Modern Vespa

nope

^^^^ This!

The Sturgis Rally is here, and I'm surrounded by it for the next ten to fourteen days before things subside back to the 'normal' Black Hills tourist season invasion, you know, folks with front-worn fanny packs, short pants, white socks and sandals, and of course, 'Indiana Jones' style brimmed hats.

This morning, I had a guy riding one of those big-ass Indian dressers, the one with that 'new', liquid -cooled V-twin engine, come up behind me and ride my butt too close for a two mile stint of the tighter end of Boulder Canyon Road, the eleven mile connector highway between Sturgis and Deadwood, where I was on my way for my regular coffee visit at the Pump House in Deadwood.

I was astride my Triumph Rocket 3R.

The Indian rider was annoying, to say the least, and as soon as I had a clear, straight road ahead of me for about a half mile, I let the Triumph do what it does best, which is to commence a monstrously effective mid-range power roll-on into it's upper rev range.

The Indian rider becoming a blurry little dot receding in my mirrors, then to a distant and dimming headlight, then disappeared entirely behind the hills and curves.

In my imagination, I pounded my chest and marveled at what a he-man I was, even at my age.

About five miles up the road, and two miles from Deadwood, I slowed down enough for the Indian to eventually catch up to me, and in my charitable benevolence, allowed him to pass by me and take the lead into town.

I need to leave the Triumph in the garage for the next couple weeks and ride either my Vespa GTS or the ancient Honda CB900C up to Deadwood on my early morning coffee junkets, and in the process keeping my license, and perhaps my old body in one piece, because the temptation to engage in hyper motorcycle silliness is much reduced with either machine, or entirely non-existent.

If I'm pissed off, it's from my own lack of restraint at times when I should just sit back and let the annoying A-holes do their 'thing', and not become one of them.

Good story! Back in the day, I would have done the same thing, and have, usually with cages. Reminds me of the day I blew away from a Porche on twisty roads. I'm much less addicted to adrenalin these days. I enjoy putting along at slower speeds, and taking in the scenery that's not just a blur.

Racing never did my any good either and infact my car is on the shop because of a blown diff because of my weak ego i WOT dumped it on every traffic light

young and dumb but getting wiser day by day

Sounds expensive.

I'm actually very easy on my bikes and scooters. With the motorcycles, I tend to short-shift them as I run them up to speed. The Triumph Rocket 3R triple redlines at a relatively low 7000 rpm, and runs down the interstate highways at 3300 revs in 6th for an indicated 85-86 mph. I can upshift it in any gear between 2500 and 3000 rpm and get just about all the acceleration I would normally want.

By comparison, the '81 Honda CB900 I recently purchased runs 5000 rpm at 75 mph indicated, and took some miles to get used to an engine that normally spins that high.

The Vespa must spin some impressive revs, but regardless, it never sounds or seems strained. It's quite impressive in that way.

I get very pissed off with other riders who *refuse* to let me pass (Cannonball 2012):

89A South out of Jerome I presume? Bikers around there are pretty bad.

and Hardley riders HATE getting passed by a scooter and cant catch them after they get passed.

I do this all the time when riding in the smokies. Theres lots of Hardley riders.

sorry for the late reply i was doing some chores

yep its quite expensive , it will cost me 15K Liras at the very least but i am suprised that this ole' 90s Golf still runs servicable after 27 years of abuse

i bought it dirt cheap too ... probably around the price of a geo metro in USA

only pet peeve i have is that it has 3 gears and it kinda feels agricultural because it has low compression ratio and 2 vales per cylinder ... it is a literal tractor

btw : you have exquisite taste in bikes

This post was not quite
What we were hoping to see
Try again, perhaps?

nope

I have a weird fascination with Reno and the greater ''American Desert'' area; weird alien stuff , Johnny Cash's lyrics about shooting a guy in Reno , Grand Theft Auto San Andreas , Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas , Fallout New Vegas and some other media pieces

stupid but thats given when you are an outside observer of American culture

Microsoft.

