Welcome to the wet coast, welcome to paradise!

Allright, here I go again, right?

More over-the-top exaggeration. NOT!

I am privileged to be staying, for the next few days, at the Fairmont Pacific Rim on the waterfront in Vancouver.  Simply my favourite hotel.  Full stop.  Nothing to add.

What could make this better, you ask?

How about picking up a kick-ass Kymco Frost 200cc fuel-injected scooter five minutes from the airport courtesy of Bobskoot's good friend and Kymco dealer Gary Lee of Rideawaymotors.com.  Add to that providing my colleague who flew in from Calgary a motorcade style escort to the hotel.  She in her rock-star Lincoln Continental blacked-out window limo.  Me riding on the white Kymco providing imaginary cover.  With the snow-capped mountains as a backdrop. Wow!

Then, after check-in and a late lunch (at least based on Montreal time), I came downstairs to park the Kymco in the hotel garage (no charge for the scoot, another plus of the scooter lifestyle, my friends - the valet gods at the Fairmont invited me to scoot by the lift gates in the garage, because that's what the head valet does on her scooter!), and what do I find?

This gem parked outside.  A Vespa LX with a custom side-car rig:

And here's my ride, safely parked in the spotless underground garage.

Stay-tuned, cause there is more to come... A LOT MORE!

PS: for celebrity watchers, Sir Richard Branson was dining at ORU tonight.  That makes two of us.  The cool factor just won't quit.  I am loving this.

Hot Grips Update

The fine weather is finally here and my heated grips are no longer getting the use they were getting in the past couple of months.

First off, I have to say that heated grips are a fantastic investment.  I have ridden is some very cold weather and the heated grips have made all the difference in the world.  Not once did I end my commute with persistent chill in my fingers.

Secondly, when the weather was at its coldest, running the grips on high was more than sufficient to ward off the cold and keep the ride nice and comfortable.

Finally, the LX150's electrical system has proven itself more than capable of handling the grips.  I have had no battery or electrical issues whatsoever.

If you use your Vespa to commute for any kind of distance (my commute is approximately 30 kilometers or 20 miles each way), and if you find yourself suffering from chilled fingers or hands, you should seriously consider installing heated grips, or having them installed by your dealer.

Everything you need to do the installation yourself is available on my project report. 

Wocket in your Pocket Challenge

Trobairitz posted an interesting challenge.  A show & tell challenge of jacket and pants pocket contents.

For some reason, this challenge really appeals to me.

So here goes:

Left jacket pocket: Ear plugs in their container.  Blue suede Yarmulka from a Bar Mitzvah a few years ago, that turns out to save me from helmet hair.  No I'm not religious, and not even Jewish, though my wife and kids are.  I'm hoping that, should there be a God, he or she won't take offense. Micro-fibre lens cleaning cloth.

Right jacket pocket:  Ignition key on an Inukshuk buckskin key ring.  The ignition key, thanks to Jimh of allmotorcyclekeys.com, is keyed to my topcase as well.  Vespa keychain my daughter bought me in Rome, with a second ignition key; a key to a miniature set of handcuffs that is a keychain I used to use for my Miata, since sold; the key to my helmet cable lock; an electric-garage-door opener; and a key to a Kryptonite lock that I never use but still carry in the Vespa pet carrier.  Office keys, with a Swiss+Tech Utili-Key Stainless Steel 6-in-1 Multi Tool.  Interestingly, that Utili-Key has never been spotted by airport security.  Micro-fibre lens cleaning cloth. 

Inside jacket breast pocket: Slim wallet with Vespa registration and insurance slips.

Left pocket of my riding pants: Wallet with driver's license and the usual assortment of ID and credit cards.  Leather business card case.  Fisher Bullet Space Pen.

Right pocket of my riding pants: Mountain Equipment Coop Turtle Turbo LED flashlight with a miniature carabiner double clip. Loose bills and change if I'm carrying any.

I carry micro-fibre lens cleaning cloths in each jacket pocket because I wear glasses and they get used - a lot.

Thanks Trobairitz, that was fun, and it satisfied the very small urge that I was harboring to post my pocket contents on the very interesting (apparently only to guys) everyday-carry.com blog.

If you're curious what others are carrying, check out Trobairitz's blog.

Wheelers and Dealers

 Dealers

When my wheels need servicing, I'm no wrencher.

Vespa electrician, maybe. Read my gear posts and judge for yourself. But expert mechanic? Don't count on me. I don't count on me either.

