Weekend Rides

[90GTVert]

My scooter's odometer was on 3,450 miles (incase you've seen me say I have 4,000+ miles on this scoot, the reason this number is off is that I added a new speedo/odo) before this weekend and it's now on 3,850 miles. Exactly 400 miles. I've rode to a few places I've never been on the scoot before. One area I've never been to at all.

I've been pulled over by another police officer asking if my scooter is a scooter. He told me a couple of times that if it's not, I couldn't be on the road. I assured him it was a scooter without the body panels. He said, "Obviously you've had someone do some modifications." I replied, "Yeah." I'm not gonna tell him it's me. lol As far as he needs to know I just ride 'em. The more you know, the more they'll hold you accountable for... or at least that's how it's always worked with cars for me.

I've rode on sunny days, nights, and even in pouring rain. I was out Saturday night and I knew I would hit patches of rain, but didn't expect much. It started pouring when I was about 10 miles out. I thought, "Maybe I should turn around... naaa." I stopped under shelter and put on a rain coat I brought along for this trip and kept on going. My pants, shoes, ponytail, and anything else not under the rain coat were all soaked... but I loved every minute of it. I was proud of he scoot for having no problems in the rain since it's got no real protection for electrical components and wiring and I was hitting puddles and splashing water everywhere lol.

Here's a pic I took to show how hard it was raining when I stopped to get my rain coat on.... of course it slowed to nearly a halt when I stopped. 2 minutes later it started pouring again. You can see the water that dripped off of me though.



I gotta say this has been one of the bes riding weekends I've had for a long time. I didn't even have anyone to ride with this weekend, but it didn't matter. I just went where I wanted, when I wanted, and however fast I felt like riding.

Anybody else spend some quality time with their scoot this weekend?

[2strokd]

Yelp i sure did ;D, not as much as you but i road. More tuning than riding for me though.
Glad to hear you had fun and didnt have any troubles with the law or the big block Triton . You gotta really love your scooter to ride in the rain folks lol.

[90GTVert]

I put quite a lot of miles on my scooter this weekend as well. I'm not sure of the exact number for the weekend, but I went over 500 miles from last Monday till today.

Bob came up Friday and we rode along with another friend for somewhere less than 100 miles in two trips. We would have rode more, but we came across a guy in a 2004 Cobra. My friend on the sportbike wanted to see if the guy was up for a race. He wasn't, because he's trying to let his insurance cool down, but we ended up talking for a couple of hours. The Cobra is is daily driver with around 600RWHP. He also has a twin turbo Chevy II and an R1. We don't meet too many people like that around here. His website it at www.hardtohandlemotorsports.com . It's worth checking out just to see that amazing Chevy II. They've got a few YouTube vids posted in their forum as well.

Bob went home Friday night, but I rode alone and with the sportbike rider for many more miles over the weekend. While out alone on Saturday night, I managed to annoy/anger someone. There is a small back road about 15 miles from my house that I have never been down. I was just out cruising, so I figured I'd see what was down there. I was just cruising at the speed limit of 30 or 35MPH (I forget now) for about 3/4 to 1 mile when the road gets more narrow then turns to 15MPH and it full of driveays leading to very nice houses. It was 9:30PM, so I turned around rather than bother people down there. For once in my life I was actually behaving myself.

I got 3/4 of the way out of the road and saw headlights coming from behind me. I turned out onto the main road and headed back toward town, about a mile away. By the time I got to the first red light the vehicle was pretty close to me. I turned out on the bypass and was going to get gas at a station across town. While on the bypass, I cruised in the normal lane of travel doing about 55MPH. The vehicle got right on my tail. I came to the turn I needed to take and turned in front of a car, making the trck wait a minute to follow. I hauled ace down a short street and made a quick turn, still heading toward the gas station. The truck continued to follow, but he was a littel farther back. When I got to an area that he couldn't see me for a moment, I turned off and was going to loop around behind him. I saw him pass by, then pulled out a little after to follow them. Then I saw them parked waiting for me to pass by. I looked over at them and revved the scooter up a bunch of times and they pulled out behind me and up to a red light just across from the gas station. I stood up off of the scooter and watched my mirror to see if any doors opened. The light turned green and I proceeded to go get gas. They didn't follow me into the gas station.

I left the gas station after filling up and pulled up to the light to cross back over the highway. The truck came up behind me again. To make a long story short, I spent 15-20 minutes in an area with the most streets and smallest alleys messing with this truck. They kept trying to be slick and not completely follow me in every turn and I would turn around or catch a turn they didn't expect and come up behind them or head on at them and wave. They finally gave it up and I followed them kinda far back and saw them go back down the same road we came from. I went up the road a little farther and then turned around. Being a jackass, I came back to the road and turned on my blinker to pull in. Lights came on down the road and I hauled ace to another road with some sharp turns and lots of places to disappear. Never saw them again. I have no clue what they think I did, or what they thought they were gonna do... but they ended up going home defeated. lol It was stupid, because they coulda just ran me over if they wanted to but lucky for me they have no balls. Whoever it was coulda approached me at the red light, at the gas station, or other times but they didn't have the nerve to say or do anything. Maybe they thought they were gonna get my plate # (which 49cc scoots don't have in MD) and report me for driving down a public road doing the speed limit? Maybe they thoguht I was on a dirtbike and was planning on tearing up the farm land? No idea. I went back down the road in the daylight the next day and didn't see that truck, but nearly every house I saw there had a garage.

Other than that, I did a little more exploring, trying to figure out how to get to different areas without going on any roads I'm not allowed to be on and just some riding in general. I'm making sure I get some good rides in before the cold weather shows up.

