Nice rack!

Perhaps the greatest challenge for the scooterist, aside from avoiding crazy motorists, is carrying the things you wish to carry, in order to do the things you wish to do, whatever that may be and wherever that may take you.

For this reason, most modern scooters come with a back rack and underseat storage. Some scooter companies offer additional add-on options such as front baskets, hard bags, and so on. Such things are also available as after-market items as well. The downside of this is that these additional items cost money.

If you're like me, money is probably something you are currently trying to save rather than spend, so you may need to be creative. While it is equipped with a rear luggage rack, the People 150's rack is tiny compared to some others, and will not accomodate a crate or other contrivance, so I had to modify the rear rack myself.

I looked at several options. PVC pipe was a thought, but I could not find connectors that would work for my needs. Copper pipe was another option, but I didn't think I wanted that kind of temptation out there for copper scavengers, plus, the stuff is not cheap. So I turned to my basement where I found some 1X3 lumber from a previous project.


A few slices with a saw, a couple holes made with a drill, and several countersunk screws later, and I had my rack extender.


I secured it with some bolts, and then decided to look at my options for carrying devices.



A crate will fit nicely and can be bungeed or zip-tied in place. While it doesn't look elegant at all, a crate can be highly utilitarian.


Since I don't have a car, I was concerned about how I could get my shotgun to the range or the fields without alarming other motorists. A shotgun slung over the shoulder would likely raise too many eyebrows.

I have two Plano hard gun cases, so I used one for some experimentation. For the moment it is secured with screws, but I will be changing that to bolts and wingnuts eventually to enable relatively easy removal.

A test ride revealed that the balance and aerodynamics of the scoot have not been affected. I will have to be careful to balance the load inside the box, but while empty, it doesn't cause any ill effects.


As I was riding, I stopped in at Lee's house. I've been meaning to get over there, and since my afternoon was open, it was an excellent time to stop in. We talked over some iced tea, and he suggested that I attach some reflectors to the box to minimize raised eyebrows from those with badges.

We talked a little more before I hopped back on the scoot. Lee had pointed out one of his neighbors who rebuilds bikes as a hobby. Since I was passing by that gentleman's house, I stopped to admire his most recent accomplishment; a fully restored 1984 Kawasaki 454. While we were talking, he said he had some reflectors I could have, so they are now on either side of the hard case.

I suppose it's a bit unorthodox, but as I said, sometimes you just have to be creative when you don't have any extra funds to throw around. All told, my day's expenses total exactly $0.00. That's a number I can gladly accept.

**Edited to add:**

I rode around with the gun case on the back a little more and one of the nuts holding the rack on came loose. I replaced it and put it on with a lock-washer this time. Now it should hold.

All I need to do now is stain it and try to weatherproof it a bit.

Relaxing after work.

Today was a fun day at work. I mean that in the most sarcastic way possible.

It wasn't the residents, they were fine.

It wasn't my co-workers, they were fine too.

It wasn't the work, since I really enjoy my job.

It was the migraine I had from about 7 am until I left work.

I'm wondering if it's not something in the heating/cooling system ducts that might be messing with me, but it was not a good time in any event.

After I got on the bike and got the wind in my face, my headache went away. The Sabre thrummed along happily beneath me, taking me safely home. Once I got home, my son and I went fishing along the Conestoga River.

We took the car, since my wife wanted to come along, and she sat at a picnic table reading while we loaded some live bait on circle hooks and headed down to the water.

The water itself was refreshingly cool, despite the 90 degree heat, and I had soon settled into the rhythm of casting my makeshift fishing combo out into the flow of the river. It is interesting how necessity breeds odd bedfellows, as I did something with my tackle which would probably give a fly-fishing purist an aneurysm. I paired an ultralight spinning reel with my 15 year old 8 ft fly rod and I was amazed by the flowing casts I achieved. It also made fighting the smallmouth and red-eyes (rock bass) very entertaining.

The Conestoga is, perhaps, not the best smallmouth bass fishery in south-central PA, but it's not far from home and the bass aren't afflicted by any of the issues they are having in the Susquehanna River at the moment (odd fin formations and such).

My son did not do as well as I, but he did manage to hook a bullhead and one tiny smallmouth.

All told, I caught around ten fish, of which none were gut hooked and all were released, though one exceptional specimen (about 14 inches), was allowed to pose with me in the above picture. This was accomplished through the use of a circle hook, which I have come to trust as my weapon of choice for all live bait fishing. Circle hooks, due to their shape, tend to cut down on gut-hooking, which allows for more successful catch and release.