My Italian beauty needed new shoes. Aren't all Italian beauties in perpetual need of new shoes? New fluids were also called for, and I wanted someone with a discerning mechanical eye and nose to match to check up on the transmission and drive train.

That means a visit to Canada's number one Vespa dealership. Alex Berthiaume & Fils.

You might think "What hyperbole! He's going to the biggest Vespa dealer in Canada to have his Vespa looked after".

Let's table the evidence and you can be judge and jury.

First off, there's the 2011 Vespa Canada dealer-of-the-year plaque in the showroom.

Begs the question, doesn't it: do all Vespa dealers in Canada sport that plaque?

I call the sales manager as my first witness.

Me: "Sur votre site internet ça dit que vous êtes le plus important concessionnaire Vespa au Canada... C'est tu une farce, ou c'est vrai?"

Sales Mgr.: "Ben r'garde derrière toi, s'ul mur!" Points to the plaque.


Me: "Ben oui... ça veux-tu dire que vous êtes le plus grand, ou juste le plus gentil?"

Anonymous reader: "Objection! Badgering the witness."

Me: "But your honor, I'm in cross!"

Another, more reasonable, anonymous reader: "Overruled.  The witness will answer."

Sales Mgr.: Looking pensive for a moment, probably dredging sales data. "R'garde on a vendu 150 Vespas c't'année.  Les autres concessionnaires sont chanceux d'en vendre 40."

Me: "C'est bon ça! Comme ça vous en vendez le plus au Canada?"

Anonymous reader: "Objection! Now he's leading the witness."

Me: "Your honor, still in cross..."

The other, more reasonable, anonymous reader: "Overruled.  The witness will answer."

Sales Mgr.: "C'est sûr! C'est pour ça qu'y nous ont donné la plaque!" Looking at me like I'm a little thick.  It's not the first time I've cross-examined a witness, and it's not the first time I've gotten that look.

I rest my case.

Still, your skepticism is justified.  What are the odds, that in just two weeks I would be having a chat, on the shop floor, with the largest Vespa dealer in the US (Vespa Sherman Oaks), and the largest Vespa dealer in Canada (Alex Berthiaume & Fils).

I said this before, truth is stranger than fiction.

Wheelers
 
Alex Berthiaume & Fils, the largest Vespa dealer in Canada, is two-and-a-half miles from my office.

Getting there on two wheels with a Vespa is a piece of cake, and that makes me a wheeler.  A nice leisurely ride through Montreal's Plateau borough, along picturesque Duluth street over to Lafontaine Parc, then a few blocks north on De La Roche Street. Presto!

The eagle-eyed nit-pickers among you will notice that's not the Google route in the map above.  Google may be efficient, but it has no soul.  My route is more direct, and prettier.

Once one drops one's bike off, how does one get back to the office?

Silly question! On two wheels of course!

No I didn't steal a bike.  Shame on you!

I pulled my bicycle helmet out of the topcase and strolled over to a BIXI stand just down the street on the corner, popped in my founding member's smart key, and off I went, merrily pedaling back to the office.  20 minutes and a little huffing and puffing later, I drop off the BIXI bike at the stand at Stanley and de Maisonneuve, and five minutes later I'm sitting at my desk.

A task that was happily repeated when my Italian beauty was ready to be picked up.

Speaking of wheels, after I paid up, the aforesaid sales manager cunningly invited me to take a Vespa GTS 300 Super for a spin around the block.  Yikes!!!! or to update that expression OMG!!!  What a sweet bike!  Breathtaking acceleration, nice weight, incredibly well balanced, surefooted, superb silky brakes, nice throaty purr from the motor... and I could go on!  And that's just from a spin around the block.

I'm working on stuff that I'll deserve to be rewarded for, this I know.  And there's a semi-gloss titanium grey 300 in the showroom with my drool on it... Time to put this thread to bed.

California dreaming

 But it's no dream.

I drove the Pacific Coast Highway back in  1997.  We rented a car and drove the coast from San Francisco south to Carmel.

Last week I got to drive the PCH from Los Angeles to Santa Barbara.

The PCH is such an iconic drive: Malibu, Topanga Canyon, Ventura.  Names that resonate with me as quintessential California places since I was old enough to watch TV.

In 1997 I didn't have a video camera handy to record that drive of a lifetime.  You only make that mistake once.  This time, I had my GoPro.  For those familiar with the area, the video starts just before Deer Creek Road and continues approximately 4 miles or so northward, ending just before the PCH turns inland towards Oxnard.