I know Reg mentioned seeing some pics, but I don't take a lot of ride pics. When I'm out at night pics don't take too well. If I find a cool spot in the daytime, I usually won't take a pic unless no one is around. I feel silly taking pics of a scooter around a group of people 'cause I knwo most people would never understand why someone would bother to snap pics of such a cheap vehicle. I should just get over it and take 'em anyway I guess.

Here's a pic on a bridge that I didn't know existed. lol It was destroyed a few years ago in a storm and I never knew it was rebuilt. I went down to check it out and found that it was rebuilt.



Here is what it looked like the last time I was there...



Once again, if anyone's got a story to share or maybe some pics or video... post away!

[stepthrutuner]

For the hell of it my Bro and I drove down to the point where Texas, Arkansas and Louisana meet up today. That point, understandably, is called Three States. I only saw it on the map a few weeks ago. There was a bar down there. I went in and asked the bar maid exactly where that point was. She said it was next to their property under a tree. It was a short concrete post with a brass survey plate on top.

We kind of took small back roads from when we got near Texarkana. Only got lost briefly and asked a guy on a Harley directions to a more main road we were trying to get to. It was a lot of fun navigating (Rallyrrr) while my Brother drove his car. At least I had a good excuse for getting off course. The maps I was using were nearly twenty years old! I'll post some pics after the tintypes get processed. LOL

[90GTVert]

I wanna go to Texarkana sometime, just because I've watched Smokey and the Bandit so many times. I'd have to pick up some Coors and go through Atlanta on my way home.

I just added up my fuel receipts from the last 4 weeks and I have spent $122.08 on gas for the scooter. The average price of premium last month was about $2.80, so that's roughly 43 gallons of gas for the scooter. I do have around 3 gallons in a can still and 1 gallon in the scooter right now, so I used about 39 gallons of fuel. I get nearly exactly 40MPG so I rode about 1,560 miles in the last 4 weeks. That's 560 miles more than the average American drives any of their own vehicles in a month... on a 49cc scooter. I use 2.56oz of 2 stroke oil per gallon, so I have burned 100oz of 2 stroke oil. I was paying about $0.59 per oz for AMSOil including shipping (I started ordering in larger bottles to get that price down this month). That's $59.00 worth of oil for a total of $181.08 in gas and oil for my scooter in 4 weeks or an average of $45.27 per week. Maybe winter coming will be a good thing. I might be able to save a little money without all the long rides on weekends.

That's making me want a 150cc 4 stroke. Bob was getting 75-80MPG on a scooter that is very comparable to mine regarding performance. 1,560 miles with no oil costs and 75MPG would be $58.24 in fuel costs. Add in $5 for a quart of oil to do an oil change on the 4 stroke and that brings you to $63.24 compared to $181.08. Insurance and registration for a 150cc would prob come out to $25 a month (most likely less) to bring the cost up to $88.24.... still nearly $100 less than operating my 99cc 2 stroke and I could take it on highways or wherever I wanted. Of course, if I could get farther away easier, my gas bill would probably increase. Either way, I think I need to consider a 150cc 4 stroke scooter by next summer.

[stepthrutuner]

Yeah, it would stay 150cc for probably about two or three weeks if I know you. You lookin' for a big wheel or regular wheel scooter?

[stepthrutuner]

Concerning Coors and Texarkana. The county on the Texas side of Texarkana (Bowie County) is dry (no retail alcohol sales, only by the drink in restaurants and private clubs). The Arkansas side county (Miller County) is wet. At the time "Smokey and the Bandit" was made Coors was not distributed in Arkansas. So the movie was based on a falsehood. If you wanted some Coors back then you had to go to Oklahoma and risk getting caught with untaxed beer if you brought it back to Arkansas. It is 3.2% if you buy it cold there anyway. The regular strength stuff you have to buy hot at a liquor store there.

I remember before you could buy Coors here in Arkansas.... it started being distributed here sometime in the eighties if I remember correctly, everybody acted like it was liquid gold. Now that it's been available here for some time it's just another beer.

[90GTVert]

Sept 8, 2009 16:54:34 GMT -5 stepthrutuner said:

Yeah, it would stay 150cc for probably about two or three weeks if I know you. You lookin' for a big wheel or regular wheel scooter?

Well, I meant a 150cc base. It would stay 150cc for however long it takes me to have enough spare cash for a big bore kit. lol

I dunno if I'd want a 16" wheeler or a 12-13" wheeled scoot. Bob's is certainly more forgiving on rough roads, and the wheel doesn't turn with every pebble you hit... but man can you throw around a small wheeled scoot. The 10" wheels are where I would draw the line for my preferences though... I don't like those too much so far.

As far as the Coors goes... I don't even like beer. I just like big block Trans Ams running from Texas bubble gum machines.

[2strokd]

Is that airfilter lookin at me . That thing is huge! I could see a cop saying "thats not a 49cc air filter" . I like it though, got a UNI clone on the way from the bay. Glad you are getting the good out of the rest of the season, wish i could go for a ride with ya

[90GTVert]

The filter isn't really much bigger than my K&N was, but the bright red contrasts all the black on my scoot so much. The chrome didn't have the same effect. This thing is like a big red clown nose or something.

[2strokd]

Honk, honk...Got yer filter lol. Looks good man, they flow allot more huh?

[90GTVert]

lol It seems that moving from a 98 to a 100 main jet was all it took to get it in tune. Not sure that qualifies as a lot more, but it's slightly more free-flowing anyway.

[2strokd]

I needed that filter when it was above 90 this summer, prob wouldnt of had to rejet smaller