Dan in Clearwater

[benrama]

Hello all, my name is Dan, and I’m new to scoot-ing-ering, as well as Scootdawg. I’m twenty-nine, and I found this forum the night I bought my blue Lance Vintage. I’ve already found you guys quite helpful, and I find myself checking here often enough, that I thought I’d join up and say hey. Howdy from Clearwater, Florida.

The process that led to my Vintage purchase started at Vespa/Piaggio, where I’m sure many scooter searches begin. I then saw a Vino scooting by in town, and realized I should be checking other offerings as well. As I looked at the offerings from Yamaha/Honda I slowly fell for the Vino. Less power than the Vespas I liked, but way cheaper.

Then I found the Chinabikes. Whoa, talk about cheaper. The reviews turned me off them at first, but once I found the Vintage, I took a second look. The bad reviews were all from poor spellers who, without fail, had the scoot delivered, and then had those minor pain-in-the-bum problems that take a little time and knowledge to fix. The good reviews either came from those who sounded like mechanics or people that actually knew what they were doing.

No problem, thinks I. I have a dealer nearby that carries the Vintage. They can handle those pain in the bum problems, and the extra money I pay will still be way less than anything else out there.

So that’s my intro; I write a lot, so I’ll probably be back. Thanks for reading.

[kaintuckdave]

Say Dan, welcome to the Dawg Pound. Tell us about your ride and your experiences so far.

[benrama]

I was gonna stick this in the 125 an' up, but I'll put it here to start:

So, I’ve had my ’08 Lance Vintage for 740 miles and I’m ready to give my impressions. I’m new to this forum and I’m no mechanic, so I probably won’t reveal anything especially new, but since I may have questions later on, I thought I’d share what I could.

Since break-in is such a big issue with the little engines, I’ll tell you how mine went. I didn’t find this forum until the day after I bought my bike, so I didn’t get to read the Motoman article before the first fifty miles. I have, however heard what goes on during break-in, so I was pretty much doing it the Motoman way anyway, just not by the letter.

OIL. My dealer (a whole ‘nother post) did not change any fluids, and judging from the bolts I checked, didn’t do much of anything else either. The first fifty miles ended up on chinoil, but I waited until I changed it before any hard acceleration, anyway. I am currently using Mobil 1 10-40 like the manual says, but, I’m thinking about using 15-40 for the next fill. I’ve changed it twice, and the gear oil once, since the initial (late) change, and the bike runs smooth as a kitten now. I’m going to give ‘em both a change tomorrow if it’s not raining as I’ve been running pretty long rides the last few days.

The low beam went out the day after I bought the bike (it came on when the steering was full left, and only when the steering was full left), so I had the dealer open it up and check the wiring. A week later the high beam goes. I checked WallyWorld and Advantage, no bulb, so I decided to pull the RetroAJ trick with the 9003 bulb (I have a metal light housing), although I had to buy a (high-temp 9003) wire harness since I didn’t have one lying around. The new light is a bushel of candles brighter, and I’ve run the high beam a few times in no-street light areas with no ill effects on the battery/electric starter yet; the light does dim a bit when the bike is off as opposed to running.

I’m so digging on the bike handlebars and the mirrors and the big low seat, they make it ride like a mini cruiser – crazy fun all over town. I have the blue one, and while the other colors seem flat (I’ve seen the pink and black in person), the blue seems to have gold flecks in it, like Honda paint. It looks like two different shades in the sun; I like it. Mine didn’t come with a topcase, which is just as well, ‘cause I probably wouldn’t use it, but I kind of want a little duffel-shaped tailbag; maybe I can get one that’ll fit my little luggage rack, that’d be sweet.

The scoot’s been getting 70-80 mpg’s, just as expected, but as it’s been breaking in the mileage has been slightly improving/stabilizing; the last three tanks were 75, 75, 76. Maybe my driving’s improving as well. I’ve briefly had it up to an indicated 65-ish, and I had the feeling that given a downhill slope and a few more miles of clear road, it would have gotten up to 67-ish. It seems to scream rather distressingly above 55, but at any speed below that, it rides like a dream.

Overall I’m glad I got a scooter, and I’m glad I got the Vintage. I have a feeling I’ll be riding it for many miles.

[benrama]

A few weeks in and this is my scootgear:

A Joe Rocket Phoenix 5.0 mesh jacket.
I live in Clearwater, Florida, famous for our sun and beach. It’s June and already in the 90’s, and this jacket has so much airflow, I forget that I’m wearing it while I’m moving. I can even wear it inside and it lets the AC in without getting hot. It’s a sportbike style jacket with full elbow, shoulder and back armor, along with a spine pad and side rib pads. It was designed for a more forward riding position, so I’m thinking about raising the spine pad an inch or two, since it rides up when I’m riding anyway. Mine is bright yellow and black. I haven’t tested the armor, but I like the jacket so far.

KBC tk 410 helmet
This is the standard white scooter helmet, the one that’s in all the movies. I like this one because it has a leather zip-off ear/neck lining. I wear this in the daytime with tinted motorcycle goggles, no complaints.

KBC FFR Cruze modular helmet
This is a blue full face helmet with a flip up front. It has adjustable top and mouth vents to increase airflow which work as well as you’d expect. This helmet is a little noisy, but nowhere near as loud as having no ear coverings. I wear this almost exclusively at night for a variety of reasons: The white one is way cooler in the sun and way more visible, I haven’t gotten a dark tinted visor yet, although the yellow one is great for stormy days, and the bugs, bats and owls around here make a full face helmet almost a necessity at night. I know that some people feel that anyone not wearing a full face helmet is asking for trouble, but it’s nice to be able to decide before a ride, and a ¾ is hella better than nothing.

Hatch RFK300 resistor gloves
These are Kevlar lined, cut-resistant police duty gloves. I think they have been replaced by the searchmaster line. These are fairly thick cowhide, but being duty gloves, allow great feel and control. They have a decent CE abrasion rating on top of being cut and tear resistant, so I feel like these should hold up for any emergency scoot slide where they have to meet the road. The Kevlar lining has the added benefit of keeping your skin off the leather, slowing down any sweating.

Chukka Boots?
These are the only over-the-ankle boots I own at the moment. Anyone who knows what a chukka boot is must be chukka-ling at me thinking these’ll protect my ankles, but they are suede. I’m probably going to get some non-skid wallyworld boots soon, until then I’ll be wearing chukkas or low topped leather skate sneakers. Better than the flip-flops I keep seeing on scooters around here.

I also only wear regular jeans or maybe shorts. I know that this is not the brightest idea, but I figure that the chances of being trapped under my scoot on a slide are slimmer than if I was on a motorcycle, so my chances of sliding on my ankles and legs are correspondingly slighter. Is this blind thinking? You guys have heard way more about scootwrecks than me, are scoots just as mean to legs/feet as motorcycles during wrecks?

[nickiemcnichols]

Hi Dan,
This is Nickie in St Petersburg. I don't know where your Vintage came from, but we bought our Venice from Retro Scooters in St Pete. We have not regretted it for a moment. I just sent them a letter thanking them for their wonderful service.
When we saw the price (we shopped 4 dealers) we jumped on it. We are thinking of getting a blue Vintage also, I really love that color. The Venice is red, and is a wonderful scooter.
We are looking for local riders to ride together, maybe a museum run, ride to lunch, etc. We have a Yahoo web group called ScootPinellas that Annie has put up to announce rides, dealers, and stuff like that, to sort of locally supplement ScootDawg.