Modern Vespa

Oh, I agree with you.

I have seen arguments that EVs cause more damage to the roads than ICEs due to their weight, yet they don't pay fuel taxes that support road infrastructure, so wE hAvE tO dO sOmEthIng!!.

I would hope that the increased registration fees will be adjusted at some point to better reflect real-world usage, but the realistic side of me knows that probably won't happen.

I'd bet that whoever came up with the $100 increase worked it out as $0.27/day increase and figured that it is a nominal increase that no one would care about. My current electric plan rate is $0.1386/kWh, but if I use more than 2000 kWh in a billing period, I receive a $125 discount, which makes it harder to calculate an effective electric rate.

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So I just spent a half-hour chatting with Gemini about EV usage and charging rates, etc., and I must be missing something, because it sounds like a $100/year increase in registration fees would be very easily offset in usage. I dug a bit further, asking different questions, and I think I finally understand your point of view (again, I agree with your position, I'm just trying to fully understand it).

The figures I'm using are based on a "current" generation Fiat 500e, that is charged using the "Smartphone Method" of plugging it in every day, but limiting the charge to 80%, with one 100% charge-up per month, and a daily commute of 26 miles, which is approximately 20% of charge capacity per day, and an electric rate of $0.1386/kWh. Based that, $260 would pay for 1875.9 kWh. Re-charging the battery from 60% to 80% overnight would be approx. 9 kWh. It would take 208 days to use $260 worth of electricity. If the 500e is only used for commuting, it would take just over 41 weeks to use that. I get 42 days of vacation & holidays per year. There are 260 week days in a year. 260-42=218. So based on those numbers, I'd get only 10 "free" days per year. Before the registration fee increase, I'd get 90 "free" days per year.

I'm guessing that your daily usage is much lower than what mine would be, and/or your electric rate is lower. So I think I now have a better understanding of why you'd be upset over what some people would think is nothing.

Sucks, but at least it's still there!

Been getting considerable snow this month. Used to be a pretty hard-core X-C skier in snowier times. Decided getting back out would do me good. Decided to head off to a local park to have a bit of a go at it. Heading up the highway I'm seeing grass, cornstalks peeking out of the snow and decide too much has already evaporated or melted to make it worth it.

I head back home and go for a walk instead. I swear there's twice the snow in my neighborhood!

Yes, don't have to go chasing it where it might have landed a mile away.

Downtown Rapid City, seven or eight miles away, had conflicting wind speed reports this morning of between 96 and 104 mph gusts last night.

Bummer! BTDT.

I'm just going to assume your math is right because it probably is. But you're right. I drive less. So, the flat tax works against me. I have put approximately 21K miles on my Fiat in four years. And it only weighs in at around 3K lbs.

To be fair, it has saved me over $3K in what I would have paid in gasoline in our previous vehicles. However, if I change the average mileage I'm comparing to up to 30mpg, that drops the number to less than $1800. That works out to about $450/year savings. Now that the EV tax is $260/year, that significantly impacts how much I'm ACTUALLY saving per month. Which works out to about $16/month or a nice six pack of decent beer.

I dunno. I could figure in other things like oil changes, but it's getting to be less and less appealing.

Lobby them to introduce a per-mile charge instead!

I'm pretty sure seamus hasn't changed from his early 500e - with only 24kWh pf battery. That's a maximum of 120miles for Seamus's hypermiling (105 miles for us) in summer, and much less in cold weather. So 100% charging is the norm for us at least.

are you sure it wasn't a fat cat trying to sit on it?

Lobby all we want, they have mathematicians that carefully calculate the method that will generate maximum returns.

I've seriously been tossing around the idea of trading up to an i3. Not because of the carbon fiber unibody. Not because of the larger battery. Not because of the range extender. But because it has more than two doors and a functional back seat.

FedEx

For the last week they said my delivery would be on Wednesday.

This morning:

8.00 i check estimated delivery: Wednesday.

8.25 i leave home.

9.18 email saying out for delivery.

10.39 a you weren't at home email.

10.45 i get home.

11.42 another email saying something about a door tag. Nothing was left.

Fuck.

If you're going to change the delivery time by 48 hours then give me more than 1.5 hours. And don't tell me a door tag was left when there isn't one. 🤬

fuck FedEx.

after monday's fail they said tuesday. tuesday arvo they changed to saying wednesday and gave a time. wednesday morning they6 change to saying 5th or Jan.

and the details say there's been two delivery attempts. bullshit. also says there has been a request to change the date.

