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Do want!!
by: Paladin - Nov 6, 2014 1:55:01 GMT -5
Post by Paladin on Nov 6, 2014 1:55:01 GMT -5
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Post by Paladin on Oct 24, 2014 20:20:42 GMT -5
Which Silverwing? I had a 500cc Silverwing in England in 1982:  |
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Post by Paladin on Oct 21, 2014 8:27:08 GMT -5
 My first ride on a motorcycle was in 1950, on Pappy's police servicar. |
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Post by Paladin on Oct 13, 2014 17:26:01 GMT -5
On my Savage the pads would run 5-8K miles. At 9K on the Vespa I was worrying about hearing the disc grinding metal, ordered a new pads. They are still in the garage, the stock pads are Jes' Fine:  |
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Post by Paladin on Oct 13, 2014 17:10:38 GMT -5
I had a '61 beetle in '67, in the USAF in Greece. Horridly abused. Had to replace transmission, master brake, twice, hmmm... had no clutch for a while. The VW has marks on the speedometer to when to shift gears... 15, 30, 45 mph max in 1st, 2nd and 3rd. I would shift down into 1st at 15 to power through a corner accelerating to 25.
I had a new '72 Pinto, in L.A.. The '71 Pinto had a 1600cc English Ford motor. In '72 you could get the 1600, or a 2000cc German Ford motor. Heh!! Sold the Pinto for a '77 GMC K2500 -- lesser vehicles kept breaking.
Got married in '86, wife came with a '74 Pinto, that her brother sold to her after he crashed it, for $300. It passed Smog. Two years later, still running, still never had a "tune-up", passed Smog. A few times forgot to check oil. A few times the water got low. Got too hot and froze the mill, at least once, maybe twice. In '89 my commute was 1 1/3 mile, one way. Was going to work and had a loud bang, I think an intake valve broke. Which means that cylinder was firing up the intake manifold. Managed to get start and continued to work, at a top speed of 10 mph. After work I drove home, figured which was the bad cylinder, and tossed away the spark wire -- ran better, could do 15 mph! Drove it for a month, found a $550 '76 LTD, DROVE the Pinto to Pick-Your-Part and they gave me $110. $190 for over 2 years is not bad.
I have a '66 Beetle in the garage, awaiting rebuilding. It has had 280,000 or 380,000 miles.
After having two of each, I would have to say it is a tie.
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Post by Paladin on Oct 12, 2014 7:04:03 GMT -5
Scoot has an CVT. It chooses the RPM, not me. I don't even know the RPM, don't got a tach, don't care, but know that I had a rev-limiter that kicked on at about 64 mph.
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Post by Paladin on Oct 12, 2014 6:59:57 GMT -5
Bottom line? I HATE being in a cage. I am far more comfortable cold and wet on a bike than being warm and dry locked inside a steel cage. I always preferred smaller bikes, biggest was the Savage 650 (but still small and light, just 380 pounds.)
Never cared for the looks of a step-through "scooter." In '64 others got a Honda Cub, I got a Sport 50. In '04 looking for a bike I looked the super scooters. Civilized, practical, but I couldn't see myself on one. In '12, retired, looking for a bike, knees complaining, I looked at the scooters. Hmph. Still ugly, but it was a lot easier to step through than swinging a leg 30 inches up and over. Looked at the 147.5cc Stella and the 150.5cc Vespa. Stella far better, carries a spare wheel, manual transmission, but is a non-freeway-legal motor-driven cycle while the Vespa is freeway legal.
So I rented one. Twist-n-Go. Weird! Took a half hour to get use to it, on streets, up doing 60 mph! Whoa! Went on the freeways, kept up with traffic, actually passing the slower vehicles. Stopped by NoHo to look at the Wolf 150.... and I didn't. I looked at it and I didn't want to swing over the seat. I LIKED just stepping through and onto the scooter. So I got the Vespa. After 2 years / 12,000 miles I still like the scooter. Have charted all gasoline and have averaged 67+ mpg, with over 3,000 miles on the freeways. Just did a trip last month to Lone Pine, 470 miles and 75+ mpg.
But the bottom line, like oldchopperguy, the reason I got the scooter was AGE.
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Post by Paladin on Oct 11, 2014 21:16:59 GMT -5
Totally Cool!!
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Post by Paladin on Oct 9, 2014 19:02:12 GMT -5
What is scary is that it seems like the one that ended up with a license plate impaled his bike ** did not notice **
-- the bike with the video had to point to both that they had a slight problem.
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Post by Paladin on Oct 8, 2014 13:23:49 GMT -5
I picked up some rubberize fabric paint, (Michaels, Joanne, I don't remember, it was a decade ago) and the Jacket still looks good:  I didn't do the painting, my daughters are a far better artist than I am. |
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Post by Paladin on Sept 13, 2014 23:49:55 GMT -5
Running out of gas is common. I pushed a '53 Dodge to a gas station, in '62. Really can't remember all the times I ran out of gas. My Savage had a petcock, sometimes I forgot to switch from res to main, twice had to push to a gas station. Both times the tank took 2.91 gallons, for a nominal 2.8 gallon tank. My Vespa has a nominal 2.3 gallon. The LX went from carb to FI, put a fuel pump inside the tank, and I only have 2.13 gallons from dry to full. I went for a ride over the Grapevine, WOT on the Interstates. My Vespa gets 67 mpg average, I figured more on the highway and I could push it 130 miles. Wrong! WOT is bad. Ran out of gas about 3 miles from the station. At about 4 am. AAA guy had to wake up and drive to work and then the drive out to the middle of nowhere. Told he I only need a cup, he gave me about a quart without charge. I later found out that running a hair under WOT gives me over 70 mpg.
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Post by Paladin on Sept 8, 2014 23:59:53 GMT -5
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Post by Paladin on Sept 7, 2014 22:27:26 GMT -5
The voters have spoken. Looks like its time for me and my "Classic/Italian" party to concede and congratulate the victor.... No. It just shows that the majority have no class! |
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Post by Paladin on Sept 6, 2014 22:56:57 GMT -5
I like the look of the original Vespa. I almost got a Stella 147.5cc, but I rented a Vespa and found that 150.5cc was enough for the freeways, so I bought one:  Old picture, has a case of 24 bottles of beer on the rear rack. I now have a front rack as well, and I can carry two cases of beer. The new fancy swoopy looking scooters cannot mount a front luggage rack. |
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Post by Paladin on Sept 4, 2014 9:41:02 GMT -5
It is better to avoid the collision, than to hope you may survive the collision.
Which is why the thread is "Road hazard you may not have considered." So you can avoid collisions.
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