Modern Vespa

I've been tinkering with making riding videos for a while now with mixed results. Making videos is a lot more difficult for me than shooting still pictures. And talking while riding is new as well.

I made this one the other day while taking a ride when I thought the roads had cleared enough. It was in the low 20s when I left and approached the freezing mark during the ride. Thought it might be of interest to others who are thinking or going out in the cold, salt, and possible snow.

https://youtu.be/PyvdZd4X-dk

The video came out very well.

Yes. I was watching this and the Olympic half pipe for the women so I turned the sound down. The roads are pretty smooth but those snow piles in the shade made me twitch. With the sound off it was a vicarious trip through the countryside.

Thank you for the kind words. I'm not comfortable yet with the cameras or talking on camera. With practice I should be able to concentrate more on a story than whether the camera is running or not!

When I started commuting in the winter 15 years ago I twitched a lot upon seeing snow piles or ice on the road. But after a while you start sensing where it might be and make speed and lane position adjustments well in advance. Even so, it's best to go slow all the time.

I was riding my motorcycle today and came upon one of the more insidious traction killer around here -- liquid manure that leaked from a hauling truck. That stuff is like grease. But the fragrance in the air was enough to remind my lizard brain of the hazards.

I think you did a hella great job on this vid. I would not even have the stones to ride down the road in that, let alone film and narrate too. Good man.

I arrive home from a 2100km / 4 day ride and find this. Lovely 😀

Hi Steve - nice video, and a fine job of putting it all together with the audio and editing. I have appreciated your photography since I first came across your blog. Having shot scooter videos for a few years, I found GoPro cameras to be an exercise in frustration - I switched to Insta360 cameras (first a One R, then added a One X2) two years ago are really like them, mostly because of the ability to pick the view you want after you shoot. The downside of that is more time spent in editing and production. Worth it for me, for the variety of views the 360 cameras offer.

Now, about that riding in the winter stuff… oh, hell no! I lived much of my life in the frozen northland (South Dakota and Wyoming) and we made the move to the Tropical Tip of Texas so I wouldn't have to deal with cold, snow, and ice. I've been riding since I was 14, and did have to ride in the winter on occasion. The worst situation was being on my full dress Harley as it slid on the ice in our driveway - it went sideways off the side of the drive way; I managed to hop off before it rolled down the drop-off of that block long driveway. I expected busted saddlebags, fairing, windshield… wading into nearly waist-deep snow, I was amazed to find only a crack in one side of the batwing fairing. I did take me the better part of an hour using a come-along to get the bike back up onto the driveway. I swore that would be my last time trying to get a ride in during the winter.

I've become more candy-ass in my riding as I've accumulated years: if it gets much below 60º, I can wait until it warms up.

If I were to try riding on the roads/conditions in your video, it would take time, effort, and a pry-bar to unstick my puckered butt from the seat. Thanks for posting that video.

Here's a video shot with the Insta360 One R, showing some video while riding in the Black Hills, along with rambling audio (about riding the Vespa, summer riding gear, etc)...


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPLPxxSp2As

The weather has been so nice lately in central Alberta (currently +5C/41F) I am tempted to try this, but this won't last and it will soon be back to -28C/-18F. Nice video. Good on you for riding as much as you can. I am going to wait for late April or early May.

Hi, great video and what a lovely place to live and ride also subscribed

Nice video, especially as a starter.

I do enjoy your still photos and doubt you'll surpass them...

I see no snow or ice on the road in your video, but snow was obviously recent and temps cold. I am happy to see someone else with my attitude toward riding in cold conditions.

This is my normal commute. If there is no snow on the road, then it is a go. I have done down to 3 degf on my previous motorcycle, and down to 12 degf on the Liberty 150.

My clothing for around 30 degf is: My normal work sweater, and t-shirt, a 7.4V electric vest, an insulated jacket (Helly-Hanson workwear, Hi-Vis), 7.4V glove liners with a nylon shell, neck/face fleece with nose/mouth protection, and the leg-shield (not sure what to call it).

