The Long Way Around

I am a bit shocked that the bastard started.

Let's rewind a bit - since I bought the Elite 250 (Starbuck), and post death-defying ride from Concord to SF, shes' been sitting in my grandmother's basement with absolutely no starting, no battery tending, and almost no gas (plus, the gas that was in there was going bad).

Yesterday was an early day from work, seeing as how it was the start of the 3 day weekend for Memorial Day, so I went and picked up the Elite since its headset bearings will be replaced next week (Tuesday). The bike has some play in the headset that needs to be addressed, new headset bearings will be needed, and the throttle tube is cracked. Those are the most obvious issues. There are other things that will be dealt with, mostly under the guidance of Battlescooter, but in order to get the Elite running enough to be even a daily rider those things need to be addressed.

I digress though. The point was, I needed to pick up the bike because the bike was going to get some service on Tuesday. I took the GT to the garage, then set it outside for a minute to get the Elite, whose space it would occupy for the next few days. Rolling Starbuck out, I parked her and took a look at the paint for the first time outside in good lighting - it's actually remarkably well intact but it's clear that the bike has been repainted (and fairly well might I add). Paint job or not though, I need to get the thing started, and it wasn't altogether clear that it would.

With a mild bit of reticence, I shoved the GT in the garage and closed the garage doors, and decided that I would make the bastard start by hook or by crook. Problem, though - I had 2 keys for the Elite (one for the trunk, one for the bike), and it was unclear which was which or did what, because aside from the shape there's very little in the way of distinguishing features on the keys. At least with the Vespa, they're both color coded. I tried to open the topcase and magically picked the right key, so I used the other key in the ignition. Lo, it seemed to work.

I was able to get the ignition in the "on" position, and I held the front brake, hit the starter, and... nothing. I flipped the kill, just in case I misread which direction the kill needed to be in, and this time - the bike grunted a few times, but nothing actually fired. Several times of trying that I decided, I must be doing this wrong, and then flipped the kill again and once again got nothing for my troubles.

A random thought crossed my mind - what about the rear brake? Is this bike that finnicky? I pressed the rear instead of the front and gave the starter another go and the bike very hesitantly sputtered to life, drunk on old gas and a dying battery.

I let her idle for a minute or two to get her land legs, and then she was off. Ran surprisingly well, up to the gas station, where I had to figure out how to close the seat latch after filling her up.

This bike will be an adventure on its own, Cannonball Run or not.

Right now my room has the faintest hint of the odor of leather. I recently picked up a Tour Master Coaster series II jacket. It's a café-racer style jacket with a light brown stripe across the chest and back, and also along the arms. I instantly fell in love with the aesthetics, and found it on NewEnough.com for a reasonable sum. A few keystrokes later and I had my order in on Wednesday, got it next day with free delivery. Can't say I'll complain.

NewEnough, by the way, allows me to make a $1 donation for everything I buy to a referring site. Of course, I chose ModernVespa.com and I suggest that, if you order with them, you do the same.

Nonetheless, not only am I one jacket richer (or is that, $200 poorer), I also received a special added bonus in the mail today: the new title to the Elite 250 (Starbuck). Whilst it was not as if I hadn't owned the bike before, there's something special and meaningful about receiving the title in the mail. It's now, without the slightest question, mine, to be done with as I wish. Unfortunately, for the time being, that means hiding in it in a garage for a while until I have time to make something with it.

But she is mine, oh yes - she is mine.

In the mean time, the 3 Peaks Challenge is in 2 days and the weather prediction has not been particularly positive as of late yesterday / today. Says "PM rain" whatever that means, but who knows. I'm hoping it's nothing and that it all settles down, as I'm particularly interested in this ride. At the last peak (Mt. Tam), Ryan's being knighted into the Royal Bastards as "Dreaded Bastard". I should definitely be there for that. I'd let people know when it was happening, if only I had any idea when the group would actually reach Mt. Tam. I really do hope it doesn't rain as that may cause me to not ride.

I know I said my next update was going to be about my GT200L's new exhaust, which I love. Aaron and I did have a fantastic time installing the exhaust, and we nearly screwed it up since my replacement spark plug was missing an end cap, and we "accidentally" broke the original taking it out of the GT.

BUT - there's much more pressing information to be distributed.

I have purchased yet another bike. Because I'm insane and clearly addicted to scooters. I picked up a Honda Elite 250, which is my Cannonball Run bike. That's right, I'm going to be doing the Cannonball Run on a 21 year old CH250.

For those of you who are not in the know, the Cannonball Run is a scooter "race", cross country. I believe it lasts 10 days, might be 11, might be 9. The total distance is close to 3200 mi I believe, and truly it's a matter of stamina and riding abilities. Taking a cue from my boy Jess (Curator of ModernVespa.com), I decided that it would be an insufferably bad idea to take my pride and joy scoot (Grace) out across the country and risk either running down the engine or wrecking the bike. Instead, I picked up this Elite for about a grand. She's in storage now, and will remain as much until I have time and money to bring it up to spec. And by storage, I mean my "friendly" garage.

The Elite's going to be named, "Starbuck", for one very good (and yet insufferably geeky) reason: I'm going to be repainting the bike to look like a Viper from the new Battlestar Galactica series on Sci-Fi. To give you some context, here is a Viper:



Following is the Elite:


I believe the family resemblance is strong.

Anyway, she's got new tires and a new belt, and has 13k mi on her. She'll truck over 65 and has a ridiculously accurate speedometer for some reason, since most 2-wheelers have really bad speedometers. Always off.

So that's the CBR bike, Starbuck. Welcome home, girl.

In other news, Lesli and I will be attending The Rides of March, a rally over in San Luis Obispo tomorrow through the weekend. It amuses me that I am in no way worried about the ride, where as about 2 years ago I made a similar trip on Grace to LA stopping off in Morro Bay, and it felt incredibly harrowing. Maybe I'm just getting to be that much more comfortable on my bikes?