Isabelle's First Longish Rides

Last Saturday I took Isabelle, my new 2010 Kymco People 250S, out for our first longish ride. It was a getting to know each other ride. I took her out to the Covered Bridge at the end of Old Lemay Ferrry Road. I've been there a couple of times riding Billie, my 100cc Symba. It was a much more enjoyable ride on Isabelle. On Billie I would usually have to pull off the road after some of the hills to let the parade pass. Today there were no lines of cars building up behind me.

 

You can see how dry it is by how brown the grass is.

At the intersection of Old Lemay Ferry Rd and Old Hwy M in Antonia I saw Steve from the St. Louis Scooter Club out on his trike. I waved, but he didn't know who I was. How would he. He didn't know I had a new bike. I detoured and followed him. Eventually he wondered who the guy following him was and stopped. It is a small world. He oohed and aahed over Isabelle. We chatted briefly and he continued on to his friend's place and I made my way back to the Covered Bridge.

 

I, also, rode the length of Rte.141 from Lemay Ferry to Marine. Recently the last link in this outer loop was completed. This is a highway I would have avoided if I were riding Billie. It was no problem for Isabelle. Isabelle performed exactly like I'd hoped she would. Can you tell I'm smiling.

 

I liked the reflections off the water.

Creve Couer Lake is a favorite destination of mine. Isabelle and I made our first visit there. I just had to get a photo of the Bonnie parked in the background. I asked the nice dragon to keep its tongue in its mouth, but it just wouldn't behave. I'd forgotten light dragons had forked tongues. Oh well.

When it was all said and done we traveled a little over one hundred miles. Some impressions. I really love the hook for securing a bag/backpack. Very handy. Actually, the only thing didn't like was the mirrors. I see way to much of me and not enough of the road behind me...and, they are ugly.

 

Sunday was another day, and another ride. This one of a little over 60 miles.

 

The sky on Sunday was filled with a cloud show.

One of the major reasons for bringing Isabelle into my life was to be able to ride more safely to St. Peters to visit my son, daughter-in-law, and grand-daughter. Sunday afternoon I headed for St. Peters. She did great. A couple of times when I glanced down at the speedometer it was registering a bit over 70mph. The reviews I've read about the People 250S say the speedometer is surprisingly accurate for a scooter. Most scooters are rather optimistic in their speed readings. Although I don't know how accurate Isabelle's speedometer is, I do know this, I stayed up with traffic just fine, which is all I ask.

Isabelle and I plan to visit often.

The Naming.

Back in May I was nearly positive a red and silver Honda CBR250R was going to be my next bike. Click here to learn about the bike. On the Feast of Pentecost, the day Christians celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit and many congregations wear red, as a joke I posted the following comment on a social media site:

Today most Christians celebrated the coming of the Holy Spirit. I had the distinct sense the Holy Spirit wants me to buy a red motorcycle, name it Pentecost, and call it Penny. Of course, I might be mistaken.

The same day on the Jewish Calendar is also a Holiday.  Their celebrations commemorates the giving of Torah. A dear friend and one of the cleverest women I know made this response:

We celebrate the giving of the Torah at Mt. Sinai, where we all met at the foot of the mountain on our red motorcycles. It's called Shavuot, which is Hebrew for Sturgis. So...I think Keithey mis-heard the Ruach HaKodesh.

As those of you who have been following this blog know, I didn't buy a CBR250R, nor did I buy a Harley and head for Sturgis. I bought a Kymco People 250S. 

The Kymco is plenty red, but she is not a Penny.

After the adventure of taking delivery of the Kymco, I thought about naming her Reluctance, but that didn't seem to be it. Still there was something in the experience that needing to be claimed. The movie Crossing Delancey came to mind. I remember it as a cute little movie. The main character is a thirty-something woman who works at a bookstore in New York. She works with the authors who are scheduled to come to the store to do readings and promote their books. She becomes rather smitten by one particular author, who seems to have an interest in her. At the same time her grandmother hires a matchmaker. The matchmaker matches her with a pickle maker. Of course, there is more to the pickle maker than him merely being a pickle maker. When the main character finds out the author she is taken with was really looking for nothing more than an assistant with benefits, she is afraid she has blown her chances with the surprise man in her life. But there is a happy beginning after all, despite her reluctance. The character's name in the movie is Isabelle. And....

...the name of my new scooter is Isabelle.
 

It's Not Christmas, Nor Is It My Birthday, But...

A new scooter showed up today.


It has a radiator.

It doesn't run without a carburetor. And, it didn't run so well with the idle jet blocked. But it is all better now.

