00

Well, I made it through the rally. During the rally, I found myself being fairly disappointed. I looked around and didn't see the massive numbers of scooters for which I had hoped. The scooter clubs from other cities here in Arizona didn't really “represent.” The people who did come seemed to be having a good time and I was receiving nice compliments on the rally bags, the rides and the overall quality of the rally's organization, but I was all caught up in the numbers.

After the rally, as we were disassembling the remaining rally bags, we started adding up the pre-registrants, late registrants, non-registrants and people who were only able to stop by to say hello and maybe do one short activity. We finally came to an unofficial total of 43. When I first started researching rallies, I had several people tell me that 25 is probably the average for a first time rally.

So, how do you measure “success” for your first rally?

Did people have fun? - Check, I heard no complaints and saw no one sulking in a corner. Lots of smiles and laughs. Additionally, there were no crashes or breakdowns.

Community Participation? - Check, We had 18 local businesses sponsor the rally, mostly by providing raffle items. Scoot Over and Vespa of Marana, especially, really came through for us. Big thanks to everyone.
Diverse group of participants? - Check, we had a few vintage scooters and lots of modern ones. Our youngest participant was 16 years old our oldest, somewhere around 70, I would guess. We had about a 60-40 split between the numbers of men vs women. We had scooters from 50cc to 500cc.
Did the word get out? - Check, We had riders from Arizona and 3 other states; New Mexico, Texas and Missouri.
Good rally bags? - Check, my goal was to produce the best rally bag anyone had ever received at a scooter rally. By all accounts, we succeeded. Most of the folks in my club have never been to a rally before, so it was easy to be their best, however, the riders from El Paso and several locals had been to many rallies. They also agreed that this rally had the best rally bags they had yet seen.
Gymkhana? - Check, the entire reason I started planning this rally was for an excuse to be in a gymkhana. I watched numerous videos on YouTube to help design it. I think it turned out well. It was challenging but doable. A lot of people gave it a try and all seemed to have a good time.

Could we have done better? Of course we could. However, it was a good enough experience that we are already planning on doing it again next year. We won't be calling it “May Day,” however. Another club, in Oregon, already puts on a May Day rally and they took offense to us calling our May Day as well. We are likely going to go with a western theme.

If there is a rally in your area, I think you should go. Not only will you have fun, but you are supporting and encouraging scootering in your community. Also, from personal experience, I know that it is a lot of work to host a rally. Find your host and thank them.

Ride on,

Howard

Rally Bag Rampage

2010-04-23T10:28:00.000-07:00

I think I mentioned it before, preparing for a rally is all consuming. I wake up in the middle of the night thinking about things I need to do. Our rally is only one week away and stuff is building up in the house. I've got boxes of stuff everywhere.

I don't know how many rally goers check out this blog, so I won't say what all is in these pictures. I want the rally bag to be a surprise. Several items in the bag are custom made, i.e. made by my wife. If you go to her blog, you can see some of those items.
Thise is the first rally I've helped organize, so contacting companies and asking for donations was sort of new (actually, I was an Army recruiter a long time ago, so making cold calls wasn't exactly new) but I did have some success. In the back of the above pic, you can see gloves that Corazzo donated sticking out of the box. In the front are the rally bags themselves, that my wife made.
All of the boxes in the aboce picture are either raffle items or more boxes with rally bag stuff. you can also see the roll of raffle tickets.
Here is another picture of all the boxes of stuff. On the right, is the back of one of the rally shirts. I'm not showing the front, again, because I want the shirt to be a surprise.

Well, one more week to go. I am really looking forward to the rally. At the same time, however, I worry. I want everyone to have a great time. And whether they do, or not, I feel is my responsibility. I had this great DJ lined up for our Saturday gymkhana and concourse, but he disappeared on me. So, it looks like I have another one, but I've never met him, so I don't know that he'll be as good as my first choice.

My next post will probably be after the rally. I hope to have some nice pics. There is currently rain for that weekend in the long range forecast. I know this is the desert and we need all the rain we can get, but I'm praying against the rain anyway.

Ride on,

Howard

500 Mile "Butt Burner" Test Run

2010-04-10T10:08:00.000-07:00

As I have mentioned in this blog before, it is my goal to ride a "Butt Burner 1k" ride soon. Now, I should probably just get out there and ride it, but that is not the way my mind works, so I have been working my way up to it. Id did the 130 mile ride to Parker Canyon to test some equipment, then 250 miles to see see how the Buddy would hold up in riding wide open throttle (WOT) for a while, oh yeah, there was the ill-fated ride out to Coolidge and Casa Grande that ended with a detached muffler and a ride home from Picacho, AZ.

Yesterday (4/9/10), I decided to ride 500 miles and see if I could complete it in under 12 hours. For the full 1000 miles I've been debating on riding secondary roads vs interstate highway. Each has its merit and disadvantages. I had initially only considered secondary roads, feeling that they would be safer. I have since vacillated on this vs interstate, several times. For this 500 mile ride, I selected a route which was mostly secondary roads. Here it is. I chose this route the night before. There was another route that I preferred, but when I check all the individual intervals between gas stations, there is one interval between Lordsburg, NM and Douglas, AZ which about 110 miles between petrol stations. I have a 1 gallon gas can one the scoot, but I wasn't sure if I could make it with a full tank plus the gallon, so I chose the other route.

I got up at 6:00 am and was out the door by 6:20. Unfortunately, it took almost an hour to ride to my start point. So, it was 7:35 am before I pulled out of the station in Catalina, AZ, headed north. Below, you can see my scoots odometer reading of 15,036 miles

I immediately noticed that the morning was still a little on the cool side. The temp at the house when I left was 54 degrees, the forecast called for highs in the 80's so I was wearing my mesh jacket, with liner and my new Corazzo armored, orange, reflective vest (which I won at the Friki Tiki Rally raffle.) I passed Oracle and then had the descent into the San Pedro River Valley. 7% grade for 7 miles, woohooo! 53 miles and my first stop for fuel in Winkleman. Then it was a lot of climbing up to my second fuel stop in Globe. I passed 5000 feet just south of Globe, although there is a nice descent as you approach town. Just before Glode, a large deer walked across the road infront of me and paused, as if to say "A scooter? Don't see many of those around here." A blast of the steibel horn and he was gone.

