Testing, Testing…
Weather: Sunny and Springlike, perfect for testing scooters.
Yes, I know… I’ve been slacking. At least, as far as my readers are concerned. But the big boss of Baron Motorcycles is over in China right now, visiting the factories, and he needs input on how to improve the 250cc models. That input comes from me, so I’ve been riding the wheels off these things for the past few days.
Extended, high-speed runs were needed for fuel flow and cooling system testing. Loved every minute of that. Creeping along in stop-and-go gridlock for at least a half-hour? Did that too. Hated it. But we had to see how the cooling system performed at the extremes. Gridlock is easy to find, now that we have entered the season of road destruction.
I had a nice chat with a fellow driving a big old Ford pickup truck, while sitting in that sweltering traffic. He asked me what kind of mileage I was getting. I told him, “Between 60 and 70 mpg, depending on how hard I’m riding it.” After an amazed shake of the head, he asked the next, inevitable question: “How much does one o’ them go for?” I told him the price of the model I was testing at the time. Another headshake.
“That’s it!”, he said. “I’m gettin’ me one o’ them. This pig I’m drivin’ gets 15 miles per gallon, tops. At three bucks a gallon, it’s killin’ me every time I fill up! Now it’s cuttin’ into my beer money. That’s the last straw!”
I had to laugh… Are the uptown scooterati ready for rednecks riding Barons?
Is this what the future holds for the family truckster? Makes nice lawn sculpture…
But, in all seriousness, this is exactly what our economy needs right now. Inexpensive transportation for the working class. Something they can buy without a second mortgage, and maintain themselves with reasonable shadetree mechanic skills and basic hand tools.
It’s not about “Lifestyle” for these folks; it’s about getting to work without breaking the bank. It’s about not being enslaved by the oil companies and the auto industry. The environmental benefits and reduced traffic hassles are just icing on the cake, far as they’re concerned.
Even with gas at three bucks a gallon, I still see lines of SUVs with one single occupant, stuck in the road-construction gridlock, guzzling their fuel just to run the air conditioner and radio. Nattering into their Nokias to let someone, somewhere, know that they are running late.
This is America, at the dawn of the twenty-first century, and it isn’t a pretty sight.
The latest excuse for raising the price of gas is that the Chinese are trying to get more of it. Well, no kidding. That’s because big business in this country has sold out the American worker and sent all its production equipment overseas, where the cheap labor is.
But most of those workers over there aren’t driving or riding to work, unless it’s on a bicycle. Usually, they live in barracks or dorms close to the factory, owned by the company they work for. How can freedom-loving, home-owning Americans compete with THAT? (Here’s a hint… We CAN’T!)
But this is not a political blog. It’s supposed to be about the joys of riding a motorbike to and from work. You can get your political fix, spun in whichever direction you prefer, on a thousand other sites.
Sometimes, however, you just can’t avoid the subject. It’s like the proverbial 800-pound gorrilla, sitting in the middle of your living room. Try as you might to avoid him, you are bound to trip over him from time to time. It is, after all, the nature of the beast. But back to motorbikes…
I rode Frogwing this morning, because I slept later than usual. “How does that make sense?” -You ask. Well, at this later hour, all the yuppies think they are being clever by avoiding the freeways and driving their stinking SUVs on MY river roads! On the scooters, I have to try and sneak around them, whenever a suitable gap appears, and hope that I have enough power to pull it off. Also, I can’t see around or over them on the scooters.
Enter Frogwing, my urban assault motorcycle. On Frogwing, I have a very bright headlight, and gobs of torque to exploit those sudden gaps in traffic. Standing on the pegs, I can see over all but the most obscene yup-mobiles, better to spot those gaps and plan my moves well in advance.
They watch me doing that in their rear-view mirror, and I can see the Fear in their eyes. This is a Good Thing. I have even added a large “Marines!” bumper sticker to the front of my fairing, to amplify the intimidation factor. I don’t need loud pipes to get noticed on Frogwing, but after almost forty thousand miles, his stock exhaust is pretty snorty.
We were able to squirt around a whole bunch of these little convoys this morning, and made it to work in less than an hour. Our ride home was similar, but for one interesting moment: Crossing the Lake Street Bridge, I encountered the Wednesday Night War Protest. Almost every Wednesday night, the protesters gather on this high-traffic bridge to wave their anti-war signs at passing motorists.
When they saw my very tactical looking KLR with “Marines!” emblazoned across the front, well, there it was… The Fear again. Only this time, I honked my horn a couple of times and flashed them a peace sign. They broke out in cheers. Yeah, I know, there’s that gorrilla again.
