Modern Vespa

Well, I took my first long ride today after having had my LX150 for 15 months. The longest ride before today was about 25 miles. Today's was 127. I know that isn't much for many of you, but for me it's a milestone.

I'm wanting to ride to San Antonio next month for the 3CR5 rally, which will be my first rally. I didn't know if I would be mentally/physically/emotionally up to such a ride or how my scooter would handle on such a trip.

It was GREAT. Most of my riding has always just been my short commute to work (a little over a mile.) One of the only parts I didn't like was the 70mph 2 lane roads where traffic backed up behind me a little waiting for a place to pass. Not really bad, just 2 or 3 vehicles a few times. It really DID bother me when 3 vehicles all at once passed me on a double yellow line. There was nothing coming, but they could have waited just 30 seconds longer and there would have been a passing lane

I left home in Brady, TX a little before 9am and went south to Mason, about 30 miles. From there I went west to Menard, about 40 miles. I stopped there in a little park and drank some coffee I had taken along in a thermos and ate a nutrition bar. Also, I fuelled up there in Menard. Then north to Eden, about 23 miles. Finally east, back home to Brady. I got home about 11:50am.

My GPS showed a moving average of 45.6 mph and a max speed of 63.6 mph. I'm sure that 63.6 was for a very short time down hill with a tailwind

The ride was really enjoyable and not really very tiring, so I think I'm up for the ride to San Antonio, which will be 140-150 miles.

Here is a map of my route:

got to love long rides

Hey cool, Danny. I haven't gone on too many long trips either. Mostly zipping around town for work-commuting and fun purposes. Sounds like you enjoyed it hey? Good on ya.

Congratulations on your first successful long ride, enjoy your rally. 8)
The first rally I went on was riding a ET4 and it went well.

Very cool! Thanks for posting.

Great, Danny!

Your description points out the differences in two-lane road riding in Texas vs. here on the East Coast. Around here, the two-lanes are all winding and hilly, and the traffic moves at 45-60, depending on the road.

Distances are long in Texas, so people typically drive at least the speed limit 60-70mph on 1 to 2 lane county highways. Most often though, people are driving about 10-15mph over the speed limit. People drive fast in Texas.

Great to here you went for it. I have yet to try a long ride myself. I look

forward to my first.

Paul

Congrats Danny! I'm glad you enjoyed your ride, and hope you have a wonderful time at the rally. It's about time I do a long ride, the longest I've ever rode was 75 miles of butt aching pain. Got to build up my tolerance. but you have inspired me..I will be riding up to Fort Collins Saturday after next...about 200 miles round trip.

Congrats! I can't wait to have mine... never really ridden out of the city in all these years

Congratulations.

Warning!..those long rides can become addicting.

There are few hills and curves on these roads. That's where I encountered the no-passing zones. But they're no where near as twisty as in some other areas. Not all of Texas is like this, either. I've been to the Davis Mountains in west Texas and I would love to ride the winding roads there. They're even fun in the car.

Also, the towns here are few and far between. When I lived in Ohio 30+ years ago you could count on there being a town or city every 5 miles or so. The "major" towns I mentioned here aren't very big. According to the 2000 census the populations were: Mason - 2134, Menard - 1653, Eden - 2361, and my hometown of Brady - 5523. The little places shown on the map like Hext and Melvin are basically just crossroads with maybe 125-150 residents. The nearest city of any size is Brownwood, which has about 20,000 population, but it is 46 miles away. Then next would be San Angelo (different direction) has 92,000. It is 75 miles away.

BTW, I DO love it here

I did a 220 mile trip down to Portland at the end of July. Throttle fatigue & the bad luck of riding down on a 107 degree day were my only problems. It took two days for the sweat in the sleeves of my leather to dry out Welcome to the LX150 long distance club!

Looks like a great ride, Danny. Touring by scooter is enjoyable and can become addictive.

Al

wow, I'm jealous!
I just barely got my MC permit. going around the block still gets me nervous.

I have yet to take the LX 150 on a long ride. In fact, even though I've had the LX 150 since December 2008, my newer Super 300 already has more mileage on it. I have to show my LX more love.

Thanks for sharing your ride, but no pictures along the way? Love the idea of double life of a scoot, the commute and the tour. Furthest ride so far for me is about 40 miles, just not far enough.

My son, who lives in Georgia, is getting his own scoot next week. We're already planning (next summer) to meet halfway between Albany, NY and Athens, GA, and take a couple of days touring. Phew, it'll be 500 miles just to meet! Can I really do it?

Hey, Danny, please take pictures on the trip to San Antonio and share 'em with the rest of us (so we can be r-e-a-l-l-y jealous!).

-Scott

My nearest Vespa dealer is about 90 miles away so my LX gets regular long trips for service. The first time I took it out for this ride, I was really surprised how nice of a trip it was.

Well done Danny!

Sigh, to do a trip that distance, I would have to circle Tortola about 4 times ... and that would probably take at least 6 to 7 hours due to the hills and twisties. I envy you guys who can take nice long trips. I could kick myself that I didn't insist on taking my scooter up to Northern Ontario when I had the chance. I let my family cow me into joining them in the cage.

Next year for sure!!!

Bravo! Gettin' out amongst em'.

Nice loop you did there!

Long trips are so cool. Wish I've done more myself, but TX heat is a'killing.
I'm waiting for cooler months to journey out to the Hill Country.
Anyway, the pic. on the bottom is me on my trip to Waxahachie for the North Texas Lakes Rally.
I went by myself - long, fun, but long.
So I'd recommend again, go with at least one more peep. Maybe you can meet some of us up in ATX, and ride the rest of the way together, etc.
Hope you find someone.
Other advice would be, stop often, your behind and your back will tire soon, so don't push it. Maybe every hour take a break.
I'd recommend a camelback for H2O supply, that way you don't have to stop as often for the liquid, but, you can if you wish, and strech your legs.
Take your time...I know the stress of having cars behind you is a bit.
But if you're not keeping up with speeds, which also happend to me on my trip, then just find a safe spot and pull over, let them pass, and keep on going.
....I'm at work, so may add to this thread later...whatch for edits...

oh, one more tip before I go go...
make sure you pack your scoot as if you were goin on the long trip, and ride with the extra weight around your block, and eventually further, to get comfortable, and see what works for you. I had to untie and unpack a few things like 3 times before I actually hit the road the day of.

safe scootin' peeps!

well you know what danny*h every rider here first started out riding with the same mile as you.


ZERO


The rest are just numbers, ride you own ride and congarts on the milestone, I'm sure there will be more to come.

messy

Thanks for the offer, but it would add at least 66 miles to my trip to go via Austin. That sounds like an excellent suggestion. I think I can travel pretty light as I'll be staying in a hotel rather than camping, but it would still be a good idea to try a "dry run."

If I remember correctly don't all the roads in Texas have a shoulder that is actually as wide as another lane ?

I know when I lived there everyone always pulled over onto the shoulder so you could pass them.

Yes, many (not all) roads do have the wide shoulders, and many people do that. I, for one, don't feel safe running on the shoulder, especially going up a hill, even in my car, where you are most likely to find double yellow lines. Who knows what could be sitting on the shoulder just over the crest of that hill? A disabled car, pedestrians, roadkill, tire debris, trash bags, etc.? People may get mad at me, but I just won't do it unless I can clearly see that they can get by and I can get back on the road safely.

Congratulations! Make sure to rest and enjoy your trek, stretch, hydrate, remember that noise, vibration and harshness impair your criterion and you might start cutting corners, and put yourself in peril.