The Heat is On...On the Streets.

It was unseasonably warm today folks... It was in the 20s last week, and today it was around 45 and sunny in the afternoon. So, I had to go and pay a visit to Julep, who I've been neglecting for the past 2 1/2 months.

When I got to the garage, I realized I had left the fuel cock open all this time. Since she has a minor kink in the fuel line, this is not usually a problem. She started up on the first kick... Wow, great! But it wasn't that easy. I let her warm up for a minute, and she seemed to be holding the idle, so I decided to put her in first and go, but she stalled out almost immediately. I had to try several more times before I got her out of the driveway, and then she stalled when she hit the street. I went 5 blocks, then, when sitting at at a light for a couple minutes she stalled again. Sigh... I guess she needed more time to warm up than I gave her... I got her going again (after having three cars go around me) did another loop, and then parked her at home. About an hour or so later, I drove her back to the garage.

All in all, she actually did better than I was expecting. I'm proud of her. And I'm glad – I didn't forget how to ride either!

High Flying Woman

My riding jacket arrived about two weeks ago. And I'm finally getting around to posting some pictures of it. Stylistically, it draws on early barnstorming jackets of the 1920s, Panzer wrap jackets of the WWII German Army, and the classic "Wild Ones" style motorcycle jackets of the 1950s.





the back:



A detail. Check out the sleeve zipper pulls. I love it! (click on image to enlarge)

You're a Heart-braker. Don't you mess around.

I realized the other day that the ball on the end of my brake lever had broken off... Strangely enough, it had been several days before I had noticed.

I think it happened the night I rode Julep (with Nereida as passenger) over to Tiffany's for a girls' movie night. For the ride back home, I hopped on and decided to try the electric start. It didn't work, so, I had to get off and pull the scooter back onto the center stand in order to kick start it. Now, the street is on an incline, and I didn't realize that I was at the edge of the driveway, where it ramps down a little to the street. So when I pulled the scooter back onto the stand, the right leg of the stand was not fully supported and the scooter fell over on it's right side. $@#! I wasnt sure I was going to be able to get it upright by myself. But with a 1...2...3... aargh!!! I got it up, alright. It was dark, so I felt the cowl for scrapes or dents, but there didn't seem to be any damage done. It semed the kickstart lever must have taken the brunt of the impact and spared any painted surfaces. Whew!

But then the following Sunday, when I parking the bike in front of our house after my ride home from church, I realized the end of the brake lever had broken off! I guess THAT'S what had taken the brunt of the impact. oh, well... It's a $9 part, but I'm thinking I'll leave that repair to the pros (when I eventually get the front fender replaced). I didn't even realize it was incomplete while I was riding. It still works. It's definitely still rideable. I'm not putting her on the shelf for the season just yet.

The Streets of Philadelphia

a selection of photos from last weekend's Revolution IV rally from scoot.net...

Meeting in front of the Art Museum in the wee small hours of the morning:


Riding downtown:


Griffin (and his girlfriend) on his Stella:


Showing those Vespa colors:


Lined up at Johnny Brenda's:

In the Midnight Hour

There are two scooter clubs in Philly. And each hosts a rally. The Hostile City Scooter Club has their "Independence Day" rally the first weekend of July (This year was "ID7: Lucky Number 7), and The Rabble Rousers have their "Revolution" in the fall. This weekend (Oct 5 - 7) is "Revolution IV: Rise of the Machines". Suffice it to say, I am not planning on going... I'm just getting into the swing of riding alone. I'm not sure I can handle being around dozens of scooters, not to mention their riders...just yet.


The weekend's activities vary from hanging out in bars, to breakfasts at Vespa Philly and IKEA, Karaoke at Johnny Brenda's, time trials, and various group rides – these include one up Kelly Drive to the Laurel HIll Cemetary, as well as a 2am cheesteak run to Pat's & Geno's, and finally, the most intriguing of rides – The 2am "True Crime Ride through Kill-a-delphia", where you can visit some of the city's most notorious crime scenes. Eek.

If interested, check out http://www.rabblerousersc.com/RRSC/revolution.html

You Spin me Right 'Round

Saturday was beautiful. And a riding day if I'd ever seen one. So I walked over to the Prunés' to take Julep out for her first spin in weeks. It took a few tries, but the kick start was successful. I felt like I was a little rusty, since I hadn't ridden in weeks, so I did my typical Northwood loop to warm up, and then stopped off at home to show Tim it was working.