One important note, when fishing for bass it is pertinent that the fisher limit handling of the body of any fish that he or she will be releasing. Bass secrete a protective mucous on their scales which can be rubbed off by the hands of a careless fishermen; however, through use of a net and picking the fish up by the lower jaw, this can be largely eliminated (as illustrated in the above photo). This method does not harm the fish, and minimizes contact with the mucous which the fish depends on to protect itself from bacteria and the like.

It was nice to get out fishing this weekend. I've only been out a few times so far, and I have to say, I miss the sport dearly.

The price of exhaustion

No, I did not wreck, but I did learn something about my limits this week.

I have read many times, and heard it said many more, that riding long distances or for long periods of time, can wear out a motorcyclist. For this reason, I have never ridden long distances without pacing myself and taking breaks when necessary.

This week marked the annual day camp and teen week for my Church. As one of the youth leaders, I pitched in and helped out with the teens on four of the five evenings. It was a genuine blast by the way.

This event is held at Woodcrest Retreat just northeast of Ephrata, PA. For the first three days, my wife and I took our son to the camp in our Toyota, but for the last day, my wife was not feeling well, so the kid and I hopped on the Sabre, and off we went. Knowing that the roads deeper into the retreat were gravel, I told him he would need to dismount once we were past the paved areas. Even so, I didn't proceed much further and parked the bike at the top of the hill instead of parking down the gravel drive near the pavilion.

Now comes the part about exhaustion.

After the teen camp festivities had concluded for the evening, I slowly coaxed the Sabre out of the graveled areas, and onto unbroken pavement, where my son re-mounted and we started home. We were nearing home when I started to feel some difficulty keeping the bike upright. It dawned on me that I was overtired and this was a symptom. I had worked all week, then devoted four hours each evening to the church's teen camp, and the week's activities had taken their toll. I said a quick prayer and was able to regain my focus, but I immediately got off the highway and made my way to quieter roads which would provide less risk to myself and my precious passenger.

We made it home without incident, but I have a new perspective on exhaustion and riding that I had little previous appreciation for. I'm not sure if it is a feature of ADHD or just something unique to me, but even when I am tired, I've never felt quite the same while riding, and riding my bike or scooter has never driven me to the point of exhaustion. We folks with ADHD tend to have higher metabolisms and tend to have trouble slowing down. Perhaps this accounts for my heightened stamina while riding, and could explain why I have never had the same difficulty riding as I experienced last night.

I wanted to take a ride tonight, but had worked another eight hours this morning, then spent a few hours at my church's annual carnival. Having learned my lesson from last evening, I decided to remain at home and watch Bicentenial Man with my wife.

My point is this, for less experienced, and even more, the warnings regarding exhaustion and riding must not be ignored. From personal experience, I can now vouch for how true these warnings are.

I'm very thankful that my experience ended well. I can't say I will never ride while exhausted again, but I hope I will be able to avoid doing so with a passenger, especially when that passenger is my son.

Inspection blues

It just so happens that both of my bikes are due for inspection and registration renewal at the end of August. The scooter passed inspection, but needed a replacement left brake lever. The Sabre, on the other hand...

Let's just say the speedo issue is catching up with me. While I was able to replace the cable and sensor about a month ago, the speedo still bobbles up and down but doesn't register anything about 10mph, which indicates that one of the gears, either on the top end, or the bottom end has probably lost some teeth.

So, I've got the bottom end on its way from a seller on eBay. Hopefully this fixes the problem. I just have to find somebody with a jack and an air wrench so I can get the front wheel off.

This should be fun.

On the plus side, I was able to take a friend riding yesterday. He gets around in a wheelchair and had never ridden a motorcycle before. He held on for dear life, but reported that he had enjoyed himself.

Hopefully I can get this speedo situation resolved so I can provide more rides in the future.

Interesting electric concept

After finishing my previous article, I got to looking at the Zap! electric vehicles website, and came across the Alias.

If it's not just talk, this could be a step in the right direction. It's still a plug-in electric and doesn't answer the problems of pollution from power plants, or the price aspects, but it does address some of the performance concerns, and a range of 100 mpc (miles per charge) is better than most other electrics. They make the claim that they are in collaboration with Lotus on the design aspects, which is promising.

It's a classy looking vehicle in the photos (though the above photo was obviously computer manipulated: the lighting and shadows aren't right).

If they can pull it off, and put a more affordable pricetag on it, the Alias might just be the ticket.