I was so sore and tired that it seemed like a bad idea to try to go to the show again yesterday... so of course I went to the show again. Before I left, I did some prep work. Nothing major, but first I changed the spark plug. Washing clean and oily.
Then I changed the belt. I just put a brand new Malossi 6111108 on before the first day of the show. They measure 18mm when new. After one ride the belt was at 16.8mm. 1.2mm shaved off in 260 miles, so at that rate I should prob replace a belt every 300-400 miles. That seems a bit excessive, and way expensive. If it were an around the neighborhood kinda scoot that would last a long time, but not great for how I ride. I guess I have to think of it like a race car basically. Not that it's fast, but compared to what it was stock and what it was designed to do it's putting a lot of stress on everything. More so when you've got some 300lb buffoon beating on it. You add that much stress to a system and you have to work on it more. Thankfully it's not like top fuel and I have to tear it down every 1/4 mile, but I think that's just going to be reality. That said, I do hope to keep head gaskets intact for much longer than I have been. That's really not something that I think I should have to do regularly.
Anyway, I plan to check the belt after last night's ride and see if it's a similar width.
Other than that I just cleaned off some bugs and refilled my oil bottles and things like that.
I left at about 3PM and got home at 12:30AM, so 9.5 hours. 199.7 miles last night.
Best MPG :38.4
Worst MPG : 30.2
Average MPG : 33.74
I got to the beach and after the first lap around the strip I was contemplating going home. It was so busy that I was even stuck in traffic a lot. The summer bus schedules are clearly back in effect, because I kept getting caught behind them. They had some sort of timing issue at one light where Route 50 and Philadelphia Ave both share a short road to get onto Baltimore Ave. That's always a busy spot, but the cars from Route 50 would fill the small street with their green light and then where I was on Philadelphia was stuck and couldn't turn in. Cops were in the shoulder too. I had a motorcycle cop around me a lot of the time so even if there was a clear patch no one could do anything. I was actually kinda miserable on the first go-round.
Being all the way down there though, I said I'll stop and grab a drink from a soda machine and think about it before I just leave. Convinced myself to give it one more shot and it was quite a bit better for the rest of the night. The buses were still a pain, and cars would decide that they should use the bus lane and steal my front spot at red lights from me, but it was nothing like round 1.
After a couple of trips around, I got gas and then the scoot started breaking up like it did the previous night. It happened much more quickly this time, but I think it's because I spent so much time at idle or putting around because of traffic. I had another plug with me so I pulled over and swapped it out and it was a night and day difference. It felt so much more crisp again.
The only other thing I had to fiddle with was the idle speed and mixture. Before the plug fouled it was idling a little low, to the point that I was afraid it may cut out at some points. I upped the idle speed to 1900-2000RPM so it should have no problem staying running. After I changed the plug and did another lap and the temp seemed to drop quickly, the idle was hanging a couple of times at lights. Once it was idling at 3200-3700RPM for an entire light. I richened the idle mixture just a hair and that both lowered the idle speed and kept it from hanging anymore.
As I was doing the adjustment, a moped went down the street. I hurried because it was another 2T and I liked the pop pop pop kinda sound that it made... and of course I hoped to catch him at a light. I got out of the parking lot and went down a side street to try and catch up and met him coming the other way. Guess he was just circling the block.
I came up behind a girl on a rental scoot that was riding terribly. Seemed like she was having trouble just going straight. One turn signal was dangling by the wires, so I'm not sure if she dropped it or what. We caught a red light and she said hi and I replied but she didn't hear me so I opened my visor. Then she turned to the hot rod beside us and told him to do a burnout, received with a smile and a "no" headshake. She then turned back to be and said I have pretty eyes, to which I replied simply "thanks" and then smoked her when the light changed. Awkward, but it made me laugh.
I found a loud Zuma with a ZX exhaust and a plate that said "LOCAL" on the back. It was a man driving with a woman hanging on to him. He said "Beautiful night to be on a scooter" and I said something like "yeah". I know, I'm so friendly and articulate when I'm out. At that point I realized that they were the same people that were in my Belt Busting Update & Beach Ride video that talked to me at a light as a storm was coming in. He revved it up a little, so it was on. Smoked the Zuma.
Then I rode normal and let him go around because he rides fast around there. I'd argue kinda dumb. He swerved around a lot and would get seemingly inches off of the bumpers of cars or the bus. He did one thing that really surprised me for a local and would cruise right through intersections where the 3 lanes of traffic were stopped at green lights because it was congested. Even I know that's a bad idea there, because cars will see all traffic stopped and turn across all of those lanes into the bus lane or into a street. I slowed for those and still had one incident that night where a car came through.
I followed him for a bit and didn't even get beside him at lights... till I saw 2 Groms talking to him from the nearest lane. They were 2nd in line, but I was hoping they'd play so I took off there and left everyone. No luck. The Groms rode normal and then turned off.
I did at least have some cars try to keep up at lights or take off after they saw me take off, but not many. Did a lot of little wheelies again. No burnouts. I think I'm tired of how it bounces so bad doing a burnout, and I really just want someone to race me so I just take off instead.
Some guy in a truck yelled to ask what size the scoot is. I said "a hundred". He told me it's fast. At least someone realized it's not quite a stock scoot. Actually, the night before some guy yelled "hit it" or something like that and when I did he said "oh, it's a two-stroke!" I was kinda happy that someone knew what a 2T is and seemed into it.
I took off going around a car and the front wheel came up just a little and I was right beside a state trooper. Puckered a little, but he prob didn't notice anything other than a scooter trying to get around a car.
I was enjoying it when I stopped for gas at about 10:20PM, but I know that ride home feels so long when you're tired. I got another drink from a vending machine and thought about it for about 10 minutes. Decided to be smart for a change and head home. Ever lap takes rougly an hour when it's not totally jammed up and I was already gonna be home at about 12:30 and didn't want to push it again to 2AM and struggle to stay awake.
I saw a MD State Trooper in the turn lane as I got on the road out of Fenwick, DE. Since most of you aren't local, OC, MD and Fenwick, DE meet up. Basically if you go to the end of the strip on OC, you end up in Fenwick. Then when I travel home the way I do, I go through DE and MD both back and forth a little because it's right on the state line. Route 54 that I take for half of the ride literally sits on the state line for a bit. Anyway, because the MD Trooper was there, I figured he was just turning around to go back into OC and rode how I usually do and kept up with traffic. It was a 40MPH zone with a bike lane that I should have been in and I was going prob 50 at one point when a car in front of me turned off to clear a path for me. Pulled up to a red light and the trooper pulled up beside me, so I had already been riding less than legally. We were in DE though. Where he pulled up is a weird light. It's where 2 lanes at the light goes to 1 lane. So I was sitting in the left lane and he pulled into the right lane that ends so you have to merge pretty quickly. I can't even tell you how bad I wanted to take off and make him get behind me, but even in DE I was afraid he'd give me crap about it so I left it alone. It would have been hilarious to me if I did it, but not worth the risk that he calls his DE buddies to pull me over or waits till we get to MD and finds a reason to stop me then. I'm still a little disappointed with myself for not trying it anyway. lol
I need to spend some time on T2's carb tune. I don't know that it should have to get 30MPG and it clearly has all sorts of issues in the throttle. Sometimes it does better just under WOT than at WOT and sometimes it bogs after I let off and there's spark knock part throttle in spots. I've known this stuff for a long time, but it has ran so strong and time before the shows has been so limited that I haven't wanted to mess with it.