Vespa Scooter made of Balloons

I would love to learn how to make one of these.

More weather woes.

Well I am getting tired of the Chicago weather. It is still cold here, I take that back, not cold, freezing! It warms up throughout the day and is fine by 5:00pm when I am riding home but at 5:45am when my trip starts it is insanely cold. It is moring like this that I think back and say "Maybe that sale they were having on end of season cold weather riding gear was a bad thing to miss." I think I am going to start looking into a scooter blanket and moving up my windscreen purchase a few weeks. I will be glad when this cold snap is over.

I hate Chicago weather!

Well we are now into day 3 of crappy, anti-scooter weather and it is supposed to continue through the end of the week.

Chicago gas price

Went to the north side to check out Scooterworks store and passed a gas station. Ouch! Glad I filled up at home.

Back to the begining

It has begun, my commute to the office is forever changed. I finally picked up my Lance Cali Classic 125 scooter yesterday from Second City Scooters. My first taste of riding it was more like chugging a couple of pitchers with a shot or two washing it all down. 45 miles in Chicago traffic is a great way to learn the limits of a bike. In those 45 miles I got go deal with construction (suspension=good, seat=ok), stop and go traffic (remember left hand is the rear break), wind (really need a windscreen), using the horn (cool but kind of weedy), passing (pretty decent get up for a 125cc), hill climbing (nothing to really fear if you are used to riding bikes) and driving at night (need to aim it a little better). This was one great shakedown ride. It took 30 minutes to get the grin off my face when I finally got off the bike.

So what do I like about it. First up is gas mileage. I pulled into the gas station near the shop and looked at the $4.13 price for premium and unlike with my WRX I didn't cringe. $2.68 later the tank was topped off and I was on my way. Actually couldn't fill it up because I didn't use the center stand to level the tank. Going to get a 5 gallon gas can for the house and just fill up at home going forward. It feels silly using my credit card for such a small purchase and I hate going inside to pay. Jerry cans and crank pumps are cheap and look cool.

Second is the size of the thing. You sit lower than most motorcycles so you are actually looking car driver eye to eye in most cases and even SUVs aren't that much taller. This way you can easily see what they are doing when they should be driving.  Still looking at adding an old school antenna flag because it fits the look of the bike.

Third the performance is really good. As I said it is a 125cc so not super big but still fast enough to hold its own in traffic. I am still running the stop exhaust, intake and carb so it is good to know that I don't have to upgrade things day one. Though that new exhaust with the titanium tip looks quite tasty and sounds great.

Ok, enough of the good time for the bad. The color is white and showing a little bit of age even though it is a 2010 with 2K on the clock. I suspect a good waxing and buff will bring the shine back so no worries. The mirrors are too short and a little small. This is a safety issue and I am going to have to change this one this weekend. Should be cheap to fix just need a simple one and most I have found are under $40. The seat is flat and hard. Maybe my butt needs to adapt a little but that first ride had me cringing a few times. Storage sucks. Normally scooters have a bunch of storage but engine placement on this one is directly where that storage should be. I have enough room for gloves, a lock and a few small odds and ends but my full face helmet isn't ever going to make it in there. And no I am not going to those tiny skullcap things. I like my teeth too much and need them to chew with. The final thing is the speedo feels tiny. It is about 3" dia and needs to be a little bigger, 4-5" would be perfect. At least it leaves room to add a phone mount so I can verify my speed with GPS and not get lost.

What's next? Upgrades of course. First up is a top tank/trunk. I need one that will fit a full face helmet. They have one model and are checking if it will fit my melon head helmet. This will be followed by a windscreen. This should improve the performance and my comfort a little. Once those are in place I will start investigating the support and performance sides of things, battery tender, intake/exhaust, shock/seat upgrades.

Anyway enough typing for now, I need to go for a ride.

Commuting

Commuting is regular travel between one's place of residence and place of work or full time study.