Rebel Scooter Ride

" You gonna get up and ride with me today?" asked Eric as he poked at me.  My mind said FU but instead I just grunted "Let me wake up."  Who gets up before 7 am?  I'm retired and don't like to get up so early anymore but heck, now I was kind of awake.  So I crawled out of bed, washed my face, brushed my hair and teeth and threw on my LD Comfort tights before donning my riding gear.  Didn't even make a cup of coffee which is my usual routine.  Oh well....

The scooters were quietly waiting in the garage ready for a new adventure.  We loaded a few items onto the scooters like water, wallets, rain gear, etc.  It was overcast and didn't look so promising but Eric kept reassuring me that the forecast was rain after 3 pm and clear until then.  Well, the sky didn't look so clear to me but I played along and got ready to ride.  I figured if it started to rain I had my rain gear and a pinlock in my helmet visor so I should be okay.

We managed to hit the road by 7:30 am.  Eric is playing a motorcycle photo tag and the goal today was a photo of a "Welcome To" sign for a town that begins in "O".  Olive Branch, MS is about 85 miles away and a straight shot on MS 178 which is a nice, rural two lane road.  We gassed up at the local corner Texaco and made our way to MS 178, maybe 4 miles from home.  So early on a Saturday morning, there was very little traffic and the road was damp but not too wet.  The sky still looked kind of ominous!

The speed limit was 55 mph for most of MS 178.  Only slowing down for small towns and large intersections.  The scooters performed flawlessly.  About 20 miles into our ride we stopped at Scarlet's Donuts for a donie and coffee.  Oh that was good!  Just the pick up I needed to clear the sleep cobwebs from my head.

Yummy!  I had a cinnamon twist and Eric opted for a Maple Bacon Donut.

I had a delicious cup of decaf to wash down the cinnamon twist.

Oh, that was a nice stop!  Scarlet's drive-through was doing box office business!  We then got back on MS 178 heading north to Olive Branch.  Our ride was pretty uneventful (which is good) until we encountered road work signs saying the road was closed ahead and we must detour.  Well, being the little Rebel Scooterists we are we just continued to see exactly how blocked the road really was.  We really weren't prepared to make a detour and certainly didn't want to take the ADV 150's on the freeway which was the best option of detour.

So we scootered on.  ROAD CLOSED!!!!! Not only were there big signs but there was also huge road working equipment, (motor grader), parked across the road blocking access.  Crap!  But no, my honey just kept on motoring so like a good wife, I followed (LOL).  

Hey, it was Saturday morning.  No traffic.  No roadworks going on.  No need to pay attention to or heed signs.   Hahahahahahaha.  Yeah, we're Scooter Rebels and are darn proud of it!  We just rode around the equipment and signs on both ends of the bridge that was under construction, (but finished except for some paint lines).

Road closed?  Not to Rebel Scooters!!!!!  We just motored on!  A pleasant road with little traffic and a nice cloud cover but no rain.  The temps were around 80 to 84 degrees F but without the sun it wasn't that hot.  It was a comfortable ride on fun little scooters :-)

We reached the goal of Olive Branch, MS and Eric got his photo for the tag game. 

We turned around and took the same route home.  Yes, we again were Scooter Rebels and shot through the Road Closed signs and navigated around the equipment blocking the road.  Gotta love these little Honda ADV 150's.   We made a quick stop at Potts Camp for another "Welcome To" tag.

At some point along our ride we encountered a very long uphill section.  This is the first time I had the throttle WFO, fully pegged and managed to scale the hill at 57 mph.  Of course, I didn't max out the downhill before the uphill :-)  Maybe could have done better had I revved the downhill.  Dunno, but everything was fine, still going about the 55 mph speed limit :-)

My bootie is not used to big rides because I haven't ridden much since last November and I needed a bootie break.  We stopped here along the road for a bit of a respite, a swig or two of water and a smoke for me.  The sky looks ominous but nary a drop did we encounter!