I took the above pic at my fuel stop in Globe. Globe is very rustic and pretty, but not where I stopped. I was timing myself so I had to set all the photo ops aside. That was probably the hardest thing about the ride. Leaving Globe, I went west on US 60, across more mountains (4500 ft elev) down to Superior and back out into the desert. I continued west on 60 until turning south to Florence. I did this because I didn't want to ride through Phoenix on 8 lane freeways with LOTS of traffic. Gassed up in Phoenix, then it was west toward Maricopa. I had to cross a large Indian reservation. Signage is usually poor across any given AZ reservation and this was no exception. I wound up talking to a Southwest Ambulance crew with a GPS about how to get to Highway 1 where I could get over to Maricopa.

I had 2 McDonald's burgers, some Sweet tea, fueled up and headed southwest for Gila Bend. Gila Bend was the western-most part of my journey, so I took the above pic as photographic evidence that I was there. Apparently, GB and Roswell, NM have space things and UFO's in common.

Just to the right from the other photo is the second one, showing the "Space Age" restaurant and hotel complete. The front of the hotel is what people from the 60's would have considered "futuristic."

Now I was headed toward home. I fueled up and was off. I went across the US Air Force bombing ranges outside of G.B. and down to Ajo, very close to the Mexican border and last jumping off point for party goers headed to Rocky Point, Mexico (Tucson's closest ocean front.)

From Ajo, it was across another reservation (The Tohon-Odoham Nation) to Sells. I took another 15 minute break to stretch my back and legs, then it was back on the scoot for a short jaunt to Tree Points. A quick gas & go, then I turned south to Arivaca. Time was beginning to get short, so I decided to skip my planned fuel stop there and try to get all the way to Green Valley. I made it and realized I had less than an hour to get from Green Valley, across the valley to Vail.

I made it Vail and my watch showed it was 7:15, 11 hours and 40 minutes after leaving that morning. When I arrived home, the odometer showed 15,587 miles. Quite a day's ride. Well, this morning, I checked the official mileage of what I actually rode and the total was 480 miles. I have to have ridden another 20 miles in 20 minutes. Drat!

Where can I save time to know that I can do twice that distance in less than twice the time? I guess I'm back to the Interstate idea. If I have a chase vehicle with extra fuel on board, I can save the time associated with pulling off the road, finding a gas station, etc etc. I also stopped more often than I had to. 10 stops for fuel ate up a lot of time.

I'll keep you posted,

Ride on!

Howard

Rally Planning

2010-04-06T07:58:00.000-07:00

The Sky Island Riders are hosting our first rally, the May Day Rally. Planning and preparing for said rally is consuming my life at this point. We are just 4.5 weeks away. I enjoy planning events and this is no different and I want this to be a great rally. Now, I have only been to four other rallies in my life, so I'm not drawing from a wealth of experience, but I'm doing the best I can. There are three other guys in the club who have quite bit of rally experience and they have been invaluable.

The most recent rally I attended was Friki Tiki, which was held the first weekend in March. It was also here in Tucson and was hosted by the Mary Janes All Girl Scooter Club. I helped a bit in the planning and was a ride leader. It was helpful to have another rally so near to ours, so it's fresh in my mind. I carefully took notes on what worked and where there was difficulty. That info is being used for May Day. Friki Tiki was unique, in that it was also also a music festival. One of the Mary Janes is in a local band, so she combined her two loves into a single event.

One of our meet-ups for the rally was "The Hut" on Tucson's 4th Avenue. Is that Tiki head not one of the coolest backdrops for scooters you've ever seen? I love it! It was moved from a local miniature golf course that closed.

That last day of the rally was a great ride, but unfortunately it rained. However,a little bit of rain, or in this case, a LOT of rain, is no reason to not go out and play in it. That's me, riding through this monster puddle outside of the Bario Brewing Company where we finished the Sunday morning kitsch ride.

Now back to planning. I have been e-mailing numerous local businesses to ask them to provide either raffle items or things for the rally bags. I am really pleased with the rally bags, so far.

My wife hand made rally bags. They are purse string-type bags all will fit in a pet carrier, on a helmet hook, or from a mirror mount. She is also making a scooter-themed quilt for the raffle as well. We are gradually accumulating some nice things for them, too.

Riding Solo

2010-03-13T20:51:00.001-08:00

I enjoy taking long rides on my scooters. As a nurse, I have an unusual schedule with days off frequently falling in the middle of the week. Most of my scooter riding friends have more traditional Monday through Friday kinds of jobs. Additionally, week days tend to have a bit less traffic out on the roads that lead to lakes, mountains etc. So, when the mood struck me a few days back to go to Parker Canyon Lake, I had to go it alone.

Arizona in an amazing place. (I suppose all states are in their own right.) If it weren't for the mountains in the background, wouldn't this look a lot like Kansas? A few posts back, i mentioned the Iron Butt Ride. well, I'm still planning on making a run at it, so, I have tried to start fitting in a few "training" rides. Then only way your butt gets used to sitting on a scooter for hours on end, is to sit on the scooter for .... you got...."hours on end." Hence this ride to Parker Canyon.
I picked Parker Canyon because a. it would give 160 miles round trip and b. I couldn't remember ever going there before. Now I'm sure that my mother will say that I've been there "lots of times." but the fact is, I have no recollection of ever having been there. Even now, after the fact, I'm sure I've never been there.

