Difficulty

I rode by 718 Gallatin Avenue for the first time today since early October.

Seeing the FOR LEASE sign constructed in its parking lot broke my heart.

So, if anyone was wondering where my social skills went this afternoon...
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Dark Day, Heavy Heart

I've known for some time, but had hoped that it would not come to this. Unfortunately, I failed to win any lotteries, and no investors or partners stepped up to make it happen, so... East Side Scooters @ 718 Gallatin Avenue is closing for the final time at 4:00 p.m. on Saturday, October 8th, 2011.

It's a real blow to the whole Nashville scooter community, I think... maybe not as much as it is to James, Josephine, Chris and me personally, but... it hurts, and I don't mind saying so.
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Temporary Wheels. Demonic Temporary Wheels.

Many of you automobile-only people have never seen a right-angle tire valve stem. That part is normal, and are not completely uncommon on scooter tires. What isn't normal is where about 25% of the business end of the soft, brass valve stem appears to have been ground off with a Dremel tool. This caused a problem with the valve's structural integrity, making Jeff ride a few miles at very low speed to an air compressor that costs $1.00 to use, and was very nearly useless in getting atmospheric pressure into said tire due to said valve stem.

Finally getting enough air into the tire to ride safely across town on it, I headed to the shop to open it today. Rooster had the day off, but we spoke on the phone, and he had to admit that the 90° valve stem was probably a bad call on his part -- he recently changed my rear tire, you might recall. Yes, it probably rubbed the reduction gear casing, causing what you see, above.

So, I'm riding the boss's Demon Buddy until Tuesday.

It is a wikkid bitch of a fish.

And Tara and Tonya brought me Cuban guava cake bars!
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Not At All Common

An early 1960s Fuji Rabbit Touring 150 ("touring"... heh, right!).

First one I have ever seen.

Ross tries to get an artsy angle with his superior iPhone camera.

What tickled Ross was that the shifter was the reverse of the Vespa shifter -- 1st is one forward; neutral, 2nd, 3rd, 4th back.

What tickled me was that Ross had never seen a vehicle that had the hi-beam/low-beam switch on the left floorboard, as the Rabbit has.  :)
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AggressiVee

Vee Rubber VRM-224. Thai. Looks softer, grippier than the OEM Kendas I have used up until now... which means it'll be replaced sooner. Hey, you gotta try stuff on sale, especially when the mechanic says you should.

Thanks again to Rooster, who volunteered his time to do the tire change, and to ESS for being the best scooter shop in Nashville.
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Well, I Missed It. I Missed It All.

... except for Friday night's screening of Larry Crowne (which I keep wanting to call "Larry Craig," for some reason, which makes me larf momentarily, inwardly). Yes, I have been in a fiercely antisocial mood for days, and avoided all human contact, preferring the company of cats, online (play-money) poker and the open road. Who can say why? Probably some fucked-up shit about serotonin that no one really understands very well, I'm guessing.

At any rate, I really want to apologize to all my scooter people for being a complete non-participant these last few days. Working the shop today really snapped me right out of it, but not enough for me to remember that we had a meetup scheduled for tonight, apparently. My first clue came when Ross texted me, and it didn't sink in until I saw his post about the meetup some minutes later, online. D'oh! So, I apologize to him, 'cause I was just bitching to him about the lame-ass levels of participation we've been getting lately... and then I forget to show up, altogether!

And really, big apologies to Jason, who is so sharing of his time, and to whom I owe small money (and larger debts of gratitude for his free advice and support in regards to my starting The Business) who put together the ride to Antique Archaeology for Saturday morning, and for which I was a no-show. And also to Willy, who, along with his enchanting wife and awesome infant son, hosted a cookout Saturday night less than three miles from my place... and again, I stayed home in my black cloud of "Piss Off, World"-ness.

Anyway, it's all temporary, and I'm getting back on track getting this demon stuffed back in its little box. So, I'll see you soon.

