Make It So

The Picard Maneuver.

UPDATE: Libby made me do it (via Twitter)!

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My Morning Jacket

... has landed at East Side Scooters! Yay! Warmth!
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Selected Hot Dog Run Photos

The lot at East Side Scooters starts filling up. We had 31 riders on 28 scooters... not a bad turnout. 62°F and sunny the whole afternoon.

Some of the riders stuff their faces at I Dream Of Weenie, Nashvile's only full-service weenery (so they say).


Hot dogs and Twitter -- a natural combination in the scooter universe, of course.

That bad boy to the right is called the Diet Starts Tomorrow Dog, served at The Dog of Nashville. Deep fried dog, wrapped in bacon, smothered in cheese sauce. Yummmmmmmm-O.
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I Wanna Ride!

Well, the weather is freakin' AWESOME, and after the Bills@Titans, I am going to ride. Pity no one will be riding with me.

I don't know what's wrong with Nashville's scooter folx, but they're a sorry lot, of late. They don't stop by the shop... they aren't interested in doing rides... WTF?

The map above is of next Saturday's Hot Dog Run, starting at East Side Scooters @ 11:30. Be there, scooter people!
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Let It Bleed

Over the past week or so, my rear brake had lost about 80% of its stopping power. The brake handle was touching the handlebar, and barely slowing the bike down, at all. I was assuming the rear pads needed replacing, but perhaps not just yet.

I asked around online, and the Yahoo! Kymco forum provided a possible answer: There's air in them-thar brake lines! How does it get in there? I dunno, but NOW, thanks to Josh @ ESS, I discovered how easy it is to bleed one's own brakes with no assistance.

1. Open the master cylinder cap. Keep it clean! If it's dirty, clean it up before you open it -- you don't want dirt getting inside the brake circuit.
2. Pump the brake handle 10-20 times.
3. Using an 8mm box or open-ended wrench, SLOWLY open the bleeder valve on top of the brake caliper to let fluid and any air escape, being sure NOT to suck air back into the bleeder valve.
4. Re-tighten bleeder valve.
5. Repeat steps 2-4 several times, adding fluid at the master cylinder as needed, only stopping when no air bubbles are present in the fluid leaving the bleeder valve.
6. Replace clean master cylinder cap and tighten its screws.

Now, your life should be complete. :) Live long, and prosper.
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Beautiful People?

Let's face it: The Kymco People series is pretty intensely ugly (IMO), and none uglier than the People 250 (which I own). That looks like it may be changing...

These were not easy photos to find, as this model was apparently only unveiled today in Italy @ the EICMA trade show.

Word is this will be available in the U.S., along with the sleek, sportbike-looking Downtown 300i.

UPDATE: Directly from EICMA:





Now, the KymcoUSA website's 2010 brochure does NOT include this model, or the Downtown 300i. What's the story, KymcoUSA? Are these gonna be for sale here, or not?
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Ashland City

For November, the weather was impossibly nice, although clouds rolled in pretty quick and made it a little gloomier than I first thought, but no threat of rain. So, after a quick trip to the bank, I shot up Briley Parkway to Ashland City Highway.


Here's BRU at the Lewis Country Store, a Shell station in Scottsboro where I like to fill up.

Our hero on the porch of the Lewis Country Store.

A cool old Edsel cop car parked out front.

Rifles on the walls inside. Oh, yeah. Country decor!

The inside of the cool old Edsel cop car.

A tractor, out front.

A couple more tractors.

The obligatory country autumnal display.

With BRU's belly full, I headed on up Ashland City Highway, to Ashland City, proper, where my nearest Hardee's happens to be, to fill my belly. Their ads have had me jonesing to try a Big Hardee, which I did. Not bad for a fast food burger.

The Cumberland River, from the middle of the bridge in Ashland City.

Yours Truly, again.

From Ashland City, I went down 49 to 250, and into the Cheatham Wildlife Management Area, where hunting is allowed, apparently... but only in certain areas.

Not much to see in the CWMA. I actually went a few miles down Headquarters Road, which was a hard-packed dirt road with gravel on it. When I came up to the TWRA station, I was met by a TWRA ranger, who said I could go no further without a hunting permit. Just as well... I'd hate to be shot by some goob mistaking me for a deer.

He wanted to know if I was lost. "No -- just explorin' a little." The ride down 250 was a lot of twisty fun, though.

This is a watchtower right across the street from Grumpy's:

Then, I went back the way I came, turning off at River Road, and taking 251 south into Pegram, then west and back home on 70 (Charlotte Ave).

