Followers?

I hadn't realized people were actually reading this blog. I would've kept up on the posts if I knew. Sorry guys. Nothing new happening with the scoot other than it's still been a blast. I love the thing. I've been practicing my footwork that I mentioned in my last post. It's been working out well. It's definitely a safety benefit that's worth doing. It's great that I can hop up off my seat in a fraction of a second in order to avoid the impact of the crazy bumpy roads around here.

The weather unfortunately hasn't been cooperating lately. It's both cold, windy and sometimes rainy - not the best conditions for riding. Where's all the sun? Ugh.

Another distraction I've had is my new 2-wheeled project:
http://e-bikeconversion.blogspot.com/

Left Foot Back. Right Foot Forward Technique

As far as I know, this technique is developed by "Yours s Truly"....today.

Some seasoned riders may have already noticed that when placing your feet more forward, you are much more stable when coming to a stop. Your body's inertia is going forward and your feet help hold you back balancing out the weight of the bike and rider diving into a stop. However placing your feet here in the front doesn't enable you to easily stand upright in preparation for a bump or running over some sort of obstacle. For that you need to keep your feet back.

So my technique?

Rather than switching back and forth moving both feet forward when coming to a stop and both feet back when there's an obstacle, place the left foot back and right foot forward. This provides a stable stance that allows you as the rider to be well prepared for either scenario w/o having to change stances.

It's great to be prepared at all times. After all, you never know when you need to stop abruptly. You don't want to be thinking about foot placement during these maneuvers. By using my technique, both feet are planted and ready for these two situations - both of which can come up without much/any warning.

So why left foot forward and right foot back and not the other way around? The left leg typically is the one that comes down and rests on the ground during a stop. Having the left leg being the one in the back allows for a longer reach to step down. This allows us to keep our right foot planted in the forward position during and immediately after stops w/o having to move it.

Have fun. Good luck and ride safe.

Advanced Motorcycle Training Course

After a long waiting list, my name finally came up and I was invited to join the Bay Area Motorcycle Training course. I had already taken the first Basic Rider Course for getting my M1 license. It was time for the more advanced course offered at motorcycleschool.com. There you go guys - your free plug in a blog that no one reads.

So how about a quick review of the course?

The class is maxed out at 12 riders so that everyone gets the attention they need and we can run as many drills as efficiently as possible. We stand in a group as two coaches talk about the drill. Then one of the runs the drill on his bike as an example. We line up in one or two groups (depending on the drill) and go through it.

After each person goes who needs extra coaching, the coach would stop them at the end of the drill to give pointers. Everyone else is in line. This repeats.

Once the drill is completed and everyone's had a chance to run through it a few times, we meet back up in a group off our bikes for a "discussion."

This is where I wish there was more instruction. A lot of this section was just the coaches reading from a book and asking useless questions like, "What did you learn?" I had hoped the coaches would tell us what we're supposed to learn and give tips then and there. Instead, we were teaching eachother.

For $125 for a 5 hour class of safety instruction, I guess it wasn't so bad. I missed the first Recumbent Convention for this class and I suppose it was worth it. Better to be safer on the road then not.

The above would repeat for 5 hours with 10-15 minute breaks every 1.5 hours.


TYPES OF DRILLS:

1. Ostacles:
We ran a circle on the track. One long stretch was an offset cone weave. The other long stretch was a more extreme offset cone weave. Once completing a few laps, we were asked to do the laps w/one throttle hand. Left hand remains in the lap or anywhere away from the handlebar. Pretty scary! The next few laps were over obstacles. In this case it was a 2x4 laying in the middle of the track. In this portion of the drill, we learned to put weight on our feet and stand more upright. Get our butts off the seat so that when we land after the bump, we don't get knocked off. That's happened occasionally and it hurt my jewels. Now I know it's alright to get up off the seat. That's the accepted safety technique.

2. Emergency Swerve:
We'd go straight and hit 15-18mph before the coach would direct us to either swerve left or swerve right. We don't know which direction we're supposed to go until pretty much the last second. If we don't turn in time, we end up in the "truck" zone where cones lined up in a box shape representing an imaginary truck. We practice counter-balancing for this drill - keeping the center of gravity where it is and just push to turn out of the way of the obstacle and quickly turn back into the the original direction of motion.