April 19th, 2006 at 7:17 pm
Gary, you should run for President! “A Scooter in every garage!” The time has come. Dan
April 19th, 2006 at 7:49 pm
Gary,
The guy in the pickup strikes a cord. I started riding with all the reasons (read excuses) for why i should ride a bike. You know, gas milage, low cost, etc. Well it was very true. I started riding in 68 when motorcycle insurance was almost non-existant. I have been a life long State Farm insurer and they insured my motorcycle in those days for 50 bucks a year just because I was an Auto and Home insurer with them. The bike did cost much less than even a used car then. I was also going to school full time days (San Jose State University) and working full time nights (Hewlett Packard) and had a full time family with wife and two daughters.
Traffic was bad in the S.F. bay area and parking was also. Looking back on those years, If I had not been riding a motorcycle through all those years I am sure I would not have been able to accomplish my goals of a degree and a better job. Riding two wheels got me through all of it. And I am greatful to motorcycles for where I am at today.
April 20th, 2006 at 12:13 am
I gave those reasons to my mom when she would not let me have a bike, milage, parking, cost. In reality I just wanted to do wheelies and pick up biker chicks. While I have enjoyed the milage, parking, cost and biker chicks (I never even tried wheelies) there are so many more reasons to ride now.
Traffic and parking are still bad in downtown San Francisco. But splitting lanes over the Bay Bridge and motorcycle parking right in front of my building make it so much better.
April 20th, 2006 at 12:29 am
I didn’t get my motorcycle to save money or gas, I got it because I wanted one and it was cool. My scooter is another story. I got it to save money and gas..and it’s fun to boot. I wish more people realized the benefits of scootering. Keep spreading the good word Gary!
Rob
April 20th, 2006 at 1:04 am
Spring is indeed here. I cycled to work this morning. (as in pedal cycle).
Gary, over here they used to sell those dayglo yellow reflective vests, emblazoned on the back with the following message:
“Nice Queue, Suckers!”
Do you want me to see if anyone still does them?
April 20th, 2006 at 2:23 am
I keep finding a similar gorilla sitting in the middle of my blog page Gary. It’s almost enough to stop me blogging – well not really.
Fuel economy is something I’ve been thinking a lot about lately. Bikes and scooters (especially scooters) are good but I’m aware how much better they could be. My Zed did 45mpg which I thought was good but a reasonably new family car could return the same rate. I believe it’s time the bike firms stopped looking for ways to add another BHP here and loose another ounce there and instead make our engines as economic as the cars are. When we are returning 90mpg, we’re still fast and we’re beating traffic jams every day more people will join us on that two wheeled commute.
April 20th, 2006 at 6:55 am
Gary-
Mad has a good point. My 12 yr old Accord gets about 27 MPG while the Harley gets about 52. Round trip to work is about 26 miles. With the extra hassle of carrying a change of clothes and lunch, etc. I would ride a lot more if the mileage was closer to 100 MPG. I realize full size bikes won’t reach that mark soon, if ever, but if a scooter got there…
BTW, nice shot of your pickup truck. You’re right- you really let that go this past winter, eh?
April 20th, 2006 at 10:13 am
Bro,
My buddy’s Yamaha 250 Virago and TW200 both get between 80 and 90 mpg. Both fit him (and, occasionally, his Wife) very well and will also propel him at the posted speed limits of any roads in Pennsylvania. Just begs the question: what is a “full size bike” and why would you want to ride one?
April 20th, 2006 at 10:26 am
Good to have you back, Gary. I was starting to worry.
Better Mileage? How about hybrid scooters. Gas motor powers alternator to charge battery pack that runs electric motors in wheels. Regenerative braking, lots of torque–I think a company is working on that right now, in fact.
I attended the classroom session of the Motorcycle Safety Foundation rider training last night. Don’t want to be a hazard to the rest of you bikers out there. More importantly, don’t want to be a hazard to ME. My wife says that if I die in a scooter accident she’ll kill me. That’s something to think about.
Gary, I’m glad the testing is going well. I’d like to convey a few comments to you and ask a couple of questions. Could you email me at the address on this message please?
Also, valve adjustment coming up soon. I asked the guys to have Lev bring back the tuning specs and any parts we might need. Otherwise Hiyo is purring nicely after his oil change. Right now, I’m looking for a stable voltage source to connect the new LED battery charge meter.
I could put an ARMY sticker on my bike (Signal Corps) but I just don’t think it would have the same intimidation factor.
Tiff, I don’t think most Americans would know what a queue is. They’d probably think it had homo connotations and run over Gary.
BCNU… DJ
April 20th, 2006 at 11:18 am
James,
I did buy a KLR last year for the mileage/fun factor. I also learned how to do wheelies on it. Not an expert, but I could pull them pretty good in most conditions. Then it happened, rignt in front of work. I pulled a wheelie, came down fine but as I tried to slow down I was on a patch of gravel and hit the front break a little too hard.