Now it was just motor on home.  We noticed traffic picked up a bit since it was now after noon.  We got home about 12:30 PM, made a lovely lunch and discussed what farkles we might want/need on the scooters.  It was a good ride of about 180 miles.  The break-in point is 300 miles and I'm almost there and Eric is just over.  First service due at 600 miles.  I'm thinking we might be ready for first service sometime next week.  Stay tuned to find out!

I've kind of planned a bit longer, overnight ride.  We'll see if that pans out for next week.  Until then, thank you for following along!

Cheers,

Cletha 

Scooting Around Tupelo

 After lunch today we decided to go explore a bit of Tupelo on the Honda ADV 150 Scooters.  Eric mapped out a loop for us and off we went.  It was HOT and HUMID which is pretty typical for Tupelo this time of year.  No matter, I wanted more of that little scooter!  We donned our mesh riding gear, plugged in our Sena com system, tucked a water bottle under the seat and scooted off down the road.

We took little two lane rural roads in a big loop around Tupelo.  It was very pleasant with minimal traffic.  The scooter is just so much fun to ride.  It's light weight and nimble and it's just turn the throttle and off we go!  Yippee!!!!

We ended up at Tupelo's Veteran's Memorial Park which is really well done.  I'll be posting more photos in another blog because it is so worth the visit.  But, today we were on a mission.  I play Iron Butt Photo Tag on Facebook and the current tag was a bunker.  Not the easiest tag to grab but we are in tornado country so we figured we could find something.  We did pass by two in ground tornado bunkers on private property but there really wasn't any place to pull over safely.  Most the roads here do not have a shoulder.  So, we gave those two a pass and continued on.

When we neared Veteran's Memorial Park I told Eric to pull in and lets scoot around the park a bit.  So that's just what we did.  One of Eric's motorcycle tag games was wildlife and a couple of geese politely sauntered by for a photo op.

Actually, they were heading toward a picnic table occupied by peeps having a sandwich.  Probably hoping for a handout ;-)  There are two large ponds at the park for fishing but not swimming.  You can see the water splash pad on the other side of the pond.

Moving on we came upon a bunker!!!  Yippee!! I could grab my Iron Butt Photo Tag.

Pretty classy, eh?  This tornado bunker with the Elvis Duck and the Veteran Duck proves that Tupelo is all about class :-)  

Aren't these scooters just super cute?  Riding this scooter makes me laugh out loud in my helmet and giggle like a school girl.  The road inside the park has a number of "Speed Tables" or large bumps or topes.  I took one at about 20 mph and almost launched.  Hahahahahahahahahaha,  Oh, let's do that again!!!!!

We found some off pavement roads in the park as well.  Dang, the scooter just hugs the road.  No slipping or sliding at all.  It went exactly where I pointed it with confidence.  Oh yes, dirt on the ADV 150!  Gotta look for more of this!

Our final stop in the park was to grab a new tag for the Iron Butt Photo Tag game.  At the center of the park is an airplane on a stick along with a beautiful 4 square clock surrounded by American Flags.  This is the new tag, a plane on a stick!

What you can't see is the Vietnam Memorial Wall Replica that is the other direction.  We'll go back to the park and take more photos soon.  It truly is a wonderful Memorial to all Veterans. 

With mission accomplished we turned our trusty steeds toward home.  Again on rural two lane roads until we came to the big intersection at Barnes Crossing.  We headed toward the Natchez Trace for the final leg home because it is so magnificent and typically a bit cooler with all the trees and shade.  We were only able to ride a few miles on the Trace before we encountered a road block with traffic being diverted off the Trace.  I suspect there might have been a nasty accident up ahead :-(  Exiting the Trace we just took some neighborhood roads to home.

I now have just over 100 miles on the ADV 150 and am looking forward to many, many more.  The only thing I don't care for on the Scooter is the mirrors.  But we've already ordered mirror extenders and that should fix that issue.  Everything else is just lovely.  It's comfy and easy to ride.  Has enough pep to get you up to speed in short order and looks sexy.  Yeah, I have new bike fever in a bad way.

Here's a pic of my Honey and the scooters - just because I love them both.

