Post by scooterb on Nov 7, 2013 9:34:43 GMT -5
I wanted to thank everyone for their assistance and provide an update on my journey.
We managed to trailer the scooters from North Carolina to Utah and back. The trip was amazing and the scooters ran flawlessly. We logged about 500 miles while in Utah and visited Canyon Lands, Zion, Capitol Reef, Bryce Canyon, Arches, and Monument Valley. We often used the scooters to access trail heads and a few times placed one scooter at the end of a trail so we would not have to hike back the same way we hiked in; of course this worked on only a few trails were roads were accessible on both sides. The scooters did ok ‘off-road’ on hard packed dirt but the washboards were brutal and deep sand posed a problem as well. We managed to navigate some pretty serious roads without issue but had problems on a paved road.
There was a secondary road that we were turning onto and both were paved but the rain had washed gravel into the road and left a few inches of dirt and debris. Unfortunately we approached this transition with a little too much speed, my wife was in front and as she navigated the turn the front wheel washed out from underneath her. I was using poor judgment and was following way too close. By the time I realized what was happening I didn’t have time to react properly and next thing you know we are both picking ourselves off the ground. I have ridden motorcycles my entire life and have never dumped a motorcycle, until now. I was fine but my wife banged up her knee and hands. Even with gloves and jeans on she had a little road rash. The scooters got a little banged up as well but we dusted ourselves off and continued on….
We encountered only one ‘problem’ with the scooters and it was to be expected. The carbs were tuned at ~750ft above sea level, any time the scooters got over 9000ft they didn’t run too well. I packed the necessary tools on the scooters so if necessary I could make adjustments. I decided just to deal with the lack of power as it only really happened once on our trip.
All in all I would say it was worth the expense of the scooters and time it took to prep them for the trip. It offered a very unique experience and viewpoint; not to mention it was much easier to navigate some of the more crowded parks on the scooter rather than the RV.
Here are a few pictures…..
We managed to trailer the scooters from North Carolina to Utah and back. The trip was amazing and the scooters ran flawlessly. We logged about 500 miles while in Utah and visited Canyon Lands, Zion, Capitol Reef, Bryce Canyon, Arches, and Monument Valley. We often used the scooters to access trail heads and a few times placed one scooter at the end of a trail so we would not have to hike back the same way we hiked in; of course this worked on only a few trails were roads were accessible on both sides. The scooters did ok ‘off-road’ on hard packed dirt but the washboards were brutal and deep sand posed a problem as well. We managed to navigate some pretty serious roads without issue but had problems on a paved road.
There was a secondary road that we were turning onto and both were paved but the rain had washed gravel into the road and left a few inches of dirt and debris. Unfortunately we approached this transition with a little too much speed, my wife was in front and as she navigated the turn the front wheel washed out from underneath her. I was using poor judgment and was following way too close. By the time I realized what was happening I didn’t have time to react properly and next thing you know we are both picking ourselves off the ground. I have ridden motorcycles my entire life and have never dumped a motorcycle, until now. I was fine but my wife banged up her knee and hands. Even with gloves and jeans on she had a little road rash. The scooters got a little banged up as well but we dusted ourselves off and continued on….
We encountered only one ‘problem’ with the scooters and it was to be expected. The carbs were tuned at ~750ft above sea level, any time the scooters got over 9000ft they didn’t run too well. I packed the necessary tools on the scooters so if necessary I could make adjustments. I decided just to deal with the lack of power as it only really happened once on our trip.
All in all I would say it was worth the expense of the scooters and time it took to prep them for the trip. It offered a very unique experience and viewpoint; not to mention it was much easier to navigate some of the more crowded parks on the scooter rather than the RV.
Here are a few pictures…..