In addition to the swerve, the coach sometimes surprised us with the stop command. We were to stop wherever we happen to be while running through the drill. This occurred only while going straight.

3. Tight Turns
Cones were lined up at the corner of the track and the drill was to make the turn w/o hitting the cones.

4. Clutch Control
Go as slow as we can and control the bike using just the clutch. I obviously couldn't run this portion, so I just road as slow as I could and practiced balancing.

5. Turning:
I learned that I really need to accelerate through the turn - not brake through the turn. This means I need to slow to a pre-turning speed as I'm going straight approaching the turn. It's at the beginning at the turn that I should be accelerating until its completion. This allows me to judge and decide how fast to make the turn. I get much better control than coming to a turn at speed and hoping I'm braking enough to complete it safely.

The coach thought I was pumping the brake on this drill. So I guess the safety brake light flashing module works! I always knew it functioned but it's good that it can be seen and is obvious to onlookers.

6. U-turns:
There were 3 boxes - a box inside of a box inside of a box. All three boxes share the same single corner. The drill was to gradually make tighter and tighter U-turns. I did this with a breeze. The scooter (as I was the only one) is a lot easier to maneuver than those big touring bikes and race warriors.

7. S-Curve
The S-curve was pretty short. It was probably about 30' at the most. Considering the bike is probably 4'-0 long, that's not a lot of travel before the S-curve track ends. This literally was a drill. Super short.

8. Stopping During a Turn
Sometimes this may happen, so this drill helps us prepare for it in a safe enclosed environment while coaches watch us and provide feedback (limited). Some students got more feedback than others. I suppose some needed it more than others. I don't know, but I wish I got more feedback. I can't imagine I'm so good that they didn't need to talk to me most of the time.

We were to pretend to make a turn and stop in the middle of it. Rather than stopping while the bike is in the turned leaning position, we moved the bike upright abruptly and applied the brakes while in this upright position. This was tough to do in a hurry since we're expecting and are deciding when to stop during this so-called "emergency" turn stop. I got the hang of it and acted it out after the first few runs. You can be successful at this drill if you're good at lying to yourself.

9. I don't remember all the rest of the drills, but the last one was a "Peanut run." It was running a short lap in a peanut formation. One long stretch followed by a turn. The second stretch included a curve forming a peanut shape. The class ended with this drill.

All in all, the course was good. Would I recommend it? Yeah, I suppose. Not super excited about it. But given that it's the only safety riding course I could find in SF, I took it w/o regret.

2 Incidences

A couple traffic things happened this morning on my way to breakfast. Not good. I survived. So lessons learned?


1. Motorist at my 9 o'clock is on the right side of the lane signaling a right turn. I'm normally cautious about driver's signals thinking they won't actually do what they intend to do. This time however, I trusted her since she:

a. Maintained her position behind a slow driver
b. Was pulled to the right
c. Had just engaged her turn signal light

What does she do? Zoom through the intersection going straight! This was probably only the 5th time I've ever used my horn. This chick was crazy. From now I'm I'm not trusting anyone's turn signal....ever.

2. As I'm looking to the right to see if it's clear for me to change to the right lane, I look forward again to see someone on my left pulling into my lane! I hadn't even left the lane yet and this dude in his mini van pulls closer and closer. At one point we were sharing the lane side by side. I should have known better.

I'm always careful that I'm not in people's blind spots for too long and when I am, I assume they're pulling into my lane. It just so happened that I was changing lanes though and my attention was to look for possible cars zooming up in the lane I intended to go into. From now on, I'm not changing lanes while in someone's blind spot....ever.

No sigs and no mirrors?

On my ride home today from having lunch with Gordon, I came up behind a scooter. The rider had a passenger. At the traffic light, I had a moment to check out this scoot. Vespa is synonymous with higher end stuff, but I was surprised to see that it didn't have mirrors. Even more surprising is that it doesn't have signal lights! Wow, how can someone ride a scooter w/o either? That's way unsafe. Glad I'm not riding that thing.

2 tires fit in the trunk!

