Mileage

It's been five months to the day I brought home my beloved Buddy (Pumpkin Queen) scooter. Since then, I've gotten my M class endorsement on my license (OMG, I can ride a motorcycle! ME!), taken the excellent motorcycle class, and put on this many miles:

I've gotten over my fear of being blown backwards off the bike, obtained REAL riding gear so I am good and safe, and learned to navigate some of the Richmond traffic, especially in the suburbs.

I was reflecting the other day just how much less scary this riding thing is....it used to really terrify me to commute to my office, because of a couple of divided highways that ended up being faster than the posted speed limit. Over the past five months, though, I have learned to handle more speed, and now I feel pretty confident about my bike at 55 and 60mph. Of course, I don't ride that fast all the time, nor do I want to, at this point. But, I know I can handle it, and I feel good about keeping up with traffic.

I am not over-confident, however.

A couple of near-misses have definitely encouraged my healthy respect for traffic and other vehicles, and have definitely solidified my view that pretty much everyone else might be trying to kill me. It's amazing how distracted people can be when they are all hunkered down in their great big SUV's, chatting away on the phone.

So, yay for me. :)

And in further proof that this house is full of scooter fanatics, I give you this evidence:

Scooter/scooter


Little scooters

Have a terrific day! And if it's nice out, go for a scooter ride!

JOY = SCOOTERS

Joy truly is riding across the Huguenot Bridge on a gloriously sunny day and feeling like I'm riding my own personal rollercoaster....

....and being able to smell the roses and the honeysuckle and the freshly-cut grass as I roll on by...

...and feeling the wind through my riding jacket vents......

....and finding a parking space under a tree RIGHT in front of the shop you want to go into....

....and realizing your armored riding jacket folds up well enough to fit in your topcase...

...and realizing you are not as afraid as you anticipated you would be...

....and knowing that this kind of FUN -- the scootering FUN -- is so much more than you thought it would be.

Spring has finally sprung!

Hooray for good riding weather, in which I can remove ALL the liners from my awesome jacket and go with all the zippers open!

I haven't been riding all week, because I either had to ferry the kids places, or my desire to wear a skirt was greater than the desire to maneuver the scoot out of the garage (thru the people door!). Also, it's time for it's first service (300 miles, baby!), and I was already past the 300-mile mark and didn't want to get too much further along before having the oil changed.

Yesterday afternoon and evening were trying. Allergies, a headache, total exhaustion for some reason, and non-napping preschoolers were conspiring to make ScooterMom a grumpy girl. I won't go into all the fun that two spunky and extremely smart little ones can cook up, but suffice it to say one was asking me if the Easter Bunny had come yet (ALL DAY!), and the other was turning our deck into a beach. Then came the full-contact egg dyeing, which consisted of one of them eating a dye tablet, and then spilling a cup of dye on the table, and the other clamoring to take eggs in and out of the dye. Ack!

After the munchkins went to bed, my husband suggested I go for a ride. I am very glad that I did. I wasn't really aware of the head- and soul-clearing ability of a good evening bike ride until I went out last night. Whew!

First, I conquered one hesitancy: gassing up at a gas station. I'd been warned about being careful with the pressure in the hoses, watching out for spray when filling the teeny tank, and up to now, I'd been filling the scoot from a 5gal gas can we have in the garage. Not anymore! I successfully (and carefully) put a bit less than a gallon in the tank with no spillage or spray! I don't think I've ever spent this little at a gas pump, not even in 1998, when gas was $0.87/ gallon! (ah, the good old days!)


After that little victory, I rode off to my favorite local de-stressing place -- Barnes and Noble Books. A chai Frappucino, a bunch of jewelry-making magazines and a couple of Easter basket gifts, and I was better. A bonus was that I FINALLY figured out how to open the !@#$% topcase on my bike! I've only had it for about a month, and even though Chelsea showed me how to open and close and lock it, I could NOT do it. And hey, there's all KINDS of room in that thing! Woo!

Riding home in the dark, the wind blowing through my jacket and my helmet, I thought I could really ride MUCH longer. Probably in the dark is not the time to try out a new route, but I sure thought about it. Maybe after the oil change and service, and after I get the new super-bright awesome headlamp installed, I can venture further afield.

It sure is nice to get out and ride, though.

Misconceptions

There was an article in my local paper today about scooter thefts in the region. In the article, the reporter talks about how "[scooter] Drivers don't need a license, just a form of identification listing name address and date of birth." I read the paper every morning, but rarely feel the need to write to the reporter about an issue. This time i did, because of the misconceptions regarding scooters in Virginia. Granted the laws are sometimes unclear, but in this case, making a blanket statement that a scooter rider doesn't have to have a license is incorrect. In VA, if your engine is greater than 50cc and the bike goes faster than 35mph, you need a license and tags, registration, all that good stuff. It's a motorcycle at that point, and you must have more than just some identification on you if you ride. I know the reporter got his info from this link at the DMV site, likely, but still. The code can be unclear in general, but in this case, I think it's pretty straightforward.

Anyway, as a scooter rider and lover, it does bug me somewhat to see the common misconception that my bike is a moped perpetuated. It'll be interesting to see if the reporter responds.

In other news, my husband is on Day 1 of his MSF course today. Soon he'll be riding his bike all legally and safe!

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!