Modern Vespa

Here's my 86 mile ride today. A loop out to Hollister and back. I typically do it nonstop. Perfect weather for a ride today. Miguel

I wish we could. Temps are fantastic but the neverending thunderstorms make it a somewhat risky proposition.

AQI is 200, I'm downwind of 80000acs on fire
Hunkering down inside :O

Yes, I should have mentioned, fire, smoke and rainstorms permitting. Hopefully you have an air purifier for your house. Thanks for that. I hope you survive it!
Miguel

Enjoy your ride. May I suggest the King City loop? Highway 100 down and return on the 25.

Correction for those not familiar with the area it should be Highway 101 not 100.

Thanks TroutBum. I haven't been that way. I'll have a look at it. I do plan to get down to Pinnacle this fall when the weather cools off a bit.
Miguel

pissin down rain here today... time for some tinkering in the garage... or maybe time to arrange the family room a bit...

I vote for both ways on 25. Just sayin'.

Nice loop Miguel! My tush can't handle more than 200 miles nowadays. Plus I hate extreme heat nowadays, and we are in it right now. Finally, my Liberty is down for awhile. Got a questionable rear tire installed and now I'm waiting on a warrantied replacement. But I'll make up the lack of riding because fall will be here soon. No ugly heat or surprise rain showers!

And continue down to Paso Robles and back on the Indian Valley road.

Was thinking the same thing this morning Miguel, not a loop, just out and back.

TroutBum, Thanks for the correction. I looked for highway CA 100 earlier. Surprisingly, there is no CA 100!

I agree w Jess and JimC, I think 25 out and back is better than 101. But I go thru Watsonville anyway becuase I'm in Santa Cruz so don't ride on 101 much. 101 is a beautiful rd when you get much further south but the landscape is kinda barren North of King City IIRC.

Another fantastic ride down that way is to take Carmel Valley Rd off 101 at Greenfield to Highway 1 at Carmel. THAT is a fab ride.

BTW, as expected for this time of year, the West wind on 25 was brutal. I should have gone an hour earlier I think. Nonetheless, I had a great 2.5 hour ride, wind and all.

Miguel

Hope you get the tire sorted soon.There some great riding in your area. Miguel

That's a fabulous ride. I have riden to Big Sur numerous time, but always on my road bicycle and only once in the summer months and never on the weekend. Just too many tourist to jostle with.

How was the ride?
Miguel

Lotta two wheelers in your house! Hope you get out soon. Miguel

Yes, tourists were all over Big Sur today.

Great ride overall, cool marine layer going south, burned off going north, little traffic (thanks to lane splitting) accept Big Sur . First ride on the 1 to Big Sur, the scoot is new to me and I wanted to test our limits.

Have you ridden to S. Tahoe? Which route? Going camping there next week and thought I should ride the Vespa.

Thanks, Steve

THAT was a long ride!!

I haven't ridden to Tahoe Steve. I usually only go for 2-3 hour rides. After that I tend to lose focus and interest so pretty much stay within 100 miles or so of home (furthest Ive gone in a day is roundtrip to San Francisco for an hour meeting - 160 miles RT). I recommend you start a new thread and ask the question about Tahoe to make sure it gets noticed. I'm confident you'll get multiple responses.

Miguel

Did my MSF BRC2 and endorsement test yesterday in Bellingham.

The ride back should have been the same scenic route as the ride up.


But there was a wreck that closed Chuckanut Drive halfway down so I had to backtrack and take a scenic-er route past Lake Samish and the Skagit Speedway:

Jealous of both those runs! Hot as blazes here and all I could muster was a run up the road for tonic and limes to "keep cool". Ride was great except a red light that cooked me like ham for a few minutes.

From Wednesday through Sunday, I rode Madison Sully’s GTS 250 on a ride in Wisconsin and Michigan, mostly a Yooper Loop that included a ride across Lake Michigan on the SS Badger.

Fellow riders included fledermaus, who organized the ride. Also Gitder, Madison Sully (with Mrs. Sully) and wmak.

In checking the odometer on the scooter at the finish, we covered 990 miles.

It was fun for all.

Bill

....and you even took a shortcut! You also missed out on my 25 or so mile dead end ride to the dirt road. FWIW I logged around 880 miles, so you still hold the record.

