Thursday, September 18, 2008

Stud

The exhaust stud on the bobo bike's motor broke yesterday, and we
couldn't extract it from the head. Pulled the motor and put in the
snazzy one from my Gts. It was a long day for all involved. I had
gotten to the hotel first, and rode immediately to get this worked on
at Vespa saint louis. They were totally great, jeff and Daniel
especially. Great job, Daniel, the bike feels really good with the new
motor, new rear tire, and all the other love.
Today, I figures out a great strategy:
When there is a long line of traffic being held by a flag person for
construction, get off the bike, shut it off and walk it up the side
luke I am out of gas. When I got to the front of the line, talk to the
person in the first car about anything, just to make contact. They
will let you go first.
Then: if the construction is taking forever, tell the worker lady or
guy that you are late for your best friends wedding. I did that every
time I hit construction today on 50, and they let me walk my scoot
through every single time. Devious, but it totally worked and got me
ahead without going too fast or taking stupid risks while passing
semi's all day. We had to do that anyway, but without going TOO nuts.
It is absolutely incredible to have the good engine in the bobo bike.
I hope to pull up to second as of today. I think I did. Even without a
gas tank custom built on the bike the way all the other front runners
have done. I would do it like patrick did it if I could do it over,
for sure. Low, and large capacity, with a pump to refill my tank on
the fly.
Next time...
Mark (mp3) is SO consistent, and so it really puts the pressure on me
to get way out front so I can stop for gas without him passing me
every time. Luckily I have good stoplight karma...
Day eight, and I am in cincinatti!! Only two more days!!!!!
There is going to be a live feed of the finish, sonewhere on the
interwebs. I will post when I get the link.
I will have more pics later.
The ride was another 400 miler today, but it just felt so good to be
riding that engine again that I was bummed when it was over. Seriously.
Thank goodness there are a couple days left before I give that thing
back to bobo and break in my scoot with a ride from ocean city to
Brooklyn!!!!!

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