In the meantime, the graphic above is meant to piss off the oil companies, who despite record fucking profits -- and I mean profits that have never been seen in the HISTORY OF HUMAN EXISTENCE -- still seemingly have the support of Republican legislators to suckle at the taxpayers' collective tit, in case you haven't been following the news (which might explain in large part why I am so fucking pissed at the world... maybe I need to be ignorant, and maybe bliss will follow).
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Meet Ruk

Ruk may be the second pony in FastCat's stable, shortly.

More tonight.

UPDATE: Here's another photo.

UPDATE: Yep, it's mine, now. OMG, what have I done?
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Buddy 170i

It's here! East Side Scooters got its first Genuine Buddy 170i, and man, is it sharp. Unfortunately, I had to nick its battery to sell a seafoam Buddy today, but we'll prep another one. :)

Btw, you know if this were a Kymco, it'd be called a "Buddy 200i." :-/

The Saturday Evening Post... Delayed Until Sunday Afternoon

The second pull-off-cool-down session as I rode to the shop Saturday morning to reattach the wing on the plane in mid-flight (read: fixing QBPOS so that people could transact business on the busiest day of the scooter shop week).

One of the three happy new Buddy owners we helped create on Saturday.

Scooter Guy has a near-tearful goodbye moment with the Blur SS 220i. I was there until 6:15 completing the paperwork for this sale. Steve and I stayed behind and had a beer after the customers left, so it was nearly dark by the time we pulled out.

Hot enough to make a stop at Wendell Smith's Lucky Corner. Rest, smoke, love.

Bobbie's Dairy Dip is doin' booming business near closing time on a warm Saturday night in April.

Where I get my Powerball tickets: Lucky Corner! Heh.

Some guy mixin' up some drinks (in a 1 gallon plastic jug) after a visit to Wendell Smith's.
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Tales From The Shop

Yes, folks -- it's time once again to tell you about strange or humorous happenings at my local scooter shop.

Photo used under Creative Commons license. Photo by Jeremy Page.

I wasn't there today when the man brought it in, but he had a nice, new-looking Genuine Buddy 125. Rooster described it thusly: "So, the guy comes in, and he's got electrical tape all over his turn signal lenses, front and back. He says, 'The thing's actin' all crazy! I can't get the blinkers to stop!' So, I pull off the electrical tape, start it up... reach over and turn off the 4-way flasher switch, and the guy cusses, and walks off to talk to James. Next thing I know, he's stormin' out of the shop!"

James was with a customer while Rooster was telling the tale, but he later explained that the gentleman is an attorney in town, and was about to be late meeting a client, so he left in order to make that appointment. Yes, the poor guy felt like an idiot, and he later came to retrieve the scooter, carrying a six-pack of Miller Lite tallboys as payment, which James gladly accepted. Funnier than the n00b who forgets to set the kill switch to run, and wears out a leg trying to kick start it? I'll let you be the judge.
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Wheelies... on a Buddy?

Hell to the YEAH.
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More Scooter Queen

Click images to open videos in a new tab.

Episode Four

Episode Five

First three episodes... 2 and 3 have B( . Y . )BS! :)
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Now It Can Be Told

All that secretive "Project X" crap I was talking about a year ago? I was involved in a project to pitch a reality TV series. Turns out they aren't going to be pitching this version, but I thought it turned out pretty nice, anyway.

The production company has set "no embedding" on the clips, so these stills are links to the episodes, in order.

I'll post the other two episodes as soon as they become available.

UPDATE: Episodes 4 & 5.
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Strap On The Anti-Epileptic Goggles

What is it? A close-up of Donny Osmond's c*ck ring?

No -- it's Josephine's rims for her MonstahBuddy!
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Then, Once Every Three Years Or So

... you have a 60-year-old Indian man fall head first out of a tow truck onto the parking lot.

Seriously. What an amazing, bizarre week. One for the books.
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At Least Two Every Freakin' Week

... when working at the scooter shop.

1.) People calling/stopping in to see if we have tires/innertubes for stand-up manual or electric scooters. No, we do not. No, we can't order them. Thanks for calling!

