Another Review: Scooters - Red Eyes, White Walls & Blue Smoke

I first saw Scooters - Red Eyes, White Walls and Blue Smoke at my local scooter shop, Scoot Over. It sat on the table near the chairs for people to read as they were waiting for service to be done, sales person to be available, etc. It is filled with great pictures of great scooters and people doing great scooter stuff. When my wife asked me what she should put on my Christmas list, this was one of the first books that came to mind.

Scooters is written by Colin Shattuck. He has an easy going, easy to understand writing style and clearly, he knows about scooters and those who love them. This book covers the American scooter scene from its beginnings in 1915 to the present. I really enjoyed the first two sentences of the Foreword: "Let's get one thing straight from the get-go. If we have to explain the wonder and allure and coolness of motorscooters, you simply won't understand." by Michael and Eric Dregni

Scooters is only 136 pages long, with plenty of photos, but even so, it covers a lot of ground. The first chapter, The Evolution of a Revolution starts with the 1915 American Motoped through the Suzuki Burgman and even touches on fuel cell, electric and hybrid bikes. Naturally, most of the print talks about Piaggio/Vespa and Innocenti/Lambretta, however, British, German, Japanese and Chinese scooters get covered as well. Don't worry, the two biggest American scooter manufacturers (Cushman and Salisbury) get their share  as well. If you want a succinct history of motor scooters, Red Eyes.... is THE place to get it.

A beautiful Heinkel that I photographed at High Rollers in 2011

Chapter 2 is called Scooter Breeds. This chapter not only talks about "modern" vs "vintage" scooters but some of the other ways out bikes are categorized. There are commuters, sport, mid-sized and maxi-scooters on the one hand. Vintage bikes are broken down into unrestored originals, restorations, customs, radical customs, racers, choppers, rat bikes and mods. There is also a nice section titled "Step by Step: A Restoration Guide which gives a simplified look at the stages of scooter restoration.

A Radical Custom as seen at Friki Tiki 2010

Chapter 3: Can You See the Real Me discusses the different kinds of people who ride scooters. He talks about the stereotypes as well. Some of the scooterists portrayed are the Mod, the Racer, Scooter Girls, Scooter Boys, the Old Man, and New School. The second half of chapter 3 is called "Join the Club." it gives a list an small description of a small sampling of scooter clubs around the US, divided by region. While I found this section interesting, I'll probably catch some flak for this, but I also found it a bit disturbing. I find it a bit bothersome that so many clubs find their identity in alcohol, mayhem, hooliganism and other immature behavior. I suppose I'm just getting old.

Gratuitous promotion of my own club

Chapter 4: Runs, Rallies, Raids... Mayhem is the final chapter. Since I have helped organize a number of rallies in the Tucson area, this was the first chapter I read. I wanted to see what other were doing and see what I could integrate into our rallies. The first part of this chapter talks about European rallies. (The 1984 Isle of Wight Rally had 12,000 people in attendance!) Then is returns to the states with a quick description of the elements of a rally then moves to cover (as with the scooter clubs) a variety of rallies broken down by region. I was thrilled to see that our own Tucson/Nogales Fall Classic is included.

Camp Scoot 2010

High Rollers 2012

Tucson/Nogales Falls Classic 2009

For A Few CC's III 2013

Scooters - Red Eyes, White Walls & Blue Smoke is an excellent primer on scooters and scooter culture in America. If you are new to scooters and want to what you may have gotten yourself in to, I would start with this book. It is informative, quick, down and dirty. For those with ADD, it has lots and lots of great photos.

Ride On!

Howard

Trying it Again . . . . with a review

I have missed writing. (Although, with a year and 8 month absence, that is probably a little difficult to believe.) For what it's worth, I have written a very few entries on the Sky Island Riders site. As we all know, "life happens" and priorities change, as does the amount of time one has to write on a blog.

One thing I have had a bit of time to do is read. I was watching a bit of television (usually NetFlix) most nights before I went to sleep. I realized that I had several books about scooter and motorcycle riding, that my loving bride had bought for me, laying around and that watching the tube was a poor way to show my appreciation for those gifts. I started spending some time reading most evenings. I have read some really good books, some average and some below average books over the past few months.

I have been feeling bad about not posting here and was trying to think of a good way to break back into the habit. Something quick and relatively easy to write sounded good. Then it occurred to me that I could start writing reviews of the books I have been reading. Some of the people I know may discover a good book or two, after all, the books I have been reading are not "high profile" and while some are very good, i don't think any have made the Billboard charts (with one exception, although I haven't decided for sure if I am going to review that one.)

Let's get one with it, shall we?

Long Rider - A tale of just passin' through by Mark Tiger Edmonds

. From the back cover: "Take a BMW motorcycle, one million miles and Mark Edmonds. Distill for 35 years. Result?You get an insightful, compassionate (and passionate) view of America and what it means to all of us who, after all, are "just passin' through."...Mr Edmonds' assessment of this country and the changes it's undergone remains as unswerving as his assessment of himself as he rides his own pilgrimage, just passin' through."

Tiger Edmonds is a motorcycle riding, poetry writing professor at a college in Florida. He writes like he talks and he talks like a biker. If you are offended by profanity and use of the "f-word" books by Mr Edmonds are not for you. For those who can appreciate passion, even if you don't agree with its author, you may love reading Edmonds' work as much as I do.

Longrider is Edmonds' first book. It is not his best, in my opinion, but it is still very good. As mentioned above, mark has more than a million miles on motorcycles. He has a poet's heart and a painter's eye and he writes and passionately about what he sees and experiences on his rides. I will review some of his other books soon, I hope.

I think, no, I KNOW, that my favorite chapter of Longrider is called Roadsongs. In this chapter Edmonds explains that "different roads have different songs." He describes different roads he has been on and that many roads have "songs" that they sing to you as you ride. A road in West Virginia along the Tug Fork "sounds more like "Amazing Grace" than anything I ever heard." Another road between Austin and Abilene, he says, sings "a slow polka with a pretty heavy oompah beat to it." Personally, I had noticed that different roads have given me different feelings (other than the differences in pavement/asphalt) but when I read this chapter I had an "Ahah!" moment. Now I am more attuned to the songs that various roads sing to me.

This road has a different song to sing.....

than this one. Don't you think?

Chapter Eleven is another favorite. In addition to amusing roadside repairs, there is a section about signs. I have a tendency to notice and take photos of interesting and/or humorous signs I see. I was glad to see someone else who has similar observations about such signs as I do.

Sorry for the poor quality, but this was taken with my cell phone, through the drive thru window at a local burrito shop.

Other things he muses about in Longrider include Dead Animals, Savior Waitresses, Ex-Wives, Winnebagos (he hates them)Zen, Truckers and the Girl with the Paisley Paint Job and many others.

There's Somethin' About a Sidecar

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.

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.

View Larger Map

Deeds Done & Dues Paid

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

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

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