I have a fascination with the Mojave myself. My grandfather had a cabin near Randsburg we would stay at in the 70's. A bit before your time but I still roam the area on my dirtbike and enjoy checking out the old gold mines and mining equipment. Summer is brutal but spring and fall is especially nice to visit. Flying and landing at old places is cool too. Here's a shot of Ballarat. The Dodge truck on the far right was used by the Manson Family before Charlie was arrested at Barker Ranch a few miles away.

nope

And, c'mon, who doesn't love a Cessna 180?

Not pissing me off but making me very sad. Its sort of that time for our dog. She had a bad start in life but we've given her the love and security that she needed and hopefully the best life she could have had.

We're at that point of making sure she is comfortable and not in pain etc and will have a very hard decision to make soon, but we will do the best for her.

The fact that I was wearing this T Shirt today and a man with a dog asked me if it was a Pokemon character.

When it is time, helping her pass is the last kind thing you can do for her.

OFG

Gym Bros.

Same baseball cap, t shirt, shorts, socks and pumps plus that little satchel that makes you look so masculine.

The miasma of generic body spray that follows you around is also a major piss off.

nope

nope

It's truly amazing how attached we become to our pets. The worst part is their shorter lifespan than ours. Nice pics of your pals skids!

Thankyou All,

It was time a bit earlier and both quick and peaceful.

Stock market. Enough said.

Went for a ride today, with one eye on the looming clouds. I got about 5 miles from home, and the sky opened up. Now, that is not what cheered me up. What cheered me up is that I tested my Michelin City Grips in the rain, and they were great! Plenty of traction. I hammered the brakes a couple of times, not a hint of a skid.
I also found that if I ducked behind my flyscreen, I got hit with a lot less rain.
Another cheer-up was Milady opened the shed door so I could drive right in.
So, the rain killed the long ride I had planned today, but that was offset by the pluses.

Good times!

(This should be in What's Cheering Me Up Today.)

[quote="JBacklund"]

I was astride my Triumph Rocket 3R.

The Indian rider was annoying, to say the least, and as soon as I had a clear, straight road ahead of me for about a half mile, I let the Triumph do what it does best, which is to commence a monstrously effective mid-range power roll-on into it's upper rev range.

The Indian rider becoming a blurry little dot receding in my mirrors, then to a distant and dimming headlight, then disappeared entirely behind the hills and curves.




I would have done exactly the same.

It sounds like you had some fun on a supposedly "pointless motorbike"

nope

Just call them weird...

Oakland being Oakland.

Trying to get back into the swing of things after a stressful week and a half of funeral arrangements and family, I go out to my bike this morning for a relaxing ride to lunch and work only to discover it's inoperable because some mutant tore off the controls panel in the last day or so.

Just...c'mon.

Now I have to spend time on insurance, repairs, and trying to negotiate with the landlord about changing parking ('cause I just can't deal anymore) when I just need to ride a little.

nope

Racism is immoral, full stop. So yes, it is okay to hate the haters, and to refuse to tolerate intolerance.

And to anyone that attempts to argue that intolerance must be tolerated (because the idiots always seem to think they are twice as clever as they actually are) just point out that their logic contradicts itself.

So, politics is still forbidden here. Or, more precisely, partisanship is forbidden. Unfortunately, the Venn diagram of politics and racism is fast approaching a perfect circle.

nope

People who feel insecure like to feel part of a group that accepts them - and then they accept that tribe's culture. Helped by the "social media" orders of magnitude more than the old-fashioned word of mouth.

Assholes are still assholes. It's just now they seem comfortable saying the quiet part out loud.

All very weird.

Hmm, I have some land outside Yucca, AZ. Could I interest you? Bring your own water even!

Plenty of places to land at the proving grounds! 😂

nope