Saturday was a good day for a ride though the White Mountains. I thought I might have made a mistake looking for a coffee in North Conway. It’s such a tourist town. Fortunately there’s some motorcycle only parking. That saved me a good mile walk to the coffee shop.
The line in the coffee shop was long but moved briskly. The front of the shop was absolutely packed with people -standing room only. However, just down a short hallway there was a back room that apparently nobody knew about. I had it to myself at first and enjoyed my coffee in quiet air conditioned comfort. Eventually a nice couple from Rhode Island joined me and we had a pleasant conversation.
My little 150 cc scooter had no difficulty keeping up with traffic. The only issue was in the steepest mountain passes. Fortunately there were good passing lanes so I didn’t hold anyone up. I was traveling with a pretty decent load on the bike. The saddle bags were on and pretty full of stuff. The idea is get some idea how mountain travel in next year’s Scooter Cannonball is going to be.
With that in mind I also practiced filling up the scooter from the spare 2.5 gallon tank. That’s carried in the milk crate on the back rack. Filling up the tank and taking a good swig of water takes less than five minutes. I figure that with the spare tank I’ll only have to make one gas station stop during the timed event. That’s assuming I start each day with a full fuel load. The 2013 Honda PCX only has a 1.5 gallon gas tank. The newer models have a 2.5 gallon tank, but I’m not going to spend that kind of money just for the bigger gas tank. My older scooter is in excellent shape.
Under ideal conditions I’ve been able to get around 100 mpg. In more real world driving that drops to about 80. With my big self, a full load on the bike, and wide open throttle all day my real world mileage drops to about 70 mpg. Those numbers all necessary to know before the Cannonball.
In my travels I able to meet up with a friend for a beer. He’s got a seasonal site at a campground south of the mountains.
Just before dark I pulled into my driveway -another excellent day on the scooter.
-Sixbears
another excellent day on the scooter.
ReplyDeleteAlmost musical to my ears friend!
Not to mention real time visits with friends, priceless as that old ad said.
Travel safe buddy. Intelligent folks are not that common.
A number of my old friends are making a real effort to get together in person when we can. The clock is running and you never know when the time is up.
ReplyDeleteThe scooter has been loads of fun and is super cheap to fuel and maintain.