Washington D.C.

One of the reasons I got a bigger motorcycle was to do some touring. To be able to do highway speeds and sit comfortably in the saddle for more than 50 miles. I tested that yesterday by taking a ride down to Washington D.C..

It worked out well. I tanked up the Versys before leaving. I made it from Lancaster to downtown DC, and back up to Hunt Vally, MD before having to refill. I left at 10:30am and was home again by 6:30pm, with minimal discomfort. I am sure that with experience and warmer temperatures that some of the muscle soreness will be less, if not non-existant.

During the trip I saw many more sport bikers than cruisers. In fact I just about saw as many Ducatis alone as Harley Davidsons. So draw your own conclusions about who is a "hard core" biker at this point in the season.

I had 2 reasons for going to Washington this particular day: the Cherry Blossom Festival and the Smithsonian Kite Festival.

The Cherry Blossoms are beautiful. They aren't the pink/purple color you see on TV. That color is an illusion. The petals are white, but the buds are pink. The coloring gives the effect of pink blossoms from a distance. I heard a story on NPR about how you can see through historical photographs that the blooming of these trees has moved up a week or 2 over the last hundred years due to global warming. They now bloom during the last week of March. This coincides with the Smithsonian Kite Festival, which is the last Saturday in March.

I used to be active in kite competitions, and the Smithsonian was kind of the kick off to the season. It was a chance to see old friends again after the winter. It's been 10 years since I competed, so I didn't recognize too many people there. But I knew a couple...

DC is a great place for taking photographs and digital cameras have made that cheaper and more fun. Whenever I go to DC, I always walk down to the Vietnam Memorial because it is so moving and it photographs so well.



Parking in DC is a problem. Most motorcycles got creative, backing in between metered spaces (which is illegal, I'm sure). I crept around in traffic for ages before parking on the edge of a bus zone in front of the last legal spot, but behind the sign. It made me wish for my scooter. This guy just pulled his Vespa up out of the street all together and chained to a sign. I bet he was fine all day. I doubt a motorcycle could get away with that. If more people rode motorbikes, there would probably be more parking dedicated to them, drivers would be more aware, and we'd all be safer.

Overall, I was pleased with the trip. 5 hours in the saddle was no problem. No monkey-butt. The Versys is very smooth on the highway and likes to cruise at 70-74mph in 6th gear. I figure that the speedometer is just optimistic enough to make that perfect. I took 30, 83, the Baltimore Beltway, and the Balto-Wash parkway and felt secure. And I loved that it only cost about 5 gallons of gas. Oh! And I topped 1,000 miles, so it is officially broken in. Yea!

Ride to the Bay on Easter

One of the great things about Lancaster is its location. Full of great scenery in its own right, Lancaster is also close to many other great destinations. For instance, it is only an hour to the Chesapeake Bay.

Having grown up in Erie, I love a bay. And I like the shore towns. But this was the first time I had ever tried to find out just how quickly one could get to the Bay from Lancaster. I took Rt. 272 all the way from Lancaster to Northeast and Charlestown in Cecil County, Maryland. It took almost exactly an hour. Both are very small, but cute towns. Northeast in particular has a number of oyster bars and antique stores that make it look like a nice place to while away a summer afternoon. I bet it's packed during the season.

The photograph is from Charlestown, by the Charlestown Wharf. Built in 1744, it was a supply depot in the Revolutionary War.

Today reminded me of the first time I was alone for Easter. It was 1986, when I was at college. I remember riding a red Schwinn Le Tour II around campus and listening to Genesis' Three Sides Live on a Panasonic personal cassette player. It was a warm spring day, and I had my freedom. Today was not as warm and I didn't have a way to play music... but I had a red bike and I could go much further. And so I was happy. I listened to a little "Dodo/Lurker" this morning, just to get in the mood.

"Fish he got a hook in his throat,
Fish he got problems.."

Looking for Answers?

Gas prices are at a new record high. I bought my scooter just after gas hit $3.22 last May, and now it's higher than that. And it's only March.

If you are thinking about a scooter and you've come here looking for answers, check out the links on the side of this page. And these:
Cost of Gas
Some FAQ
What's So Great About Scooters?
Armor Up
Parking Now Open
4-Stroke vs. 2-Stroke
Motorcycle Safety Program
And these:
Yamaha, B & B
Honda, Ephrata Cycle, Lancaster Honda
Kymco, Trans-Am (Lititz), BMA Cycles

Awful

This is a Lexus. It's been in an accident. What did it hit? This:

That is Josh Rogers, Publisher of Scoot! Magazine. And amazingly, he survived. Oh, he's plenty banged up, including a broken femur and a dislocated wrist, but it appears that he has no head or spine damage, and is in good spirits. As you can see, Josh gears up. Gear works. ATGATT (All The Gear, All The Time).

Here is the short version of the facts: Last Sunday, two club rides passed each other on a twisty road: one a Vespa scooter club, the other a Lexus club. The last Lexus in the line took a turn too fast, skidded out of control across the centerline and hit Josh, who was in the pack of scooterists, head on. That quilt-looking thing hanging from the bumper of the car? That's a scooter skirt. It was stored inside the scooter before impact. Beyond these facts, things get a little heated...

This incident has risen to world-wide attention due to the internet. Both clubs are active on internet forums. Reports of the accident were being reported in real time as people received text messages and photographs from the scene and posted them to modernvespa.com. If you can imagine the confusion and anger that immediately follows a serious accident like this, imagine that multiplied by the power of the internet. Ever wish you could publish the face and license plate of the guy who hit you? That happened. Before he left the scene, this Lexus driver was infamous.

Members of modernvespa.com and clublexus.com started mixing it up on each others forums. Other motorists, of both the 2-wheel and 4-wheel variety, started jumping in. Bikers wrote veiled threats. Cagers tried to paint their own as the victim. Clublexus had to shut down new registrations.

Speculation was rampant. We still don't know for sure why the Lexus crossed the centerline. But the fact that he had a licence plate holder that bragged of the drift lifestyle encouraged speculation that the driver had been trying to power slide through the turn. The Lexus people deny this and offer alternate theories. The incident offers many lessons, including one about how you represent yourself. If you represent yourself as a lawless street racer, don't be surprised that people will assume you were street racing when you wipe out a scooterist.

The whole thing is just awful. Josh is going to need a lot of help over the next months and years. As someone (his new wife I believe) said, a helicopter ride to the hospital can't be cheap. You can contribute to their well-being by subscribing to to Scoot! or:

Busy

I know I haven't been posting much, but things have been busy... for a number of reasons. With the warmer weather, I've been riding. I rode the scooter to work once this week. I've got almost 500 miles on the Versys. Trying to hit that 600 mile first-service mark.