Thanks for following along.  I'm going to try and work out a mini scooter adventure out of town somewhere.  Stay tuned to see where we end up.

Cheers,

Cletha

A Scooter Adventure

 

Some time ago we decided to downsize from our litre plus Long Distance Rally bikes to something smaller since we were no longer riding LD rallies or any Iron Butt cert rides.  Eric put his 2015 Super Tenere up for sale in November 2019 and surprisingly it sold within the hour!!  Nice that it went to a fellow Iron Butt rider who was looking to build a rally bike.  The Tenere had it all so he was set and Eric was without a bike.  Within two weeks of selling the Tenere, Eric purchased a Yamaha FZ 6 which is a 600 cc Sport-touring bike, about 1/2 the cc of the Tenere.  So, now Eric was set with a smaller, more nimble bike but I still had Beastie Bike, the 2016 BMS R1200 GSA.

The last few rides I'd taken on the GSA simply were not a lot of fun for me.  And, hey, if it's not fun why do it?  That really put me into a funk.  Riding had been the focal point of my life for quite a long time but I just wasn't interested.  But I was loathe to let go of the GSA.  It was my dream bike!  So, there she sits taking up valuable garage space hooked up on a lifeline to the Optimate Maintenance Charger just waiting patiently for a ride-a-bout.

I started seriously looking for a smaller bike that might work for me.  I looked hard at the BMW's but the color of my Koolaid isn't that important.  That lead me to the Honda CB500X.  Nice size, the riding position is the style I prefer and it's a Honda.  You know, reliable with a wide-spread network of dealers.  In my search I discovered several peeps I know who have the CB500X and they had absolutely nothing bad to say about it.  In fact, they love it.  In fact, my buddy who also has a GS told me he hasn't been on the GS since he bought the CB500X.  Another buddy bought one, shipped it to Africa and is using it to ride around the world.

With all that going for it we thought maybe it was time to check it out in person.  Eric found a used one at our local Tupelo Honda dealer and brought it home for me to test ride.  I didn't go far but it did put a smile on my face.  A bit tall but there are several options for lowering the bike.  Okay then, we decided to delve a bit deeper into the CB500X.  In 2019 the second generation was announced with a 19" front wheel and some other very nice options that the first generation doesn't have.  LED lights and improved dash display are just some of the upgrades on the Gen 2 bikes.

Okay, I liked the 2018 model with the 17" front wheel but would I be okay with the new generation and 19" wheel?  Guess we'll have to find one so we can actually sit on it and decide.  So that brings us to our most recent adventure.

On Tuesday, August 18, our 8th Wedding Anniversary, we were chatting about motorcycles and scooters.  Scooters came into play because we decided to attempt the 2021 Scooter Cannonball Rally which is a cross country ride on scooters!  We really wanted the Honda CT125 Hunter Cub but they are not available in the US yet and nobody knows when they might be or even if they will be available here.  That led us to looking at Honda's newest scooter model, the ADV 150.

At the end of the day, our plan was to have two sub-litre touring bikes and two scooters (preferably the Hunter Cub).  Both the CB500X and the ADV 150 are like hens teeth to find.  Apparently they are both quite popular and this is the first year for the ADV 150.  Eric undertook the task of locating a 2019 or 2020 CB500X (with ABS) within a 400 mile range of our home.  The only bike he found was in Carbondale, Illinois and that was non-ABS.  He also located a Honda ADV150 scooter in Terre Haute, Indiana.  Upon more research he found two ADV150's in Crossville, Tennessee.

A plan was hatched.  We would drive the car to Carbondale and check out the fit of the CB500X and then on to Terre Haute to check out the ADV 150.  We piled into the car early Wednesday, August 19 and headed to Carbondale, IL.  Our quest took us across Mississippi, Tennessee, Arkansas, Missouri and finally into Illinois.  We stopped somewhere along the way and did McDonald's drive-through for lunch.  I think that's the first time I've had Mickey D's in about a year.  Tasted the same as a year ago, hahaha!

