the possibly irrelevant musings of a scooterist...

MotoGP at Phillip Island - what a blast!

2008-11-03T03:06:00.000-08:00

I took the PX200 over on the ferry to enter the Show and Shine at the Island, as I did last year and the year before. I met lots of interesting people as usual, and even managed to get a small glimpse of me and the scooter shown on national TV, as part of their short segment about the Barry Sheene memorial ride. I also made a little video and stuck it on YouTube, in two parts. Came out rather well, I think!

http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=TOdoSbBiQGc

http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=90aJDWEKOKY

"Scootie" has now done over 35000kms, and tomorrow will be receiving replacement gear and throttle cables, and new steering bearings. I've also sent a few bits off for rechroming. He'll be like a new scooter after that!

Showtime.

2008-09-08T22:53:00.000-07:00

A local car, bike and boat show. Mostly muscle cars and Harleys with unfeasibly wide rear tyres. Flew the scootering flag with my smallest and largest scooters, which are also the oldest and newest.

The story of my big trip in January. I posted just pics back then, now here's what happened!

2008-08-18T22:27:00.000-07:00

My Mum wasn't happy, and Dad kept thinking up ways to stop me riding the 1700kms from Hobart to the National Scooter Rally at Port Macquarie. Truck it up there, or buy a ute, load the scooter and drive it there. But I intended to ride my mighty Vespa PX200, engine freshly rebuilt after breaking fourth gear on the track at Philip Island in October (long story... and a longer wait for parts), and I knew it would get me there. After all, two PX200s had completed the Paris - Dakar Rally in 1980, and they weren't even the later model with the front disc brake!

As a sop to the parents I invested in a new Armadillo riding parka, with armour in the shoulders and elbows. It's hard to find a long jacket that looks "scootery" enough for my taste, so this was the first proper riding jacket I've bought since I started riding seven years ago. Time to retire the old German army parka! I've always had decent helmets, though openfaced. No plastic shell for me; I don't have a $70 head, and the fit is always better with a good helmet anyway.

My first leg was to ride from Hobart to Devonport, to catch the ferry to Melbourne. This time I was going to try out my brand new GPS ("Mr. GPS") and visit a friend of mine, who had moved to the country west of Launceston. What a wonderful tool a GPS is! Now I know just how far off being correct my speedo is! At this stage I was still running in the engine, so was limiting my speed to around 80km/h and being gentle with the engine. Always on the lookout for cars building up behind me, and ready to pull over to let them by. Less stress for me, and less for them... Signs informed me that 110 was "a limit, not a challenge" - well, they didn't know what I was riding!

After my visit I zoomed towards Devonport, and the queue to get on the ferry. There always seems to be a preponderance of Harleys when I go over, and this time was no different. It's an opportunity to educate them in the ways of scootering!

The next morning, it was off the ferry and straight in to the Melbourne morning traffic, and fifteen minutes later, I was totally lost! I pulled out Mr. GPS at a refuelling stop - how the hell do I find the Hume? He directed me through a lots of suburban roundabouts ("at the roundabout, take the second exit") up through Whittlesea; out in the country, I hoped he was right! Happily the roads eventually intersected with the big highway north.

Now, I know most riders would hate the Hume. Long, straight, multi-laned. This is precisely why I had chosen it. I wouldn't have any tailgaters, because they could pass me; petrol stations and food are easy to find; and as I had roughly 400kms to ride each day, on a 200cc scooter I was still running in, any other route was going to be too long and too tiring.

I had been terribly organised and had planned all my overnight stays, booking the hotels online. My first night's stop was Holbrook, a town on the highway, with of all things the top half of a submarine buried in the ground. Curious, and certainly different! The town was named after Lieutenant Norman Holbrook of the Royal Navy, who in World War 1 was awarded a VC for his actions in the Dardanelles. The submarine HMAS Otway served in the RAN from 1968 to 1995 and the submarine's fin and casing were presented to the town, eventually reconstructed in the town and bedded down in concrete. And why not?