Yes, Billie has company.

The new kid is a 2010 Kymco People 250S. I am its first owner. There were only 7km on the clock when I picked it up.

A Rainy Day Road Trip

Heather had to work last Saturday. It was a chilly and rainy day and seemed like the perfect sort of day to check out a few things I've been wanting to for awhile.

My destination was near Moscow Mills, Missouri a small town off of Hwy-61. It would be a relatively quick drive out there taking the Interstate and major divided highways, but what would the fun be in that. Besides one of the things I wanted to check out was an alternate route to St. Charles, Missouri where my son, daughter-in-law, and granddaughter live.

If I was taking Miss Billie this would have been an all day affair. I didn't have all day, so the Yaris was the ride of choice. I had "Googled" my destination and chose the options of no highways and no tolls.

The directions routed me down Kingshighway. I'd forgotten how many stoplights there are on Kingshighway. As far as the eye can see there are stoplights.

The first part of the drive was all urban. And, while I drove by some wonderful old structures, most of the route was through some of the more tattered and worn areas of the City.

I eventually crossed the Missouri River on Lindbergh Ave. This was the first time I'd ever crossed here. It appears it would be a good place for Miss Billie and I to cross this great river, but I certainly wasn't much fond of the route to get there. There has to be a better way.

Through the magic of photography I finally am leaning.

Once I turned on to Route 94 the terrain changed. I was on the flood plain between the two great rivers. It was wetlands, farmland, and all very, very flat.

The green isn't grass even though this was on a sod farm. I think it was some sort of  fertilizer they put on the grass to force it to grow pretty.

The mist and fog can even give an air of mystery to a power generating plant.



And, I didn't find this sign hard to believe at all.

I know what it is like to be snowed in. I suspect the folks who own this house have some experience with being flooded in.

West of St.Charles the terrain changed and it was more hilly and wooded.

My first destination was Lincoln Power Sports outside Moscow Mills.

But first a little history. One of the things I love about Miss Billie is her 16inch wheels. Another thing is her gas mileage. These were two of the three things which led me to chose the Symba. The third was the ability to experience shifting without having to bother with a clutch. Miss Billie has an automatic clutch. I wondered if I'd like shifting. I'd driven manual transmission cars and trucks up until a few years ago. I was convince if I got an automatic I'd miss the control that shifting gave me...that I'd miss going through the gears. When I did get an automatic I found I didn't miss any of that. I'd be quite happy to never own a manual shift car again.

But, what about scooters/motorcycles. I thought the Symba would be a nice way to experiment. My first scooter was a twist and go. I liked it and my suspicion was I wouldn't find shifting scooter/motorcycle any more essential than I found it to be in a car.

I will admit I've always felt Miss Billie was meant to be one of two scooters. The Symba is close to perfect for my daily commute and for puttering around the City.

But traveling across the Missouri River to get to St. Charles necessitates riding on the above road. It is rather an adventure. A bigger bike/scooter would certainly make riding over the Page Extension a much more enjoyable experience. Plus, I have in mind I want to photograph every Circuit Courthouse in Missouri. I could do that on the Symba, but it would take some time...some very long time.

I pretty broke, but it doesn't cost anything to look. Lincoln Power Sports had a new 2008 250 People S. I wanted to sit on it.

I didn't have them pull it out. I just wanted to sit on it. Last Fall I test rode a Genuine Blur 220i and my knees kept bumping into the handlebars. Not a good thing. I wondered how the People would be.

It fit me fine and it doesn't have a big bulbous butt like some maxi-scooters do. Also, it has 16 inch wheels and the color is certainly right.

While I was there I also sat on a Xciting 500i. I wasn't expecting too think much of this scooter.

I was surprised how comfortable it was. Heather thinks it looks to "insecty". That's not a problem for me. However, its butt is awfully close to being bulbous and its tires are smaller than the People. Heaven knows it would certainly take me anywhere I wanted to go. Truthfully, I suspect the People would take me anywhere I want to go and use less gasoline getting me there. And, gas mileage will be an important consideration in any future purchase I do make.

Perhaps on a day when it isn't raining I'll go back and  test ride the People.  It doesn't cost any more to test ride than to look does it?

I tore myself away from things that were shiny and made my way back to St. Charles and a visit with da' kids.

I suspect if I had a People 250 S or even that Xciting 500i I'd just have to ride it over to St. Charles more often to visit them, don't you?

The Twin Cities, Part 1

Here's the Heather version of Day 3 of our trip:

We Rode.
We leaned.
We looked at Stuff.
And, we ate very well.