Of all things that fit in the under seat compartment, I never thought I'd put these in there! Two 26x1.95 bicycle tires! Originally, I intended to strap them over my shoulder on the way home like a messenger bag but then realized I had learned a month or so ago that these things can fold.

I couldn't remember the details and wanted confirmation from an expert how to do this, so I walked back into Performance Bicycle from the parking lot and asked the tech. He put one of them in a figure 8. I did the same with the other and it fit!

The best part? When I got home, I checked the bead and nothing was bent! It worked perfectly! This is definitely something I wouldn't be able to do on a motorcycle. I love the Vino 125! Cheaper than a motorcycle, it gets respect on the road and it's got under seat storage too!

Front Brake Pad Installation

Spoolboyy from the TotalRuckus forum created a photo tutorial of how to do this and it's helped tons! I used it this morning and completed the brake pad change for the front w/o any issues. Since his tutorial is already so complete, I didn't bother with any redundancy in the tutorial tips below. I took additional pics that he hadn't included and wanted to incorporate some other info I found helpful.

Firstly, a little note on buying brakes. I'm a little weary of buying them from ebay. I hear there are so many fake ones out there that haven't been regulated. I'm concerned these are unsafe. Although I bought the genuine TEIN springs for my car awhile back ago, I did find a fake made-in-china one on ebay that looked very real. They're cheaper but aren't tested and built to the standard of the real thing. TEIN's website confirmed fake ones indeed were found on the market. When it comes to performance and safety components, I'm avoiding the fake stuff. I picked up the EBC brakes from my shop directly and trust they're real. I saw what I suspected to be a generic one before so I'm pretty sure this is the good stuff in the pic below. The packaging is slightly different.

What tools did I use? I ended up not really needing the two ratchet sets. One was plenty. I had plenty of light so the flashlight wasn't used either. Vice grip was omitted from the installation too. It ended up not working for closing the caliper. The angle was too extreme once it got wide enough to pull the caliper closed.




Instead, I used a piece of wood I found laying around. I wanted to torque the loosened bolts back to spec, so that was needed too. Threadlock is also highly recommended.







Once the caliper was removed, I wanted to take a photo to be sure I was putting everything back together correctly. The back of the dirty pad is slipping.










Once the three 12mm bolts are removed, the L-bracket holding the brake pads slip out off the caliper itself. A metal tube slips it into place.







Can you tell I really did need to replace the brakes? Wow, that's nuts. The brake pad on the left is mostly the metal and not even the pad itself. I'm glad I changed the brakes today.







When you put the grease on the pads, be sure to put it on the correct side. I was stupid and put it on the actual ceramic side that touches the rotor. That's a big no-no. Here's a shot of where the grease needs to go. See the outline circle of where the caliper pushes the pad into the rotor?




When the caliper's removed from the rotor, the caliper is closed. We need to pull it back to compensate for the now new thicker pad. A c-clamp didn't work b/c it wasn't large enough (not mine at least). The vice grip isn't able to pull the caliper back in a parallel direction. Tough to explain. Just use a piece of wood and push the caliper in by hand.







I'm not sure why my photos are being uploaded sideways. Here are the new pads installed onto the L-bracket. Be sure to leave enough room btw the pads for the rotor! Yes, that's grease on the pads you see here in the pic.










Spoolboyy wasn't the only one that took a couple tries to get the pads installed on either side of the rotor. It's a squeeze with new pads since they're thicker and there's less space to work with.









Before putting the bolts back on, I wanted to use some threadlock to be sure these puppies stay put! You don't want bolts vibrating out while riding. Just squeeze some on the threads.






For those who want the torque specs, here they are straight from Yamaha's Service Manual. Note that you're looking at Column A (not B). I use ft lbs but feel free to use Nm if you have that on your torque wrench. Being specific really isn't necessarily b/c as I mentioned, 11 ft lbs is very little. I torqued it higher.







All done! Time to clean up the mess and go for a test ride. Squeeze the brakes a few times though to get it going. It'll be loose the first few times you pull the lever. Do this while the scooter's at a standstill.

I'm assuming the brake in period is a couple hundred miles so I'll be taking it easy on the brakes for the next couple weeks.