The bike went down and me with it. It came down on my left leg and broke it. I’m laying in bed here with a screw in my leg mostly because of one wheelie riding event gone wrong.
As I heard a wise man say “The KLR does not suffer fools for long.”
Don’t worry, I’ll be climbing on my steel steed as soon as my leg gets better.
April 20th, 2006 at 12:05 pm
Yep, I too am glad you have returned. Some good points about auto mileage versus bikes or scooters. My Valk gets on ave. 37mpg. A little 250 Honda rebel gets what about 80mpg?
My preaching at work payed off though. A guy bought a new vtx 1300. Thanks me for pushing him into it.:)
jim
April 20th, 2006 at 6:46 pm
Sick today folks. Fever of ~104°F (40°C). No ride, no work, just bed.
Sorry. Back soon.
=gc=
April 21st, 2006 at 9:25 am
Hope you feel better soon, buddy!
Rob
April 21st, 2006 at 6:55 pm
Dave E.
My “full-size” isn’t really… I have a 1200 Harley, not a full dresser. I rode a Virago once, bigger than a 250, but I don’t remember tha size. While it was perfectly adequate as you said a 250 would be, it didn’t quite have the power I would like to get out of trouble as has been discussed in previous posts. I drive a car with a relatively small 4-cyl, but I don’t worry about getting out of trouble with it as much because I am surrounded by the cage and airbags and seat belt. On a bike, my constant observation of what’s going on around me in all 4 directions and the power in my right hand are all I have. So the more power, the better.
It’s a personal preference, but I wouldn’t buy a smaller bike than what I have. I would buy a scooter though, if they got around 100 MPG or I did more urban commuting. The wife and I go to Key West every year, and if I lived down there, a scooter would be purchased right after I unloaded the moving van, perhaps even before! I ride more for pleasure and the workday commute has a lot of necessary highway on it. We all have our wants, needs and limitations, and those are mine…
Dan J.- I dated an English girl once who taught me words like queue- nothing “homo” about her lines!
Gary- get better, ride soon!
B.S.
April 22nd, 2006 at 5:55 am
I hope you feel better soon Gary
April 23rd, 2006 at 6:54 am
Gary,
I’ve been “out of the loop” for the past week or so and just read of your wrestling with 104 fever. That’s bad and I hope you are already better and riding….
I think I’ll be retired or worse before I see rednecks riding scooters. There is something so fundamentally wrong with scooters in the eyes of almost every male I have ever discussed them with that I don’t see them making the leap no matter what gas costs. It would be like trying to convince them of the benefits of a skirt…..
I hope I’m wrong because a scooter is good solid transportation. Riding alone with nothing to haul in a Ford 150 or Dodge RAM truck isn’t transportation, its irresponsible. You can add any number of other vehicles to the list…
steve
April 23rd, 2006 at 7:29 am
Sunday morning… Back to work tomorrow. I’ll be updating Monday night.
I’ll answer your comments in detail during “blunch”.
Went for a short ride yesterday, on Frogwing over to Wisconsin to photograph the rolling zoo they call the “Flood Run”. Returned exhausted after about five hours, so I’m still not 100 percent.
If my commute isn’t interesting tomorrow, I’ll write about the Flood Run instead. We’ll call it a “Work to Ride” special.
Ride well,
=gc=
April 24th, 2006 at 4:10 pm
To save time here, I’ll answer questions only today. The first “?” I see here is from Tiff: Yes, I know what “queue” means. I learned that in grade school, actually. We had a good English teacher. But no, I’m pretty sure the humor would be lost on our metallic herds of motorized sheep.
Bro Shagg, yeah, I sure did let `er go. She’s grown a bit of patina there, huh?
Dave Eakin – A full-size bike is something like my very own Frogwing, and I want that because of the extra power and torque that I can use to dispose of large knots of traffic quickly and decisively. At 50 mpg, I’m not giving up much in fuel economy either. But I do see your point about those bikes being perfectly adequate for commuting duty on surface streets.
jim – a couple of months back, Cycle World did a great story on small bikes with big mileage. See if you can get hold of that issue. It names the little Rebel, along with the 250 Ninja and others, and what kind of mileage they got in typical day-to-day riding.
Okay, that’s it. Now on to my big post for the evening…
Ride well,
=gc=
April 27th, 2006 at 1:13 pm
Hey, I ran across your site in a google search. I’m looking for a comprehensive site about scooters for commuter use that includes the good stuff like mileage, ratings, reliability, emissions, etc., and I can’t seem to find anything that doesn’t post it in some obscure language…
Any help you can provide would be greatly appreciated.
Kim / Seattle, WA