Early Morning Ride to West Chester - Horses & Leaves

This 8 minute video shows one of my favorite early morning weekend rides down Goshen Road in Chester County to West Chester and back. I used iMovie to speed up clips here and there and did a voice-over narration.

Look for the fox hunt procession at minute 4:35.

Riding Home from Norristown

After visiting a good friend in Norristown on Saturday, I turned on my Contour camera on the ride home. Some interesting curvy roads, but the main reason I'm sharing the video is to show off my new skills at working with iMovie. I turned a 37 minute ride into a 6 minute video. You can also hear my Screaming Banshee air-horn at 2:55. Check it out...

Philadelphia Ride for Kids - Main Event

The Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation is a wonderful charity that sponsors rides throughout the country. I attended the ride last year after owning my new scooter for only 2 months. I found out about the organization and ride through my membership in the EZ Riders Scooter Club.

I got to ride with 100+ other motorcyclists for a police-escorted 40 mile ride. Intersections were guarded - didn't even have to put our feet down!

View the brief (<5 min) video from Valley Forge Park to the staging area.

Philadelphia Ride for Kids 2012 - Prelude

Six EZ Riders members and guests met up in Valley Forge Park for the 15 minute ride to the staging area at the Valley Forge Christian College. Here's a brief (<5 min) video from Valley Forge Park to the staging area.

See the "main event" video.

Dover AFB: Air Mobility Command Museum

My longest and hottest ride yet. At times, the air temp on my bike's dash read 106 degrees! Good thing I brought plenty of water - some of which went straight down the front of my shirt. I didn't sacrifice comfort for safety - still had on my protective gear (boots, armored jacket and helmet, of course).

Seven from our EZRiders Scooter Club met at Lucky's Coffee Shop in Talleyville, Delaware, just north of Wilmington. Then we rode about an hour to eat an early lunch at Crabby Dicks at the Delaware City Hotel. I was the only one who ordered Crabby Dicks famous Crab Balls. After a leisurely lunch, it was on to the Museum, another hour long twisty ride along the Delaware bay.

Click to see view from my Contour Helmet Cam

Click to enlarge (that's me and Hammy in the center)

There's plenty to see in the Air Mobility Museum. I even climbed into Air Force 2 (now retired) and saw the last airborne lair of VP Cheney.

Our club's very experienced ride leader was Hammy - thanks for a great ride! View the Google map of our route, almost 180 miles round trip for me. 

Beaver Valley Road Ride

Just followed my nose and found some great rides near Ridley Creek and Brandywine State Parks. Here's a clip from somewhere on Beaver Valley Road.

Shot with a Contour. See the original at http://contour.com/stories/303543.

Time travel - met up with a 1977 Suzuki

Time travel. I met up with a 1977 Suzuki just like the one I rode when I was in graduate school decades ago.

Tried some captions via Youtube, on this one. Shot with a Contour. See the original at http://contour.com/stories/291757.

Karakung Drive on my Piaggio MP3 500

Karakung Drive is my favorite starting point for joy rides on my Piaggio MP3 500.

I experimented with adding a sound track in Youtube. Shot with a Contour. See the original at http://contour.com/stories/291753 .

Church & Darby Roads on my Piaggio MP3 500

My second ride with my new ContourGPS. I just received the 360 Helmet Mount and was anxious to try it. Again, one of my favorite weekend rides on Church & Darby Roads. The wind noise is distracting, so just turn down your speaker volume. Looks like the classic MG had engine trouble (0:31). Note that I used my new Banshee Airhorn to warn a car (10:05).

Shot with a Contour. See the original at http://contour.com/stories/288811.

First Contour Camera Ride

My first ride with my new Contour GPS camera. A brief video along one of my favorite early morning rides, Mill Creek Road near Wynnewood. I used the rotating flat surface camera mount stuck to the side of my front fairing.

If you want to see exactly where I rode, look at the Contour Stories site showing the GPS map, speed and elevation at http://contour.com/stories/288280.

