What?!

My attorney friend texted me this afternoon:

JP. Soon you will be the reowner of a used Kymco scootah

They will as you expected want a release of the county and [towing company]. And we'll have to get a way to pick up the bike during working hours but otherwise its all

good

He had done me a solid, and wrote a letter to the county attorney last month, and it apparently finally made an impression.  :)  I owe him many beers.

So, just as I was about to shutter KymCojones, this happens. Ain't life funny?  Too bad I already retired Bad Penny from Fuelly, having expected never to see her again.  :(
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A Spectacle Quite Unlike

... any I have ever attended.

I knew Rooster had this thang planned for some time, but his reminder text this morning, "Free booze, strippers..." brought the reminder home. And I knew there was near 100% certainty that he wasn't bullshitting about any of it.

I pulled in around 9:30 p.m., a bit late, due to solving a neighbor's computer issues (which was itself quite an interesting adventure). Already, there were well over 100 people in attendance.

Within a minute of my trying to back my scooter in to park, at least 100 fucking mopeds showed up, right behind me (some blocking me in). 2-stroke smoke filled the air. Oh, yeah. It's that weekend. Man, what a scene.

I have no idea what this shit is doing in Rooster's bathroom, but it looks terribly freakin' important.

Rooster completes the OSHA inspection of the stripper pole.

This is truly as naked as they got while I was there, folx. Relax.  :)

To Rooster: I swear, man, this was a 13 on a scale from 1-10. I've not had this much fun without throwing up in 30 years. We're going to write books about this shit. It was astounding.
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Hoppy New Beer!

 
As The Man himself once said, "Are we gonna ride, or are we gonna talk about riding?"

Well, today we rode. Eight of us set out to do the West Side's Best Ride from Thorntons, 20 minutes late (as usual -- but we were waiting for a motorcycle guy who's name I think is Allan; he discovered that he had no headlights, and left Thorntons to check at NAPA for a solution... alas, that was at 12:45).

Here's Dan, Michele and Ed, on our first stop @ Old Charlotte and Sam's Creek.

Michele and Norm with some of the scoots lined up at Grumpy's (Wiley Pardue & TN-250).

Richard was pretty happy with the ride.

Michele stowing or un-stowing something at Grumpy's. That SYM Fiddle II is their family's 4th scooter!  How cool is her GoGo Gear jacket?

Franck does some Twittering...?  :)

The fire tower across from Grumpy's.

Have a Happy, Safe New Year's!
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While I Worry, Worry, Worry

... a select few were invited to the Honeycomb Hideout for beers and scooter scuttlebutt.

Out host, and master of festivities.

The host's impressive Lambretta Servetta Jet 200, with a kickass seat.

It's he, it's he! It's Michael T.! Willy made a valiant pitch to sell this P200E to him, but... it's nowhere near a done deal now, izzit, fellas?
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Woman of Mystery

It was no dinner and a show, folx... it was all show and ride. And some good coke, of course.
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Stop Light Conversation

Photo used under Creative Commons license. Photo by sun dazed.

After leaving the scootnashville.com meet-up tonight, on the way home, I was sitting in the left turn lane at 46th Ave. and Charlotte. A newish Harley Sportster pulled up alongside me in the straight-right lane; a guy with a full-face riding, and a woman in a 3/4 helmet riding pillion. He blipped the throttle, trying (succeeding) to make noise, and I could see she leaned into his helmet to have a bit of convo.

She turns to me: "Wanna race?"

"Sure! Up to 60 (MPH), you're only gonna see my taillight."

She laughs. "Whaddaya wanna bet?"

Having had a beer, I say, "Who you go home with, tonight?"

She laughs uproariously! "Okay! So, what do we get if you lose?"

"Who I go home with tonight?"

The light turns green, but I still hear her laughing. I think her male friend was less than amused...
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Changing of Games

There's about to be another scooter-centric business in Nashville, Tennessee. Owned by a guy with two thumbs. More details to follow.
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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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Hoppy New Beer!

It's not Chinese New Year, but... I thought I should show one photo of the detail of Josephine's Demon Buddy that I first mentioned back in October. It's a screamer... it even has a crankcase breather. Danged compression is so high, the starter barely turns the beast over! :) It's a blast to ride, I tell ya, and I know Ms. Josephine is going to be Hell On Wheels this spring.

Be safe, and whatever you do, call for a ride if you get out a-drinkin', please. I've lost three friends in the last six weeks, the latest a DUI fatality -- her own fault, apparently, but it hurts, nonetheless. Please be safe, and conside the safety of others.
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The Gang's First Meeting

Dang, the place is crowded. The only reason we might want a change of venue: Wait time for service.

The Big Kahuna: Ross.

Sergio, who thinks I must be nutz not to assume that everyone wants a new Vespa. :)

Some maniac and Jason.

Ross tells a story to Jesse.

Steve leers at Stephanie.
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Holy MPG, Batman!

I have to believe that the last fill-up has tossed a wrench in thangs, although theoretically, it shouldn't, since fuelly.com calculates by how many miles you traveled and how much fuel you put in. If you'll recall, I filled-up last Sunday before my ride with Jason, but I only needed about 1/2 tank to top up. Still, any time you fill it to the cutoff point, fuelly wants you to treat that as a fill-up (and any time you don't, you log it as a partial, as that will throw things off if not recorded as such).

