Friday, October 27, 2017

I broke my 40 year-old Ray Bans!!!



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I love, love, love my sunglasses.


I've posted before about my Ray Ban Outdoorsman aviators. My optometrist had told me, way back in 2011, that the Ray Ban Outdoorsman had been discontinued.

Lucky for me that he was wrong, wrong, wrong.

I just bought a brand new pair of Outdoorsman aviators.

Currently aviators are back in style.

In the years I have owned them, they have been out of style, in style, out of style, back in favour, outcast, and now, really back in style. I don't care, truly I don't. I love my Ray Bans.

They broke (actually only the left temple broke) because I subjected them to poor treatment. I admit this freely now, just as I admitted it in the past. First off, they are intended for use they way they come from the store, i.e. not with prescription lenses. I forced the frames to accept prescription lenses (which in fairness, is not really a problem).

The real abuse happened as my eyesight deteriorated over time. As my eyes got funkier, the lenses got way curvier, and well, there's the rub. Literally.

Watch the video. I think that I succeeded in describing the failure in exquisite detail that even the  most casual viewer will immediately understand.

Now for the good news.

If you have had similar issues, if you have given up wearing Ray Ban aviators because your prescription is interfering with the actual operation of the frames, then especially watch the video, because all these years later, I finally found the cure. Watch the video.

I am content, chuffed, happy, ecstatic really, that I now have a pair of Ray Ban Outdoorsman aviators that will outlive me, no matter how pathetic my eyesight becomes.

Yay!

Detailed show notes:

My Ray Ban sunglasses are the Outdoorsman model (model number RB3030) purchased in 1977 and worn pretty much daily ever since. The left temple snapped three weeks ago. The lenses are my existing prescription lenses. Here’s a link to the glasses.

The music for this episode of Life on two wheels was sourced in the excellent YouTube Audio Library and is Cop A Feel by Audionautix which is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license.
Artist: http://audionautix.com/ 

Saturday, October 21, 2017

A conversation with Steve Williams



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Why would anyone in their right mind choose to write a blog?

Well... if that is a question that occasionally pops up as you browse among the more than 650 million web sites currently cluttering the interwebs, while you keep bumping into some of the estimated 200 million sites that are blogs, and you scratch your head wondering what on earth could possibly drive a person to blog, here, on a silver platter, is a golden opportunity to learn why two of us are driven to post aspects of their daily lives for all to see. Watch the video.

In fact, for all you social or behavioral scientists and psychiatrists out there, this is particularly exciting, because as Steve Williams and I, both of us seasoned well-followed, and (hopefully) well-respected bloggers candidly expose our respective motives, it will no doubt thrill you to know that I started blogging in some measure because I felt compelled to follow Steve's example. Somewhere in that overly long, tangled sentence, there is the tip of an epidemiological study in psychiatry begging to begin. Watch the video.

Anyway... I'm afraid you'll be compelled to watch the video if you really want to learn what makes us tick. Good luck with that. Watch the video.

If any of those social scientists and psychiatrists I alluded to watch the video and have insights into our character flaws they'd care to share in the fleeting hope that both, or either of us, might use those insights to mitigate our failings, please leave a comment below. You just never know. Please watch the video.

Steve and I thank you in advance.

The music for this episode is Laid Back Guitars by Kevin MacLeod and it is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license and is made available courtesy of the YouTube Audio Library 
Source: Incompetech.com
Artist: Incompetech


Wednesday, October 18, 2017

Riding a Zombie

Can a Vespa rise from the dead?

Is it possible for a blown head gasket, something akin to a brain aneurysm, to heal spontaneously?

If not, was the gasket in fact blown?

And if not, whence the coolant leak?

So many questions. For the time being no satisfactory answer.

Here are the facts as I know them. I need your insight.

After a long day’s ride from State College to Niagara falls, some 370 kilometers, a coolant leak in the engine compartment brought the day’s ride to an abrupt end.

It was impossible to see the source of the leak. The coolant was running down onto the center stand pivot or axle and dripping from there. You can see this symptom in the video I posted as episode 22 of the vlog.

