Happy One-Year Scooterversary to the Pumpkin Queen!!

One year ago today, I brought home my new Genuine Buddy 125cc scooter in the glorious color, Tangerine.

My dad, who was probably not the MOST thrilled about his eldest child's decision to buy a scooter, helped me bring it home in his truck.

Over the course of the last year, my scooter and I grew to be a team.

First, I had to drop it, and get that out of the way. Then I got my motorcycle license during one of the coldest weekends of the year. I commuted to work. I rode to the farmer's market. I rode across my favorite bridge in Richmond. We had a close call. I started to accumulate 'real' (and expensive!) gear. My little scooter held a ton of stuff and still rode like a dream.

I learned about what it's like to ride in the summer, and when it's cold, and when it's windy.

Granted, I haven't been riding much lately. Life intervenes sometimes, and the need to take the kids place, and of course the weather. I don't like to ride when it rains, because I don't have raingear yet.

But, today is the anniversary of the day I brought home my scooter, so to mark the occasion, I took a picture of the mileage:
Not quite a thousand miles in the first year, but still, a respectable number.

Of course, the Pumpkin Queen is standing idle today, although I *wanted* to take her for a ride.

It snowed twice this week. No anniversary ride for me. :(

Although I did start the bike today, just to make sure it still ran. It does. My little guy helped.

My Buddy and my buddy.

Hopefully, the roads will clear soon, and I can get back out there to start on Year Two!

*blows off the dust and cobwebs*

My poor, neglected scooter.

I don't think Genuine makes snow tires for my Buddy.

I think maybe I should ask Santa for a new scooter cover, don't you?

Joy! And a kick-ass jacket

I finally, FINALLY got to take the Buddy out today. It was a bit of an effort, pushing it out of the garage by the people-door (the big door does not open) and through the four or so inches of ice/slush/snow/crap that remains in the shady part of my driveway. Ugh. I never thought the bike was heavy until I shoved it through the snow. But today was *almost* 50degF and it was sunny and gorgeous, and, well, okay...REALLY windy....but I just had to go for a ride. Why?

'Cause I got my new jacket!!


No more wearing my husband's way too big parka and having it balloon out around me while I am zipping down the road. No more wearing a zillion layers underneath it to stave off the cold wind whistling down my neck and through the zippers.

This is my jacket, the Rev'It 'Siren', in black. I love love love this jacket! It is probably one of the most expensive articles of clothing I have ever bought....actually, it IS the most expensive article of clothing I have ever bought, but OMG, so totally worth it. I am still getting used to the very close fit, especially in the shoulders, but it's comfortable and so VERY WARM. It's so warm and so comfortable to wear that I think I am going to have to look for some pants, too, for the winter, because from the thighs down, I was frozen. Ah, well, such is winter.

I also have to work on figuring out all the pockets and zippers and attachments and such. There are a ton of zips on this thing, and it took me a few minutes to actually get myself all fastened into it. Once I was riding, though, it was fantastic.

The ride today was fun. I rode to the Starbuck's near my house for a latte, and to test out my riding skills, since it's been at least two weeks since I got on the bike. Later on, I rode to work and back, which was a total blast. I am very much looking forward to spring. It will be so nice to be able to take one of the liners out of the jacket, and to arrive at my destination without my thighs being cold. It's almost March, so spring is definitely on the way. As much as I love snow and winter weather, I've had enough.

(and yes, I know I should be wearing boots in the above picture....I usually do, this time I admit I forgot.)

Not much to report...

Up until about Thursday of last week, I had been riding the scoot all over town....going to work, to the store, trying out new roads and different routes as my confidence level builds. I even rode down to the scooter shop where I bought the bike, just because I wanted to do it. It's been so much fantastic fun!

I'm a member of Modern Buddy, the best forum for Buddy riders and owners, and in the Gallery section of the forum, there is a thread for playing Worldwide Scooter Tag. This is a game in which members take photos of their scooter in front of particular sites or objects, sort of like a scavenger hunt. I've been wanting to play ever since I discovered the game last summer, and now I can!