Don't mistake that expression on my face as less than 100% happy.

It's the look of someone trying to direct and produce a video with one hand and half a brain, and use the other hand and half-brain to drive a Volvo S-60 at 65 mph.

The only thing that could have improved my PCH experience would have been to ride it on my Vespa.

Maybe one day.... one more California dream.

iTravel, iBlog, iLike!

Finally I have found a digital travel solution that really works well in the confines of the airline economy seat.

It's the Apple iPad with an Apple wireless keyboard.

You can actually type in comfort, and without worrying that the thoughtless oaf in the seat in front of you will recline and crush your laptop screen.

When you factor in the wonder of in-flight WIFI, priceless.

When the flight attendant announced that our flight had WIFI, a ripple of oohs! and aahs! greeted the news.

You have to ditch your laptop and try this.

With the right combination of apps (think Pages, Goodreader, Penultimate, and Dropbox) you can be productive with a fraction of the weight and bulk.

Happy (digital) travels!

Visiting L.A. has its perks!

There are many MVers I would love to meet. It's no small task since there are so very few of them where I live.

So far, going out of my way today to meet David (SDG) at Vespa Sherman Oaks, I've scored two MVers. Meeting David was a big deal for me. I got a 5 cent tour of the shop, some Vespa swag (thank you David), and the opportunity to chat with a fellow addict.

The only regret I have is that the Vespa that Bill Dog rode coast to coast in the 2012 scooter Cannonball rally, that I was hoping to be able to snap a picture of, was off-site due to a space shortage in the shop.

Thank you David for being such a gracious host.

Misty

I am thankful that our fickle weather often plays dress-up with the landscape.

The mother nature we know is a little girl with a favorite doll, and lots and lots of outfits, accessories, and baubles.

Morning mist was the gauzy veil for Wednesday's commute.

When you interrupt your commute to snap a few pictures it sets a nice tone for the rest of the day.

Rainy, misty, overcast days can be wonderful occasions to seek a slower, more contemplative pace.  An opportunity to delve into subjects fit for deeper study and thoughtful deliberation.

Expressway leg

Two years ago I didn't have the skills I have now, and I didn't venture onto expressways much.

My first outing was early on a Sunday morning in June when there was no traffic.  I wanted to see how fast my Vespa was capable of going.  I got up to about 88 km/h and didn't have the nerve to pass the truck ahead of me that was doing 80 km/h.

A QPP cruiser sitting on the next on-ramp and alert for speeders pulled me over then, mistaking my bike for a 50cc model. As if a 50cc bike could manage 80 km/h, which is what I was doing sitting behind the truck when he pulled me over. He sent me on my way after verifying that my Vespa had more than the 125cc displacement engine legally required for expressway use. He asked me where it was written on the bike. When I showed him, he apologized for pulling me over. Nice cop. Lucky for me, because the speed limit on that particular expressway is only 70 km/h.

The Vespa LX150 is a great bike.

With a top speed that I now know is approximately 105 km/h, it is competent on expressways. At least it is on Montreal expressways.

This morning I had an errand to run to pick up a part for my Mazda Miata.

I sold the car on the weekend to dear friends.  I had to sell it because now that I have the Vespa, I no longer drive the Miata.  A car needs exercise.  It's in better hands now.

In prepping the car, I attempted to remove the radio to extract a cassette that became jammed in the player three years ago.

The prudent thing to do would have been to Google the instructions for disassembling the dashboard. I figured I could figure it out. Trust my instincts.

My instincts suck, and I destroyed the central panel because I failed to spot two critical screws and when I tugged on the assumption that there were clips and pressure fittings, the plastic shattered.

This morning I picked up a brand new panel.

The Mazda dealer sits in the epicentre of construction for Montreal's new McGill Super Hospital. I determined that the best, most efficient way to get there was to take the expressway - Autoroute 20, from Valois bay in Pointe Claire to the St-Jacques street exit.

The sweeping on-ramp at Valois bay gave me trouble the first time I took it last season. I struggled with it because I hadn't yet learned the art of counter steering.  If you don't countersteer your arc through the curve begins to travel wide.  Fortunately I sloughed of some speed and re-jigged the direction.  Had I attempted to steer more to the right in the direction I was intending to go, I might have lost control.

Thanks to David Hough's Proficient Motorcycling, that ramp is a piece of cake now.