As you leave Tucson and head south, southeast on AZ highway 83, you climb slowly, but steadily. Once you leave Sonoita, the climb steepens and soon you are in mountains, the vegetation changes and it begins to get cooler. You can see the first part of the mountains in the pic above.
Eventually, the road steepens and gets twisty. The photo above shows one of the many signs. You probably can't tell from the picture, but there is a significant downhill grade (I was looking behind me) and I had just passed through a series of five 180 degree switchbacks. Very fun, both ways. The road isn't in very good condition and dodging potholes adds another level of difficulty to the ride, as does dodging cows, since much of the last 30 miles is open range.
I was rewarded with the sight of water. If you're not from the desert, this probably doesn't mean alot to you. But around here, standing water always attracts a crowd, even if it's a puddle left over from a brief rain. In the background, you can see the dam. That's about all there is to Parker Canyon Lake. There was what appeared to be a Jeep Club in the parking lot when I got there. Six or seven Jeeps and their occupants visiting and having a little picnic.
I don't know if you see it, but I turned over 14,000 miles on my 2008 Buddy on the way home. Far the highest mileage on a Buddy, but far from the lowest. I think I have the highest mileage on a Buddy in the Tucson metro area, anyway.

This was a great ride. The scenery was beautiful and the scooter ran great. My butt tolerated the ride well. More butt training rides are in the works. I'm hoping to do the Butt-Burning around the end of the month.

Ride on,

Howard

Glad to be the Slowest

2010-02-22T10:21:00.000-08:00

This past Saturday, I put together another ride. It was not one of our monthly rides and I put it together on short (3 days, I think) notice and there was rain in the forecast. Therefor, I wasn't too surprised when only two other scooters showed up. What did surprise me, was, that for the first time in our club's history, only manual shift scooters were present.

Obviously, we are not a "vintage only" club, but it was still kind of interesting to have only shifties. I had planned a route with 2 variations. One if I had some beginners showed up (which was what I anticipated), another if only experienced riders showed (which I figured was pretty unlikely.) Well, in addition to being only shifties, it was also only experienced riders.

I have only been riding scooters for less than 2 years and I really enjoy introducing people to the world of scooters and helping them to improve their skills. Our club is almost entirely made up of newer riders and that is the way I like it, but it was kind of refreshing to have a ride made up of only experienced riders.

As we wound our way through Tucson Mountain Park, I realized that I didn't have to look behind me as often. Partly because there were only 3 of us and partly because we were all comfortable negotiating corners at speed. After topping Gate's Pass and maneuvering down a steep twisty road, we eventually found our way to a long stretch of straight, mostly flat, two-lane black top, so I opened my Stella up.

It was then that I realized that I was not only riding the "slowest" scooter (In the pic above, you can see my black Stella and two P-200's. The red one is pretty modified and is VERY fast.) but I was also the rider with the least experience. I found it to be quite "enlightening" to know that I could ride as hard and as fast as I chose and still not have to worry about my compatriots.

It was with a light heart that I led our little group through a particularly dangerous section of road that has decreasing radius, downhill left turn that has claimed two scooters in the past. We finished our ride at Sir Veza's Taco Garage, where 4 member of the Green Valley scooter club met up with us. Note: If you look out the window, you can see that it started raining shortly after we arrived for lunch. I had a wet, soggy ride home. But it was still fun.

A Sense of Community

2010-02-14T11:08:00.000-08:00

I bought my scooter because it was so much fun. Once I began to make contact with other scooter folks here in Tucson, I discovered something else. People who ride scooter are good people. I like them.

I used to attend a "biker church" in Missouri. (Heart of God Fellowship" in Sibley, MO for those of keeping score.) The biker culture, both good bikers and bad, is one of brotherhood. My biker friends in the church would drop everything to help of their church or biker brothers. I wish I could say the same of other church friends.
The above pic is of Theron Spurgeon. Theron is visiting AZ from Sacramento. He posted on our club website a couple of weeks ago, that he was here and would like to ride with the club. Well, we set up one ride, but his training times were changed and he couldn't make it. Well, this past Friday, he called me, said he was wanting to head in to Tucson and ride. I had him meet me at my house so we could ride. He didn't have a scooter with him, so I offered him the Buddy to ride.
Theron in front of a saguaro cactus.

It occurred to me as we were riding, "Howard, you gave the keys to your scooter to a guy you've on met online. If he were to take off with it, you wouldn't be able to do a thing about it."

Immediately, my counter thought was, "yeah, but he's a scooterist. It's okay." And that is exactly right. On multiple occasions, I've heard members of our club offer one of their scoots to someone they had just met. When my scooter broke down, I made a technical call to Sean and he not only answered my question, but offered to drive 50-60 miles to come fetch me. I ended up having my son come get me, but I am honored by the offer. However, this is just something that one scooterist will do for another..
Theron and I had a great ride. We even had to go around one section of road, because it was flooded with snow melt. That's something that you don't see in Tucson very often. Theron will be heading back home to Sacramento next week. I know now that I have a scooter brother in California and if I'm ever up that way, I know that he or one of his scooter friends would be there to help if I needed it, because that what we, of the scooter community, do.

Ride on,

Howard

Scooter Adventure?

2010-01-26T19:07:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, 1/25/10, the weather was beautiful and I had been itching to do a long scooter ride. A week or so earlier I had plotted a 200 mile loop, (shaped more like a lollipop on a stick actually) as one of my preparation rides for doing my Iron Butt ride in March. Since I will have to average 50 mph to finish the Iron Butt in 20 hours, I decided I would time the entire ride, gas stops and all, so I could calculate a realistic average speed.

So, it was with a light heart, Google map in my pocket, extra fuel in the pet carrier and a smile on my face, that I set out on my ride. The sun was shining. Snow capped mountains could be seen on virtually every horizon. The photo above is of the north side of the Santa Catalina mountains as seen from Park Link Road, northwest of Tucson.

