From Sunday, Courtesy of Ginger

Fat guy on a scooter.

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Day 78, 768.8km

I think every distracted asshole driver was out to get me, today. I had no less than five people either pull out or back out in front of me on the ride home. One was a last-second, no-peek, no-signal lane changer, right at the end of Blakemore where it crosses West End and becomes 31st Ave. I barked the front tire, but didn't panic, and stopped just short of his bumper.

The one backing out onto 46th Ave. (a relatively busy street) was talking on her cell phone as she was backing out of her driveway.

Assholes.
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Day 77, 745.7km

Took a slightly-longer path to and from work, today, but not far off the usual route. I thought I might take Charlotte in to 21st Ave. S., but a huge line of cars turning left at 46th Ave. changed my mind for me.

Had one woman call my scooter a motorcycle today, and one who called it a moped. :)

Birds shat all over the damn thang while it was parked at work, too. Cleaned most of it off with wet paper towels before I left work, but I still gotta get out there with some cleaning products before it gets dark. The neighborhood kids stole my frickin' scooter cover, damn their hides. I want a better one, this time... one that has the aluminized panels all around, and not just in the one spot. Any suggestions/URLs?
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Day 76, 722.1km

Today's jaunt: Sevier Park, south central Gnashvegas.

Why? Local blogger picnic. Didn't stay long... just wanted to drop in, say howdy to a few folx, and get back on the scooter for a bit during the sub-100°F temperatures. Hey, I'm not a fambily guy. Here's the route:

So, I arrived, said my howdies, went off to get some hot dog buns (and some awesome Hebrew National hot dogs), came back, grilled said dogs, ate two, watched Ginger run face-first into a tree during a spirited kickball game, said my goodbyes, and followed the same route home.

UPDATE: Well, screw it. Blogger wants to convert today's animated GIF to a PNG file, for some reason (unlike yesterday), so instead, here's a JPG.
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Day 75, 682.2km

A trip to Bellevue, on roads with speed limits of up to 55mph! Whoo-hoo!

Here's the route I took:

Doesn't look like much, but it's about a 20-minute one-way trip (okay, so it isn't much). The 55mph starts just west of River Road, and continues up to where the turn, south, onto Old Hickory Boulevard begins. Almost all of the rest of it is 45mph, except the part near the condos (at the northernmost part of the map... actually, beyond the boundaries, for anti-stalker reasons!), which is 30mph. However, no one does 45mph on that stretch of Old Hickory, as it's four wide lanes, and very hilly and somewhat curvy... I kept up with traffic and then some, doing an indicated 50mph+ up hills, and an indicated 60mph+ downhills and in the flats. Man, it was fun.

Why was I goin' there? Well, a friend was meeting another friend (whom I hadn't met, yet) at his place, to drink beer, and lounge by a pool, ogling ladies. :) Hey, sounded better than what I had planned for today! ;)

Here's a shot off the new friend's balcony:

His place is really small, though... maybe half the size of my condo, and twice as far from town, and I'm guessing his rent's not cheaper than mine. However, where he lives has four pools, and three stocked ponds (this being one of them), and the construction is newer, and in better repair.

So, I got to hear about these two guys' recent adventures in Bellevue... wine, women and being tossed out of bars. :) I had a couple of beers, and headed back not long after.
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Another Photo... SHAD!

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Day 73: 617.4km

That's a 105 for... uh, no. That's 383.634574 miles, for those keeping count at home.

Filled up again... 0.96 gallons @ $2.789 = $2.68.
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This One's For James

Heh. He'll get it. You won't. :)

It's runnin' like a top, so far. Starts on the first burst, every time, runs like buttah. Thanks, man.
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Day 72: Whoo-hoo!

James called and left me a voicemail while I was in a meeting, around 1:00 p.m. It was good news: He said the Agility 125 was "... runnin' smooth as silk." Awesome!

Of course, I rode the Vino to the bus stop this morning, and locked the helmet under the seat, so I was helmetless. Before the tow goob took the Kymco yesterday, I unlatched the Shad (!) w/Icon Mainframe inside, and carried it into the condo. I figured if the tow goob dropped the scoot, that'd be the first thang to break, so I just removed it, thinking I'd carry the case to work with me in a few days. After James' call last night, it didn't sound like it'd be today that the scooter was up and runnin', again... I could tell he was pretty frustrated with not being able to get the thang to fly right. Who can blame him? It is frustrating to have a brand new bike not working like a brand new bike -- for the owner, and the very conscientious dealer!

At any rate, I didn't bring any helmet to work with me. Bummah.

As it so happens, my landlord friend was replacing a faucet in my bathroom, today, and I happened to call him while he was still at the condo. He agreed to drop the Shad (!) and helmet off to me, and to actually take me on over to ESS to pick up the scoot; it was on his way home, just not on the interstates, as he would normally have gone.