The next location to find on the list was "your scooter with the word 'museum'". Hot dog! We have tons of museums in Richmond! Because of the winter weather in most places, this items was on the list for a long time, and I wanted to grab it. So, I located a museum that was within riding distance (and within my riding skills), and made plans to go last week and snag the picture.

Then my kids got sick and took turns staying home from school and going to the doctor. Ack! My short windows of free time when the little ones are at preschool all but disappeared. Then, when I got a chance to go out in the late afternoon, it was either bitterly cold, or rainy, or I was just plain worn out. Sigh.

The weekend! That's when I would go out and get the museum picture! I was all set....and then...
it snowed:



A lot.



That's just over a foot of snow, which I realize for some of you is what would be called 'Tuesday', but here in Richmond, Virginia, this constitutes a major snowstorm. So major, in fact, that our kids have been out of school for two days, and likely will be out at least one more day. The governor declared a state of emergency the day BEFORE the storm. Laugh on, you northern-dwellers (I used to be one of ya), but in an area where they are plowing the streets with road graders and contracting with people with pickup trucks and snow blades, this is a big deal. The storm we got the week before Christmas dropped a foot and a half on us, and now this. That represents more snowfall than we typically get over five years on average. I, personally, am loving the snow, unplowed roads, stir-crazy kids, and all. You can take the girl out of upstate NY, but you can't take the upstate NY out of the girl.

But I digress.

The bottom picture is a path my husband made with our neighbor's snowblower, and it's our driveway. No scootering for me. The only thing that sucks about the snow.

Ah, well. Someone else snagged the museum picture, and posted the next item: scooter and 'nature center'. There's one near my house, if only I could get to it in all this snow...

Getting There IS Half the Fun!

I have successfully put a little more than 125 miles on my scooter now.

This past Thursday, I rode it twice! Early in the morning, when it was still really cold, I rode over to the middle school to drop off a notebook my daughter had forgotten. It was cool to zoom up to the school and park (right next to the Resource Officer's police car!), and bop into the school, helmet in hand, to drop off the notebook. I briefly thought that my daughter would be royally embarrassed by her mom scootering to school, but as it turns out, she wasn't on that side of the building, AND she later told me it would have been totally COOL to see me ride up.

I wasn't able to get a ride in during the warmest part of the day, but towards late afternoon, I had to go into work for a bit, and also run to pick up a prescription at the pharmacy. Since I previously had ridden the home-to-work route, I felt a bit more comfortable at the kind of speeds I needed to be at to negotiate the road. It was an excellent run to work, and then to the store, and by the time I was leaving the store, it was dark out. Yikes! Okay, now we learn to ride in the dark. Surprisingly, I wasn't as freaked out about it as I thought I would be. I have the flaming orange reflective Vest of Doom, which helps me stay more visible, and the streetlights and my headlight helped. I found that being near or in front of a car with its headlights on really helped.

The whole experience was a major confidence-booster, and I am already staring to feel SO much better about riding.

Today, though...today was just FANTASTIC! It was fairly warm (50's) and not too windy, and once the little kids were napping, I was itching to take off. It's supposed to be cold and rainy and crappy tomorrow, so I knew this would be my only chance to ride for a couple of days.

So.....I took my scooter to Barnes and Noble at the mall...


And I rode on the six-lane divided highway near my house that is the main artery to everywhere....


And then I went to Kroger for some veggies and sour cream for dinner....


And then I dropped some stuff off at a friend's house!


By the time I rode back to my house (the long way!), it was getting dark. I figured my husband wanted to go for a spin (he did) so I got back to the house and let him ride for a little while.

I've noticed a few interesting things about the progression of my riding skills and confidence:

1. I definitely grip the handlebars and clench my jaw when I ride, and I found myself doing a little less of both when riding these last few days.

2. I am much more comfortable getting up to road speed than I was initially.

3. I can now pay good attention to the road and the traffic and my riding skills without the constant running thought of "OMG I am going to die, OMG I am going to die".

And I have noticed that riding offers a few things that driving a car definitely does not. Of course, there is the fun of riding -- going fast, feeling the wind, being closer to everything while traveling. But there's also the things you notice -- the road surface, the smell of the trees, the sound of the cars and other vehicles -- that makes riding interesting. It was warm the other day, and one of the roads I was on had a series of hills and valleys and turns. As I rode, I realized I could feel the 'cold spots', areas where the temperature was changing, like near creeks and culverts. Almost never feel that while in the car. Very cool.

