Sunday morning ride.

      Sunday the 16th of October, my wedding anniversary, dawned bright and sunny with the promise of 70 degree temps up here in the mountains. Luckily for me I have a very understanding wife who said I should go for a ride on my scooter while she and her friend Teresa went to the Woolly Worm Festival. How cool is she for a wife?
     Anyway, after lounging around a bit and then washing "Sophia" I headed off toward Tennessee in order to check out a Geocache that I have attempted to find twice before without success. The previous day I had met a fellow named Papa Smurf who gave me a really broad hint as to how to locate this cache. As I said the weather was beautiful, and the road I had to take was once part of the local railway, so it was quite narrow and it cut through a few mountainsides. The hills swept up above me on one side and down steeply to the Doe River on the other side, I was surrounded by tall trees that were all shedding their leaves. Brilliant!
    This particular road is over 5 miles long and for the whole, slow, lazy, enjoyable time I was on it, only 2 other vehicles came by.

       
I had to stop a couple of times to take pics of the fun ride.  You could actually see some big Trout in that river back there.

   
   As you can see, not a very wide road at all. The line that ran through there was called "Tweetsie" by the locals  and Eastern Tennessee and Western North Carolina by the people who bought shares in it. It was a narrow guage railroad used for carrying, wood, iron ore, and people, in and out of the Mtns. to places like Boone N.C and Johnson City Tenn.

                                                   Another view of the "Long and Winding Road"

 Another look at Sophia. Did you notice the buddy seat has been removed?  Sitting where the seat used to be and crouching a bit whilst going up a loooooong hill gives me an extra 2-5 mph.....Honest. The poor old girl needs all the help she can get going up these steep  hills around here. I swear I spend 65% of my time in 3rd gear. It's no wonder I only get 82 -90 mpg!!!

   What is the view like from your office? This is mine, for now. In the distance you can see Grandfather Mountain with it's famous "Mile High Swinging Bridge"  I have actually driven up there 3 times now on Sophia, AND I talked one of my co-workers into riding up there the last time on his little chinese 50cc Sinski.  It was surprisingly fast, course he only weighs 160 lbs to my 220 and I think he has "rodded" his bike a bit.
     We had a great time riding up there and an even better time coming down. It sure feels good leaning into a corner at 55mph.(Downhill is where my greater mass has a bigger advantage). Youth has it's advantages too , and Joel goes into a corner as if he is indestructable, in spite of my warnings.

   One of the bonuses of making it to the top of the mountain is to see the looks on all the Harley and BMW rider's faces as you crest the hill into the parking lot.  One of those guys actually asked me if I had pushed my Scooter to the top!! Cheeky bugger!  He wasn't so glib when it was time to leave and he could see me in his rear view mirror the whole way down.....TeeHee.

   All the best ,
  Sir  Paul.

Not the best paint in the world.

As you can see from these pictures, although my scooter has not been ridden a lot , she has certainly been around the block a few times. There are several areas where the previous owners have had little scrapes and dings that were too minor to repair. A simple squirt of rattlecan paint was considered enough to prevent the rust monsters from taking hold. So, I have ended up with a very original slightly acned looking scooter. I wonder if the vintage scooter community thinks this look adds to or takes away from the desirability of the bike. I have already had one strong objection from Blackbart to painting her, but I did so want to do the old "Mod"  type personalised paintjob.  Hmmmm, things to think about.

To the right of the horn cover you can see blemishes on the legshield.

                                             Here is a close-up of the Sears Bluebadge.

 Once again though, not surrounded by the best paint.

Choke, fuel on/off tap and I.D. Plate. More patina paint, and the kickstarter peeking round the side.

          Yeuch. The ugly looking gearshift, and a small view of the mirror stem. Lots of character.

I think this is called a "Headset". Anyway it needs a bit of paint too, don't you think? Yes I acquired this scooter with a little more than 1700miles on it. An average of 377 miles per year. I have already added 772 miles to that total myself. Wow that is hard to believe.
                                                                                   

                All original floormat and aluminum trim. I will need a new brake cover rubber though.

Dare I say it? Oh Okay.  Does this scooter make my butt look big honey?  1974 the last time this scooter was registered and in a different state too. Sure made it difficult for the people at my local DMV. Their computer kindly informed them that Sears never made or sold scooters.

             Last but not least, a happy man making sure the light is on and someone is home. No that is not a helmet, that is my head!!!!

 So.....opinions please. To paint or not to paint, that is the question .  Surely a Vespa of any other colour would smell as sweet.

 All the best.
  Sir Paul                                     

Coming home from work.