Michelin S1 Tire installation

I probably should have taken a photo of this thing before installation to compare to the photo I saw online, but totally forgot to due to the excitement of things. In a room full of motorcycles and other scoots, my tire was dwarfed big time. These things are tiny! I could probably barely put the donut barely over my head if I had to.

The installation was estimated to take about 1 hr but ended up taking 1 hr and 36 minutes. I don't blame the shop. He still did it fairly quickly and turn to start the installation immediately upon my scheduled arrival when I got to SF Cycle 10 minutes early. Wei was very friendly - equally as friendly in person as over the phone.

As I pulled up, I asked him to check my rear brakes and he confirmed that they're still in good shape. Apparently you can tell from the brake adjustment and don't actually have to look at the pad itself. When asked the condition of my current tire to see if I really needed a replacement as suggested by the last shop I went to, Wei said simply,

"Bald. You came at a good time."

Although there's no tread in the center of this particular rear tire, the depth of the side treads are supposed to be as deep as they are on the side. Once I knew what to look at, it was clearly wearing out.

Wei called me as I was sitting at a cafe nearby down the street, Amsterdam Cafe to tell me that the front brakes will need replacement soon and it's up to me if I want to have him replace it while he's working on it or save it for later.

I opted for later so I could check out some pricing on the pads. It would have been $65 installed. Being that I recently read a forum post on how to perform the work myself, I figured I could save on some labor costs. The work didn't seem to complicated and the tutorial online from Spoolboy looked detailed enough for me to attempt on my own.

Although the service and decor at Amsterdam Cafe is nice, their internet connection is intermittent. It kicks me off every 7 minutes! Researching brake pad pricing was a pain especially since I had to chat or call shops to get their estimated shipping costs. Looks like it would have been $32 for the pads once it arrive to my doorstep.

Ring Ring

My bike is ready and when I showed up, I asked Wei how much it would cost to just buy the brakes from him w/o the labor. $30. Wow! Done. "I'll take 'em."


FIRST TEST RIDE WITH THE NEW MICHELIN S1 TIRE:
I didn't really anticipate that I could tell much of a difference with the new tire. I'm just not that sort of person who can really tell. Surprisingly enough though, I could tell immediately when I took my first turn at speed. I wasn't accelerating nor moving too fast since the break in period is 100 miles as suggested by Wei.

Midway through the turn, I could tell right away that something was different. I could turn so much tighter!!! In fact, it was almost dangerous b/c I turned so sharply the second time heading home that I ended up against traffic! Not good but of course my eyes are up and no cars were there.

This is a good thing! Now that I'm aware of how well the scooter now turns, I can make the turns more safely than I had just done or have done before. The reviews on the tire are right. They do give confidence in the turns. I can lean further down at an angle during the turn w/o feeling like it's unstable. It almost invites the rider to lean into the turns.

I should be completing the break in period in about a week provided the estimated number of miles I go through on a regular basis. I can't wait for that to finish so I can take this thing at full acceleration from a stop. I won't be doing it regularly but I'm just curious at the performance and limits of the tire.

By no means does this mean that I'll be riskier on the road. It just means that I can execute turns more safely with this improved equipment and/or get out of trouble more quickly than I otherwise would be able to with the old stuff.

Son, don't do this at home. By the time you read this more than a decade later, the scooter will be gone and I don't ever want to see you on one. Yes, I'm a hypocrite but that's what dads are. It's for your safety and wellbeing. And you can bet I'll drop in by surprise to make sure you don't have a blue Vino 125 hidden in the garage. And if you do, I'm taking it back.

More to report in a future post as I get more experience on this new tire. So far I'm loving it. If I wasn't unemployed at the moment and was already convinced of how good this tire is prior to testing it out, I would have gotten a matching front tire. My eyes are getting wide at just the thought of a better performing scoot.

All able-bodied young men should ride scooters

...or women I suppose. Every time I ride by a bus stop and see a 20-something year old young guy waiting for the bus, I wonder why he's not riding a scooter. Calculating the costs of my scooter vs using a bus pass, I found that the numbers were pretty much the same.