I am looking forward to expanding my riding horizons as the weather gets warmer...trips to the farmer's market and downtown, across town and across the river, and also some group riding with the local club and maybe with friends. I can't wait til my husband gets his license and a working motorcycle so we can ride together!

Scooter Commute!

I usually go into my office on Wednesday mornings for a couple of hours, and since I have a brand-spanking-new scooter and a brand-spanking-new M class endorsement, I figured that today would be a GREAT day to ride into work on my Buddy! It was cold, sure, but it's winter! It's always cold! Plus, it was actually much warmer and less windy than it has been...all the better to ride in, right?

After I dropped the little kids off at preschool, I drove back to my house, got into my riding boots and parka, gathered up my purse (and camera!) and got the scoot out of the garage. Here we go....





The route to Workplace is along roads that max out at 45mph speed limits. One of the roads is a multiple lane, divided highway (with a 45mph speed limit). The whole trip is about 7.5 miles, and usually takes me about 10 minutes in my car. I was really excited about doing this, even though it was really cold. Once I got my Buddy out of the garage and started it up, I started getting nervous.

Getting out of my neighborhood was no problem. I felt fairly confident taking off into very light traffic on the main roads, and I kept up with traffic. Once I got to the multiple-lane road, though, I was starting to worry about whether I was going fast enough. My speedometer registered 50mph and I stayed in the right lane the whole way, but man! It was a bit unnerving going that fast, in traffic, with only the handlebars to hold on to! Plus, the wind made it really difficult, and every time I went over an imperfection in the pavement, I got nervous about crashing. In fact, all I could think about, besides riding the scooter, was crashing. How bad would it be to hit the ground at 45mph? I'm wearing my helmet...how bad could it be?

My mind was going a zillion miles a minute, too.

Man, this trip is taking a lot longer than it does in my car....I had no idea seven and a half miles was so SO far...it is really windy out...and cold...I better remember to call Travis when I get to work so he doesn't worry...

But I made it to work in one piece, not frozen solid, and without mishap or other negative incident. Hooray!

There was even a parking space right in front of the building, just waiting for my cute scooter!



I showed it off to a friend who has her desk right next to this window, and then I showed my boss and a couple of other people I work with. They all thought it was terribly cute, and totally me, and also I was a bit nuts for riding in this cold. :)

I worked for a little while, then rode home. The trip home was a bit warmer, and I felt pretty decent about the riding, although I think I am getting really tense because my wrists and hands were killing me by the time I got home.

Having gotten this out of my system, I don't think I will ride the scooter to work again until it gets a little bit warmer. For now, I think I will practice ride around the neighborhood and take short trips to the store and for coffee and stuff.

The bottom line, though, is I DID IT! And it was awesome!

Still thawing out -- MSF Day 2

Okay, so when we last left our Intrepid Heroine (that's me), I was practically frozen to the core. The second day of the class, Sunday, was at least as cold as Saturday. The temp was 24F when I left my house, with 10-15mph winds.

My cold-combatting strategy was multi-fold: I prepared a LARGE travel mug of coffee to take with me, attired myself in multiple layers of clothing (more on that in a minute), and pulled out some of my medieval stockings to wear under my boots. I also located a pair of vinyl exam gloves, a hat, and extra socks. HaHA! Take THAT, Winter! I was going to be warm!

Riiight.

At any rate, on Saturday night I ended up getting up during the night with my two year old son, who needed a complete change of clothing and bedding. I was tired when I went to bed, and tired when I got up, so coffee was a necessity.

Because we had to finish day 1 a little early due to the setting sun, it was decided that class would start as soon as all nine students arrived in the morning. I swear, I tried to get out of the house so I could get there a half an hour early, but I just couldn't manage it. I hate to be late, and hate for people to have to wait on me, so I was slightly mortified to find that I was the last to arrive. As per my instructor's usual demeanor, it was no big deal. At least that was a positive.

