NEW - including Scooters

I've been giving this some thought - and seeing as how this blog doesn't get much traffic anyway - I think I'm going to include my scooter and related adventures on this blog.

The scoot is new - to me.  And it's not that riding a scoot is all that new - I used to own a Honda VT1100 - a Honda Shadow - and I loved riding it while I owned it - so it's not like riding two wheels and a motor is all that new and/or exciting to me.  It's that whole "been there - done that" thing, you know?

What IS fun and exciting is finding myself with a wrench in my hand fixing something that runs, again.  I used to do that for a living - many years ago.  I'd forgotten how much fun it is to make things work.  I've had my scoot half apart already, and I'm loving it.

My scooter is "Chinese".  That doesn't make it good, bad or ugly.  What it DOES do, however, is put repair and maintenance squarely in my corner.  There is no 'dealer network' supporting the system like there is for Honda, or Yamaha, or Kawasaki.  There's just me.  As I build expertise in my scoot and the way it works, I'll be able to share it here.

I'll be able to answer questions, here.

I'll be able to put together tutorials, here.  Both for bicycles AND scooters.

It's going to be fun.

And if you live in the Chicagoland area, and you've always wanted a scooter (or maybe you haven't ALWAYS wanted a scooter but now you're considering the idea) and you had NO IDEA you could buy a 250cc scooter (does 75-80 MPH, 65-85 MPG and is legal on the highway) for less than $2100 delivered to your door by truck, well, you don't need to be afraid to do that any longer.  I'm here and I can help. 

Ndinombethe.

REMINDER

Tomorrow, Sunday the 19th, all Performance Bike Stores will be having workshops, at Noon, on basic bike maintenance. Furthermore, attendees will be given 10% discounts on Spin Doctor tools - the sorts of things necessary to do that basic bike maintenance.

I will be at the Naperville store at Noon.

You should be here ...

I realize that we're world famous, here, on this blog, and what follows is somewhat "local" and probably of little interest to the vast audience we entertain, but that said - I'm gonna do it anyway. Sunday, the 19th, at Noon, Performance Bicycles at 428 S. Rt. 59, Naperville is going to hold a Bike Maintenance Clinic. You'll learn:

Rountine cleaning and maintenance techniques
An overview of tools and gear needed
Tips on indoor training and the gear you need
Take an Extra 10% Off All Spin Doctor Tools When You Attend This Clinic! Offer valid on 2/19/2012 only. Only attendees of the Basic Bike Maintenance clinic are eligible for this discount. Discount cannot be combined with any other offers or discounts.

If you ride? You might want to do this.


Ndinombethe.

p.s. I was not paid or compensated in any way for this post. My idea. They are not aware of this post. FYI

Warm the weather, Mother, Daddy wants to RIDE!!

Mother Nature, beastie that she is, has been mostly mild through this Winter, so far. Oh a little tantrum here and there, but nothing long lasting or serious. I've only had to break out the snow blower once, so far.

Yesterday was no exception.

It was in the upper 50's when I got home from work, and it was still light outside, so I changed clothes and clicked off a couple of quick miles on the bike.

I intentionally did NOT shift gears when taking the slight grades in our neighborhood, so when I got back there was a bit of that "pasty feeling" in my legs - that feeling that was so prominent when I first took up riding, again, last Fall. Of course it went away after a while - a rather short while, I might add, and I'm sure once I get back to regular riding it will disappear again. It's just a bit disappointing to know that I've fallen so far back in so short a time.

I really need to live somewhere warmer.

Ndinombethe.

The Machine

Hello!!!! hello hello hello hello.

Hmmm. There's an echo in here. Maybe we gotta fill this place up with more stuff, huh?

Anyway. Pictured below is my new bike. Well, not so new now - it's 3 months old already. But it is my baby and it's been stuck in the garage for far too much of the time recently.

Today, it was out and on the road. 46 degrees of temperature is just enough to get me started. Having ridden, I thought it might be nice to pose my ride on the grass next to the driveway, and take pictures.



That's not the driveway in the background - that's the street. You can't see the driveway. A point of clarification.

The bicycle is a Schwinn World 24 Commuter. Trigger shifters, carrier on the back, and the panniers were added after purchase. I plan on organizing rides, so I need the panniers in order to keep tools, first aid supplies and repair stuff handy as we ride.

It is VERY comfortable to ride, but I am going to replace the seat with a noseless saddle.

Ain't she purdy?

Ndinombethe.

Broader, boy, broader

It seems the older I get the more tender my "sit bones" get - so saddle size is starting to become an issue. Well, not so much an issue, but certainly something I need to be aware of.

After a couple of quick miles over the weekend (weather really wasn't as good as I would have liked) I have decided that the new Schwinn needs a different saddle - the one it came with is just a bit too narrow - and I have become spoiled by the saddles on the other bikes I ride.

I will deploy some pictures in the next day or two to illustrate, but the saddle marked "G9", which I currently have on my "Dutchie", may get moved over to the new bike - or I may just buy a new one and put the Schwinn saddle on the shelf. On the other hand, I could also replace the Schwinn saddle with a "No Nose" saddle, but it's not the nose on this saddle that bothers me. It's just that I AM a big proponent of "No Nose" saddles, so why wouldn't I?

I haven't decided. But I will.

Ndinombethe.

What a RIDE!!!

I put 5 miles on my new Schwinn World 24 Commuter yesterday. During much of the ride I was into the teeth of a fairly stiff headwind from the South. No problem. A range of 24 gear selections makes any headwind just a breeze (pun intended). I may think about a wider and softer seat, but only after a couple more rides on the one the bike was born with. It hits my "sit bones" a little differently than I am used to - and it's a little firmer than the other seats I like to ride, so we shall see.


Be an S.O.B. - a Saver of Old Bikes.

Ndinombethe.