I normally have a range of about 110 miles or so on the Buddy. It was with a slight bit of concern that I noticed that my gas gauge was decreasing at a rate which seemed faster than usual. Now, when people in most states say that something happened "in the middle of Nowhere" they are saying it would be inconvenient to get help but realistically they are probably less than 5 miles from some form of human habitation. In Arizona, and few other states, when you're "in the middle of Nowhere," you could easily be 20 or 30 miles from help. So, about 10 miles after my gas gauge pegged on empty, I pulled over to the side of the road and poured in my "reserve" fuel, about 600 or 700ml from a little bottle that I have carried, but never used. By my calculations, I estimated that I was about 15 miles from Coolidge, AZ. I have estimated that this extra fuel will get me about 20 miles.
I ran out of gas about 10 miles later. I was in farm country and there was plenty of room to pull off to the side of the road. "Well" I thought to myself, "at least people on farms should have gas powered things around. How hard can it be to walk up to a house and get some gas?" There were four houses within a quarter mile of the intersection where the Buddy died. (Remember my earlier post about the silence after your scooter dies? I was feeling it here.)

House #1 - Big fence with big, aggressive looking and sounding dogs inside. I'll pass.

House #2 - No answer either at the house, or on the shop doors. Five or six pick-up trucks in the driveway, but no dice.

House #3 - Two teenaged girls at home. "I need to call my mom." says one after I ask about getting a bit of gas. Mom apparently says okay, directs daughter to where the gas is and "Mom says you should check and make sure there's no water in it." The 1 gallon container has about a quart of liquid in it that smells ever so faintly of some unidentifiable petroleum product. I thank the young lady for her attempt but decide to walk on. At this point, walking was beginning to be a bit painful, as I had surgery on both feet approximately 12 days previously.

House #4 - Has a sign out front about roping teams and a quad is visible in the garage. Ah, good sign. The sounds of banging metal are emanating from the workshop, so I limp over (still in good spirits, I might add) to see about some fuel. After requiring assurance that I would bring back his gas can, the man working in the shop agreed to let me have as much gas as I needed.

The gas was in a full, 5 gallon, steel can. I lugged it back to the intersection. Just as I removed the gas cap and began spilling gas all over (there was a little bit of a breeze and I had no funnel), the owner of the gas can pulled up in his truck. "I was going to bring you a funnel, but I don't have one, but I thought I might help, anyway." I couldn't help but think to myself, "I wish you would've thought of that BEFORE I lugged 50 pounds of gas and gas can all the way back to my scooter!" but I kept my mouth shut.

"At least I can block the wind for you." An excellent observation on his part, since gas was sloshing down both sides of the scooter. So he promptly began shielding the stream of gas from the wind WITH THE HAND WHICH HELD THE LIT CIGARETTE! "Maybe it would be better if you did that with the other hand." I suggested.

"Oh! Right!" he quickly changed hands and, explosion averted, I quickly splashed about a quart of gas into my tank, thanked him sincerely, and headed into Coolidge, which, the man assured me, was less than 5 miles away. At this point, I know that my original plan of timing the whole ride is kaput, so now I'm just out to enjoy the rest of the ride.

I happily filled my tank and rode west out of Coolidge on 87, turned southwest onto 387 and made my way toward Casa Grande. Went over a beautiful mountain pass and headed toward

I-10 and into Casa Grande. I stopped for a snack and some hydration and headed south.

It is shortly after I turn east, going toward Arizona City, that I begin to notice that my scooter isn't making the same sound it usually does. It is hard to diagnose what the difference was. I pulled over and revved the motor once or twice. "Maybe it's just me" I think. After all, the wind had been whistling past my helmet for about 3 hours at this point. There are no services in Arizona City, I continue on toward Eloy.

Not wanting to run out of gas again, I decide to stop for fuel in Eloy and to better examine the scoot. It is here, that I realize that the bolts on the rear bracket for exhaust has sheared off and my beautiful Prima pipe is being held on only by the two bolts on the manifold. The pipe is moving a LOT.

I looked through what few tools etc I had with me. I just needed something to hold the pipe up so that it wouldn't bounce around and break off at the manifold. "Aha!" I found a bungee cord, fit it to the end of the pipe, up around the rear rack and viola'. I topped off with fuel and headed toward Picacho. From there, it would only be about 40 miles home then I could go about repairing my beloved scooter.

But it was not to be. As I rode down the not so smooth road toward Picacho, the sound of my scooter's exhaust continued to change. I realized it was working its way loose from the motor end of the exhaust as well, in spite of my bungee efforts. I slow down and watch vigilantly for bups and potholes. Spotting them isn't a problem, after all, this is an old, seldom used stretch of I-10 access road. Dodging them is a problem. Determined to limp home, I press on.

It is at the Picacho Peak (Picacho Peak itself is in the background of the above photo.) gas station and curio shop, that I realize more additions to my Eloy repairs must be done. I kept having visions of the front of the pipe dropping off the bike, hitting it with the rear tire, then flying through the air as the scooter suddenly stars going end over end.

I asked at Bowlin's Running Indian (one of a chain of curio shops) if they have any kind of wire with which I can secure the front end of the pipe to.... to.... something. The nice lady says they have nothing like that, but refers me to the tow shop on the other side of the interstate and up the long and, as it turns out, extremely bumpy road. It is on that road where the pipe pulls completely away from the motor and was kept from falling to the ground (and under my rear tire) by the center stand. God bless center stands.

The fellow at the tow shop assures me that they have no wire (What?!) but I could have a couple of clothes hangars. You can see the hangar modification near the bottom of the 3rd picture in this lengthy post. I secure the pipe as best I could, then called my wife to let her know that I would be babying the scooter home.

I rode the now extremely loud scooter down the hill and back past Bowlin's. Then I pulled off to the side of the road where I decide to call one of my scooter buddies. I still don't know that much about scooter power plants and I wanted to check and see if I was going to be buying a new motor if I continued riding home. John assured me that a.) I probably end up needing a new motor if I continued and b.) I probably wouldn't make it home because the motor would likely be destroyed somewhere between Picacho and Tucson. He offered to come and retrieve me. Not wanting to be a pain in the butt, I declined his generous offer and, instead, called my son and had him come and get his unfortunate old man.