My new Screaming Banshee Horn is Installed!

I discovered the Banshee Horn project on Kickstarter and thought the inventor had a great idea*. The stock horn on my Piaggio is quite weak - beep beep. It made sense that I could still use my stock horn to gently warn a pedestrian in a cross walk without making him/her jump out of their skin by blasting an air horn that sounds like a Mack Truck!

But... just hold in the normal horn button for 1/2 second and you get the full pulsing air horn blast and flashing high beams!

Here's what the install looks like on my Piaggio. Note that I drilled a hole in part of the bike frame to solidly mount the horn - part of the frame used to attach the fairing. I didn't really trust the bracket approach specified in the Banshee instructions since it resulted in two possible connections that could vibrate loose over time.

Fairing removed showing placement of Control and Horn

Horn bolted to fairing frame

Control Box attached using heavy-duty velcro

Stay tuned for my first test video of the new Banshee Horn! You can buy your horn at the new Screaming Banshee website.

*I pledged $75 back in January to get one of their first production units (they exceed their funding goal of $12k and received over $30k!). I got my horn at the end of March, but wanted to wait to receive electronics for my next bike mod before I dissembled my Piaggio. Finally was able to finish both projects in May.

Serious Bike Riding in London & Paris

Just enjoyed our 25th wedding anniversary by celebrating in London and Paris. Traffic was incredible in both cities and with the cost of petrol at over $8 per gallon in London, it is not surprising that motorcycles and scooters were everywhere. There wasn't a corner in London or Paris that didn't have scores of parked bikes. Not only small Vespas and Chinese scooters but sport bikes and Harleys. It seemed that almost 1 in 5 were Piaggio MP3s but I never once saw my particular model, the MP3 500 (in Europe it's called the Gilera Fuoco 500ie).

Click Photo to Enlarge

I like riding my bike, but the traffic there was crazy! I'll wait to get back to my quiet country rides.

Horse Country Near Valley Forge

What a beautiful day. Who'd believe that we're still in March! I rode about 40 miles solo on some of my favorite roads in Delaware and Chester Counties: Darby, Sproul, Conestoga, and North Valley Forge. I wandered around and through Valley Forge National Park and then further west on Yellow Springs Road where I discovered this wonderful horse ranch.

Not bad for an iPhone video

Chester County Rideabout

EZ Riders Scooter Club sponsored a scenic ride through some nice wooded parts of Chester County. We met at Valley Forge Park at 10:30. The temp was in the low 40's but my hands were toasty warm thanks to my new electric gloves.

We met at Valley Forge Historial Park

Hammy led the group of six along some twisty roads near creeks and Ridley Park, but nothing particularly hard. First time I rode into Delaware. We had lunch at Pure Bread Deli. All sandwiches named after dog breeds - get it? I split off solo on the ride home rather than detour out of my way back to Valley Forge. Fun ride, about 80 miles in all.

Click to enlarge image.

View Map of 80 mile Ride

Bucks County Ride - Tabora Farm Orchard & Bakery

TomN from EZ Riders Scooter Club hosted this ride. I was the only one besides Tom who showed, but that was just fine. We met at Danielle's Espresso Cafe in Ambler where I treated myself to a latte. Tom then led me on a great ride through Bucks County where we stopped at Tabora Farm Orchard & Bakery. Great bakery. Had lunch outside in the balmy 50 degree weather.

Lunch with Tom at Tabora Farms (Click Image to Enlarge)

As expected, during the ride, my fingers were the only cold part of my body. Tom suggested stopping at Montgomeryville Cycle Center and checking out a new pair of warm gloves. What a selection and some heated gloves were on sale -- sold! Thanks, Tom, for leading the ride and steering me to MCC.

Bought my electric gloves at Montgomeryville Cycle Center

I clocked over 75 miles on this ride (forgot to turn on my iPhone Cycle Meter app though).

Just call me Darth!

No, it's not really me, but it IS my Piaggio. Enjoy...