There, the hotel owners were quite interested in my scooter trip, and insisted on giving me an ad they'd cut out of the local paper. Sadly, it was for a selection of those Asian-restored Vespas, of doubtful quality, the like of which turn up on eBay regularly. After a pleasant stay in Holbrook, it was back to the Hume and on my way to Goulburn. This was to be a fairly easy day of only 325kms. On the way I saw a roadside letterbox convincingly modelled from metal as a giant spider... four feet across! I stopped at Gundagai for a stop at the "Dog on the Tuckerbox" memorial. The "rural city" of Goulburn is famous for its giant construction of a Merino sheep, and it was almost obligatory to park in front of it for a photo. I went inside, but sadly you can no longer climb the stairs all the way to the top to look out through its eyes. In the evening I buzzed around the town centre for a while, and selected for dinner an amazing little cafe/restaurant in the main street called the Paragon. Inside, it's Art Deco in style, with mirrored walls and a long wooden bar, probably the sort of place my parents would have gone to when I was not even a twinkle in their eyes back in the early 1960s.

And on to day four on the road. My goal today was to bypass Sydney and reach Newcastle. (Now, I realise there is a section of the scootering community which is very interested in fuel economy. In fact, some riders I know keep records and produce spreadsheets to work it all out. Well, this next bit's for you!) All of a sudden, I realised that travelling at 80km/h was giving me significantly better economy than when I travel at my maximum throttle position, with a speed of around 90 to 110. However, as soon as I considered I'd ridden for long enough to run-in the engine, it was back to full throttle, and damn the economy! At this stage, I began to wonder why I was doing such a long ride. Was I having fun? Well, not all the time. Was it a challenge? Oh yes! Was I a loony? Very probably.

Not far north of Sydney I came upon a broken-down Lambretta and stopped to talk to the rider, Bill, a Sydneysider. He was also on his way to the rally, but was waiting for a trailer to arrive so he could load it up and start out again with another scooter. In Newcastle, I had kindly been invited to stay at the house of Bucko, who I had only met online, on the Two Wheels forum. A nice guy and sadly now gone, while doing the thing he loved best - riding a motorcycle. I got to meet his Rat Black Vespa of Death, unfortunately not running, so he wasn't coming to the Rally. We spent the evening yarning about our two-wheeling adventures. The next day we rode to meet Dave and Carrie, also on a PX200 but two up, with whom I would ride the rest of the way to Port Macquarie.

And now the weather, which had so far been kind to me, broke up. For most of this day, the rain was sheeting down. We also had to contend with roadworks, and a lack of passing lanes, to make it even less pleasant. How glad I was that my jacket was waterproof! How sad I was that I hadn't brought my wet weather trousers! At one petrol stop I became aware that one of my white wall tyre inserts had started peeling away with the stress of so many kilometres per day, so I finished the job and tore it off to stop it flapping around. My scooter was no longer the pristine thing it had been when I left Hobart!

On arrival at Port Macquarie, we meandered around trying to find the accommodation for the Rally, in the process collecting another rider who was also trying to find it. Mr. GPS's battery had gone flat, but I managed find the location on a map I'd printed on the computer, moments before it comically disintegrated in my hands under the torrential rain. We were only two blocks away! And so, to a weekend of socialising, scootering and some drinking. I quite rightly won the trophy for "Furthest Travelled", with a total of 1742kms ridden so far. Some of the highlights were the rideout to North Brother Mountain, where you could see for miles. An evening "do" with friends old and new, dancing to some great music. And the chance to talk to others with a similar enthusiasm for those powered two-wheelers known as scooters.

But soon the rally was over, and it was time to hit the road again. It was back to sunny, but muggy, weather. On the way to Gosford I stopped at the National Motorcycle Museum at Nabiac, which I'd spotted during the rain on the way up. They have an extensive collection of all sorts of two wheelers, including scooters and mopeds as well as motorbikes. On show, there is even a very early scooter, the Ner-A-Car, from 1921. I could have spent longer there than I did, but I had 350kms to ride to get to Gosford.

I was very happy when I checked the hotel menu in the room at Gosford. They had an Indian restaurant downstairs, my favourite cuisine! What's this?... not open Mondays?... and today is - Monday. Ah well, the gourmet pizza from around the corner was nice.

