Monday, June 25, 2007

The Buddy's Getting Fixed!

God, I'm so stoked. I've been scooterless for a while now.

I just talked to the lady at the shop, and the insurance company has approved their repair estimate. Apparently, if the dealer does the work, it costs about $1022 to fix a Buddy that's been laid-down (as opposed to hitting something) at 45 mph.

Hopefully, I'll have my Buddy back before August.

Sunday, June 17, 2007

Stupid Dealer Rant

While we were out riding yesterday, we stopped in a Yamaha shop in a town we were passing through.

I was half ready to buy a mesh jacket there. It was so damn hot (90°+ and on the hot FJR)

I looked at some bikes, and was looking with great interest at a Yamaha Royal Star Venture, which is their V4 retro styled touring bike. Full fairing, comfortable passenger perch, hard luggage, the works. I was about to swing a leg over it, and the sales guy yells: "SIR! I'd prefer you didn't sit on that one. It'd be expensive if it went down." I told him: "Not to worry, I'm a motorcyclist. Besides, how is it going to go down when it's on its kickstand?" He replied: "The other guy was a motorcyclist too."

We left that shop immediately. I would NEVER buy ANYTHING from a motorcycle showroom/shop that wouldn't let me sit on their motorcycles. I wouldn't buy from one that would give test rides either.

Had a nice 312 mile ride yesterday

My wife and I had a nice ride yesterday.

We took the FJR up to Madison, WI by way of Rt. 12 and the Kettle Moraine drive. She's going to apply for a residency there, and she suggested that as long as we're going up that way, we may as well have a look at the city to see if it is "acceptable" to her. I already knew that I love the town. It has two lakes right in the middle of it, and one just to the southeast. It has a lot of big, green parks. It's not as hot there in the summer as Chicago is. They have good snowboarding nearby, and it's not too far to Canada, where they have REALLY good snowboarding. They also have a TON of bike lanes, and they allow mopeds to park with bicycles, free of charge. I could bring my scooter up there and have an easy time of getting around.

We stopped for lunch in this huge field near the hospitals and watched people playing soccer while we had sandwiches.

Then, we headed south, to the twisty roads that were MY destination. Oh my God, the roads in SW Wisconsin are just brilliant. However, watch for farmers in their tractors and a lot of blind turns with no speed suggestions. On some of these, if you're going 60, then come up over a blind hill to find that the road suddently veers left, you're done. Going for a tumble in the trees & grass.

One time, a farmer had pulled out in the road with his tractor and trailer. I gave two quick polite beeps to let him know I was behind him and going to pass. I got in the oncoming lane and was going about 50 and he puts out his left arm and swerves right in front of me! Full brakes kept us from hitting him. Apparently, he had decided to turn at the exact moment I wanted to pass. It would have been just great, if he could bother to do a head check before swerving after hearing a double beep. x-(

After doing a lot of kickass roads, we stopped in New Glarus, home to the... Wisconsin-famous New Glarus Brewing Company. They make some excellent micro brew beers, the most famous of which is Spotted Cow. Very good. I had taken a tour there last time I passed through in search of good roads, so we didn't stop there this time.

New Glarus is very proud of their Swiss ancestry. They have all their big buildings painted up like old alpine Swiss buildings. Brown & wood on top, clean white on the bottom, and with pointy roofs. They even offer Swiss tours. I am highly skeptical that there is any real Swiss heritage there any more. More likely, they use that as a tourist trap to bring in revenue for the town. It didn't work. We stopped for another sandwich, some fruit and water, and moved on down through Monroe, WI. Monroe is home to another, more famous brewery; Huber Brewery. They make Berghoff beer and their own brand, as well as Hooch. My brother and I had a tour there a few years ago, so my wife (not a beer lover) and I didn't stop there. By this time, we had been riding for about 7 hours, so we were ready to be home.

We then took country roads home, which was nice. In Northern IL, they sometimes don't bother to label country roads, so bring your GPS. If roads are not labeled, maps are all but useless.

We got home, had showers and went out to dinner. It was nice to have air conditioning again after sweating all day on the FJR in the 90° heat.