We easily located the dealer, put on our Covid face masks (fucking Covid) and entered the showroom floor.  Nobody paid any attention to us at all!  We found the CB500X and both took turns sitting on it and getting a feel for the fit.  Still nobody gave us any attention.  That's okay, this bike was non-ABS and we weren't going to buy it anyway.  We just wanted to know if I could be comfy with the 19" front wheel.  I liked the bike a lot but will definitely lower it some to put me in my comfort zone.  I'm looking for a second generation ABS model and I'm sure it will turn up eventually.  Our local dealer said we could order two but who know if they are still available.  People like this bike and the dealers can't keep them on the floor long before they are sold.

Our questions about the new CB500X answered, we left the dealer and never once did anyone there say hello, kiss my ass, can I help you or go to hell.   Hahahahahahaha.  Guess I wouldn't buy from them if they can't even take the time to say hello.

Next was Terre Haute, IN to check out the all new ADV 150 scooter!  We spent the night in Marshall, IL, had Arby's drive through for dinner and the next morning headed to the dealer in Terre Haute.  They had one ADV 150 which we both took turns sitting on the checking out.  Oooooohhhhhhh, it is soooooooooo cute!  And light! And feature rich for a scooter!  BOOM!  My heart pounded, my palms got sweaty.  I needed that scooter!  But, the Terre Haute dealer only had one and couldn't get another for a few months.  Not helping them any, their pricing was on the high side, $1k over MSRP when you got down to the Out The Door price.

Pfftttt......that won't work!  We need TWO, NOW!  Eric had already found two at the Crossville, TN dealer so we called them from the Terre Haute dealer parking lot and said we wanted to buy them.  We were able to work out a deal that we felt was very reasonable and told them we were headed directly to Crossville!

Back on the highway, droning along, dodging hundreds and hundreds of semi trucks and a bunch of crazy cage drivers - it was a long haul.  We stopped at a Denny's for lunch just before the Indiana/Kentucky border.  I haven't been anywhere since mid February and the Covid outbreak and was really quite nervous and concerned about going into a restaurant for a sit down meal.  Pleasantly surprised!  Everyone was masked, good social distance between tables and the place was spotless!  The tables were bare and disinfected along with the seats.  Our menus were only a single open page and squeaky clean.  When our server took our order she was wearing a mask.  She brought us silverware that was in a paper envelope and salt & pepper shakers that were clean - no grease - no fingerprints - no sticky nastiness.  Wow!  We ordered and soon the food was delivered and another surprise, it was well prepared and tasty!  Guess without the big crowds the cooks had more time to pay attention to detail.  Condiments such as ketchup, hot sauce, and syrup were delivered in single use containers.  It was good and I was relieved.  Also, I was happy to not have another fast food drive through meal!

We realized we would not be able to make it to the Crossville dealer before they closed so Eric sent a text saying we'd be there when they open with a trailer and a check.  Tommy's Motorsports in Crossville, TN was awesome!  No deposit required.  They would have the scooters prepped and ready the next morning.  How cool is that???  Our sales dude, Kolton Gardner, was excellent and made everything seamless for us.

That night we stayed in Crossville.  While droning on the highway, Eric made an online reservation for a U-Haul trailer that would fit the two scooters and was only 1/2 mile from our hotel and 3 miles or so from Tommy's Motorsports.  Everything came together like clockwork!  We checked into our hotel and Eric took the car to Walmart to get some ratchet straps and a plug-converter for our car towing electrical hookup.  He also picked up some salads for our dinner.  

Tommy's Motorsports opened at 9:00 am.  We got up and picked up the U-Haul trailer at 8:30 am and were in Tommy's parking lot at 8:45 am.  At 9:00 am, we donned our Covid masks and went into the dealership where the two scooters were sitting right in front of the door ready for us to load up!

Aren't they cute?  I was thrilled with what I was seeing.  Yes, yes, yes!  If the CT125 Hunter Cub ever makes it to the States, we may trade these in or maybe have both or maybe just keep the ADV 150.  Dunno, don't care.  For now the ADV 150 is my bomb!