As a waypoint, my highest recorded mileage before today was 66.1MPG.

Regardless, I'll take 63.11MPG average since the repair.

UPDATE: 9/3, 7th fill-up, 64.6MPG last tank. New average, post-repairs is now 63.33MPG.
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Today's Ride... and DRANK AWN!

So! Jason and the Argonauts went on a River Road Run! There's the path, above.

Here I am, in front of Best Buy with BRU. I was dropping off some dead rechargeable batteries, being all Earth-friendly, and shit (just to piss off the global warming deniers).

Here's Jason, rolling out of Thornton's, and up to the Brewhouse West.

After the ride, we came back to Brewhouse West, sat on the patio, and had pints of beer (thanks, Jason!).

No, he's not drunk. We took his BAC before he got the keys. You believe that, right?
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Volunteers Needed

Live in Nashville, and ride a scooter? You can help kick breast cancer's ass. H.O.W.? Yes -- Hope On Wheels is doing their annual ride event on Saturday, 9/12/09. They're looking for rider support volunteers who own scooters to assist participating bicyclists who have mechanical or other issues along the ride route (which is on the beautiful Natchez Trace). If you're interested, join me by signing up -- click here to volunteer, and specify "scooter support" in the "job desired" field on the form.

If you can't make it, click here to donate to this good cause. I don't personally know any of the fine ladies who're riding, so pick someone you know, or someone at random.
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Free T-Shirt

I can ride with pride, now that I have a t-shirt with a curvy cartoon woman on the back of it. :) Well, that and Kymco sounds like they may be helping me out with my repair issues on BRU.

Thanks, Kymco!
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Thanks, Josephine!

The People 250 is in the shop, now... soon, the verdict will come in.

In the meantime, given that I may be starting a job next Wednesday, Josephine @ ESS offered to loan me her nifty li'l SYM Fiddle 50 to get me around. I, in return, offered to rent it from her, but she wouldn't hear of it. So, I hit upon a compromise: The shop's mini-fridge has been down for a couple of months, so I said I would give them the one I got from a Peabody student who was going to throw it away last May. After all, I just use it to store beers and condiments. :)

So again, ESS comes to my rescue! Best Scooter Shop In Nashville? Well, duh!

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Battery Update: Good, So Far

Get 'er started, rode around the neghborhood for ~45 minutes (so if there WAS a problem, I wouldn't have so far to push it!). Gettin' ready to head over to ESS, so we'll see if it starts on Try Number Two.

UPDATE (to the update): The scooter gods seem to be smiling on me. I've stopped and started the scooter at least a dozen times, today, so I'm hoping the trickle charge overnight resolved the battery issue. It'd be odd, since it really doesn't take much to kill a motorcycle battery, but right now, life is good.
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Spring Safety Sermon

Okay. Spring weather has not reached Nashville, consistently, but I suspect it will, later this week. We've been having a lot of rain, with some periods of clearing for an hour or so, so I've made some trips on very wet roads, recently. With that in mind, I wanted to remind you of a few thangs for safer scooting on wet roads.

1.) SLOW DOWN. Don't be in a hurry. Make your turns more deliberate, and more upright when the roads are wet.

2.) LAWN CLIPPINGS can be VERY slick when wet!

3.) RAIN WASHES OUT GRAVEL, MULCH, SAND and other road hazards to two-wheelers. Stay aware and alert for these hazards, and make a mental note of where they exist.

4.) AVOID manhole covers, utility covers, metal grates and reflective road paints when wet, because they are ALL quite slick.

5.) Assume the roads are slicker than they seem, and ride, accordingly.

NOW, BIG THANKS to a couple of KymCojones fans, who upon seeing my enormous plight with a 10mm screw, bought me a Slime Power Sport Smart Spair kit (with its own 12V compressor!) and a Avon AM63 Viper Stryke Pirelli GTS23 front tire (pictured below):


I love you folx more than food!
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Tip o' the Hat: Metro Works

A lot of routes, I ride time and time, again. It's good practice, if you can manage it -- it helps you know where potholes and other road hazards are (or are developing), such as that one driveway that always has gravel or sand washed out of it after a rain. 

This morning, I had to go to the bank, and happened to notice a missing utility cover at the corner of Delaware and 51st Ave. N. Even with 16" wheels, I would not have wanted to hit that bad boy. So, I though about calling 862-8600, but instead, went to the Metro Public Works website, and filed a brief report.

Within hours, a Public Works employee had replaced the cover, and called to let me know it was done. Kudos!

On this past weekend's group ride, pottymouth and I both hit the same frickin' pothole on 8th Ave. S... it caused his exhaust to break loose, and he had to end the ride, there. Folx, please make note of that website, and report any dangerous road hazards for us two-wheelers. We pay for this service, and from this account, I have to say they seem to be responsive to the public. Let's all use it to make Nashville's streets safer.

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Thanks!

My neighbor, who came to my rescue with the tire plug kit, today.

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15 Million Dong

... doesn't get you very far in Vietnam -- it's about $1000US. But BBC decided to put their Top Gear hosts to the test: They had to go from Saigon to Ha Long (~1000 miles) in eight days, using their $1000 each to buy suitable transportation. 

Click the link, and select Episode 8. Not only is this episode hilarious throughout, but you will not believe how beautiful Vietnam is. Despite the pitfalls of the journey, you'll find yourself envious of these three guys making this trip.

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