Day two of the return journey was to be the most difficult yet. It was an entertaining windy little ride down the hill into Gosford proper, to stock up on some two stroke oil, and just as entertaining on the way back up. But what I thought would be an easy ride past Sydney to Yass turned out to be a hot and slow crawl through the outskirts of the big city. A truck had scraped the high and rocky walls along the M2 and caught alight. There was to be no passing it, and all traffic was diverted along the Pacific Highway. Some of the time I zipped along the hard shoulder to pass the almost stationary traffic, but sometimes there wasn't a shoulder, or there was too much gravel and broken glass and I didn't want to risk a flat tyre. It seemed that we were travelling through an endless suburbia and I had no real idea where I was. I found some shade at a service station for a comfort stop and consulted Mr. GPS. I hoped the battery charge would hold out as I had no way of connecting it to the scooter's electrical system. Back on the road, and after a while I was in familiar territory - suddenly the M7 intersection appeared, and I was a very happy scooter girl!

I rolled into Yass when the shadows were getting long, sometime after 6pm. I was knackered! To relax before dinner, I jumped into the shower but managed to whack my forehead on a grab bar, raising a big bruise. Another bit had come off the scooter as well- somehow the rear tyre had "eaten" the mudflap. What a day!

By comparison, day three was cruisy. The weather was milder, the riding easy with no major city to skirt. More bits came off the scooter - another white wall insert started peeling so I despatched it, and a clamping arm dropped off my front carry rack somewhere, necessitating much occy-strapping to keep the thing from flying off. Tonight's stop, Chiltern, was a lovely little place full of old buildings. The petrol station was two bowsers outside a large agricultural type co-op. Outside the small supermarket there was a coin operated kiddies' ride-on scooter, so there were at least two scooters in town that night! It was hot, in the mid-30s, so I opted for a frozen microwave meal in the hotel room under the air-conditioner. I am a Tasmanian, after all!

I enjoyed yet another full room service breakfast the next morning, and then, phew, it was on to Melbourne to meet the ferry! Unfortunately the weather turned to rain, and more worryingly, wind. Wind is the enemy of small light vehicles, and has just about blown me off the road in the past. Parts of the Hume are quite exposed, and elevated enough to make it hard work riding a machine weighing about 120kgs in the wind and rain. A Harley rider passed me and gave me a wave; I was quite surprised until I met him at a later petrol stop and found out he was a Frenchman, on his way to a Harley rally in Tassie. Interestingly enough, almost the moment I could see the outskirts of Melbourne, the wind and rain stopped and it became warm and sunny. I was able to visit my old friends at Vespa House, and check out another couple of scooter shops, before I needed to queue for the ferry. My friend the Frenchman was on the ferry, and there were many bearded large blokes in black who jumped on their Harleys the next morning and rumbled off to their rally.

I can't say much of interest about the rest of the trip. It had got to a point where I just wanted to get home, and every kilometre was one more click closer. My total distance travelled was over 3600kms, the scooter didn't miss a beat, and my riding skills and confidence were improved. I had my memories and photos of the trip, and the satisfaction that I had ridden my Italian ladies' shopping bike distances it was never intended to cover. I had made it!!

The tragic but temporary death of a scooter in 1969 or so...

2008-08-18T21:46:00.000-07:00

Well, all the bits are now at Ifan's. I stuffed the Mini full of everything, including the Rally frame, and Rally engine (which is now Ifan's). It was very full!

I drove up to Ulverstone first to pick up the last few bits that the former owner had found. This included the speedo - look at how few miles it had done at the moment of its demise.What amazed me, mostly, is how new looking some of the broken parts are. Could've been smashed yesterday.I also found that some of the rubber parts, such as the air filter bellows, are still soft and useable. We are going to use whatever original parts we can, but this won't be a by-the-book "correct" restoration with reference to paint charts etc. I'll leave that up to others who want to go that way. This is going to be MY scooter!

The continuing saga of Number Six....

2008-06-21T17:31:00.000-07:00

Well, the new frame arrived some weeks ago. In fact, I had to buy a complete Vespa Rally to get a donor frame for the SS180. Some might say this is sacrilege, but it's a very well-used Rally with some body repairs already but rust-free, and it does mean I get a bonus legshield toolbox! The engine should fit in with only perhaps a modification where the air ducting comes out of the frame, as the SS180 has a slightly different arrangement. The Rally arrived with the engine already out, so all I had to do was remove the headset, steering column and front wheel. I had the right tool to loosen the round nuts attaching the steering column, so it was all go!

My front room is full of boxes of parts - everything (almost) I need for the new front end, new rubbery grometty things, clutch plates, bearings, nuts & bolts, tyres & tubes. I was able to tidy up the seat, and dye some vinyl to almost match for a cover of the backrest on the new rear rack.