We Rode. We leaned.

Heather wasn't at all certain what she was getting into when I suggested we make this trip. I knew why I wanted to make this trip. I wanted to meet Chris of Everyday Riding in person. He and I share a passion for riding year around and have developed a blog friendship. When people would ask me why I was going to Minnesota my response was, "To visit a friend I've never met." I, also, wanted to experience a sidecar rig and I wanted Heather to experience a sidecar rig. I ride most days, but snow still stops me. Chris' solution to riding in the snow has been his Ural sidecar rig. Heather had some reservations about sidecar rigs. Another possibility was a Can-Am Spyder, but when she and I test rode one back in May, neither of us were terribly impressed. I wanted Heather to experience a sidecar rig first hand. I'm not sure what her reservations were. I know when I mentioned to my sister about maybe getting a sidecar rig someday, she immediately said she wouldn't ride in it. Why? From all the cartoons she'd seen where the sidecar would separate from the bike and then come back. She just didn't think she could trust them to stay together.

I already ride all but about 15% of the year. If Heather wasn't interested in being part of owning a sidecar rig I wanted to know. It would make a major difference in my plans for my future riding. If there was interest after our time with Chris, I would explore taking a sidecar class. If there wassn't interest I could begin to look for another bike/scooter to compliment Billie, my Symba. Yes, I had an agenda.

We lucked out on the weather. It was a wonderful day to be out and about. Brave Heather went first.

Heather had her own helmet, gloves, and jacket. Chris lent her a pair of pants and she was set. I think she looks great.

Ready . . . Set . . .

Go!

It wasn't long before they were back.

When I asked Heather what she thought of the ride, she responded, "I want to drive."

I had hoped Heather would ride pillion with Chris on his BMW R1150GS. And, she did.

Mrs. Everyday helping Heather with her visor.

Off they go! Heather made Chris promise no freeways.

It seemed like they were gone only a few moments. Is Heather doing her happy dance?

Heather said it was fun, but the leaning was weird. She felt like she was falling.

Then it was my turn. Of course, I don't have any pictures of myself, but if you click here you can get Chris' version of events and see more pictures of Heather and some of me, too.

What was my experience of riding in the sidecar? It was more comfortable than I expected. What about piloting the tug? Well, I'm definitely curious to get some real training in it. The Ural fit me better than I expected. I felt quite comfortable on the bike. I was pleased I didn't stall the bike out. I've not used a hand clutch since my Basic Riders Course. I certainly liked it better than the Spyder . . . and so did Heather.

Later Heather, Chris, and I rode around St. Paul and Minneapolis looking at stuff and just enjoying the ride. We were out for at least a couple of hours. It was great fun. Click here for Chris' post on riding three up.

And, what did Heather think of all this? I'm not sure how enthused she is about the sidecar, but something happened that pleased me very much. A couple days after our "Motorcycle Day" she commented she now got what people saw in motorcycles. I have no idea if there will be a sidecar rig in our future. I have no idea if she will be a rider one day. What I am sure about is she now understands the possibilities and has a sense of why this obsession, oops, I mean hobby, has come to mean so much to me.

(to be con't.)

Dead

Wednesday after work Billie, my Symba, wouldn't start. It sounded like the battery was low, but this seemed unlikely since the battery was less than a year old and I use a battery tender. Be that as it may, It certainly sounded like the battery was weak. Fortunately kickstarting was an option and Billie started right up on the first pump and away we went.

When I got home I hooked it up to the tender. When I came out the next morning I had a nice green light indicating a nice fully charged and healthy battery. When I hit the starter she started right up. After my morning bagel, no such luck. Back to the telltale low battery sound and then nothing. Again the Symba started right up with one kick. After work? Another kickstart. When I got home I didn't even bother plugging Billie into the tender.

Awhile back I was having starting problems with Billie. I even had to kickstart it once, but when I took it into the shop the battery checked out fine. We checked all the connections, scratched our heads, and decided we'd just have to wait and see what happened. What happened was, Billie started up on the first try each and every time until last Wednesday.

Friday brought non-starts followed by kickstarts and a phone call to Mike my wonder working wizard at Maplewood Scooter Company. He told me to come in Saturday.

Saturday saw me kickstarting Billie and heading over to Maplewood. I know you know what happened when Mike tried to start the bike. Yep, he pushed the starter button and the engine purred to life. He shut it off and tried again. Again it started right up. He tried a third time and this time it made the noise that I had dreaded for the last three days, but now was music to my ears.

Out came the battery and it was deemed to be dead.

This was a high quality battery and it shouldn't have died such an early death. Definitely a warranty issue.