I saw a lot of two wheeled brothers on my trip (about 50 miles), and almost all of them gave the wave. On the way back, I even ended up behind a woman on a Honda Metropolitan... on a 55mph stretch of 70, no less. She was kind enough to pull off as soon as the light turned green. :)

What's really cool is that all along Ashland City Highway, River Road and a lot of the other roads I was on, today: There were signs posted frequently reminding motorists to share the road with bicyclists. Very cool for a rather rural route through the outlying areas of Nashville.
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Zombie Ride

The Zombie Shop, 504 6th Ave. S.


One of the riders' Vespa GTS250ie.

Some of the scenery at Percy Warner.

Today's Ride

Took a little ride, today. Got cool out there, but it was a fun way to kill an hour or so.




Photos taken at the Brush Creek Recreation Area, Lillamay, TN.
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Today's Traffic Hazard

Smashed punkin' and wet leaves. Be careful out there, folx!
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Loosers!

I expect Chinese and Taiwanese bikes to have some hilarious misspellings in the manual, on the decals, etc.

But the Italians, too?
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Draggin'

oellrichm talked me into going up to Music City Raceway this past Friday. I figured it'd be a fun way to see just what my stock, nothing-special scooter could do, and it was, but it was less exciting than I expected. Maybe it was watching the crotch rockets better than lap my time. :)

I made two runs (why waste gas?). The deets:

Run One:

Reaction = +0.3000
60ft = 2.7760
330ft = 7.9298
ET @ 594ft = 11.6947
1/8 ET = 12.5620
1/8 MPH = 51.88

Run Two:

Reaction = +0.3570
60ft = 2.7448
330ft = 7.9020
ET @ 594ft = 11.6639
1/8 ET = 12.5327
1/8 MPH = 51.79

No, I dunno what most of that means. :) It was just for fun, and for $15, I guess it was fun enough just to ride up there with oellrichm and touchton (who's in the photo, above).

Probably won't do it again, though.

UPDATE: Here's some footage of touchton and oellrichm gettin' their drag awn.


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$4 Yamaha T-Max

... and, depending on the value of your time, perhaps hundreds of dollars in labor costs, but still... a papercraft T-Max sounds like a good way to get frustrated on a cold, wet weekend, indoors.

Amazingly, Yamaha has a variety of papercraft projects on their Japanese site, and not all of them are motorcycles and scooters.

h/t to ProvoScooterForums.
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Speed, Dark, Wet, Wind

I've been riding this stretch of Briley Parkway around the northwest quadrant of Nashville almost every night this week. In the dark. In the rain. In the wind. At 65mph or more.

Let me tell ya: It can be a little unnerving on a 367lb. bike.
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Throttle Calluses

Heh.
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Leaden Skies, Immaculate Timing

As anyone living in Middle Tennessee can tell you, it's a soggy mess, right now, and has been for a week.

I worked almost every day at ESS this week, including Saturday. Saturday was generally sunny, except for the time I rode to work, and the time I rode home.

Then tonight, after not raining for hours, I set out on a short trip. I got caught in a drenching, two-minute downpour.
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Is All Gas Created Equal?

Well, who can know, without labs and shit?

Anyway, since using Fuelly, I've noticed upward ticks in my mileage after filling up with Exxon and Shell, rather than the usual fuel I get at Pilot (which is nearby, and several cents cheaper than just about anyone else in the neighborhood). I noted that Exxon did not have any ethanol notices on their pumps, and so the next-to-last fuel-up was at a small, nearby, independent station that proclaimed they were dispensing ethanol-free fuel. My mileage was only average on that tank.

So yesterday, I filled up at Exxon, again. Let's see how this tank goes.
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When It Pains, It Roars

Coming home from ESS tonight, I hit a bad patch of asphalt on Charlotte Ave., and heard a terrible noise. I slowed, and pulled off, only to continue hearing the terrible noise.

It was my Shad (!) SL29 topbox, sliding along the pavement, and eventually catching right up to me at the side of the road. I hit the bump hard enough to unlatch the box from the mounting plate. That's pretty hard.

It's scraped up pretty bad, but otherwise seems to be okay.
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Not Feeling The Truthiness

So, when the female neighbor person got home tonight, I hollered down to her from the balcony, asking if she had seen anyone hit the scooter. She said she'd been at work all day, but she would ask her male neighbor person who lives in her home if he saw anything. She came over and knew just where to look, though (I missed it the first time I did a once-around).


The male neighbor person came over two hours later, and the first words out of his mouth were, "I didn't hit your scooter."
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Do One Thing, And Do It Very Well

The Onion rawks. h/t to 2strokebuzz.

That said, I don't know of anything Yamaha makes that's considered less than good quality. They make some very nice guitars... or used to, anyway.
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