Wide open throttle all the way.  Counter steering (applying pressure to the handlebars opposite to the direction of the curve) allows the bike to reduce the radius of its arc, therefore turning tighter, but without any reduction of acceleration.  The result is a greater angle of lean. Newer riders think that they lean the bike by leaning their bodies.  In fact it's all the effect of counter steering.  You can ride perfectly upright, and control the lean entirely with the pressure applied to the handlebars.  It's amazing.

On this particular morning the SUV in front of me spoiled the fun by traveling too slowly.

Here's what that expressway leg looked like on Monday morning during my commute.

Mini

 Every time I see one it shocks me.

My Vespa LX150 dwarfs, dominates, towers over, the real Mini.

Those new Minis are huge, hulking, massive, imposing cars, unworthy of the name.

It's a wonder that two real people can fit inside a real Mini.  You'd expect that they wouldn't have doors.  That there would be a gaping hole in the roof in which to perch, hunkered down to reach the steering wheel, like a too-big kid in a too-small pedal car.

But then I guess that the modern Vespa is to the vintage Vespa, what the modern Mini is to the original.

GoPro: Take II

Bobskoot is a man of many talents.

I have a lot to learn from Bob.

I believe Bob to be a GoPro wizard.  A wizard not just in the usual technical sense, but in the best possible sense, the artistic sense.

I am a beginner, a dilettante, a mouse in the corner of the Wizard's lair.

Trying to learn I am, as Bob, Yoda to my Luke, tosses me hints.  "Thirty degrees left".  "Fat Gecko". 'Stealth; excellent pictures, makes it does'.

That last bit paraphrases Bob's advice, though now I can't locate the comment.  Did I delete it in an iPhone clumsy moment?  Did I imagine Bob's advice?  Or is Bob whispering in my inner ear from the other quadrant of the planet by some wizardly means?  No... no... now I'm getting carried away. And yet...

I am struggling with the angle advice.  I think that I'm intoxicated with the view in which my Vespa and I waste a third of the frame while the sights are neglected.  Definitely not Jeddi material.  And I didn't quite take the Fat Gecko advice literally either.  I concluded that the GoPro suction mount was functionally equivalent to the Fat Gecko mount.  Call it a slightly rebellious riff on the Master's injunction.

I need to hone the craft because there are missions looming.

I won't be attacking any Death Stars, but my GoPro is going to be my mini-Lucas, with my iPhone as my R2D2, when I bag more big bridges this riding season.

Here's a practice run.  Let me know how I'm doing.

PS: Want to see GoPro in action? Check out the incredibly cool thread on Modern Vespa as the Cannonballers wrap up their run across the US south, San Diego bound.

Patching

 Here's a how-to of a different kind, but definitely a vital scooter / moto related skill.

Yes, sewing patches.

There is a technique to sewing on patches that makes the job fairly simple so that anyone can do it, and do it well.

Here's how to do it.

First the obvious, decide where you want the patch.

Once you know that, it helps to use a few straight pins to pin the patch to the fabric.

Since most patches have a black border, you should probably use black thread.  If the border is not black, use thread that matches the patch border.

Next once the needle is threaded, stitch the thread from front to back through the patch border.

Now, fold the patch back a little and stitch the thread through the fabric.  All you are doing it inserting needle just inside the outer layer of the garment's fabric and right back out, and just behind where the edge of the patch will sit. Those stiches in the garment fabric won't show, and they don't need to be symmetrical, or neat, or tidy.  As long as they sit back from the edge of the patch they'll be fine.  The stitches that matter are those that are back and forth through the patch border.

Next, stitch the thread through the patch border, this time from the back to the front.  Position your stitch about one sixteenth of an inch away from where the first stitch went through the border.

Now repeat those steps going around the edge of the patch until all the edges are sewn.  Then keep going to overlap the beginning and end of your stitching by at least half an inch or so.

With each stich, lie the patch down flat against the fabric and smooth the patch and fabric out, to make sure that your sewing is not binding anywhere.

As you sew along, you'll see that there is a little slack in the last two or three stitches that makes the job easy to do.

And there you have it.

If the patch border is very tight, using pliers to push and pull the needle through beats trying to use a thimble.

Unexpected

 

Washington DC, at least the small portion of it that lies within the confines of the Four Seasons Hotel, is full of "type-A" folks of both genders.