So, only a few parts left to get, and then it will be ready for the next step - taking everything to my friend Ifan's for some work!

A very scootery weekend!

2008-04-19T15:26:00.000-07:00

Had a camping trip to Bothwell in central Tasmania, with some friends who ride road/trailbikes. They still like me though! I had a chance to try out a super-duper sleeping mattress that packs up as small as your average Thermarest, but is much more comfy and warm. Lovely!

The next day was the scooter club ride, this month to Eaglehawk Neck. It was a really nice ride, and I realised that in fact I do counter-steer - something I've been doing unconsciously all the time.

Working on Number Six.

2008-04-06T03:26:00.001-07:00

This might look like a sad pile of rubbish to you. Well, bits of it are definitely rubbish! It is a late 1960s Vespa SS180, which had a serious front-end crash quite early in its life. I am now trying to locate all the bits I need to bring it back to its former glory. My friend, Ifan, who will be doing the work on it for me, has advised me that the frame is rooted so I am looking for a replacement. It doesn't help that this is not a common model, and it also doesn't help that the next best match is a Rally frame, another uncommon model. Without the frame we can't proceed. Wish me luck!

This is what I did at Phillip Island.

2008-02-23T17:11:00.001-08:00

This is the gear cluster from the PX. You can see that there are three teeth broken off. The other gears worked OK, but the broken teeth were rattling around inside and making a hideous racket. The wear on the gear at the top (first gear) is apparently from using the kick start, which I was using most of the time. Now I have the correct battery with the right number of cold cranking amps, so the electric start has been reliable again.

I did a big road trip!

2008-02-23T17:00:00.000-08:00

I finally got my PX back, and spent ten days on the road for a total round trip of 3600kms. Story to come; here's some pics for the time being.

Ready for the road:

The big Merino at Goulburn:
I got stuck in a traffic jam just north of Sydney:
I saw lots of these big bastards on the road:

Boo hoo, still in the workshop after two months.

2008-01-02T02:19:00.000-08:00

Waiting, waiting, waiting for parts...

A RAV4 is a good trailer alternative.

2008-01-02T02:05:00.000-08:00

I really wanted to take a scooter to a vintage motorbike show, but I didn't have access to a car with a tow bar, and, as in an earlier post, I couldn't get a scooter in my own car. However, I persuaded Mum to let me have a go getting the SS90 into her RAV4. I needed to unbolt a rear seat, but once that was done it fitted in beautifully!

I didn't win a trophy with my scooter, but it got lots of comments, and I enjoyed riding it around the oval wearing my old corker helmet.

Phillip Island adventure - the MotoGP!

2007-10-25T02:04:00.000-07:00

After the usual trip on the ferry, I managed to exit Melbourne without getting lost and was on my way to Bairnsdale for the Barry Sheene Ride. I was going to be travelling with two riders from Sydney - Kenneth, a Thruxton rider who also loves his Vespa, and Ted, a Monster rider. They had never been on the BS Ride before and were impressed with the number who turned up at the Bairnsdale oval on the Thursday morning, more than 800. The ride itself was an often sedate trip through appreciative country towns. We suffered a bit of rain on the way but it was fine for our arrival at the Phillip Island, where we all had fun riding around the track and taking photos of each other.

Friday's weather was pretty crappy, but it did mean you could get a good viewing spot, unlike Sunday which was very crowded. All I could do was find a good spot near a video screen and watch the GP race on that, with added sound effects from the finishing straight nearby.

I had entered the Show & Shine competition for the second year running. This year they had added a Best Scooter category, which my Vespa won easily as the other scooter entrant didn't turn up! Part of our reward was a lap of the track on Saturday afternoon, and after being breathalysed and the having the bikes scrutineered, we were out there! (apart from a minor hiccup when we had to get out of the way to let the riders of the preceding Superbike race get back to their pit area - oops!)

We all had a great time on our lap, including the rider of a Japanese 70cc machine who was really going for it! Just as I was coming through the starting grid area I decided to change up to fourth, and crunch! Back to third quickly, but that was the end of fourth gear for the trip. I did have a fiddle with the clutch cable back at our Cowes accommodation, and exchanged a few words with Marco Melandri who said he saw my victory lap, but he wasn't much help!

I decided to get a motorcycle transporter to take me back to Melbourne for Monday night's ferry, and was trailered the rest of the way home once I was back in Tassie. Now the Vespa is in for a rebuild, three teeth were broken right off fourth gear, but at least I got to do most of the things I wanted to before it went crunch.