Other symptoms: when I opened the saddle to refuel, steam was rising from the engine compartment. When I removed the underseat bucket to reveal the engine, there was coolant everywhere, as if there was a spraying coolant leak. The underside of the seat compartment bucket was wet. When I started the bike with the bucket out, the coolant was dripping from the stand below the motor, but there was no evidence of a leak seen from above the engine.

That’s all I’ve got.

Last week I needed to get my bike down from its P1 parking spot to a temporary spot on P3 because the P1 level was being pressure washed.

I refilled the cooling system with tap water, up to the lower fill mark on the reservoir. I fully expected to see the water begin dripping down the stand. But there was no leak. I started the motor. Still no leak. I left the motor running until the bike reached normal operating temperature. Still no leak.

I rode down to P3. Still no leak.

Two days later I checked on the bike before riding back up to P1. Yup, still dry.

I discussed the situation with Ed Thomas. Ed thought that perhaps the water was leaking into the oil pan via the blown gasket rather than leaking to the outside. He suggested checking the coolant level in the reservoir, and checking the oil level. If both were at their normal levels, it would be reasonable to conclude that the coolant wasn’t leaking into the oil. I checked and the levels were normal.

Today I decided I would hop on the Vespa to run a few errands and eventually make my way over to Ed’s workshop, to talk, well... talk shop, and zombie Vespas. You guessed it, still no evidence of any leak. That, and I kept an eagle-eye on the instrument panel: the engine temperature remained normal the whole way. The check engine light lit up a couple of times, but reset itself with an engine restart. That happened three times on the way to Ed’s, each time shortly after one of my little errand stops. It never happened on the way home.

Ed’s as stumped as I am.

The only other thing I can think of, is that close to the Pennsylvania New York border, I refueled at a tiny country gas station, and I realized that the helpful attendant handed me a nozzle switched to regular gasoline with ethanol. I only realized it had happened further down the road when the engine started stumbling slightly. Three tanks of 91 octane fuel later, the performance symptoms disappeared. I don’t think that’s relevant. I just mention it because it’s the only other engine-related issue that occured on the trip.

So there you have it. The Vespa seems for all the world to be running like a top. Or at least running as well as it did when I set out for the wilds of Pennsylvania.

I know many of my readers have what I’ll call mechanical literacy. What is your take on this little Italian mystery?

Is there any chance that the coolant leak might have come from the coolant bleed valve at the top of the engine?

Can a blown gasket heal itself?

Should I overhaul the engine on the assumption that there is a defective gasket?

What would you do?

Like I said, I am stumped.

Thanks for reading.

PS: I also posted this mystery to the ModernVespa forum: here’s a link.

PPS:

In this shot taken from the Episode 22 video, filmed within 15 to 20 minutes of the discovery of the leak:
  • The circle is the thermostat housing and the nubby thing in the circle at the twelve o'clock position is the coolant bleed valve.
  • The arrows point to the areas that are wet as a result of the leak. 
  • Remember that the pet carrier / underseat container was in place when the leak was leaking. It seems consistent with a leak from the thermostat that the wet areas are aft of the thermostat. 
  • The areas forward from the thermostat are dry.
  • Whatever that evidence points to, it is not really consistent with a head gasket leak, or so it seems to me.


Another MV'er (whom I believe to be another mechanically literate person) had this to say: "It is very rare to have an external coolant leak turn out to be a head gasket. It would usually go into the engine oil or out the exhaust."

Yet another MV commenter had this to say: "Hmm. Not clear whether you mean the gasket at the base of the cylinder (possible) or the one which seals the two halves of the crankcase (unlikely). You don't develop anywhere near as much pressure in the crankcase and spraying coolant all over does not seem likely to me. You would lose engine oil if anything. I think the thermostat/bleed valve area sounds far more likely as you suggest. Probably time for a trip back to Vespa Toronto West for reconsideration."

Tuesday, October 17, 2017

1K klicks in the Sticks



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Yes it actually is the long-awaited little Vespa tour way down south to State College Pennsylvania where I get to enjoy a guided tour of the mountains and valleys made famous by Steve Williams on his blog Scooter in the Sticks.