After we were settled in and I had a couple of beers, I thought it would be nice to go for a nice, cool scooter ride, but alas, the bike is not here. I miss the little bikes.

Crashed the Buddy a couple weeks ago

I've been bad about updating lately, so here goes.

A few weeks ago, I was out for a nice summer evening ride on Bud. It was shaping up to be a great ride; hardly any traffic, the right temperature, clear roads.

But on the way home (probably 10 miles away) a deer walked out in front of me. The headlight on the '06 and earlier Buddy 125s is kind of lacking at speeds of more than 35 mph. So I didn't see her in enough time to stop properly.

Instead, adreneline kicked in and I locked up the front brake. The bike washed out from under me and I went flying. I was in shorts, sandals, gloves, helmet, and fleece jacket and reflective vest. The jacket & vest actually saved my arms & torso from getting beaten up too badly. All I got was a rugburn on my left elbow and a jammed right thumb.

Instead of taking up room here, I'll just post links to the pix. The scrapes were worse than they appear here. Here, they look like bloody scrapes from a B horror movie. In reality, the right knee one was almost down to the bone.

http://home.comcast.net/~jzorns/buddy1.jpg
http://home.comcast.net/~jzorns/buddy2.jpg
http://home.comcast.net/~jzorns/buddy3.jpg
http://home.comcast.net/~jzorns/bar_end.jpg
http://home.comcast.net/~jzorns/helmet1.jpg
http://home.comcast.net/~jzorns/helmet2.jpg
http://home.comcast.net/~jzorns/helmet3.jpg
http://home.comcast.net/~jzorns/right_knee.jpg
http://home.comcast.net/~jzorns/left_knee.jpg

The shorts, with wallet in the cargo pocket acting as armor, saved my outer left thigh from getting scraped.

The sandals.... didn't do anything for me. Both of my ankles had all the skin scraped off where the bones protrude on the outside. One of them even flew off while I was flipping through the air.

The gloves were cheaper, Olympia summer riding gloves. No armor on the back side. So two of my knuckles are scraped up. The leather on the palms and thumb saved me from losing skin in more important areas.

The helmet probably saved my life. I was going 45 mph when I crashed, and it is scraped in three different places: 1) middle top, 2) right front area of the chin bar, 3) left ear. If not for that helmet, I could have had my brains knocked out, my left ear ground off, and my jaw badly broken. I highly encourage scooterists & motorcyclists to wear a full face helmet. A study shows that the highest percentage of head hits during accidents are on the chin. If you think about this, it makes sense. So why do so many scooterists & motorcyclists wear open face helmets? Their brains are worth protecting, but their faces aren't?

I bought that helmet, a Shoei RF-800 seven years ago, when I bought my first bike, a 2000 Suzuki SV650. It has been comfortable and has served me well. I just received my new Shoei RF-1000 in the mail on Friday, and it is brilliant. As comfortable as the RF-800, but with much better ventilation, lighter and smaller. (and more expensive) The deductible for my crash ($250) will be sucked up just in the helmet.

I also ordered some replacement gloves, Icon Super Duty in natural colored deerskin. ^_^ These have perforated leather on the back sides, so they should hold up better than my cheapies did. These were $45 instead of $20. It has been my experience that in safety gear, you get what you pay for. (with helmets, you get more comfort but not necessarily more protection, assuming you buy a DOT/Snell model)

Now, three weeks later, all my scabs except one are healed up, and I'm left with that tender red skin where they once were. The bike is still in the shop and I'm still awaiting an estimate and availability of parts. I have this sinking feeling that since the Buddy is a Taiwanese scooter, (made by PGO) they're going to tell me it'll take over a month for parts. If that's the case, I'll probably buy something else. Maybe a Yamaha Vino 125, Honda Helix, or a Ninja 250. I just hope I can talk the insurance company into making the check out to ME, not to me AND the estimating bike dealer.

So in the meantime, I've been sweating my butt off riding the FJR. I love that bike, but it sure is a hot one to ride in the summertime. It's much better in spring, fall, and early winter. My wife and I did 312 miles on it yesterday. More on that in another post.