These people, when they aren't actively involved in VERY IMPORTANT MEETINGS, wander about the hallways, gardens, terraces, and patios with their smart devices glued to their faces having VERY IMPORTANT CONVERSATIONS.

They show tremendous respect for each other's turf, and in the garden adjoining the hotel, seemed to have each developed a 50 foot privacy radius in which they paced, intent on their VERY IMPORTANT CONVERSATION.

 I decided to take a five minute break in the garden to get some much needed fresh air and sunshine.

This was how I came to observe this somewhat peculiar behavior.

Imagine my surprise when I found this idyllic watercourse making its way to the Potomac right there in the hotel's garden.

I think you'll be bound to agree that it looks like it was lifted straight out of rural England.  The very antithesis of yammering yuppies on Blackberries and iPhones.

On a wing and a prayer

 My preferred transportation is my Vespa, by a wide margin.

Today the destination was Washington DC. The Vespa wasn't an option.

Yet there was quite a rare treat in store.  Transportation was courtesy of the aeronautical equivalent of a Vespa, in this case a Beechcraft 9 passenger King Air.

The cross-winds at Dulles were ferocious.  Being able to see out of the cockpit windows and the side windows simultaneously during the landing was a treat, and made counter steering the Vespa at full throttle on a curving expressway ramp seem quite tame by comparison.

The plane seemed headed straight for the runway, but was gyrating on its axis by what seemed to be 15 to 20 degrees to the left then to the same extent to the right.  Turbulence was simultaneously tossing us up and down like a toy.

The amazing thing was that the plane touched down light as a feather, with no wrenching at all.  Seeing all the left-right rotation in the split-seconds before the plane touched down made that smooth landing all the more improbable and remarkable.  I guess that gets chalked up to the pilot's skill.

All things considered, I didn't miss the scoot commute today.

Rick's Ride A:H

As a result of a Blogger / iPad glitch, this post devoted to Rick's ride self-destructed.

If you've already read this post and have come back, only to find that it's not quite what you saw the first time around, that's because it's not.

Rick Snyder set out on April 22, 2012 on the Scooter Cannonball run.  You will find numerous links to the 2012 Cannonball towards the bottom of the links on the right side of the page.

I exchanged some correspondence with Rick before his great adventure and I told him I'd be sharing the fun vicariously through Rick.

One way I did that was, like hundreds of others, was to compulsively visit the Official Cannonball thread on ModernVespa.com.

Another way was to follow Rick's progress on the followride.com website that tracked the Cannonballers in real time.  I took a number of snapshots of Rick's epic ride which you will find below.

Perhaps Rick will one day provide some context for these screen shots.

In the meantime you can visit the ModernVespa thread and read Rick's posts.  His MV username is Scuterbrau.  There was quite a bit of drama as Rick stuck to Bill Dog like glue as Bill did battle not only with the epic ride, but more importantly with a raging staph infection in his left hand that ultimately led to emergency surgery and intravenous antibiotics on arrival at destination in San Diego.

It's a riveting true real-time story of human resilience in the face of adversity.

So here, without further editorial comment are the snapshots of Rick's ride.  Hopefully there won't be any further Blogger glitches interfering with this post.

A: April 22, 2012 at 10:30 a.m.:

B: April 22, 2012 at 6:45 p.m.:

C: April 23, 2012 at 12:37 p.m.:

D: April 23, 2012 at 6:07 p.m.:

E: April 24, 2012 at 3:57 p.m.:

F: April 25, 2012 at 6:27 p.m.:

G: April 28, 2012 at 4:07 p.m.:

H: April 30, 2012 at 11:03 a.m.:

Montreal landmarks

Canajun was hoping for a glimpse of the Montreal he was familiar with before he moved away.

Here is a ride video I shot the other day that might scratch that itch.

The route is along Cote des Neiges road heading towards downtown.  The video begins on the north side of the mountain on Cote des Neiges, just a block or two south of Queen Mary road.

Once past Queen Mary, if you're familiar with the city, you may remember the following landmarks.