I got to spend a couple of nights at Paul Ruby's home which was a privilege all of its own. Paul is an electrical engineer who traded his job at a Fortune 500 company to become an intrepid re-seller of scientific equipment on e-Bay. It's a big deal! I fully intend to respect Paul's privacy, so no lurid details of deal-making, wheeling and dealing will be told here, suffice to say, that Paul is social media royalty. It is an honour to count Paul among my friends.

It's impossible to create a video that comes even close to conveying in any accurate way the world that Steve portrays on Scooter in the Sticks. In an upcoming interview with Steve, you'll hear in his own words the sources of his motivation and his art. In this video I offer a glimpse of that world, the mountains and valleys that surround State College and provide Steve with his inspiration.

Scooter in the Sticks was a key source of information and inspiration for me when I was thirsty for information on Vespa ownership and riding in the many months that preceded my plunge into that world. My decision led to everything I had hoped for and it slowly unfolded into a life-changing and life-affirming pursuit that far exceeded even my fondest hopes and daydreams. Steve's blog made a big contribution to that transformation, and I am deeply indebted to him.

In those early days, I never dared to imagine that I would meet Steve, much less enjoy Steve and Paul's hospitality, and have the good fortune to call them friends.

The music selections for this episode of Life on two wheels are One more chance and Livin' up by Otis McDonald, I wear headphones and Yard Sale by Silent Partner, and Walk the dog by Coyote Hearing, made available courtesy of the YouTube Audio Library, as well as Think Tank by Audionautix which is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license and also available in the YouTube Audio Library.

Episodes 24 and 25 of the vlog are ready to be posted so you'll be spared the long wait you had to put up with anticipating the release of episode 23.

See you soon, on Life on two wheels!


Tuesday, October 3, 2017

Requiem for a Vespa



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My 2010 Vespa GTS Super Sport 300 i.e. (it's appropriate use the complete full name on solemn occasions like this) is dead. Just over 50,000 kilometers on the clock, young for a Vespa. It led an action-packed life.

The gory details are in the video.

It started its life in Pontedera Italy, a little industrial town near Pisa, in Tuscany. I visited its birthplace a few years back at the end of the Tuscan Loop in the company of Sonja and Roland.

Bob Leong (aka BobSkoot, may he rest in peace) invited me to join him and Karen (aka V-Star Lady) for an epic Atlantic Ocean seaside jaunt back in 2013. He said I could come if I upgraded from the Vespa LX150 I was riding at the time, to a Vespa GTS. In the early spring of 2013 I purchased the Vespa from Carl Normandeau who was moving up to a brand new BMW R1200GS (what a thing of beauty). Carl had already logged twenty some-odd thousand kilometers on the Vespa by the time I took over. Last I heard, Carl was longing for another Vespa in his garage to keep his BMW company. I wonder if he pulled the trigger on that.

In the time the black Vespa and I spent together we commuted day after day, after day, and toured all over the place: Montreal, Cornwall, Ottawa, Toronto, Niagara Falls, Buffalo, State College, Hartford, Ogunquit, Kennebunkport, Portland, Old Orchard Beach, the Adirondacks, Kingston, Belleville, Stouffville, Wasaga Beach, Midland, St-Catharines, Buffalo, State College, and finally, Niagara Falls, where our adventure came to an abrupt end.

Along the way that Vespa and I met moto-blogging legends and, to be honest, my relationship with that bike has been life-altering, truly it has.

I assure you, my life on two wheels doesn't end here. It's just going on a little hiatus, that's all. In the meantime this blog and the new vlog will continue to plow along. There are riding episodes to come that are still in the works, some social commentary, preparing for the Vespa's departure and documenting the de-farkling (it will be sold as a project bike to an as yet-unfound kind soul whom, I hope, will drag it back to life on the road), maybe some food rants and recipes, and rest assured, so much more.

So keep an eye on this space.

The music for this episode of Life on two wheels is Doctor True by Jingle Punks, made available courtesy of the YouTube Audio Library.

The expert but sad diagnosis for my 2010 Vespa GTS 300 i.e. was performed by Lou DiBiase of Vespa Toronto West. When it comes to Vespas, Lou has no equal.
The copyright in all text and photographs, except as noted, belongs to David Masse.