I thought I would have a great idea, and instead of riding with them in the car, I would ride the Vespa straight from Titusville to Banner Elk, and meet them there. I mapped it out, and it looked like about 700 miles on Mapquest. My last long ride was down to Key West, which consisted of a 200 mile day, a 100 mile day, and a final 300 mile day. I knew I had plenty left on the last 300 mile day, so I figured 700 miles.... no problem.
I had about 6,350 miles on my GTS, and had done an oil change before the Keys trip, and put on my Heidenau K61s at around 2,500 miles. Btw, the K-61s still look new...
I left at 2:15am and had the roads nearly all to myself. There would be 10 minutes at a time before I would either pass a truck of one would come uo on me. It was cool out, and I was dressed for expected rain. I took 95 all the way to 26, and stopped in Savannah for breakfast. When I got to Columbia, I decided to got 321 all of the way to Boone instead of taking 77 and crossing over higher up in the state. Hwy 321 was a beautiful road, interspersed with about 35 towns that were classic speed traps with 35 mph limits. It was slow going, and the roads were uner construction. It got really rough up the hill towards Blowing Rock. By that time my ass and lower spine were screaming at me. I timed myself at just over 10 hours on the bike, not including stops.
My destination.
I took a little ride over to Tennessee the next day on some really winding roads.
On the way back I decide to climb up Beech Mountain, and took a shot of my altimeter.
Tennessee from the top of Beech.
By now I had gotten back to the house and my wife had arrived with the kids. I recruited my 13 year old daughter to ride on the back over Clark's Creek Rd. I gave her the camera, and told her to shoot whatever looked interesting to her.
Not too shabby...
This is one of those concave mirrors on the sharp turns, so I told her to get a shot of us...
Top of Beech again.
On the way home I decided I would take the Blue Ridge Parkway up to Virginia. I bought a 1 gallon gas can, just in case. This part of the trip really was a disappointment. Every 5 miles there was a detour, and one took me 7 miles before a dead end made me turn around.
There were some good views, just not enough of them.
I finally abandoned the Parkway and hit 77 north, and made it to Virginia before having to head south again.
I settled down for a loooong ride home, expecting at least an 800 mile day, but I only had just made the turn from 77 onto 26 east at Columbia when my Vespa stopped moving. I thought I had run out of gas, so hit my emergency gas stash, and the motor fired right up, but the scoot refused to move. Right as it was getting dark, and with rain threatening, my belt had disentegrated.
My trip totaled 1,110 miles, and even though I had my tools to replace a belt with me, I had not brought a belt, and it was a Sunday evening. Charleston was at least 100 miles away. A quick AAA tow back to Columbia and a motel room was the end of the trip for the Vespa. It spent the rest of the 6 hour drive home behind my Suburban. My brother drove up to pick me up.
Suburbans are great vehicles, btw....
What I learned:
700 miles is about the limit for my body. The Vespa seat is pretty hard, but using the passenger pegs allows some switch up in riding position to avoid cramping. I stopped more often on the way back, and felt better than on the ride up.
The 250gts is a perfectly capable highway machine. I even had one trucker who stopped at a truck stop where I was gassing up tell me that he had been following me for 40 miles, and was amazed my scooter could maintain 80 mph. I never ride directly behind a semi because of the vortex they create, but also in case they kick up a tire or road debris. I prefer passing them.
The 250gts can easily climb steep hills, and on long uphill grades I was able to maintain at least 65 mph. The altitude doesn't seem to rob any power, I guess due to the fuel injection at work.
When going down long hills I was bumping up on the rev limiter and had to back off. I can hit my rev limiter on level ground with baggage behind me to smooth out my aerodynamics.
I don't use a wind screen as you can see from the pictures. I prefer a tight fitting Fieldsheer Aquasport jacket and FF helmet to cut through the wind, and hardly get blown around at all.
Cramping of the back, butt, and even my fingers was an issue. I need some sort of cruise control device. Anti-Monkey Butt powder and Ibuprofen helped.
If you have over 5k on your scooter, change the belt before doing what I did, or carry a spare with you and tools. I should have realized I was about due, and all of that high speed and high temps on an older belt caused the inevitable to happen.
If you have AAA, you have to have AAA for recreational vehicles if you want them to tow you, so be warned.
Don't be afraid of the highways. If you ride after midnight, you will have them all to yourself.
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All in all, it was a great trip, even with the belt breaking. Now I am stuck with either my LT150 or my old Honda Aero 125 until I can get a belt and rollers to put on my scoot.
I hope you enjoyed my story and pics. I only posted about 10% of them to avoid hogging too much bandwidth.