SCOOTER:
$3.60/tank every 5 days = $21.60/month (obviously varies depending on usage)
$12 insurance (full coverage including theft)
$50 financing (personal loan from a credit union)

That adds up to roughly $84/month

BUS PASS:
$62 for Muni only
$82 for all SF public transportation services (not sure if cable cars are included). This one's a bit more practical since it can get you pretty much anywhere you need to be. Similar and comparable to the convenience of a scooter.

CONCLUSION:
So the difference in cost is $84 (scooter) - $82 (bus pass) = $2. Wow, that's not very significant at all! There is at least one advantage of using the bus of course. There's no need to find/pay for parking. You can do other stuff while on the bus and it's definitely safer.

In terms of convenience though, the bus falls behind the use of the scooter. I'm wondering why more people don't ride scooters in the City. Are people really concerned about their safety? They ought to be, but for some reason I don't see others being concerned as a primary reason for holding back on using a scooter. Perhaps the list is one of a combination of the following:

1. Too girlie. Only chicks ride scooters
2. Don't know how to ride one
3. Don't have a license
4. No reason to have even considered it (don't have friends that ride)
5. Misunderstood cost of the scooter holds people back (personally financing takes care of it. No down payment need and costs are recuperated in less than 2 months and that's only b/c of the cost of the gear - not the scooter itself)
6. Parents

After riding the scooter, I just can't imagine ever taking the bus if I have access to the scooter. There's really no reason. I can leave whenever I want. It's typically faster to get to wherever I need to go (including the time to park and walk to wherever I'm going) and parking costs are usually nothing if non minimal (5x less than parking spaces for cars).

New Tire Hasn't Arrived Yet

On the day that I thought Motorcycle Superstore was going to have my package here turned out to be the day they're shipping it out! What? If it's in stock, why does it take a week to ship out? Though the website looks good and all, I'm not buying from this shop anymore. Perhaps I should have gone with Bike Bandit or another one of their competitors. Maybe if I did that, I'd have my tire installed by now.

I'm in no hurry, but just disappointed that my paid-for shipping takes two weeks for my product to arrive. I typically get free shipping quicker than these snails.

Still waiting...

New tire!

When showed up at SF Moto awhile back, they suggested a new tire. The tire tread looked fine so I had my doubts. After reading up a bit on tread life of the Chen Shin stock OEM tire, I'm thinking it's probably time to swap out for a new one. Being a scooter, it's probably that much more important in terms of safety.

After looking a the Continental Zippy 1, Michelin S1 and Pirelli SL 26 per, I ultimately decided on the Michelin S1 based on forum reviews and the attractive tread pattern. The Zippy's looked a bit too girlie for my taste. Too many curvy swooping lines and dots. I hadn't heard much about the Pirelli, so the Michelin seemed like the best choice.






The price was right too. I also confirmed with Michelin's corporate office this morning that the overall outside dimension is indeed smaller (though not by much, 0.08") than my current tire. This was important to me b/c I didn't want anything larger which would make it even more difficult to flatfoot at a stop. Shipped, the Michelin S1 came out to $41. After installation, I should be set back no more than $75-80 total.



That's cheaper than doing it at SF Moto. They also use the Zippy so much that I don't think they'd have the Michelin S1 in stock anyway. Either way I'd have to order it and since a friend of a friend of a friend owns a shop, I'm heading there for the installation.

The tire should be here in a week and we'll see what the installer says about my existing tire. I'm curious if he thinks it's got more tread life left or if it's good that I got the tire at this time.

Another reason I'm opting to get the tire instead of getting a preliminary evaluation of the tire (2nd opinion) is b/c I did experience some slipping during the winter using my current tire.

New brakes?

My rear wheel brake lever pulls way in when engaged. I figured I needed new pads so I called up a few shops in hopes to get quotes. SF Moto was the nicest. Eric picked up the phone and after I asked for the quote (he gave me $110), he asked me how many miles I have b/c rear brakes rarely need replacing on the Vino 125.

"Uh, 4,000. No probably 4,200 by now," I reply.

"It probably just needs a brake adjustment. Roll in and we'll do it for free," he offered.

