I went to Duluth this past 4th of July. This was a 300 miles trip and a major undertaking for me. In fact I never took my scoot anywhere that far. Duluth is a small port city on Lake Superior but in fact a largest fresh water port in the world or something like that. It is a common weekend destination for folks in Twin Cities. After all, this is about the only place you can get to in a day's worth of riding from here :) That is, of car riding. I learned one of friends attempted this on a scooter but wasn't able to get there. His story was he just had to refuel too often and so he turned back. I think he used one of juiced Genuine 50cc scooters for that trip. Well, mine is a 150cc so I had a better chance - but only one short evening to prepare!
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(Normal route would be of course 35W going straight all the way to Duluth harbor area.)
Here's what I did to get ready for the ride:
Changed the oil -- it was long due. Good thing I got some earlier that day. So the whole ride went on fresh oil.
Tightened as many nuts as I found. The wheels seemed tight on :) Checked nuts and bolts on muffler clamps and engine-muffler joint, the kickstands and brake calipers.
Checked the tire pressure. My back tire tends to leak a little. Got it back up to 33psi.
Found out one of my rear shocks is full of dirt and oil. Wiped it all out to see if it's leaking (looks like it does).
Packed some tools. Because I just did an oil change, I tool a 17mm socket and a ratchet in case I have to tighten it a little. Phillips screwdriver for panels battery etc. and a 6mm Allen key in case the mirrors get loose (which happens regularly with mine). Then I came across mount straps that I won at the Rattle My Bones last year. This is the stuff you'd use to mount a scoot on a truck. Since I quite seriously anticipated never making it, I took those as well. None of this stuff became of any use.
Packed some spare things in case of rain. Jacked and a pullover. Long sleeve shirt not to get fried up. Usual gloves and unusual helmet with dark shield. Spare goggles. Water bottles, backpack and a lot of bungee cords to tie it all down once I get tired. A camera and yeah, my tripod. Got some snacks before leaving.
Already on my way, got sunscreen and some maps at a gas station early next day. I have experience burning myself on scoot rides. The wind cools you down and before you know it, it's all done. Given it was going to be at least eight hours of riding under bright sun, I made sure to cover myself as much as possible. Surprisingly, the only "cars" at that station were trucks, SUVs and perhaps some minivans but not a single happy face.
The ride
I got out at about 10:30am. The Cenral quickly became 65th highway - with 65mph speed limit. This was a little stressful but hey at least it has plenty lanes to take over. Whenever the traffic would get heavy, I went at 60mph. However I'd often try to go down to 50mph. The day was hot and I was quite worried not to overheat the engine. 60mph for me is far in the red zone and as fast as I can make it go.
The things soon started to look quite rural. The cars disappeared, and so did any signs of big cities. Forests and farmland - it is really easy to loose track of signs and just keep riding straight ahead. Having to jump highways kept me awake - and hell was it easy to miss some. At some point I took a wrong turn and got onto that very 35W - going back to Minneapolis. I was a long while before the next exit - and I had to take a large piece of the road over again. Then later on Google maps seemed to send me over towards a federal prison, or so the road signs said!
At that point I was on Hwy 123/23 - a great road with beautiful sights. The only problem was it didn't have any gas stations. By the time I got close to Duluth, I was almost empty with the arrow just about to lay flat. But hey I made it! On my way back I tried a side road and found a gas station there. However, some of it was actually closed down by the department of commerce - not an encouraging sign indeed! Here are a few pictures from the trip (all are clickable for a larger image):
The damage
There was of course a good chance that my scoot will simply stop in the middle of nowhere. My biggest worry was the heat and the stress of driving at large speed for so long. The engine could have easily overheated in that day's heat and many-hour riding its max. Or it could be something benign like a molten plastic piece somewhere. Well, I was lucky not to get down with anything like that.
As I was going back, some screws must have finally fell off from the plastic panels on the front fork (the one with the headlights). Some of the joints there must have been broken from flipping the scoot long time ago; once it all got loose, the remaining mounting brackets got more than their share of stress and some must have broken from that. So I took out a little side panel just not to loose it and kept going. The large front panel would make quite some rattle but it stayed put and I was able to finish ok. Surprisingly, the tool that I actually needed --- and of course did not have --- was a roll of duct tape!
Other than this, there was no apparent damage whatsoever. The scoot seems to be doing just fine, it is now at over 6000km.
A little statistics
It took me just over four hours to get back. The weather got colder (I arrived just after midnight), and since the task was complete anyways I was driving at 60mph most of the way. With getting lost and lower speeds, it took me about 6hrs to get to Duluth. So with experience, it is quite possible to have a normal day's trip there on a scooter!
I put on a total of 549km, or about 340mi. I've used just over 5 gallons of gas, and the mileage turned out to be 66 miles per gallon. This is a little surprising given that I'd expect lower mileage driving at my scooter's top speed. On the other hand, there was no stop-and-go thing.