And wmak's tire held out?

It wasn't up for the ride and decided to vacation in Frankfurt for the forseeable future. (check your PMs for details).

Those of you rained out: don't complain, we'd kill for some rain right now along with a lot of our folks in fire areas.

Drought does allow for some nice riding though. The air quality was better today as our winds were from the south and we weren't importing Canadian trees all day like we have the last 2 weeks.

Wow! Yous guys are tough!
Miguel

There's a big fire near Markleeville/Gardnerville right now. I'd keep my eye on that fire and any heat waves before committing to Vespa to Tahoe.

I've done Carson City > Ebbetts Pass > Big Trees > Jackson > Walnut Grove > Antioch > SF in a day and a half. Was wondering if there's a better/faster route, so I asked BARF. The consensus was riding to the foothills sucks no matter which route you take.

I definitely want to check out Pinnacles before my park pass expires on Nov 1. Would be fun to ride through Yosemite sometime too.

I am jealous of you all. A beauty of a weekend here and I only was able to do a 2.5 mile out and back to the corner store… I will regret this in the winter.

Chris from CLE

Winter? I vaguely remember

I rode to a car meet😬😉.

Not a spectacular ride as such, but as always, curiosity brought me together with interesting people - and this time, cars.

Met a young guy who owns this 28' Hudson.
Cars are just his hobby, but he has done everything by himself - starting from a wreck that had been abandoned over 50 years.

By everything I really mean everything: not just the engine and tech (...including a final drive borrowed from a Volvo😁), but really everything. In addition to fairly 'standard' roof & doors chopping, he has also extended the curvy rear end - all true metal jobs, no fiberglass or such tricks used.

Made the header and exhaust pipes by himself... interior, of course... and painted the car in his garage, what else could you expect🙄.

Made and tuned the chassis... he says the car rides like a go-cart and is quite relaxed to cruise ~60 mph. This is no show car, street legal and he really drives this.

Awesome handicraft and attitude, and the guy was really nice to talk with too - this ride made my day.

Come Rain or Come Shine! I am taking the scooter to an appointment this morning before it gets really hot. It's nothing as ambitious as everybody else's but it's my ride for today.

Doesn't matter how far or long Max. Get out there. Miguel

One of my favorite rides is through Yosemite and up and over Tioga Pass to Mono Lake / Lee Vining. Stay overnight in Lee Vining, then head North on 395 to Sonora Junction and head back over the Sierras on 108 through the Sonora Pass.

The only problem with this is getting to Yosemite and getting home from Sonora, both of which are less-than-interesting rides.

I always amazes me when an old American car ends up in a far away land and is brought back to life. That was so obviously a lot a work.

I do see hotrod cars like that here on occasion.

I also see a 1960s Cadillac convertible, 1960s Ford Mustang and in the back, an early 1970s orange Dodge Charger (I think). I really not into old cars so much as just remember them from my youth.

Here's a similar car I saw not too long ago at a car meetup not too far from home.
Best
Miguel

Wha t I like about a ride like this is, you don't have to ride through traffic for an hour and a half or more before you get into open roads.
Her ein NYC, it takes on avergae 35-45 minutes to get across 11 miles ( Parkslope Brooklyn to say Upper West Side in Manhattan).
TO get out of the city one could spend close to 2 hours and still not be out in the open.
I love that you get to do a ride, that is beautiful and not tiring.
Yesterday I was coming back from camping in the southwest corner of the Adirondacks. One way trip was 246miles, the first 216 miles were done in 3.5 hours, the last 30 miles took 2 hours .
Everytime I read a post about a ride someone did etc makes me think more about wanting to get out of NYC & moving out but I doubt I will do that anytime soon .

OUCH!!

Why not just store a bike in your country estate and helicopter out there when you want to go for a two hour ride?

Miguel

Lol, you assumed wrongly, estate and helicopters are for dem folks
Thanks for sharing your drive, some of us can live vicariously

Sheesh, thanks for the heads up, mayorofnow. Keepin' a close eye for sure. That ride from Carson to SF looks fun.

10 of us out in the Rocky Mountains Sunday afternoon. Even had a 1983 PX125 join in.

Glad you had a nice ride.

I agree that Carmel Valley route is one of my favorites.