Next goal: get gas (for the first time!). I rode over to the Exxon on Oxford Ave (another first), and filled the tank – it took a whopping 1.14 gallons (I told you it was still half full!).

I was feeling good, so I decided to get more daring. I rode farther down into Northwood than I ever had, and looped around onto Castor Avenue, a fairly busy street. I think I got up to about 35mph. All without going into 4th! Whatever Griffin did, the bike is riding noticeably better. It gets off better at corners and can go faster before requiring a shift which is greatly appreciated.

I felt really confident, so I decided to finally take the plunge and ride across the Boulevard to church. I did it without a hitch. I had one car pass me on a stretch of road with five stop signs... (excuse me for actually stopping at stop signs).

I returned home and gave the deserving Julep her first bath. Scrubbed up the "whitewalls" as best as I could (they are still not white), then dressed her up in her rubber floor mat, rear rack, and bag. And finally, I rode her back to the garage and tucked her into bed.

The sun had set on a pretty good day.

Sending Out an S.O.S.

(Save Our Stella, that is...)

So, yeah, wow. It's been over a month since I last posted... And that's mostly because, for awhile, AGAIN, Julep was refusing to start. She stalled out in the driveway a few weeks ago, and since then, nothing I tried would work. Electric start, kick start, leaning her to the engine side, still nothing. So, to say the least, I was a little frustrated, and was starting to regret this purchase. I didn't want to have to borrow Nereida's van and haul the scooter down to Philly Scooters for service... I've heard they take weeks, if not months, to get to work that is not prep and warranty work on scooters they have sold. I know that a good number of Stella and Vespa owners do their own maintenance and repairs, so, I sent out an email to the Hostile City Scooter Club Yahoo group... asking if anyone would be willing to come out and take a look at her. To my surprise, I actually got a few responses – from Joe in South Philly, Curt in Fishtown, and Griffin from Northern Liberties. It took a while to coordinate schedules, but hey, I could wait. I'd be waiting if I took it down to the shop anyway.



In the meantime, I was missing a lot of really nice riding weather... which made me a little sad. But early last week, Kirk rode his Ural Raven to work, and he took me out on a mid-day Taco Bell run. He rode around a bit and actually went out to 130 to give me the exhilarating experience of going 60mph in a side car. It was quite windy – I think I would have appreciated a full face helmet. But it was lots of fun. Thanks Kirk!

Griffin finally came out last night. He came straight from work at 7 and probably left us around 9/9:30. Keep in mind, this guy doesn't know me from Eve. That's pretty awesome. Anyway, he tried to start Julep... and good thing – she wouldn't start for him either. So I didn't end up looking like an idiot. He took apart the carburetor and sprayed in some carb cleaner and it (kick)started on that. BUT, he said, it appeared that it wasn't getting any gas. And trust me, the gas tank was about half full. He lifted out the gas tank and noticed that the gas line looked like it was getting pinched by the seam in the oil tank (which is attatched to the bottom of the gas tank). But he couldnt figure out how to avoid that. There didn't seem to be anywhere else for the line to go. So he fiddled with it and put the tank back in. Tim suggested that maybe if there was more gas in the tank there would be more pressure in the line... That would make sense, since as the level of gas went down, the scooter got progressively harder to start. I then also surmised that the fact that there is less gas getting to the engine, could be why the scooter was seemingly running rich (ed. note – Kirk just corrected me. He said if it wasn't getting enough gas, it would be considered LEAN. Okay, so I surmised wrongly). We wanted to test out Tim's theory, but he was unable to find his gas can.

While Tim was looking, Griffin messed around with some other stuff and then started putting things back together. He had managed to get it started and adjusted the idle speed up a bit (which I asked about before realizing that he had already done it). He suggested that I lay off the electric start and reserve it for if I stall out at a light or something. After getting everything back together (except for that pesky mixture screw plug!!!), he putted off to Mt. Airy. Many thanks, Griffin. We will be heading your way soon with a 6-pack of your choice. :)

Check back soon for a report on Julep's first day back on the road!!!