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Today was the hottest day of the year so far in Philly. Rode into town wearing my Corazzo riding jacket and a short sleeve shirt underneath. Needless to say I was pretty sweaty when I parked the bike, despite having all of the vents open.

I've been looking into some cooling vest online. Sorry, finding it hard to believe any customer reviews since it could be someone from the site writing them.

Anyone have any experiences with cooling vest, and do they really work?

-Wolf

Okay, I've hit 3000 + miles on my Yager. I figure that's roughy equal to one cross country trip from coast to coast here in the US. About a month ago my back fender blew out. Something blew off the left side screw mount while I was crossing the Ben Franklin Bridge doing about 57 MPH. The plastic fender came to rest on my rear tire where a good part of it melted away from the friction. There wasn't much left when I got home and took it off.

Took the scooter to my dealer who replaced the fender and did a service check -- it was time for it anyway. The blown fender had knocked loose a valve module -- not enough for the engine light to go on, but enough for air to get mixed where it shouldn't be. He fixed it, changed the oil, plugs, etc ... and I had the scooter back within 3 days.

Now I've been noticing a new problem. When giving the throttle gas the scooter will run, but when it gets to 7 mph it begins to shudder with a rattling growl, then lurches faster like its shifting to a higher gear, then runs normal. At first I thought it may have been from cold air passing into the engine, but even now in the warmer weather it happens. Some days are worse than others, but regardless it continues to happen.

Engine mechanics is not my forte. Is this a fuel line problem, carburetor, timing belt, or something else?

-Wolf

On my commute to work I've notice that I prefer to ride in the passing lane when on a highway. In my case it's a 3-lane highway with a barrier on the left between the highway holding traffic going the opposite way. I've been doing this on the advice of a friend who said it was the safest place to ride because other drivers can only enter your lane from the right, middle lane. Riding in the middle lane means traffic can merge into yours from the left or right, and riding in the right lane means traffic can merge into yours from the left (middle) lane, or from traffic merging from an on ramp, gas station, commercial store, etc ...

Oddly, when riding at night I prefer the middle lane because my lights can't fully illuminate what's to my side, while cars traveling in the left and right lanes give me the illumination that I need, especially when they approach to pass.

Anyway, I was wondering what others' highway riding strategies were?

-Wolf

The following is not true, but simply provided for your entertainment - 

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My wife slapped me in face - hard! Problem was, I had no idea why. All right ... maybe I did.

It all started earlier in the evening. I was riding back home on my scooter, Fall night, cool weather, 9:00 pm with clouds threatening rain in about an hour. That's when I saw her pulled over to the side of the road, hood up on a new import. Her hips stuck out in jeans the color of the night, with a pale face illuminated by her headlights. Her platinum blonde hair practically glowed.

Blondes. They always seem to get me into trouble, but I pull over anyway.

There's some trepidation on her face as she watches me swing off the bike until I remove my full face helmet. I guess my face said I was the trusting type and she relaxed her defenses. I'm a tall Black guy, 6' 1", and clean shaven -- hey, it's the age of Obama. I'm rewarded with a beaming smile. She's cute and certainly doesn't need all the make-up she's wearing, but I see she's close to tears and I can only imagine how worse she'd look once her mascara begins to run, or the coming rain hits her. 

The car's a complete loss. The engine had seized up and there was no way it was going to start. Worse, none of us can get any bars on our cells so I offer to give her a ride to a service station about five miles down the road.

Her trepidation returns, but I promise to drive slow. She relents, especially when I insist she wear my helmet. After a few quick passenger instructions we're on our way and arrive at the station about ten minutes later (hey, I said I'd go slow). I hang around enough to make sure she's helped and on her way back with the tow truck driver.

She thanks me again, shaking my hand like it's pump and hands back my helmet. I watch her go. Maybe blondes aren't so much trouble after all. I strap on my helmet, jump on my bike and make it back home twenty minutes later, just barely beating the rain.