• at the 23 second mark, crossing Queen Mary;
• from the 44 second mark to the 1 minute 22 second mark, the Mount Royal Cemetery.  The gates are at the 1:22 mark.
• at the 2:05 mark you will see the armory right where the Camilien Houde Parkway goes through Mount Royal Park, heading east towards Park avenue, Fletcher's Field and Montreal's SoHo that we call "the Plateau".
• at the 2:17 mark is the high point of Cote des Neiges road.  Everything beyond this point is downhill.
• at 3:10 you see the apartment buildings that are now condos I believe, that sit like an island dividing the north and south bound sections of Cote des Neiges road.
• at 4:30, I branch off Cote des Neiges road and onto Dr. Penfield avenue (formerly McGregor avenue).  Actually it looks like I am going straight, but in fact it's Cote des Neiges road the veers right towards Sherbrooke street.
• from 5:14 on, this is the Golden Square Mile section of downtown, also sometime called Embassy Row.  This is where the wealthiest of Montreal's elite built palatial homes in the late 1800's.  Many of those stately homes are now consulates, hence the name.
• at 5:50 the western edge of the McGill University campus begins.
• the two buildings on the left at 6:00 are the biology department.  The second building has a greenhouse on the roof that glows eerily at night.  It's a grow-op.
• at 6:08 are the two buildings of the law faculty, named Chancellor Day Hall, with the actual Chancellor Day Hall being the second building, also a former robber-baron palace, bequeathed to McGill long ago in a bid for atonement, no doubt.
• at 6:09 I turn right onto Stanley street heading south towards Sherbrooke.
• the building at 6:30 is the new Sofitel hotel that sits at the corner of Sherbrooke and Stanley.  It used to be the Canadian headquarters of Air Liquide, or Canadian Liquid Air.
• at 7:18 the building on the southeast corner is the headquarters of CGI Group Inc., where I work.
• at 8:26 is the end of my commute.

So, sew

Actually, I am not "so-so", I'm really quite pleased with my progress.

This week I rolled over the personal 10,000th mile in the saddle.

My Vespa's odometer recorded its 10,000th mile last fall.  But I got my Vespa with 1,304 miles already on the clock, I didn't get to my personal 10,000th mile until a few days ago.

So now I get to sew my Modern Vespa 10,000 mile patch onto my Corazzo riding jacket.

Locations, locations!?!?  On the arm, or on the chest?  On the collar maybe? Or is sewing it on the collar too military-dress-uniform-palace-gards-ish?

Maybe I'll do it on the weekend.

Windy ride!

Stiff winds overnight brought warmer weather to Tuesday's commute.

The wind was from the south and came gusting over Lake St-Louis. My Vespa was buffeted by the wind all along the lake and well into the city as well.

The expressway miles I've racked up have gotten me used to wind blast, particularly the intense buffeting and cavitation that 18-wheelers leave in their wake. So the blustery weather wasn't a concern.

The silver lining was the way the weather altered the landscape. It painted the lake a heaving mass of silvery grey, frothy chop, punctuated by angry shots of spray where the waves met the rocky shore.

I was tempted to stop and attempt a photograph a few times, but chose to continue riding.

When I got to the foot of the lake in Lachine, the scene was so captivating I couldn't resist taking a few minutes to share the scene here.

I took the opening photo for this post while waiting for a business associate for an early evening meeting. I rode my Vespa to the meeting. I was pleased to find Costanza parking, as usual, with the added bonus of another Vespa to share the space with.

I believe Vespas don't attract parking citations because they invariably add to the beauty of the urban landscape. At least that's my theory. Maybe I've just been lucky.

Home: Going and coming

This is what you might think of as a sandwich post. 

This is the meat.

The bookends that make it into a sandwich are two separate videos.  One leaving the garage at work and riding to the entrance ramp to the expressway.  The other, from the end of the off-ramp and into the garage at home.

These are the first GoPro ride videos I've posted.  They aren't the first I've recorded on my Vespa though.

A few weeks ago I recorded my commute, end-to-end.  That video is too large to post to YouTube, so you won't see it here.  For that ride I had mounted the camera on a mirror stem using a RAM mount and the head from my SLIK monopod.  When I saw the vibration of the camera with that set up I thought the video would be one massive mess of vibration.

I was amazed when I saw the result.  Certainly not solid by any means, yet, in the circumstances, still very usable video.  The GoPro is one wicked good camera.

For these videos, the camera was mounted using the same RAM mount, without the SLIK head, on a RAM ball mount on the grab rail.

As you can see the video is, well, I hesitate to say it, but rock solid comes to mind.  All I can say is "Wow!!!".  Worth every penny.

Amen.

Now here's the back end of the sandwich. As an added bonus, it's an action flick, thanks to the speeding police cruiser at the 1':40" mark.

Art or science?

I'll be the first to confess that I'm no artist.  At least not when it comes to using my fingers to make pictures.