I tried, but failed!

2007-08-29T19:27:00.000-07:00

I thought it would be worth having a go at fitting my smallest scooter in my Mini. I measured up the SS90, it would be a close thing I thought, but maybe possible!

I enlisted two helpers, and we lifted it in. Sadly, although we could get the scooter in, being able to put back the driver's seat as well, and perhaps even shut the boot, was another matter entirely...

I've been in the local paper again.

2007-07-21T19:12:00.000-07:00

This annoys my sister: "What have you done this time?" It seems when The Mercury needs a pic of a powered two wheeler in a hurry, they call me up. This time it was because AAMI (a motor vehicle insurer who doesn't like to insure PTWs) published a survery about car drivers' views on motorcyclists. To be specific, they said that in Hobart, 87% of tintoppers had seen motorcyclists doing illegal things on the road. Well, I couldn't take that lying down as I was certain 100% of motorcyclists had seen tintoppers doing just the same, so I wrote a letter in to The Mercury to state just this. They rang me up, took a few comments and sent a photographer around, and so it appeared in the next day's paper: http://www.news.com.au/mercury/story/0,22884,22108000-3462,00.html
Seeing as the photographer had got me to arrange the scoots so nicely, I took some pics and here's one. Unfortunately, I strained my back shifting the PX about, but on a happier note we have a few fine days in a row, ideal for getting out for (several) rides!

I don't have a Lambretta, but if I did...

2007-07-03T18:08:00.000-07:00

...it would have to be a Starstream!

Withdrawal symptoms.

2007-06-30T18:29:00.000-07:00

It had been at least three weeks since I'd gone out for a decent ride. The weather had been cold and often showery, and I'd been away too. But yesterday I got out for a buzz at last! First task as always is to select the scooter for the outing. I fired up the 50S but it wouldn't idle properly. Carburettor problems maybe? Outside my current expertise. I settled on the Primi, probably the most fun scooter I have. Small, light, manoeuvrable, with good low-down power, and not leastly, a very loud exhaust! I did a loop around the city with a stop at Salamanca market for fruit and veg. On Sunday, just for a pose I caught up with the Italian Motorcycle Club, where red bikes are de riguer. Not the only Vespa there today, I spied a lady with a black LX150 that was only 39kms old, and told her she needed to join the scooter club. Never waste an opportunity.

I'm sure I rode too fast and tried to burn off too many way more powerful cars at the lights, but I was just having too much fun! Better getta Vespa!

Happy almost new financial year!

2007-06-29T02:51:00.000-07:00

I've been over to Adelaide again, and this time we went to the National Motor Museum at Birdwood. I took these pictures of a selection of scooters they have there. The red one is an ex-Australia Post Vespa. They used to use Vespa 150 Supers before the Honda step-throughs they use now.

Oh, they also have some nice cars and motorcycles too!

This is what the Hobart scooter club looks like.

2007-06-10T17:20:00.000-07:00

Our first ride for winter. It was fine but very cool. This is why I have heated grips on the Vespa.

This is what a decent sized scooter club looks like.

2007-06-04T22:47:00.000-07:00

I spent another weekend in Adelaide, and saw the Adelaide scooter club gathering. Not everyone went on the actual ride, but for a meet on the first weekend in winter it was a good looking turn out!

Sunny Hobart, home of wine, whisky and wind!

2007-05-10T00:47:00.000-07:00

This weekend was spent showing my pal Brad around Hobart. On what turned out to be the windiest day this year so far, I took him up to the top of Mount Wellington where we had a good view of the city, but got very, very cold. The only way to fix that was to go wine tasting in the Coal River Valley after lunch at Richmond, a historic town with lots of sandstone buildings. It's a hard life! On Saturday we rode two of my smallframe Vespas to Salamanca Market, one of Hobart's popular tourist attractions. As Brad's a Lambretta rider, we were both pleased he didn't crash my Vespa at all! The next day was an on-foot tour of Hobart's shopping experience, topped off with whisky tasting at local distillery Lark. The rain held off for the weekend, and Brad seemed to have enjoyed the experience!

white PX "Scootie", killed in action aged 9 months May 2002 (warning: some may find pics distressing)