I've spend an exact total of $20.47 for gas on the whole round trip. That is, if you don't count some assholes that turned out to charge my card $5 for some mystical carwash, but that's a whole different story.
Well, as this is getting really long, I'll just stop here. It was hell of a day!
View Larger Map
(Normal route would be of course 35W going straight all the way to Duluth harbor area.)
Here's what I did to get ready for the ride:
Changed the oil -- it was long due. Good thing I got some earlier that day. So the whole ride went on fresh oil.
Tightened as many nuts as I found. The wheels seemed tight on :) Checked nuts and bolts on muffler clamps and engine-muffler joint, the kickstands and brake calipers.
Checked the tire pressure. My back tire tends to leak a little. Got it back up to 33psi.
Found out one of my rear shocks is full of dirt and oil. Wiped it all out to see if it's leaking (looks like it does).
Packed some tools. Because I just did an oil change, I tool a 17mm socket and a ratchet in case I have to tighten it a little. Phillips screwdriver for panels battery etc. and a 6mm Allen key in case the mirrors get loose (which happens regularly with mine). Then I came across mount straps that I won at the Rattle My Bones last year. This is the stuff you'd use to mount a scoot on a truck. Since I quite seriously anticipated never making it, I took those as well. None of this stuff became of any use.
Packed some spare things in case of rain. Jacked and a pullover. Long sleeve shirt not to get fried up. Usual gloves and unusual helmet with dark shield. Spare goggles. Water bottles, backpack and a lot of bungee cords to tie it all down once I get tired. A camera and yeah, my tripod. Got some snacks before leaving.
Already on my way, got sunscreen and some maps at a gas station early next day. I have experience burning myself on scoot rides. The wind cools you down and before you know it, it's all done. Given it was going to be at least eight hours of riding under bright sun, I made sure to cover myself as much as possible. Surprisingly, the only "cars" at that station were trucks, SUVs and perhaps some minivans but not a single happy face.
The ride
I got out at about 10:30am. The Cenral quickly became 65th highway - with 65mph speed limit. This was a little stressful but hey at least it has plenty lanes to take over. Whenever the traffic would get heavy, I went at 60mph. However I'd often try to go down to 50mph. The day was hot and I was quite worried not to overheat the engine. 60mph for me is far in the red zone and as fast as I can make it go.
The things soon started to look quite rural. The cars disappeared, and so did any signs of big cities. Forests and farmland - it is really easy to loose track of signs and just keep riding straight ahead. Having to jump highways kept me awake - and hell was it easy to miss some. At some point I took a wrong turn and got onto that very 35W - going back to Minneapolis. I was a long while before the next exit - and I had to take a large piece of the road over again. Then later on Google maps seemed to send me over towards a federal prison, or so the road signs said!
At that point I was on Hwy 123/23 - a great road with beautiful sights. The only problem was it didn't have any gas stations. By the time I got close to Duluth, I was almost empty with the arrow just about to lay flat. But hey I made it! On my way back I tried a side road and found a gas station there. However, some of it was actually closed down by the department of commerce - not an encouraging sign indeed! Here are a few pictures from the trip (all are clickable for a larger image):
The damage
There was of course a good chance that my scoot will simply stop in the middle of nowhere. My biggest worry was the heat and the stress of driving at large speed for so long. The engine could have easily overheated in that day's heat and many-hour riding its max. Or it could be something benign like a molten plastic piece somewhere. Well, I was lucky not to get down with anything like that.
As I was going back, some screws must have finally fell off from the plastic panels on the front fork (the one with the headlights). Some of the joints there must have been broken from flipping the scoot long time ago; once it all got loose, the remaining mounting brackets got more than their share of stress and some must have broken from that. So I took out a little side panel just not to loose it and kept going. The large front panel would make quite some rattle but it stayed put and I was able to finish ok. Surprisingly, the tool that I actually needed --- and of course did not have --- was a roll of duct tape!
Other than this, there was no apparent damage whatsoever. The scoot seems to be doing just fine, it is now at over 6000km.
A little statistics
It took me just over four hours to get back. The weather got colder (I arrived just after midnight), and since the task was complete anyways I was driving at 60mph most of the way. With getting lost and lower speeds, it took me about 6hrs to get to Duluth. So with experience, it is quite possible to have a normal day's trip there on a scooter!
I put on a total of 549km, or about 340mi. I've used just over 5 gallons of gas, and the mileage turned out to be 66 miles per gallon. This is a little surprising given that I'd expect lower mileage driving at my scooter's top speed. On the other hand, there was no stop-and-go thing.
I've spend an exact total of $20.47 for gas on the whole round trip. That is, if you don't count some assholes that turned out to charge my card $5 for some mystical carwash, but that's a whole different story.
Well, as this is getting really long, I'll just stop here. It was hell of a day!
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