My iPad and the very useful Penultimate app let me explore my artistic inclinations, such as they are, without much fuss.

It interests me to observe the similarity in each of these scribble-sketches.  There is a satisfaction I got from the exercise.  The satisfaction that the essence of a Vespa seemed to emerge from my scribbling.  The cowl in the lower left sketch, for instance.

I didn't sketch any particular Vespa, and the Vespa was in my mind, I wasn't sketching it while looking at my Vespa, or any other Vespa or image.

Making these images, just as they are, would not have been possible, it seems to me, if my Vespa was not such a presence in my life.  Washing the machine, running my hands over its lines; taking it apart; putting it back together; looking at it from every conceivable angle;  filling the tires; filling the tank;  riding it for 10,000 wondrous miles.  All these experiences flowed from my fingers onto the iPad screen.  Time after time.  Resulting in remarkably similar images.

This is art.  Not good art.  But art.  It certainly isn't science.

Riding is like that too.  Why is it that I can ride full-throttle along a curving expressway ramp and merge into traffic with confidence?  How do I roll at barely a walk, inching my way in traffic with my feet firmly planted on the floorboard?  How do I swoop around a corner and accelerate down a boulevard like a bird in flight?

Clearly science dictates the mechanics.  Centrifugal force; gasoline exploding in the cylinder; friction between the tires and the road; the grip of the disc brake; gravity tugging at the chassis.

But art is what makes riding both possible, and thoroughly enjoyable.

Got to make more room...

Ahhhhh! now that's better!
Nothing like spring renovations to lift the spirit.

Another milestone, belated

Yesterday marked the second anniversary of this blog.

What a difference two years makes in a life.

How a machine can contribute so much remains a little bit of a mystery to me.

Of course it's not the machine.  It's really just me, changing the way I relate to the world around me.  The Vespa is just a new mode, a filter, that alters both reality, and perception.

This blog is also an important part of the change in me.

At first it was just me, sharing my experience to help others like me who were interested, but who knew too little about the reality of riding.

More than a filter, the blog has become a two-way lens.  Letting others see me, has let me see others too.  I know that I have friends and acquaintances in far-flung places.  These are real-life relationships that, like all friendships, add richness  to the life I live.

I'll be in Vancouver in May, staying at one of the downtown Fairmont hotels.  The schedule is a little tight.  I fly in the morning of Thursday, May 24, and leave on Sunday evening, the 27th.  I'll be spending as much time as possible with my son but also want to meet as many of you wet coasters as possible, you know who you are.  Send me an e-mail and let's see how many of us can gather.  Bob has made very gracious arrangements for a 200cc ride for me.  A group ride ending somewhere we could sit down to grab something to eat would be really nice.  Maybe I'll be able to convince my son Andrew to ride pillion.

I'll be sure to bring all my gear, so it could be rain or shine.

It's all about the gear

I knew that I had to pull all the stops for the ride home.

Minus 1 Celsius, warmer than this morning's commute by three degrees, but the wind that was strong this morning, had picked up considerably.

I zipped the liner into my armored pants, threw my Teknic rain jacket on over my armored jacket, and put my thin wool glove liners on under my winter gauntlets.

So many layers is not comfortable. I felt cumbersome.

When I ride, I feel light and weightless, I swoop over the landscape like a bird in flight. With all that gear on I feel more like an astronaut than a pilot.

As soon as I rolled out of the garage I cranked up the juice to the grips to the max.

I decided on the fastest route. Wide open throttle on the expressway all the way home.

The wind gusts were ferocious. Stronger than I've ever experienced. Actually shoving the bike around in the lane. I focused on riding, tense, alert, constantly ready to counteract the gusts.

A couple of eighteen wheelers added their turbulent after-drafts to the challenge. For the latter half of the ride I followed an off-duty fire truck, peeling off the formation at my exit and decelerating down the ramp as the firemen thundered along the expressway headed further west.

So much speed, so much wind-chill. And yet the one thing I didn't experience was cold. Not a bit. My hands? Usually the weak spot. Tonight? Toasty!

My upper body? With the rain jacket blocking all the airflow, also, well, neutral says it best. Not hot, not cool, just normal.

My legs and lower body? Same as the top half.

Same story was playing out in my Icon Patrol boots.

As many have remarked before me, it's all about the gear.

Over all, this kind of experience is not why I ride. Too much gear to feel like I'm flying.