Above 30 or so I can skip the battery glove liners and just use regular insulated riding gloves. In the 20's I add a long sleeve fleece to the mix.

The leg-shield keeps me from having to wear a pair of insulated bibs and riding pants, that require taking boots on and off every time I put them on and off. Really great to keep that "hop on and ride" thing going.

To the OP,

I wrote down a huge reply yesterday but I deleted it. I used to have a 88 K75C and I loved it. That is the bike that I got my MSF and expert course with and I have a few good histories to share but I didn't want to get sidetracked from your original post and that is why I deleted.

This is me in Dec 2002. I had the lower fairings from the S on K75C.

It will be difficult for me to reach the same level of image-making with video as I have with a still camera. I'll keep practicing but I suspect the GoPro cameras have some limitations. Experimenting will be fun though.

There was a lot of frozen snow and slush in the shady areas with one huge stretch in the curve where I talked about ending up in the weeds. When the roads are completely snow covered they are less treacherous I think because you never get cocky riding. But when the sun is out and the roads are mostly dry, that's when bad things happen. It's easy to get over confident with speed and forget that there may be a patch of left over ice on the road in the next curve.

That's a beautiful K bike. Almost looks like a police model.

I really enjoyed riding mine but it just wasn't the right fit for me and the kind of rides I can currently manage. The Himalayan and the Vespa are better choices.

My BMW is currently on consignment sale with the local BMW dealer. I look at the listing sometimes and think, "I should keep that motorcycle." But the garage is small and I will soon have an ET4 to make room for. So the K75 has to go...

Thanks for the kind words about the video Jim. After we last shared some notes I've looked pretty hard at the 360 cameras. I suspect at some point I'll get one but right now I'm stubbornly committed to figuring out how to fluidly use the GoPros. But damn, at every turn, they seem tedious.

I'm not riding in the serious winter stuff that I used to. But I can't go without riding for months at a time. And I would consider it a huge, personal failure to pull the battery and drain the fuel. So I continue to adapt this aging body to winter riding.

We would probably move south but the heat is even worse than the cold for me, and my wife hates it when the temperature gets above 75!

I was very lucky. The guy that committed to buying my bike prepaid for the bike plus he asked me for a big favor, to drop it at the local BMW dealer for a inspection and fork rubbers boots repair. It was an easy sell for me. I did a long trip from Los Angeles port to Tucson (over 500 miles and it was a very painful trip, the short fairing caused me a lot of pain on the hands and lower forearms from having to hold the steering bar too hard going at 80 mph.

That is when I learned a lot about fairings and the effects. This is something you don't notice until you go out of town at higher speed for sustained amount of time. If I have to scoop another BMW I think I will grabbed a used K 1600cc with tall fairing.

I can appreciate the pain of traveling at 80mph on a K bike. I've not down it often, but on a naked bike it's rough. I've ridden some distance on an R1200 RT and a K1600 GTL and they're heaven in comparison. But man they're butt ugly. And miserable at slow speeds. On the other hand, my Vespa GTS has never caused me pain!

^^ I had a tall Face fairing. when I mean tall I mean to the top of my helmet when I was sitting and it was very smooth. it is crazy how much a fairing will do on a scooter. The K nick names are bricks, that is what they are known as but the engine is super smooth with the double dampener, no vibrations and that peculiar whistle from the inline flat 3 fuel injected is so unique.

beautiful!

That's a nice video, thanks for sharing!

I'm also a bit jealous of your 'winter' - it looks like our Spring.

Your riding looks very sensible too.
When younger, I've ridden smaller bikes throughout our winter. Roads fully covered in snow and ice here - yet, pretty much the same rules apply.

Nowadays - I'd skip even the roads you very smoothly ride. Although it is ages ago, I still remember the last time my bike slipped from under me on an icy spot. Took all the split second to realize my head is not pointing upwards anymore. As I'd kept my speed slow, I got off easily, with bruises, so thought that was a good time to for me to focus on summer riding only.

Ride safely.