Sunday 29 April 2012

Better Late Than Never - Pt. One - White Rock

It's been a while, blog-wise, but I have been busy riding - I just haven't been very good about keeping up with the blog. Well, enough of that - time to catch up!

At the end of March, it was a very nice day so I decided to scoot down to White Rock, something I do quite frequently. I was wearing just a T-shirt and my Corazzo jacket that I was given for Christmas from the spouse, as well as a pair of jeans. It was uncommonly warm, about 16°C., and I was happy to take advantage of it, having recently returned from Maui where the warmth and lack of rain seemed very foreign. The Corazzo is a great jacket - waterproof, pretty warm, and definitely stylish!

The scoot down was uneventful. I took yet another quiet country road and thoroughly enjoyed being able to keep up with, in fact, actually pass, the traffic that I encountered.

I stopped for a few minutes, parking in the 30 minute free parking spot where a number of other two wheelers were parked. I snapped a couple of nice shots and then walked back to my scoot.



I decided, for some reason, to continue on and cruise by the beach. Since I have had this Vespa, there's been a bit of a shudder just when starting off. I figured it was something that could wait until the next maintenance time as my bank account was still reeling from my last servicing.  Well, the traffic was very stop and start and proceeded to lurch forward up a big hill.



My Vepsa was not amused. Instead of just a bit of a squeak and a shudder, it started making a loud grinding noise. It did this about three or four times until I finally could get away.

At this point, I almost drove it right to Vancouver to drop it off at Vespa Vancouver and have them do whatever they needed to do. But I didn't. Magically, as soon as I left the lineup, the scoot stopped making the noises. Happily, it's been over a month now, and it still has not returned to making that hideous sound. Will definitely have to get it checked out before the summer riding starts in earnest...

Going home was a bit more exciting. I took the #15 highway until the Golden Ears Bridge and it felt pretty safe! I am definitely getting used to the faster speed. Is that a good thing?


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