I had been planning on getting a trailer hitch installed so that I could then purchase a Versa-Haul for events such as this. I learn yesterday that won't be necessary. Once the two seats are removed from the back of my Dodge Caravan, there is sufficient space and these beautiful tie down location in the floor where the seats attach.

It was an unfortunate series of events, but through it all, I still had a good time. After all, are you a true scooter freak if you've never had to hauled back home after your scooter conked out somewhere?

Ride on,

Howard

Awesome Snow Riding!

2010-01-24T20:26:00.000-08:00

Winter in Finland - Way to Home from -W- on Vimeo.

Moral Dilema

2010-01-22T17:44:00.000-08:00

Have you ever gotten a consumable gift for Christmas/birthday etc, that you liked so much that you had a hard time deciding when or if you were going to eat it or use it? For Christmas of 2008, my wife found Root Beer Fizzies. They are one of those childhood memories of mine. Maybe you had them, too.

Above, is my box of Root Beer Fizzies. I really want to plop a tablet or two into a gladd of water and drink up that sweet, fizzy goodness. However, at the same time, I don't want to, because then, .... then they will be gone. Unfortunately, at this point, I may have waited so long, that the Fizzies are no longer any good, bummer. What does this have to do with scooters?
As seen above, the other night on my way home from work, I turned over 5000 miles on Stella. I'll be hitting 15,000 miles on the Buddy, soon, as well. Occasionally, while I'm riding, I think about the fact that I am "consuming" my scooters. They will only last a certain number of miles, then, sadly, they will need to be replaced.

I love my scooters and the thought of being without either of them saddens me. At the same time, though, I WANT TO RIDE! I want to ride every day. I can't wait to Ride the Iron Butt ride. I love it. It's a bizarre combinations of feelings. The desire to ride vs the desire to conserve my scooters so that I have them around to ride.

I am encouraged by "Bonegirl" a Modern Buddy member. She now has approximately 40,000 miles on her Buddy 125. I am also blessed by being in a position in my life where I can afford to buy my scooters. If the Buddy disintegrates during my 1000 mile Iron Butt ride in March, I won't have to wait too long before I can buy another.

But it won't be the same.

Ride on,

Howard

More Book Stuff

2010-01-19T19:05:00.000-08:00

Well, I had surgery on both feet last week in an attempt to remedy the chronic plantar fasciitis which I've had for many years,The upside (other than curing my foot pain) was that I would have time to catch up on some reading and other quiet activities and that I would have time to get out and put in some serious scootering. (More on that later.)

It took me only a couple of days to finish "I See by My Outfit." I'm not going to write an extensive review, but it was good. As I mentioned before, the book is not so much about the scooters, but they do play important roles, heck, they even have names: "Jenny" and "Couchette" I think the book is a good read for those into their scooters.

The photo above is a Heinkel Scooter, like Jenny in the book.

In my last post, I mentioned a passage and before I quit talking about this book and move to the next, I'd like to mention another. As our Hero is riding along, "Jenny" dies on him. I don't know if you've ever had your scooter ever die unexpectedly, but I found what he says about the experience to be particularly true. Check it out: "The silence of an engine that has just cut out under you is one of the most chilling quietnesses I know. Drive a scooter for even a little while, and she becomes strangely yourself, yourself grown swift and powerful and untiring In turn, you feel what she feels - a quirk in the wind,a difference in the road surface, the ride or fall of the land - and her sounds become like the noises of your own body, her vulnerability becomes your own."

A "chilling quietness." I really like that description. I've coasted to a stop before, usually wondering if my scooter is okay, long before I worry about how I will get home or to work.

Another book that I got for Christmas (also from my wife) at first may seem to have nothing to do with scooters. Some people will see the connection right away, however. My wife saw that it fits my quirky personality. It's called "The Complete Blokes & Sheds - Behind the corrugated-iron curtains of Australia's sheds." My wife immediately got it for me because I love barns, pictures of barns, stories of barns, etc, etc. However, I love to tinker on my scooter and I'm beginning to rack up some extra parts and tools which are scooter related. After reading stories and seeing photos of blokes and their sheds, I'm ready to get one of my own.

I found the photo above on a Google image search for "Australia" and "shed." I also happens to be a picture from the book. The book talks a lot about the relationship between a man and his shed. Here is an excerpt from a section called "In Praise of Disorder." "The shed is an outbreak of dirt and chaos in what is otherwise a serenely ordered world.... there's a powerful need for a safety valve that allows the pressure of organisation, appearances and expectation to be released."

Here the part I like the best. "It the potential of what can happen in a shed that really matters, not what actually takes place." One of the author's opinions is that while many women have a place like this where they can retreat to in order to create, think or retreat like a sewing or craft room, many men have no such place. This, then, is where the shed comes in.

I grew up on a farm, where we had the "shop." In it, my grandfather used the welder, torch and wondrous tools of his own fabrication to repair farm implements, fashion toys or even to make more tools that were needed for a specific task. As I sit here, I can smell the melange or oil, arc welder smoke and wet earth that existed in the shop.
I do not possess the knowledge or skills of my grandfather, but I think I would like someplace to work on my scooters besides the driveway. A while back, a fellow on Modern Buddy put up one of those 10'X12' Tuff Sheds and then finished it with scooters in mind. One view of it is pictured above. (See the entire post at: http://www.modernbuddy.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=11262&highlight=garage )

So, now I'm pondering the possibility of adding a shed to my scooter collection.

I mentioned earlier, that while I was off on sick leave for 2 weeks I had

planned on doing some serious scootering (Yes, I know I supposed to

be resting with my feet up, but riding is restful, right?) At any rate, by

the time I'm feeling good enough to go out and ride for several hours

at a time, we are now in the midst of a huge, multi-day winter storm.