2.) People who mistake us for dealers in four-(or more) wheeled medical mobility scooters. No, that's not us, either, but here's the number to the durable medical equipment supply store...

3.) People who are ABSOLUTELY-GODDAMNED CERTAIN that they can ride anything we sell without a valid driver's license. No. You want to move to North Carolina, sorry.
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Workin' At The Scooter Shop

A nervous moment, anyway.

Dood comes in, has talked to someone here, before. Is interested in the SYM Fiddle I'm currently riding (see below). He wants a test ride, so I get his license, copy it, print out a liability waiver, have him fill it out and sign it, and help him get fitted for a helmet.

I check him out on the controls, and get him to take a few passes around the parking lot. He asks to take it on a longer, off-site ride, and I say, "Sure! Take it down this side street, and bring it back a few times."

This guy's gone for more than 20 minutes. Around 15 minutes, I get worried, and take another bike out to see if I can locate his bleeding corpse. No sign of him in the neighborhood.

Around the 25-minute mark, he comes back. We all have a good laugh. Holy shit.
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The Ride Today

... was frickin' epic. This woman is the most dedicated scooter person in Nashville, and if we can sell 10 t-shirts this week, we'll tell "the rest of the story."

I will, however tell my story. It was a good one. I used a borrowed scooter, since BRU (or now, "Big HOT Ugly") was clearly not up to this 117-mile epic trek on a day like today.

What will I say about this? Well, the scooter performed very well. It was the same displacement as BRU (or "BHU," as it is), and rode much the same way without the annoying overheating issues. One thing I really liked about it was the comfort level -- it has a "feet-forward" riding position which I really dug, and a seat that puts more pressure on the tailbone than the "taint," so to speak. So, it's a winner on long rides, from that standpoint, hands (or taint!) down.

In other awesome news, I have to thank Marty for filling up the borrowed scooter for me, and to the nice woman in the photo above for buying me my first meal at the Loveless Cafe, which was (fittingly) biscuits and gravy.
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Always At The Gas Pump

Photo by MarkinDetroit, used under Creative Commons license.

I'd say I get more questions about my scooter at the pump than anywhere else -- even the scooter shop. About 2/3rds of the time I pull up to fuel up, someone will ask me something about it, and often, it's a conversation that lasts five or more minutes.

Today was one of those days. I'm fueling at a local Shell station, when a Cadillac Escalade pulls alongside, and rolls down its passenger window:

Cadillac Escalade Guy: Hey, how you likin' your scooter?
Me: It's great. My sole vehicle since 2006!
Cadillac Escalade Guy: Cool! I got me a... a Kymco.
Me: Hey, this is a Kymco, too! It's not made anymore -- 2007, People 250. What model do you have?
Cadillac Escalade Guy: Mine's the 500.
Me: Oh, the Xciting 500? Yeah, that's the bad mother.
Cadillac Escalade Guy: Aw, I love it! I just don't know how to find other people to get together for rides, and whatnot!
Me: scootnashville.com -- don't even have to write it down. It's simple!
Cadillac Escalade Guy: Great -- thanks! I keep drivin' by that place in East Nashville, and meanin' to stop in...
Me: East Side Scooters? [tugs at ESS t-shirt] Yeah, I work there, sometimes. Good people. In fact, I'm just comin' back from working this afternoon, there.
Cadillac Escalade Guy: You got a card?
Me Yeah, man... [hands guy card]

... and on it goes. I told him about the ride 5/30, so I bet we see him, real soon.
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Big Guy, Tiny Scooter

Watching ESS mechanic Patrick test riding a local customer's Flexi scooter -- a 49cc, pull-start foldable ride that weighs under 70 lbs -- I have to re-think "the world's scariest 50cc scooter." Of course, it's a whole different kind of scary than the Kymco Super 9.

This customer uses a small fleet of Flexi scooters to provide people who've had a little too much to drink a safe ride home, along with their cars. They get a call, ride to the client's car, fold up the Flexi and stow it in the trunk, and then drive the person home, where they unpack the Flexi and ride back to home base. Neat idea, eh?
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