We went through the material for the morning, then took the written test. Fifty multiple choice questions ended up not being as difficult as I had thought it might be. Thankfully, I am a good student and test-taker. I wasn't reeeeally worried about the written test, but I did want to take that test in a hurry and get it over with. I was the first one done, and I scored a 100%! Rock!

At lunch, I finished putting on all the clothes and gear I was going to wear on the range. In case you are curious, this is what I wore, from the skin out:

my usual underwear
a pair of cotton-lycra bike shorts
a thermal longsleeve shirt
a cotton tshirt
heavy jeans
a pair of midweight socks
a longsleeve turtleneck
a wool sweater
a fleece neck gaiter
vinyl gloves
winter motorcycling gloves
my husband's goose down parka (size: very large)
my mother's black leather combat boots (no lie, they really were my mom's)
and my full-face motorcycle helmet

THIS time, I was warm. The vinyl gloves made a HUGE difference; my fingers still got cold, but not as much as the first day.

Ok, so out on the driving range....we had the same bikes as the previous day, which was good in that we were familiar with them. The exercises consisted of a lot of turning and stopping: riding down a straight path, then stopping as fast as possible without locking up the brakes, riding in S-curves, riding over small obstacles, etc.

There was also the bane of my existence: U-turning in a confined area. Argh. I totally sucked at this. I could not control my speed, and my brain could NOT get into the groove of using my clutch to control speed and NOT the throttle. I hated it, and I knew it was on the skills test. The worst was knowing I could TOTALLY do it if I were on my scooter.

We also practiced swerving to avoid obstacles, which was a total blast! I liked the one exercise where the instructor would wait til the last minute to tell you which way to swerve. I nailed those.

After a while, it was time for the skills test. Yikes!

There are four skills or items on the test: a quick stop, swerving to avoid an obstacle, riding a curve with consistent speed, and the dreaded U-turn in a confined space.

First up was a combination skill -- ride into the U-turn box, make a figure eight and ride out, speed up into second gear and swerve to avoid the 'bus'. Then stop. Piece of cake, right? Holy cow. I sucked at the U-turning. I sucked so hard at it that I almost stalled, I put my foot down at least twice, and I went outside the box lines at least twice. Eight points off for that mess.

The worst about that was I made the mistake of watching one of the people before me, a woman who was having a hard time in the class anyway. She started her figure eight and dropped the bike and fell under it. She was done, and now I was nervous.

Next was the quick stop. I totally nailed that, stopping really well using BOTH brakes AND getting all the way down to first gear before stopping. They did say I should have stopped a little sooner, though, so I lost a point there.

Three-quarters of the way through now....last skill was riding a curve. I used all my competitive horseback riding skills for this one and it paid off -- a beautiful curve and only one point off for slowing a bit during the height of the curve.

The bottom line, though, after all the bikes were parked and most of the gear was off, was this:



I PASSED!!!

They gave me my Virginia class M designation and a MSF competion card. Now I get to take it to the DMV and get my license updated!

I am so thrilled! I can ride a motorcycle!

Now, as much as I love winter, I really would like it to be just a little warmer, pleeeeease, so I can ride my scooter without a ton of clothing!

Oh. My. GOD. It was ccccccold.

So, this being one of the very few free weekends I had available, I opted to take my MSF course and get my M class endorsement this weekend. It's January, and while I do not live waaay north, my area is subject to some pretty cold temps now and again. Like now. And again.

Saturday morning, Day 1 of the class, dawned frigid and WINDY. I think the actual temp was about 31F, but 20mph+ sustained winds put the windchill around 19F or less. Holy icicles, Batman! I was wearing what I thought were enough clothes, but my late afternoon on the driving range, my toes and fingers were numb and I was approaching miserable. Couple that with my inexperience with manual transmission vehicles, and the quirkiness of a motorcycle's controls (both brakes on one side, the shift lever having to be moved up to change gears, etc.), and I was having a rough go of it. I was discouraged, and although my instructors were awesome and encouraging (and I was definitely not the worst in the group), I was still feeling like I'd never get this. By the end of the day, though, we had moved on to an exercise involving riding around the range in a big oval, shifting gears according to the number of cones placed around the oval, and I was having a good time and feeling FINE about it all.