I know this is the desert and we need all the rain we can get, but at the

same time I'm on leave and free to ride to my heart's content???

Give me a break.

Ride on,

Howard

ps - What is up with the formatting on this thing? Look at the previous paragraph.

Scooters and Your Senses

2010-01-14T12:38:00.000-08:00

My amazing wife got me scooter gifts for me for Christmas. (Not a surprise, I guess, since I spend a lot of my time on scooter related things.) One of which is a book entitled "I See by My Outfit - A Cross-Country Adventure" by Peter S. Beagle. It was originally published in 1964, so a couple of things are dated, but it's still good, so far. I haven't finished it, yet.

So, it's about two Jewish friends ride scooters (one of which is a 150cc Heinkel) from New York to San Francisco. It's not so much about scooters as it is about friendship and adventure, but I have read a couple of things that I noted to be true in my own scootering life.

One, from page 14, is this: "I had forgotten through the long winter how good it is to be driving a scooter on a warm day. You become painfully aware of how much there is in the world to be smelled, tasted, listened to, looked at, touched and comprehended before you die - a lifetime in every blink of the eye - and you find yourself twisting the throttle until she surges under you like a river, wanting to get to it all, all at once."

I noticed, early on, how much more aware of my environment I was on the scooter. I had to give up the A/C, heating and stereo, in my cage (car, for you non-2 wheeled riders out there) but what I gained was well worth the losses. I now go places that I could easily go in my car, but I didn't see any reason to. Steep hills on dirt roads are no challenge in a car, but there is a priceless sense of accomplishment when doing things on my scooter, that go beyond just the beautiful scenery.
Yes, I can see mountain views from my car. Have you ever rolled you window down as you were driving past a beautiful view, because you wanted to see it without the glass between you and it?Me, too. My scooters allow me to get that kind of view all the time. Everywhere I turn I get an unfiltered look at my surroundings. Not to mention that I get to hear what's going on around me.

Even with your car window down, you don't usually get to hear birds singing or children laughing in a park.
Another joy of scootering is the smells. Coffee shops, donut shops, barbeque restaurants are all sheer joys to ride by. Ahh, Olive Garden. If my eyes were closed (which I don't recommend while in motion) I feel like I could tell where I am on my way to work, just by the odors. One thing I don't care for is driving behind someone who is smoking.

I started a forum entry a while back encouraging everyone to post about their favorite smells as they were riding. There were some fun responses. I hope that some people began to use their sense more as they ride. Riding definitely puts a smile on my face.

Ride on,

Howard

Resolutions

2010-01-02T20:02:00.001-08:00

Like most people, I'm sure, I make goals for myself, my family, my job, my hobbies etc, as I go along. Also, like most people, the beginning of a new year makes me reflect a little more than usual about goals (aka resolutions) that I'd like to make for this newly started year.

One goal I had for most of last year was to start a personal, scooter related blog. Check! It took til, uh, the 9th of November, but I got this thing going. I'm still not real happy with it, but my first resolution is not only to post regularly, but to improve quality.

So, now it's 2010 and I now have two blogs. One of the member of our scooter club, the Sky Island Riders (SIR's), gave me a new website with blog for Christmas. There is also a very nice bulletin board as well.

Goal #2 - To keep both blogs rolling. Specifically, I want the SIR's blog to be useful and to be a"force multiplier" for the overall website. You can check it out here:

http://skyislandriders.com/

Goal #3 - I want to make more off road rides through non-scooter terrain.

The picture above is taken on the fire road (4wd only) on the north side of Mt Lemmon. I did this ride in August of last year. I am hoping to ride through Reddington Pass and also I want to ride the Florence/Kelvin "Highway." Per haps ride out to another ghost town or two.

Goal #4 - I am hoping that our Mayday Rally will be successful, although I'm not sure how I want to define its "success" yet. Above is a photo taken at the Great Southwest Scooter Fiesta in Gilbert in October. This was the metro-Phoenix club's first attempt at a rally and it was very good. Look at that turnout!

Goal #5 - I am planning on riding an Iron Butt ride. Known as a "Butt Burner" one must ride 1000 miles in less than 24 hours. Iron Butt is an organization that promotes endurance riding. The Butt Burner is their shortest qualifying ride. a thousand miles is tiring, but simple on a motorcycle. After all, with a 75 mph speed limit, it would take less than 14 hours to ride a thousand miles. However, on a 150cc scooter, this a much more difficult. If I can average 50 mph, it will take 20 hours of continuous riding. I'm looking forward to it, but will have to wait til March or April so that weather condition will be friendlier. I'll keep you post.

Have a prosperous, healthy, happy, productive 2010.

Ride on,

Howard

Busy December

2009-12-23T19:17:00.000-08:00

As the title implies, December has been a busy month, and I'm not referring to Christmas and all of its associated busy-ness. I'm talking scooter rides and the like. One of the great thing about Arizona is a near year-round riding season. This does, of course vary somewhat from person to person. We routinely get temperatures around freezing in our short winter and this is too cold for a lot of people. Additionally, when temps climb about 105 or 110 degrees that is too hot for some people as well. I try not to think any less of people who prefer not to ride in Arizona's extremes, I just don't happen to be one of them.

On to December's scooter events: We started with our Ride of the Month (ROTM). I had been wanting to ride to Arivaca, AZ. I prefer riding loops to the "Out and back" type of ride, so we had breakfast (partly to let it warm up a bit) then rode out Highway 86 west to Three Points, AZ, turned south driving through the Tohono Ohodam Indian reservation about 40 miles then east to Arivaca where we stopped for fuel and coffee.