Mike didn't happen to have a battery in Billie's size in stock. If he had he would have changed it out under warranty. But, what he did have were these new batteries. He offered to sell me one at cost. This way I'd get a great battery and he'd have a great guinea pig. The battery comes with a three year warranty. I've never heard of suc a thing for a motorcycle battery. So, now I can add being a guinea pig for a new technology battery to my resume.

Because the battery was much smaller than the old battery some padding was needed. The Ballistic battery was not only smaller, but it was two pounds lighter. Mike figures with the weight reduction I should be able to hit seventy Symba miles per hour now. I think he was pulling my leg.

While I was there I took a Genuine Blur 220i for a test ride. It is a nice bike, but the seating position is wrong for me. Many folks have complained about the height of the bike. The height was fine for me. What wasn't fine for me was where my knees came in relation to the handlebars. There just was no room. When attempting slow speed maneuvers I kept bumping into my knees when turning. Not fun. The bike was very quick, felt quite stable on the road, and is reasonably priced. Overall I liked the bike, but not enough to go through the trouble of modifying the seat.

Also, I have an announcement of sorts. As an experiment I've started another blog. It is a diary of my daily commute. Ever since I've been commuting to work I've used my facebook status to give the weather conditions, whether I rode that morning or not, and often a comment or two about the ride. I've decided to expand this format a bit and start a blog around it. I'm doing this for two reasons: Some of my friends who aren't on facebook have mentioned a desire to keep up with my daily commute; and, I was increasingly finding the status line too confining. 

And to close . . .

This apparently is a rare short legged species of flamingo. The one in the background I think is stoned.

And What Did Heather Think?

Wow, when it comes to blogging it seems I'm only 1-for-May. I'm not exactly sure why. I know it hasn't been because of a lack of experiences. It's true I've been busy, but I'm always busy. Also, I've had an annoying health issue going on, but it hasn't been of the sort to stop me from riding, inline skating some, hiking a lot, and even getting in the season's first land paddle. I do know part of my blogging fall-off has to do with Heather's work load lightening up and her being home more evenings and around on the weekends. It has been good to spend time with her.

Hiking at Castlewood.

Land Paddling on Schoolhouse Trail in Madison County, Illinois.

Just hanging out at Horseshoe Lake.

So, let's begin to catch-up May. But, to do that I've got to go back to the last day of April. Actually, I need go back even a little more in time than that.

Who could that be inside that fullface helmet?

Yep, in early April Heather bought a helmet. She did it in preparation for what we had planned for the last day of April. We went to Spyderfest in Cuba, Missouri. Over two hundred Can-Am Spyders descended on the Mural City during the last week in April. We drove down on Saturday to check it out, eat some barbeque, and . . .

This was before half of the Spyders made it out to Cowtown, the local Spyder dealer, for barbeque. There were bikes there from both coasts and Canada.

. . . to test ride a Spyder.

There were Spyders everywhere.

Sadly, we didn't get any pictures of us on the Spyder. Heather has never been on a motorcycle or an ATV or a trike. So, riding on the Spyder while I piloted it was a big first for her. Zach, the guy in charge of the demos, gave us a quick run down of the controls and how to put into reverse, gave us a few suggestions on where we might like to ride, and sent us on our way. We tested a RT with a semi-automatic transmission. It reminded me of my experience of driving a snowmobile. Of course, the way I ride a snowmobile has very little in common with the way my brother-in-law rides a snowmobile. You see, I have a slow hand and don't drift through the corners while approaching triple digits. That said, the Spyder easily took the curves at ten-plus mph above the posted speed. It did everything I asked of it. I liked the transmission, but I'm sure others would miss the clutch. Would I buy one? Well, definitely not a RT. Both Heather and me think it is butt-ugly. The RS on the other hand could be an interesting year around vehicle for me . . . if it didn't cost so much; and if it didn't get such horrible gas mileage; and if I was convinced I could afford to maintain it.

The guy wearing the helmet with the horns rides his Spyder year around in Minnesota. He tells me with an automobile snow tire on the back and sandbags to add weight over the rear wheel it can handle snow  up to four inches. If there is more snow than that you have to wait for the snowplow to go through first. By the way, when he's really ready to ride the highway he wears a fullface helmet.

A Cow-Am

The orange Spyder is a RS. The blue beast next to it is a RT Touring.  I didn't get any intentional pictures of any RT's. No surprise there.

I really liked this rig.

And, what did Heather think? I'm not exactly sure, but the next weekend we made a trip to Cyclegear and . .

She bought a jacket.