Wow, okay. I'm there. I take off after work and head straight there. They helped me immediately. What a great place. Everyone is very professional. Don't let the haircuts and tattoos throw you off. The staff provides lots of hospitality and looks at you in the eyes when they talk - a rarity these days.

The tech makes an adjustment and hops on taking it up and down the alleyway. He tweeks it more and is done in less than 4 minutes.

After the guy made the adjustment, boy what a change! It feels like brand new! It's so good that my front brake lever now feels insufficient. I tried figuring out how to adjust that one, but the manual only talks about the rear brake - no front brake info. Hmmm, time to hit the forums.

Looking at the scooter, the guy did mention that I need a new rear tire. I'll schedule something for next week and pop one on - $110 was the quote. I trust them.

Hit by a bus?

Good thing I'm paying attention b/c as I was in Downtown on my way to dinner after work, a bus comes veering into my lane! Hello bus driver!!!! Wake up! It amazes me how crazy drivers are. Scootering around can be a chore. Definitely got to keep my head up and continue paying very close attention since I need to make up for those who lack the ability, strength or heart to.

This is another example of how life would be so much better if people would just do what they're supposed to do. People know what's expected of them. It's not that hard. Rarely are accidents truly accidents. Unfortunately the minority group needs to work hard enough to make up for the lazy and/or uncaring majority.

Scootering in the rain

Don't do it - ever. I did it once yesterday b/c I was too dumb to look at the weather report before taking the scoot out to work. By the time I got off and was ready to ride back home, it was drenched and still raining. Super dangerous.

The cold didn't bother me and my soaked pants didn't bother me either. It's the fact that I know drivers out there aren't paying attention that scares me. Also if I do happen to fall, I'd go sliding and be even more vulnerable to other cars. Lesson learned. No riding in the rain.

No fun in the rain

I've been having trouble passing smog with the car, so I have basically been driving that to help clear the codes to pass. The rain hasn't helped with any scooter riding opportunities either. I hope it gets better soon.

Watch out for that tennis ball!

I got hit by a tennis ball this morning riding home from breakfast with your mom. On Geary Blvd next to the school, I saw a tennis ball bouncing on the floor and didn't really do much to swerve out of the way. Luckily it bounced and hit the fender rather than in one of the two worst other possible places like,

1. My head or
2. Under the wheel.


It wasn't coming too fast, but did surprise me. I'm not sure if I ignored the ball and failed to swerve intentionally or if I just froze when it happened. Either case, I'm glad nothing happened. It just bounced on the ground, hit the fender and ended up along side of the road somewhere else. It came on a big uphill slope, so I'm sure it kept sliding down the street behind me as I passed.

Another scooter close call?

HID issues

Originally I didn't care for HID's since there was so much trouble hooking them up to work on the Vino. People have been able to successfully ignite the HID at startup but have had trouble keeping the bulb lit. They suspect it's due to the Vino not being able to put enough electricity to keep the bulb running.

I've opened up some threads from the people at HID Planet.

http://www.hidplanet.com/forums/showthread.php?37218-Not-enough-power-to-maintain-HID-s-lit&p=372574#post372574

Someone with the same issue?
http://www.zumaforums.net/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=4048&sid=819ac6398e3aa7325460c64f2026b484

After hours or research, I think I've figured out how this is going to work. I just need to be sure to hook up a relay directly to the battery and the HID's should be fine. If it still doesn't work, there's one other option. Replace the relay with a 10-15 second time delay relay. This will prevent the HID's from heating up while the battery is already working its hardest to turn the engine over.

Is the risk of this not working worth the money to do this? I remember back in the day when I bought my first HID kit for the Rav4, the used bi-xenon kit was $299! The has dropped significantly in the past 8 years. Nowadays a kit can be bought for $36 shipped! I recently sold $153 worth of extra scooter parts I had laying around when I bought the scooter originally. That pays for a higher end HID kit two times over, but I'm still hesitant to spend the money right now. $150 is 5 months worth of scooter gas!

The two kits I'm considering are made by the Retrofit Resource and DDM Tuning. Both have great reputations, have resaonable prices and also sell some of the harnesses and relays needed for my application.