The first photo shows us as we were preparing to ride out of Jerry-Bob's Cafe near the airport. It was 38 degrees when I left my house for breakfast, but the temps climbed rapidly to the low 50's as we rode out and I think it was mid-60's by the time we finished the ride.
One thing I have to be more aware of (apparently) are more precise distances from gas pump to gas pump on some of these longer rides. Three points just seemed to be too soon to stop, so we rode one toward Arivaca. Hwy 286 aka Sasabe Rd through the reservation has some incredible scenery. I had never been down that road and now I can't wait to go back. I believe my map calls the mountain to the west of 286 the Pozo Verde Mts, the northern end of which is where Kitt Peak Observatory sits.

Well, we took a short rest break at the Sasabe-Arivaca Junction, then noted it was another 35 miles to Arivaca. By the time we rode in, my Buddy was pretty low on fuel and so was everyone else. As you can see above, Arivaca is a small community with a grand total of 4 fuel pumps. Our thirsty scooters gathered round for some much needed refreshment. We then rode to a local coffee shop and had some of the best coffee I've ever had outside of my own kitchen.

On 12/12, we participated in Tucson's annual "Parade of Lights." The scooter club has always been well received at this event and it's popular among the riders as well. My camera was stolen as we were preparing for the ride so I'm sans photos. 22 scooters and riders participated and this equaled last years record breaking attendance.

On 12/15, we rode to Winterhaven's "Festival of Lights." this is a neighborhood that goes all out in decorating. There are hayrides and other activities there every year. They only allow motorvehicles 3 nights of the season, so we had a ride. As it turns out, only 3 of us made it out. I'm not sure if I'll include it next year or not.
A few days later, I found out the one of our newer members wanted to ride out to Sonoita, AZ. I love riding out there, so we agreed to ride out there on the 21st. Four of our wound up going on short notice. Some of the more well know (i.e. more expensive) restaurants were closed on Mondays, but the Four Corners Cafe was open. The picture above is taken as you walk into their courtyard. Isn't it beautiful. The mountains in the background are spectacular! It was a bit breezy but the ride went well. Because I had just replaced my Buddy's variator rollers with new sliders and hadn't yet test ridden it, I decided to take the Stella.

Between the mountain grades and the head wind, I was down to 30 mph in places. To tell the truth, it's refreshing to have the slowest bike on a ride sometimes. I don't have to keep looking back, afraid that I'm going to inadvertently leave someone behind. We stopped in Sonoita and had lunch. I highly recommend the burgers at the Four Corners Cafe. Mine was very tasty, additionally, my creamy potato soup with ham and green chiles was also very good. the coffe was good, but not a good as Arivaca's.
The area around Sonoita is in the heart of Arizona's wine country. It was still early when we finished lunch, so we rode a 20 mile loop around through Elgin, AZ and back to Sonoita. We gassed up and headed home. The photo above is take at the rodeo grounds/race track in Sonoita. We had a tail wind home, so the ride went much faster.

How many people in other states get to ride so much in December. I love riding my scooters! I hope you get to ride as much as you desire,

Ride on,

Howard

2009-11-28T13:13:00.000-08:00

Scooter Tag

2009-11-25T21:27:00.000-08:00

I had a great time on the scooter today. It's the day before Thanksgiving and the weather was sunny with a high near 70. In other words perfect riding weather. I find riding the scooter to be so therapeutic. Some of the folks on modernbuddy.com say that because you have to focus so much on riding, that you leave your worries, etc behind. I don't rally have any worries right now, but I still agree with that philosophy. I decided, for no particular reason, to take the Buddy 150.

So today, I was playing some scooter tag. I have seen several versions of it around on various scooter sites. It goes by different names as well. On our board, we have several game threads going on at any one time. Currently there are five. So if you go to skyislandriders.com and find the "tag" section in the forum, you should go to the most recent post. When you get there, you'll find a picture of someone's scooter, at a specific location here in Tucson. Your job is to ride there, snap a pic of your scoot at the same location, then return home and post it on the forum.

If you are the first person to find and post that location, then you are in charge of the next tag. Ride somewhere, take a pic, ride home and post it. That is now the location for everyone else to find. There are some general guidelines and I included boundaries, so people wouldn't drive 100 miles from town for a tag. The purpose of the rules is to keep the game alive and keep people out on their scooters. I tell everyone to use locations that people can find, after all if no one finds your tag, then the game dies. We try to add hints to our pics if they aren't found in a few days as well. I am including some recent tag photos in this post.
As of this morning, one of the five tags was mine. I was off, the weather was fantastic, so I decided to try and claim the remaining four tags. I looked at the photos and wrote out where I thought they were on a sheet of paper and planned a tentative route that would get me to those locations in a somewhat logical order. Also, I had to be on the lookout for new tags of my own, to replace those that I found and tagged.
My journey took me from the west side of town to north central, to west to southeast. I managed to find all four tags and find four new locations to use as new tags as well. I travelled about 100 miles and it took me about 5 hours total. Included in that time was stop at work to see what Friday's paycheck would be. Of course, that resulted in a 30-45 minute visit with my co-workers.

Also included was a visit to Scoot Over, my local scooter shop. I like to hang out there sometimes. In this case. I had ordered some pieces to repair my helmet and they were in, so I picked them up and installed them. I also took a test ride on the new KYMCO Venox 250cc motorcycle. I will be posting my thoughts of the Venox on skyislandriders.com. Come by and check it out.

It turned out to be a beautiful, relaxing day. I love my scooters.

Ride on,

Howard

Driving the Devil's Highway

2009-11-23T07:28:00.000-08:00

My wife and I took a little 3-day getaway last week. We went to the mountainous, east-central part of AZ. Neither of us had ever been there and it was quite a treat. From a scooterists perspective, the drive home was best. We drove down US 191, formerly know as US 666 aka "the Devil's Highway." It is 90 miles of winding, climbing, falling, twisting 2-lane blacktop with no shoulders and no guardrails. The first photo is of one of the many curves with no guardrail and, although you can't see it, there is several hundred foot drop.
If you look in the background of this second picture, you can see the road winding up the side of one of the smaller hills. This road goes from about 2000 feet in elevation to 9000 feet, more than once! No vehicles more than 40' long are allowed on parts of this road because so many of the curves are so tight. LOTS of 180 degree , or more, curves.
This hairpin is just one of many. I'm estimating that this is probably about 200 degrees. I would really love to have the scooter on this, wouldn't you?
In this pic, you can some of the windiness of much of highway 191. The scenery on this road is simply breathtaking. It was a little less than 200 miles from Show Low, AZ back home to Tucson. In that distance we saw the largest continuous stand of Douglas Fir trees in the world, snow, lakes, stands of Aspen, a Bighorn sheep, fields of cactus and incredible views of mountains and desert. The temperature went from 18 degrees in Show Low to about 80 degrees in Tucson.