My wife greets me, relieved that I'm safe since I'm unusually late. I decide not to mention the blonde and chalk it up to traffic with a shrug. That's when I removed my helmet and she looks at me in open shock.

She slapped me in the face - hard. I touched my cheek, feeling a stinging redness as she marched upstairs to bed. Looks like I was sleeping on the couch tonight. Damn.

Wish I knew why?

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Not the greatest mystery, but anyone know why our rider got slapped?

California is poised to pass a law aimed at keeping excessively loud motorcycles quieter. Many motorcycle riders are protesting under the adage "Loud pipes save lives!"

Is it true?

Or is this the protest of bad riders?

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/greenspace/2010/08/motorcycle-noise.html

-Wolf

I'm a new scooterist, though I've been drooling over them since 2003, which includes lurking in forums, reading the occasional Scoot magazine, and reading any books I could find on riding. In particular David Hough book Proficient Motorcycling.

One major thought was always stressed - you're only as safe as your bike is. Pre-ride inspections, maintaining proper air pressure, and the right riding gear was paramount. At age 14 I suffered a horrible bike crash on a ten speed bike. It was a new birthday present, and I was told not to take it into the higher gear for the first two weeks. You know, let the cables stretch out a bit.

Two weeks later I was ready to let her rip. Seated at the top of a hill I pedal down and slowly shifted into the highest gear until I was pedaling easily and doing a good 30 MPH. That's when I found out the hard way that the bike had a defective weld in its right pedal. At my top speed the pedal didn't snap or break off, it just dropped on my down stroke. My right foot shot down with nothing to support it causing me to violently tip over.

I hit the ground, shoulder first, then my head (this was the early 80's so no helmet laws back then). A flash of blue light went off behind my eyes and I remember waking up at the bottom of the hill, my right arm - from shoulder to fingers was a bloody mess as was my knee. Luckily my friends rushed to help and within minutes my mother was there to take me to the emergency room.
I had a fracture skull, a major concussion, and third degree burns on my shoulder, elbow, knuckles and knee. To date only the keloid scar on my shoulder really remains, and even that's pretty faded.

So, given my background, you can understand that I have no wish for a repeat performance of 'The Road Burn Cometh - Again'.
Every morning when I take my scooter out for the first ride of the day I spend about 15 minutes doing my TCLOCS pre-ride inspection. During my safety class I had heard from my own teachers and from a number of vets of how they do this once a week, or so, and I wondered how long before I would skimp on this routine, but to be honest, I kind of like doing it.

Knowing that my bike was in good working order made that notion of 'will today be the day that I crash' a little less looming.
So, you can imagine my reaction this morning when I discovered that the major bolt holding my front wheel to the forks was loose.

Not just slightly loose. It was half way unscrewed showing the thread of the bolt and a gap between the fork and nut wide enough to put half a dozen playing cards between. My heart dropped. I had taken a casual ride through Camden, NJ on Friday (not exactly America's most picturesque city) to find a way to see the Battleship New Jersey docked on the Delaware river, and on Thursday I had ridden all day through Philly, including over 20 blocks of a street that had it's blacktop scrapped away to be repaved later. On that section even my fillings shook from the rough road vibrations.

My guess is that was what loosened by wheel bolt.

I thought about that as I looked at the bolt and wondered how close I was to having my wheel fall off as I was riding, or if I hadn't caught it what would have happened when I took the bike up to 55 + while traveling over the bridge into Philadelphia? I was out of town on Sunday and Monday so today was the first time I had a chance to ride in over two days.

That morning it was 10 am and I need to be in Philly by 11:30. I hate being late for anything, and part of me mulled skipping my TCLOCS, but another voice told me not to. Besides, it really was becoming a routine.

I glad I did, and now I ALWAYS will. There's noting between us and the road except a well running bike, skill and luck. Today I was saved by luck - my decision to do my pre-ride inspection. I'd like to think my luck card has now been cashed in. I only have skill and the condition of my scooter now.

I'm gonna make the most of them.

-Wolf