Been my experience that of all the carriers, including USPS which is pretty bad, FedEx is the worst.

OFG

And don't let them give you any shit about being busy over Christmas. We all know Santa does all the deliveries tonight. They're just lazy.

And now it's delivered. Go figure.

Now I'm unhappy with scooter centre who sent red instead of black

Whelp, it's my turn to sit in the dark with no power.

At least I am not alone, as our whole neighborhood is out, along with most of the hills around the Bay Area and large swaths of the Bay Area itself.

No ETA for resumption. Christmas eve. Yeah.

"It is better to light a candle than curse the darkness."
(attributed to various people)

I hope you get your power back soon!

You still not got the paperwork sorted for Portuguese residency yet then?

World politics.
Nothing I can express an opinion about here...

I'm just telling everyone that I didn't die.

I've been buying tea from a Canadian company for decades, they have great choices and the prices are reasonable. Never had to deal personally with duty or other related charges, mostly (I think) since my orders tend to be <US$50. Following a delivery earlier this month, I received an e-mail and then a paper invoice from Fedex for $14.58, with several pages of official looking customs forms. The cost for the tea and cocoa mix was around $25, and sales tax was paid with the order, so ~57% for the man.

Perhaps I am ignorant, but this seems to me to be usurious.

Are we great again yet?

Go over to the NOT SO Modern side and see what some of the guys are paying for with parts coming from Germany.

A New Years' resolution was to contact an old college friend who'd been influential in my life. It had been decades, but poking around earlier this year I found he was active on FB. I checked back to find he'd passed away in October.

Yesterday I grabbed a kiwi off the counter and it brought back memories of a former MVer. IYKYK.

Living longer sucks sometimes....

Next up, someone will tell us about their little red toaster.

True, but it does reduce peer pressure.

And there are many benefits, we just have to look for them sometimes.

See, all that trouble in Boston, and now you've gone and done it to yourselves 😉

Currently on New Year's break in Portugal.

We were parked in Quarteira and walking to Vilamoura when I found a €50 note on the floor 😁..

So whilst we were planning our cheeky free lunch my phone rang. It was the car rental company, we were parked in a spot we shouldn't be and had to move it straight away?

We'd walked 3 miles in the opposite direction by then! So we said we'd be there asap and she said the police would be there waiting?

It took about 45 minutes to get back, and when we saw our car, it was surrounded by police cars?! It was then we realised we had parked in the police parking zone outside the bloody police station (it said GNR under the parking sign which I hadn't spotted)!

So we thought they'd be alright about it and we could just go and apologise and everything would be hunky dory. Then we saw the big yellow sticker on the windscreen and wheel clamp!

Portuguese policemen aren't as friendly as our bobbys we found out! €60 and form filling and id checks later, they declamped us. So it's bread and scrape for lunch 😆

Going from €50 up to €10 down in the space of minutes really sucks!

Holiday traffic. Zero in the city and horrendous in the country. I should've stayed at home and washed the bike instead

Think I've destroyed the bearing in the swingarm exhaust bracket.

Fingers crossed that's what it is

Was it during a fox hunt?

Why yes old chap, I do believe it was

I'm curious as top why you removed the Xmas decoration from someone's door and why you think there's no evidence that trail hunting is sometimes used as a smokescreen for illegal fox hunting.

Had a bit of a thread cleanup. Mr Skis grooming and local politics are not really that interesting (though he might take exception to it being aired here) and a fox hunting discussion is never going to end well, unless its Miss Fox of course.

Posting Guidelines

Easter hot cross buns already in many shops. The 12 days of Christmas haven't ended yet.

I saw them on Boxing Day

How many days can I go in 2026 without needing to replace a part?

2 days.

Need a new bearing.

BMW, Triumph, and Vespa sales taking a hit in United States market(s).

What isn't?

Kawasaki - sales up 14.2 %

Six months after riding rental scooters in Italy, I received a citation in the mail for riding into a pedestrian zone in Ferrara.

I guess that is the price we pay to see the world on a scooter.

For me, I am finding that riding in the mountains of Western North Carolina to be the best riding anywhere, so I might be staying there more these days.

Bill

To be honest that looks like a bicycle zone.