This is an incredible road to ride. The bad part about it is that it is so far from civilization. It took us 10 hours to drive home by that route. Of course, much of the reason it took so long is because the speed limit is 15-25 mph for miles because of how twisty it is. It is still about 130 miles or so to get to the southern most part of 191 and you HAVE to take interstate highway to get there. Maxi-scooters can get there easily enough, but not my 150cc scoots. I guess maybe there is a maxi-scoot in my future, hehe,

Ride on,

Howard

Off Road Scooting

2009-11-10T16:30:00.000-08:00

I enjoy going on little adventure rides. The only vehicles I have to do this kind of thing are my scooters, so that's what I use.

The October issue of AZ highways' Drive of the Month, was a ride up and over Box Canyon, in the Santa Rita Mountains. It looked like fun, so I took off this morning to ride it.

Scooters are unlikely off-road vehicles, but I have found them to do well on dirt, gravel, sand etc. You must go slower than a dirt bike would go, but you can still get out and see some great sights and not be limited to what you can see from the pavement.

I started off going south on Scenic Highway 83 toward Sonoita, AZ. This first pic shows the Santa Ritas in the background. It was a little windy this morning, so there were times I was only going 45mph. This highway also has some decent hills, so nature was conspiring to keep my speed down, today. There was very little traffic on 83, so I had no difficulties with traffic.

I turned off on the Madera Canyon road. This is rough, two-lane asphalt, which gives way to dirt after 2 or 3 miles. The second photo is taken on the paved part.

The third photo is of a warning sign. I found it to be quite sobering. I was hoping my scooter didn't sound like a patrolling Boarder Patrol vehicle.

There were some of the worst wash-boards that I have ever ridden/driven, but over all, the road was in good shape, it's usually wide enough for two cars to pass each other and it's fairly well maintained.

A few months back, I rode up a fire road which goes up the northern side of Mount Lemmon. It wasn't as pretty as this, but the ride itself, was very challenging. Here is my post on Modern Buddy, where I talked about it. There are some pics, too: http://www.modernbuddy.com/forum/

viewtopic.php?p=164608&highlight

=#164608

As I was coming down the west side of

the mountains, toward green Valley, I

saw a sign that said "Helvetia 8 mi."

Helvetia is a Ghost Town, that I read

about, so I decided to make a detour

and go there. I found the cemetery,

but was unable to find what is left of the

town.

I'm sure I was very close, but I began

running low on fuel. I knew I didn't want

to run out of gas out in the boonies, so

I headed for home.

I had a great time, and now that I have

a better idea where Helvetia is, I'll be

going back that way, before too long.

Scoot On!

Howard

ps - I apologize for the crappy formatting. I'm still

trying to get the hang of this thing. It's definitely

not WYSIWYG.

Scooter Cannonball

2009-11-09T21:10:00.000-08:00

I met with one of the other scooterists in town tonight. We were having a planning meeting regarding our first rally in May 2010. More on this soon.
In talking with him, he and his wife just decided to ride the Scooter Cannonball Run next September. It is a coast-to-coast ride. They will be riding from Vancouver to Portland, Maine. I had been fantasizing about riding in this next year, but couldn't see how I could make it happen. Tonight, it made a big step toward being reality.
We are going to try and get at least two more Tucson scooterists in on the CBR. This would make mechanical support a bit easier for everyone.
Pretty exciting stuff,
Howard

Boring Background

2009-11-09T14:35:00.000-08:00

Several years ago, I was given a '76 Honda Goldwing by a friend at church. I was attending a "Biker Church" (Heart of God Fellowship in Buckner, MO for those of you keeping score) at the time. Before getting the bike, I had created a lot of expectations in my mind about what it would be like to own and ride a motorcycle.

Quite frankly, I was let down by the whole experience. It was nerve wracking to ride it to work. (Not the 'wing's fault. I had a 50 mile, high-speed, bumper-to-bumper commute.) At 35 MPG, it barely got better gas mileage than my Hyundai. And, I'm not sure what I expected from riding with the bikers from church, but my expectations were too much.

Fast forward to about 3 years ago. We had relocated to my childhood home of Tucson, AZ. While moving in to our new house in 2003, I had started admiring this orange colored scooter called a Stella. It's owner apparently worked at the Home Depot at which I was spending considerable time.

In early 2008, my son and I were both thinking about scooters. I was doing a lot of research online.

One day, we went to our local scooter shop, Scoot Over. Shelby Stirrat is the owner and she runs a fabulous business. My son and I accepted their offers of test rides. I fell in love with the things. More research for several weeks test find the best value with our limited funds. My wife graciously let me have the entire tax refund. What to buy, what to buy?

Everyone has heard of Vespas, so I went to their dealer. Vespas are great scooters, but too expensive. Went back to Scoot Over to look at the Stellas. Nope, couldn't afford that either. But wait, what was that? I discovered the Genuine Buddy line of scooters. Nice line, good acceleration with my big carcass on it. Price was right. I went home a did a bit of brand specific research. I also found an amazing website, modernbuddy.com.

In mid-April of 2008, I brought home my first scooter! An '08 Genuine Buddy St Tropez, 150cc scooter (pictured above). Since then, my love for all things scooter continues to grow. This a long post and the history of scooters and I is not yet complete.

Scoot on!