The Stealth Scooter

[Mortblanc]

Like many of the folks around here, the prep for the adventure is as much fun as the adventure!

I have parts stacking up for both two wheeled devices thanks to Ebay. Where else can you get panniers for $20 US, a bag to fit the step through section of the scooter floor, a selection of add on devices to improve your performance all for under $50 and total set of LED bulbs to replace all the lights and take the load off the stator.

I have also discovered that one can source parts from India and they arrive in a week. China takes a month!

I have purchased a nifty set of leg/engine guards, and a pannier rack for the RE and will install them as soon as I am allowed to pick up a spanner.

I fear the use of the RE is going to be several months out there due to the 200 kilo weight of that bike. It is one heavy sucker and I do not need to be wrestling with it. I am glad I got some road time in with it before this medical stuff happened. It is a fantastic "backroad bike". I would not want to put it on the motorway and compete with the big trucks we have here (they look like a freekin' Australian road train) at 80mph.

But the RE eats up the scenic routes and I have a long trip planned as soon as I am able to get back on the road. I want to make a 1600 mile round trip that covers one of our historic trails of the frontier era called The Natchez Trace. It is a national parkway 500 miles long that is set aside for recreational use. No commercial vehicles and speed limited to 55mph from start to finish with campsites situated every 175 miles or so along the road and access to nearby motels if preferred.

As soon as I can move around a bit without messing up whatever it is about this device they buried in me that I can mess up I will be messing about with add on devices. At the moment I dare not walk past any heavy magnets due to the number of staples they used to put me back together.

The way things work over here is that the law states almost the same thing regarding mo-peds and scooters that the UK law does; less than 50cc, automatic transmission, less than 2 hp, speed limited to 30mph.

Thing is that over here we have no traffic cameras in areas where I would go, and no police worrying about what I might have done to my scooter to make it go 0>30 in 5 seconds. Beside that the police here are not equipped to measure horse power or CC volume and a 50cc scooter without baffles in the exhaust only sounds like an enraged kitten rather than a full grown wildcat.

The poor little thing is choked down to nothing as it sits and a new carb and air intake, and a clean out of the exhaust system will make pulling the load I have planned a bit easier for the little burro.

I have also planned a dry run of all my gear before the riding test comes along. I have not done any backpacking for some time and most of my gear is outdated, but still usable. My pack base weight when I was hiking was down to 20 pounds for shelter, sleep system, cooking gear and pack, with the heaviest item being the pack. Food and water were added to that measure to total up to 40 pounds, back in the day, and that was still considered a moderate load. I was not an ultra light hiker nor was I one of the guys that bragged about toting 70 pounds for hundreds of miles.

Now I am not allowed to pick that loaded pack up at the moment, but the contents of the pack all are less than my individual weight restriction. As long as I load and unload the gear peace by piece, inside my restrictions, I should be able to make a couple of over night trips camping out of the Jeep. Nothing in my old backpacking gear weights more than 2-3 kilos individually.

I am going stir crazy just sitting here! I really wish this had been scheduled back in January, when there was snow down and temps were at ice age levels.