I got there, and sure enough, the scooter was idling just as it had been the first day I started it up. No roughness, no sputtering, no problem. James explained that the KymcoUSA DSM, Mike Hancock, had dropped by, and volunteered his help in diagnosing the problem. Mike insisted on checking all the vacuum lines that James had already checked, just to make sure everything was tight and sealed up, sucking in the good sense. :) After about an hour of checking all these things out, poking, prodding, testing... Mike called James over to feel a little puff of air where there shouldn't have been one.

As James explained it, there's a little trick with a clamp on the intake manifold, and he and Mike concluded that there may be a design issue on this model that might prompt a dealer service bulletin, or some such. Apparently, the clamp is designed in such a way that it can be tightened with its screw, and feel really tight, but it's actually not tightening the intake hose against the intake -- it's tightening up against itself, leaving the hose loose enough to cause the rough idle/high idle/no starting issues. Once they got the clamp adjusted correctly, and tightened correctly, the scooter fired right up, and ran like melted buttah.

In any case (as you've no doubt heard all over Ted Stevens' Innertubes), the Agility 125 is getting somewhat of a bum rap for carburetor issues, brand-spankin' new. James and Mike think this clamp may actually account for many, if not most of those issues... and it's apparently not an easy one to figure out. So, maybe they'll send out a service bulletin, and/or redesign the clamp, and make a bunch of new Agility owners very happy customers.

Bottom line: My hat's off to James and Mike -- to James, for being ultra-responsive to making a customer's concerns his first priority, and for being tenacious (polite, but firm) with KymcoUSA to get the problem resolved. I hope it hasn't cost him any money -- I know it's cost him time and worry. And to Mike, for taking a new dealer's concerns seriously, and coming into the shop to roll up his sleeves and see if he could help figure out what was going on.

You gonna get that level of service from an eBay dealer, selling Chinese close bikes? Not in your wildest, lottery-winnin' dreams, man.

So, I rode the Kymco across the metropolis, all surface streets. Stopped to get a Redbox DVD at the McDonald's on Charlotte, and a six pack of Sweetwater 420 at H.G. Hill's... and still made it to the condo in under an hour from the time I left ESS.

Now the bad news: I gotta walk back to the bus stop to retrieve the Vino. :) Heh! I'll take it.
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Day Ten: Vino, Bus, Bus, Vino

James called at ~8:30 last night -- he's obviously a very dedicated guy, trying to grow his business, and do right by his customers. Unfortunately, at that time, he wasn't having a whole lot of luck with the new carb, either, but he's made the offer of a loaner scoot, and KymcoUSA seems to be paying better attention to his desires to keep a customer happy. That's as it should be, because obviously, there was a defect in the product when it arrived -- certainly not James' fault. As they say, "shit happens."

Really, the Vino/bus combo isn't so terrible; I've gotten used to the bus routine, as much as I dreaded that long walk to/from the bus stop. But now with the license issues squared away, adding the Vino to the mix eliminates the hot, sweaty walk. There's no way the bus is as convenient as hopping on the Kymco and taking off at a moment's notice, but it works out pretty well, most days.

I do wish the Vino had a topbox and a curry hook, though. :) I get some funny looks on that Vino, with frozen pizzas and toilet paper bungeed to the luggage rack, and a big jug of cat litter between my feet!
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Day Nine: Vino, Bus, Bus, Vino

The parts are in, though, and as I type, the huge tilt-bed tow truck that could carry a Bradley fighting vehicle -- my Agility 125 astride it -- is making its way towards East Side Scooters, where a new carb and auto-enrichener arrived today via UPS.

I left work at 1:06, in order to give MTS a 3-hour window for the non-emergency tow. Called while on the bus @ ~2:00, and the tow truck got here at ~5:20. Okay, a little more than three hours.

Cross your carb fingers.
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Oh, That Figures.

Area officials mull ticket amnesty plan

UPDATE: Hey, my parts are in! That means the drought will be over, any minute (at least a month of rain and flooding is bound to start, no?).
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Day Six: Vino, Vino, Vino

Weekend shopping!

Outside the new Target in West Gnashvegas, just a few miles from home. Cons: The Vino can't haul much at once. No curry hook, no top box. Pros: More scooter ridin'!
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Day Five: Vino, Bus, Bus, Vino

Rode to and parked at a different location, today, as I'm meeting some folx after work, and will have to catch a late bus back into the 'hood. The later buses don't go so far into the 'hood, unfortunately, so it was park somewhere closer to where the bus lets me off, or walk for miles.

The Vino is secured to a guard rail post with the thermonuclear Kryptonite chain and lock, just to be on the safe side.

Five consecutive days of no Kymco love... seven days out-of-service in the first two months for the same problem. I hope those folx in South Carolina are shippin' those parts, soon.
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The Vino, Reconsidered

I wish the Vino would do a steady 40mph all the way from my condo, to work and back. If it would do an honest-to-GPS 40mph the whole way, I'd ride it every day. It's low to the ground, and easy to ride, solid as a rock, and the girls think it's sexy, for some reason.

Yeah, there are kits. I could spend hundreds of dollars, turning it into a 70cc, rejetted, re-exhausted beast. Even then, I have my doubts that it would haul my 200lbs. around at a steady 40mph. It just wasn't built to do that.