We quickly took care of the paperwork, wrote out a check and received the Manufacturer's Certificates of Origin.  Since we were out of state buyer's we didn't pay Tennessee sales tax but believe me, Mississippi will take their share!

Now it was time to load up these beauties and head home.  Again Kolton was awesome and helped get them loaded and strapped so they wouldn't move about in the trailer on the way home.

Here is Kolton, our sales dude.  Just the best service ever!  Painless, happy, wonderful.  We would definitely go to Tommy's Motorsports and work with Kolton again!

All loaded up and ready to roll.  We left by 10:00 am!

It was about 310 miles to home.  We made a stop after about 50 miles to double check straps and all was good. The first 100 miles was Interstate and I was very pleased with the way my Equinox pulled the trailer.  I didn't even know it was there.  The trailer tracked great with no sway and the Equinox had plenty of power and never slowed or bogged down.  The scooters didn't move an inch!

Upon leaving the Interstate we stopped for lunch - another Mickey D's drive through.  Oh, well, at least you know what to expect, lol.  Filled up with gas and headed for the Natchez Trace to finish our drive home.  We made a stop or two along the Trace to stretch our legs.  After all, we'd been in the darn car for 3 days straight!

From leaving home on Wednesday to arriving home on Friday afternoon (in time for cocktails) we drove approximately 1,200 miles.  I don't want to sit in the car for a while, lol.

SATURDAY - AUGUST 22, 2020

Guess what?  We have ADV 150 Scooters in the garage!!!!!  Oh yes, we're going for a ride, you betcha we are.  Can't wait to take a scooter ride :-)  

Of course we decided to ride the Natchez Trace.  Very little traffic, lots of shade, lots of scenic and historic pull-outs, what's not to like?  Earlier that morning Eric had put a tire repair kit and mounted a GPS on his scooter and put the Spot on mine with Ram mounts.  He also put our IBR plate backers on the scooters, what good fun! We packed a lunch and geared up.  It took a few minutes to figure out the start routine but before long we were both powered up and ready to scoot!  A quick ride around the neighborhood to get the feel of the scooter then to the gas station to top off the tanks.  A half mile later we were on the Natchez Trace heading south.

We both immediately recognized the need for mirror extenders.  That is definitely first on the list of farkles.  We didn't let that spoil our adventure!  We scootered on sometimes reaching the frightening speed of 58 mph.  Speed limit on the Natchez Trace is 50 mph and we usually roll about 54 mph but lots of stupid peeps like to go anywhere between 65 and 85.  Whenever we had traffic behind us that wanted to go faster we just took the next pull out and let them by.  I never did get flat out, tapped out on throttle but Eric did a few times.

Certainly not a quick off the mark ride but it picks up speed nicely, the brakes seemed to work well and it was a hoot to ride!  The dash is easy to see and read and we quickly found out how to scroll through the menu to display various information.  It has a great dash!  Lots of info and easy to use.  I was getting 84 miles per gallon!  Yup!  84 mpg!

About 30 miles or so into our ride we exited the Trace and rode to Davis Lake Recreational Area to check it out.  It's one of the few lakes near us that has swimming.  Unfortunately they wanted $5 per vehicle to use the park so we just scootered around the park and back out to the main street returning to the Trace where we stopped at Witch Dance for our picnic lunch.

After lunch we just scootered back up the Trace to home.  We rode about 70 total miles for our inaugural ADV 150 Scooter ride and it was simply delightful.  I was giggling out loud in my helmet.  I loved riding again.  I was having FUN.  I want to do more of that!  Yippee!!

So, now it's time for me to sell the Beastie Bike and replace it with the Honda CB500X or similar.  I'm good with that.  For poking around, we have the ADV 150's.  I'm so glad I found my happy again.  Who knew a scooter could make me grin and giggle like a school girl.  I'm pretty sure Eric was having as much fun as I was!

Thank you all for following along.  I know it's been quite a while since I blogged.  Hey, I was depressed, not having fun on the Beastie Bike and then Covid hit like a sledgehammer.  Not much to blog about.  Hopefully I'll be back to posting our riding adventures on a more regular basis.

Cheers!

Cletha