Cheri just happened to be in the front yard with her camera as I arrived home from work the other day. As you can tell it was  a wee bit cold, but it takes more than cold weather to wipe the smile off your face when you ride a Super Scooter.

Here is a close-up of my shiny United Kingdom sticker, right next to my all original Sears Bluebadge sticker. Any offers on the Sears sticker , anyone, anyone,?????

I suppose the final picture should have been the first one shown, but hey what the heck, we'll save the action pic for last. In case any of you are wondering, the blue strap around the headlight is/are the handles of my shopping bag, which is where I put my lunch and extra clothes when I am riding. I was going to go with the old"milk crate " method, but I live too far away from the beach to justify that.

 Bye for now.

 Sir Paul

One hundred Smiles to the Gallon.

   I have a new toy!

   I know, I know, why would I need another toy? Well this one is something I have been lusting after for about 4 years on and off, with some six or seven month periods when I never even thought about it at all.

   My new toy is a  VESPA scooter. Not just any Vespa scooter though, but an antique.  It is a 1966 Sears scooter (made by Vespa but sold through Sears stores in America). Whilst riding home from work one day I happened to pass a metal building that had all it's doors open, through the open doors I could see lots of old American cars. As most of you know, I am not shy about pulling over and talking to almost anyone about anything at the drop of a hat. That is how I got to meet a fellow called Bobby McClain. Bobby was an older fellow, sad to say he is gone now {summer of 2011} but not forgotten, and  he and I walked around his building talking cars and such for 2 or 3 hours. On this first visit I did not see his little scooter as it was being screened by a 57 Chevy and an old Harley Davidson  motorcycle. Anyway, 2 or 3 visits later I came across the wee beastie you see below.    Sophia, for that shall be her name from this moment hence, was all dusty and a bit bedraggled looking but I could see the potential for a cool looking ride under all the dust. Fortunately for me I live in an area where everyone wants to be seen in a truck or on a fast motorcycle so I was the only person making any serious noise about purchasing "Sophia".

                                                                                                                                                                       After being in a warehouse type building for 20 odd years she was a little rough around the edges. A few little bumps and bruises here and there, and a tank full of gas that had turned into a really thick furniture varnish/wood glue looking concoction. Honest....when we cleaned the gas out it actually hung from the cloth like honey or Elmers Glue!!I later found out from Bobbies wife Thelma, that Sophia had not been ridden in at least 6 years.Now for the really good bit.....for 46 years this scooter had hardly been driven AND still had the original tyres on it "CEAT Made in Italy" So, what, you might ask, is the mile-age? Take a look.



                                                      Yep that actually is 1700 miles..........

After the exchange of a sum of money which I later found out to be about a quarter of the actual value of this bike to most scooterists, I took Sophia home.Here she is at home with me pretending to ride her.                         

Fortunately I have a friend, Mark Cornell, who used to work as a BMW motorcycle mechanic. He cleaned the carburettor for me (I can do it myself now!), and we put fresh gas in the newly cleaned gas-tank, crossed our fingers and worked the kickstart. Miracle of miracles, she started up on the fifth kick, (Okay its not up there with turning water into wine but Mark is only human, just).  Massive humongous mucho thanks to the best Vespa Mechanic in Avery County North Carolina............Mr. Mark Cornell.  Of course I let Mark be the first person to ride my new toy, it was only right. He took it up his driveway and back and dismounted with a big grin. "Cool" he said. High praise coming from a man who drives Buells, BMWs and other fancy schmancy bikes!  Here is a pic of me with Sophia actually running (you can tell 'cos the light is on)

                                             Yes I do look a little bit over the moon don't I.

Now then, back to those 46 year old tyres. I was told by a Very nice fellow called Paul, who runs a website called  "Den of the Vespa" that the best insurance I could get if I was to ride "this old scoot" would be new tyres.  The obvious inference being that the dry rotted old tyres would just disintegrate under the strain of  the high speeds and heavy loads I was going to put on them.  Being the kind of guy who laughs in the face of danger, I proceeded to ride the heck out of those tyres. I put over 300 miles on them going at mad speeds of up to 60 miles per hour, and leaning daringly into curves and corners like a latter day Barry Sheen. (The only motorbike racer whose name I know. Plus, he is English) Eventually age and strain did get to the tyres and I had a nice gentle blow-out at 45 mph on a smooth straight stretch of road. Lucky me!

                                       Below......Old tyres and old wheels.



Front wheel.



Back wheel.

Well that is all for now folks, hope you enjoyed the pictures and story. There will be more to follow on the adventures of............. SUPERSCOOTER.