But it's a fun li'l ride... as long as you (and the cars behind you) aren't in a hurry. :)
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Day Three: Vino, Bus, Bus, Vino

James e-mailed last night to say he's got a whole new carb on order from Kymco.

While I don't want to minimize how much it sucks to not be able to just get up, jump on the scooter, and head straight to work (do grocery shopping, etc.), I don't fault James or ESS for this, at all. Sometimes, you get a new vehicle, and it's got a problem. My dealer is working diligently to resolve it, and that, folx, is why I bought a new, warranteed, known-quality brand from a local dealer.

Had I been chump enough to have bought a Chinese scooter from eBay, I'd be lucky to even get parts for it under warranty.

All that aside, I'm enjoying the Vino a little more. It's just so solid, and it runs like a top. If only I could get it to do more than 20-25mph up the extremely slight incline of American Road... :) At least it gets me to the bus stop in a reasonable amount of time... today's the first morning this week I've even had to pull over to let people behind me pass. Maybe once we get the Agility 125 back to ship-shape, I'll put the Vino in for a belt change, and see if I can't squeeze a little more top end out of it.
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Day Two: Vino, Bus, Bus, Vino

I really expected the Kymco to start, this morning, since it fired up so quick 'n' easy last night, but it was not to be. Fortunately, I got up early enough to fire up the Vino, and ride to the bus stop to catch the 7:21 #10, which gets me downtown to catch the 7:44 #25, which drops me off less than two blocks from work.

James e-mailed me overnight, to let me know he wants to get me back on the road... of course, I was never in any doubt of that! His service has been excellent to date. It'll all get worked out, I'm sure.
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Stranded, Again

Ran the battery completely flat over a 20-minute period this morning on the Kymco Agility 125, trying to get it to start. Finally gave up, and rode "old faithful" (the Vino 50) to the bus stop (which hadn't been started in weeks, but only took like five tries to fire up and run right).

I hope the Vino is still there when I get back around 5:30-6:00. There was nothing to chain it to, so I just wrapped the chain through the rear wheel and the rear shock.

UPDATE: At 5:50 this afternoon, the damned thang started up on the second try. Arrrrgh!
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LEGAL.

Yes, folx. With a few strokes of my mighty pen (representing a promise of payment to the Tennesse Department of Safety in the amount of $23 -- bringing the Grand Total to $1522.50 -- hey, that's more than half of a newer, nicer Kymco than the one I'm riding!), I can now drive legally, again.
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Day 56, 496.2km

The day started with an unsuccessful bid to reinstate my driver's license. Apparently, there's some doubt as to whether I am still a citizen of the United States (I know I shouldn't have blogged so much about the stupid fucking Iraq fiasco!). I was when I got my license here in Tennessee some years ago, but that was, of course, when the U.S. still had a functioning government that respected the Constitution, and wasn't completely freaked out about Messicans. It seems like a lifetime ago...

Anyway, although I have a duplicate birth certificate here somewhere, I ordered another, since it will probably arrive before I can lay hands on the one I have. I need it so often, dontchaknow?
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More Photos

Shad! I just like saying "Shad!" in a crowded theater.

View from astern.

Open sesame. As you can see, the Icon full-face just fits.

Detachable, too. Very handy, since the Dowco medium cover I have barely goes over the scooter without the top box. Fortunately, the mounting plate/base perfectly fit the size and contour of the Kymco rack, not that it had to, but it does look like it was made for it.
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Shad!

It looks a little askew from this angle, but it's not -- the license plate being too big to fit the standard Kymco fender is probably not helping matters, from this perspective.

Oh, and for those wondering about my fugitive status...
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My Last Day As A Fugitive...?

Let's hope so. I'd like to get scootin', again, without the threat of jail hangin' over my head.

The knife-edge of my dilemma: Do I take $1255 cash into a place with a bunch of fugitives hangin' around, or hope the court will accept my check?

It could be a moot point:

Nashville resident Kista London, 28, said she had lived a fugitive's life over the past year.

London's trouble came because she never had a driver's license and had gotten three tickets. A year ago, a judge ordered her to do 40 hours of community service and pay $100, or face a three- to six-month jail sentence.

She never paid the fine, did the community service or went to court. Warrants were issued for her arrest. But Wednesday, she arrived at the courtroom set up inside the church, run by Davidson County General Sessions Judge Gale Robinson. She pleaded guilty, and the charges immediately went away.

No fine, no time.

I'll tell ya how it goes, tomorrow night.
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Now THAT'S How You Do Bidness

I ordered a Binetto BN-T50 from CBXMAN this morning, before I walked to the bus stop for the ride into work.

Before 9:30 a.m., they e-mailed to let me know it was not in stock. I replied, asking what Binetto cases they did have in stock, and @ 10:04, I had that info in my inbox. As it so happens, none were as big as the BN-T50, nor were any removable. So, I wrote again, asking if the Shad 29 case was in stock. It was, and I requested that one. Within minutes, they wrote to say it was being shipped today, and a few hours later, I had a FedEx tracking number.

Now, how hard was THAT?
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