2007-04-25T17:44:00.000-07:00

It's almost five years since I lost my first PX in a crash. It was very sad! I'd learnt to ride on him, and dropped him a few times, we both had minor war wounds. I'd recently had a damaged side panel repainted, and was going to go for my full licence in a few weeks. We'd been on a grocery shopping trip and I was going home, I had just reached the first set of lights in my street which were green. There was a big white van coming in the other direction, and all of a sudden a dark coloured sedan popped out from behind it, no indicator going, which pulled right across in front of me. It was so close when it happened that there was nothing I could do. The scooter whacked into the front of the car's grille, I slid forward and punched the metal legshield toolbox in with my knees, flew over the handlebars and bounced off the car's windshield, landed on my feet and within moments was reaching for my mobile phone as the driver was totally shaking. That's not to say I wasn't injured, the ambos checked me over at the scene but later I went to Accident & Emergency at the hospital to be Xrayed and have some cuts patched up. While I was waiting one leg swelled up and I was not allowed to drive home, they gave me crutches for a week and some heavy duty painkillers. Later when the shock passed I was very, very unhappy.

What was worse for me was seeing my poor little scooter lying crumpled on the road. We couldn't even put him on the centre stand as he was too bent up. A nice lady came out of the nearby shop and gave her name and address as a witness, and as the guy had been driving a hire car it was all covered by insurance. The insurance company eventually wrote the scooter off as the forks had been bent, and no-one in Hobart knew how to fix that. I collected all the accessories that were still useable plus the squashed-in front mudguard, I still have it and some of the accessories are on my replacement black PX (Scootie 2). After being sold at auction, the scooter went to Melbourne where it was bought by Frank at Vespa House, incidentally, who I had originally purchased him from! He is still in the back of the workshop, and I visit Vespa House when I go to Melbourne occasionally and look at him and remember the good times.

Memories of getting my first scooter....

2007-04-02T23:46:00.000-07:00

I was reminded the other day of when I bought my first scooter, back in 1991. I couldn't ride, but was really into the Mod thing and also being at art school I just wanted to own what I considered to be a functional piece of sculpture.

I put an ad in the local paper - "wanted to buy, scooter" - and after looking at a couple of things that were definitely NOT scooters, I found a Vespa in reasonably good condition.

I didn't do anything to it for years. It was stored underneath the house I shared with the ex-husband for a few years, came with me when I moved out, and then lived in my garage, then my shed, then around the back of my house. When I finally decided to do something about getting my licence, I would sit on the scooter and practice rolling along the concrete path, which wasn't very long. But I eventually decided I should start riding something that wasn't a restoration project and bought a new PX (from Melbourne, as there was no Vespa dealer in Hobart at the time). And after a few more years, my 1967 125 Super was finally on the road...

Adelaide is a nice place.

2007-03-29T04:24:00.000-07:00

Last weekend, I visited Adelaide for the first time. I had conned Brad, a Lambretta riding friend, into inviting me to stay at his place. Virgin Blue run one direct flight a day from Hobart, so I caught that and arrived about lunchtime on the Thursday. I spent some time wandering around the shops before catching the bus to Brad's place in the Adelaide hills.

While I was there, we visited MacLaren Vale, an area where there are lots of vineyards, all conveniently arranged for much sampling of red wine! Very very nice! Adelaide also has an attractive coastline with beaches. It's much bigger than Hobart but seems to have nice clean air like we do, and some good shops! Happily, Brad was still my pal after the weekend despite having to put up with me descending upon him!

baptism of fire (well, wind really)

2007-03-17T22:54:00.000-07:00

I'd always been meaning to take the Primi up Mount Wellington (1271m high). You have to choose the weather, otherwise you can either get blown off the top, or not see a bloody thing. The road to the pinnacle (about 15kms with a couple of tight hairpin bends) was built during the Depression to occupy the unemployed. Lucky for us!

Apart from getting stuck behind a tourist who couldn't keep on their side of the road, and the clutch slipping a couple of times, the trip was very pleasant if a bit cool. You really feel the change in temperature as you ascend!

Once at the top we both (me and scoot) took a break for some pics and the obligatory chat with a curious local. Same on the way down, a quick loo stop at the Springs brought out the kiddies to ooh and ahh at the Vespa, and a bloke from N.S.W. who used to have a Lambretta.

well, why not.

2007-03-17T01:37:00.000-07:00

I seem to spend a lot of my time sitting at this 'ere computer so I might as well.