Except for the frozen extremities.

By the time the class was over for the day, my feet hurt terribly. I managed to get home and into the hottest shower I could stand. I think it took me like three hours, the shower, a creme brulee latte and an episode of Doctor Who before I felt like I was warm. I was exhausted, intended to study my course book, but collapsed into bed instead. Day 2 was on the horizon, with temps at least as low as Day 1.

This time, though, I had a strategy.

More later....

SUCCESS!!

No pictures of this, but I successfully negotiated the scooter out of my neighborhood, down the street, and about four miles to the home of our friends! It was a gloriously sunny day, and my husband and kids followed behind me in the minivan (the kids cheering all the way, I am told).

Hooray! I didn't even scratch the bike, nor lose my balance, nor drop it anywhere. My purse fit in the underseat carrier, and I wasn't even cold! Woo!

My M endorsement class is this coming Saturday and Sunday. By next week, I should be able to ride this scooter to work and on errands! Now I need a really good bike lock...

Sadness and Woe.

My scoot has fourteen miles on it.

The snow melted here, after hanging around for a week. (Hey, that's a looong time for snow to hang around in Richmond!) I decided that since the neighborhood streets, local roads and a close-by parking lot were all clear of snow and ice and most of the wet, I would take my new scoot out for some practice riding. I am taking my MSF class next weekend, so this would be perfect, right?

Wrong.

Ok, well, it wasn't that bad. I did great for a long time, rode all over my neighborhood, then got brave and went up a local road to a complex of office buildings that has a huge parking lot. This being Saturday, it was empty, so perfect for practicing stuff I know I have to do for the class. I did some quick stopping, and some turning in both directions, rode slow, and faster, parked in a parking space, and just generally enjoyed the ride. Then I got a wild hair and thought, hey, I should practice a few u-turns. There's plenty of room, and this driveway is wider than my driveway at home, so it should be good. I started with a turn to my better side, turning left. Just as I was coming around the U of the turn, I realized I was getting too close to the curb on the other side, and going just a hair too fast...I lost my balance, couldn't correct in time, and ended up falling to the outside of the turn, scraping along the curb.







It's not really that bad, and you can't really see it unless you look, but STILL. Sigh. I am sad. Oh, and I did not get hurt, except for a big grass and mud stain on the knee of my jeans where I fell into the grass. That's good. Mom, you can relax now. I am fine.

I guess I've made it mine, now, though. Hope I never do it again.

*cries*

Merry Christmas!!

I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday!! Enjoy yourselves, don't eat too much, and scoot safely if you are able to go out!

The snow is melting, and that means I'll be able to scoot soon! Hooray!

My new Buddy!

It's MINE! Mineminemineminemineminemine!

I picked up my new Buddy 125 today from my friends at Scoot Richmond. My dad and I went down there with his big pickup truck and brought it back.

Chelsea brings the bike out:


There it is!! Hanging out in the shop...


I got the rundown on the buttons, switches and operation of the bike from super-helpful scooter guy, Brandon (I think that was his name....), and learned how to take the bike off and on the center stand and the side stand. Then my dad backed his truck up to the loading dock and he and Brandon got it in.
Getting it tied down in the back of the truck...it literally didn't move at all as we went down the road. I learned something new, too, that you should tie the bike down so the forks are compressed and it won't move.


We got it home and my husband and my dad and I rolled it out of the truck using a ladder and a board. Yay! It's living in my garage right now because, well, this is Richmond, and I am terrified someone will rip it off, even right out of my backyard.

Of course, I would have to pick up my new scooter on the day that a major winter storm is coming to the area, but heck, I love snow, and we don't get that much in our winters, so I can't complain. My husband and I did each get to take the Buddy out for a spin around the neighborhood before the snow started. I love it, but MAN! It was C-O-L-D!!! I really wished for an Armadillo coat and a lap blanket, and some windproof gloves. I couldn't even manage to get much over 28mph because I was frozen. :(

Not too frozen to smile, though....


I'm thinking about personalized tags...maybe PKINPI? GR8PKN? Must think more on it....