Well, I need to get back into the habit of posting. The scoot is running fine lately.

It still needs a little tupper-love but she runs fine. Scooter-Commuted today!

Some People are just dumb....

My wife and I went to the Sacramento Kings and Oakland Warriors Pre-Season Basketball game last night. It was our first trip together. She had never really expressed a ton of interest in riding 2-up and I didn't have the gear for her. She started expressing interest so over the past few months, I found good, used gear so I finally had the gear and opportunity. We had a nice time. We stopped for dinner before the game and you could not have taken the smile off my face. We rode to the arena and we parked in our normal area near the arena parking. It is in a surrounding business park with several other season ticket holders. We left our gear in the bike and walked to the arena and watched the game. We enjoyed a win and walked back out to the bike. As we got close to the parking space, we saw that the bike was on its side. I had parked the scoot in a very small "regular" car spot where you could not back a car into the scooter without hitting a car or a tree first. Basically, I felt safe there.

I guess some hooligans from the opposing team (we saw them) had decided that a scooter in the parking lot needed to be dumped over to pay for their team's loss. It was up on the center stand making the bike very stable. I always use it. They had to try real hard to push it over. It was not an accident, it had to be a focused effort. The bike was dumped on the right side onto what was existing damage from a tip-over that occurred at the mechanic's shop last month (working with the shop on that one). This new damage was worse than any other prior damage. It was also the most forceful 'event' and included damage previously undamaged areas of the front fairing and right mirror mount (un-investigated at this time).

To those reading this who don't know, my scooter has plastic body panels made from ABS and other plastics that are affectionately/unkindly known as "Tupperware" by scooterists. In my case, it is most cost effective to replace the panels with new panels from the Kymco dealer as opposed to having them fixed.

So, when I get my new Tupperware, I will get a new beauty shot; but until then, it's duct tape and zip ties for me.

BRAMMO Baby!

I was at the CycleGear last week looking for deals on gear and getting some brake pads for my scooter. BRAMMO had their Enertia bike there under the tent. Jennifer, one of their Service Technicians, and I had a good long chat about all things two wheeled.

While we were doing this we were reviewing the bike and it's qualities. I like the idea of this thing as suburban commuter. I commute about 13 miles each was in the Sacramento area. I split traffic every day, all day and this bike is made to order for this job. The tail end is about 6 inches wide from the factory. You also sit up nice and high so you can see over that soccer van next to you.

So, I have thinking to do. I could easily commute my thirteen miles to the office at a good 55-60 mph in traffic on the 3 lane bridges and by-ways I travel on, plug in at the office and recharge, and do the reverse on the way home. If I could not plug in one day, no problem, there's enough left in the battery to get me home with it's 40 mile capacity and a little throttle control.

She's Fixed

I finally got my scooter up and running again. She now has a new belt, new front brake pads, a cleaned up transmission case and a fancy new brake light and "mini rear fender". I even got to commute on the scoot today!

I will be posting more about my scoot very soon.

The Sick Scooter

Normally, I am the scooter commuter. I like to scoot to work as opposed to driving a cage. Actually, today was a good cage ride. I got to drive my wife's MINI Cooper to the office.

Why start my blog this way? Why not! Today is the first day of the blog, today is the day I used a cage instead of my scoot. I will be scooting very soon. My drive belt failed about a month ago and I have yet to get it replaced. I have the part but I have not had the opportunity to get it on the bike. The new belt is sitting on my kitchen table and it has been for about a week.

I guess the only excuse I have is that I have been a better father and a better husband than I have been a scooter mechanic. My daughter went to camp and my wife and I celebrated our 20th anniversary by leaving town for the weekend. We spent the time holding hands as we strolled from shop to shop in the gold country towns near Sacramento. We even spent the night in a quaint Bed & Breakfast. We had a great time doing whatever we wanted without the challenges of a high spirited girl.

About the scooter and the commuter. I have a Kymco People 250 scooter. It has what many call a vintage appearance. You can see it in the photo above. I bought the scooter in June of 2008 and ride it every chance I get... until the belt broke. As for me, I am just a regular guy with a wife, kids and a job I need to commute to. I eat too much and weigh too much but I love my family and like my job. So, I keep working, keep spending time with my family and scooting when I can make it fit.

Let's hope the next post is the return of my red scoot to the roadways of Sacramento.