Tomorrow snow's in the forecast, so I'm trading the Vespa for the Civic.

That's more like it

Minus 4 Celsius or 25 Fahrenheit coupled with stiff winds out of the north.  This is the March I remember.  Freaking cold.

The Hot Grips™ were running on the maximum setting this morning.  No half-measures for a day like this.

The visor had to be snapped shut to keep the sharp knife of cold air from freezing my nose.  My Corazzo underhoody did its job of sealing the gap between my Corazzo 5.0 jacket and Nolan N-102 full-face helmet.

The heated grips made all the difference.

Nevertheless, it was so cold, particularly with the wind factored in, that more countermeasures were dancing in my head.  Such as:

1. I should have put the liners in my armored pants (Dohhh!).
2. I wonder how nice it would be with heated grips and muffs?
3. A true all-weather jacket with a removable liner would be a really nice touch. 

I didn't see any other motor bikes on the road.

I wonder why?

How to tell when it's unseasonably hot

You can tell it's unseasonably hot when students decide that a $500 tuition fee hike is so fundamentally offensive to their civil rights that they paralyze a metropolis for hours on end.

Sheesh, you'd think that the G8 was in town for a kaffeeklatsch.




You know it could get tough, when the horses think to wear their soccer shin pads and paintball visors to the party!

The men in blue also brought dogs wearing their doggie SWAT suits. No sense in letting the horses have all the fun.

Day three

More freaky weather.

This morning, the heaviest fog yet.  I had to stop three times, remove my helmet, switch my glasses (Ray Bans to regular, back to Ray Bans), switch gloves (summer gloves to gauntlets, back to summer, back to gauntlets).  Started warm, got chilly, back to warm; started out sunny and grey, became pea soup fog, then sunny, back to pea soup, back to sunny.

Things stabilized as soon as my route left the lake shore.

The fog is coming off the lake.  Something to do with warm air, very cold lake water, residual ice banks here and there... at least that's my uneducated non-meteorologist's guess.

It slowed me down, but blew me away.  I love fog.  It proves to be much, much trickier on two wheels.

If this keeps up, I may figure out a strategy.  I'm beginning to think that the right strategy is to button down.  Shut the visor, and then squeegee when the fog pearls up on the visor.  That means sticking with the Icon Patrol gauntlets that have the squeegee built in on the left index finger.

Then again, this is season three of life-on-two-wheels, and these are my first encounters with fog.

There may be no time left to learn.

Any thoughts?

PS: that's Stewart Hall in the background, and no, I don't live there, nor do I own it.

The ride home

I had to pause on the way home yesterday on my first commute of 2012.

The photo says it all: an August blazing fireball sunset in mid-March.   Who would have thought that warm weather like we're enjoying was even remotely possible on the first Monday after St. Patrick's Day?

On the way home tonight, people were dining on the sidewalk terrace at Il Fornetto in Lachine. And there was a crowd scene at the Dairy Queen.

Tomorrow's forecast is even hotter!  HOTTER!?!?  Yes, hotter.

The Creator must be mocking me for installing heated grips on a Vespa LX.

Hey, you don't think that's possible?

It's a mid-summer's March dream here. Hello!

And... we're off!!

The 2012 Vespa scooter commuting season officially kicked off this morning.

The heated grips I installed weren't needed due to the unseasonably balmy weather we've enjoyed since Sunday when the temperature hit 21.5C.

This morning it was cool.  I switched the grips on to a low-ish setting, just because I could.  So there, global warming, take that!

In two years of commuting on my scooter this was my first experience with fog.  The fog was rolling in from Lake St-Louis, and was at times quite heavy.  The main concern with the fog, aside from the obvious challenge of seeing and being seen, was that my visor fogged.  It was so troublesome that I had no other option than to ride with the visor up.

Given the warm temperature, it wasn't a problem.

This morning I am also sporting my new Icon Patrol boots.

This picture was taken yesterday when I went for a brief joyride.  When I commute I wear full gear including lined Tourmaster Caliber pants.  Yesterday I ventured out in jeans.

The season begins with 10,778 miles on the clock.  I mention it just so I can record it here in case I'm wondering later on how many miles I will have logged this season.

It certainly feels good to be back on two wheels.  I'm taking it slowly.  Nice relaxed commuting along the scenic route.  At least until I've got my sea legs back.

A challenge?

This morning, waking up is a challenge.
Thanks to you, Trobairitz, it's one I won't soon forget!