Ahoy, a great time at Action Wheelsport's scooter maintenance seminar. Ye'll ne'er get me buried booty!

Today Maureen and I celebrated International Talk Like a Pirate Day and attended a free scooter maintenance seminar given by the guys at Action Wheelsport in Saint Petersburg, FL. Although our first time at this event, this is the second year in a row AW came in on their day off to give scooter enthusiasts some very helpful education on some advanced do-it-yourself maintenance.

As usual, Maureen and I showed up about 5 minutes late. We walked into to a group of 20+ scooterists sitting semi-circle around a Kymco scooter on a lift right in the middle of the show room. My first impression was that I was really impressed with the set up of the demonstration. I fully expected a half dozen people standing in a garage looking down on a scooter. Quite to the contrary, AW made it a point to make everyone comfortable. They had drinks, cookies and handed out every chair they had in the building. As far as the content of the seminar, it too was more than I expected. Not just checking the oil and tire air pressure, but for two hours they covered some advanced items. They actually took a part the CVT transmission to show the parts and how it all works together. We learned some basics on charging systems and got to compare new and worn variator roller weights, stators and tires. My one contribution was telling the group how to pick up a dropped bike.

After the class, Dan Lynch, one of the owners of AW, spent some time showing Maureen one of the new Buddy 125 models they had in stock. Dan was a really nice guy, who was willing to talk scooters as long as I wanted. Maureen really was impressed with the Buddy. She said it definitely looks better in person than on Genuine Scooter's website. I think Dan may have sold her on it as he demonstrated how an optional basket can attached right to the frame on the front. We'll have to see how she compares it to an LX150 or Fly150 down the road.

Maureen and Flo at Action Wheelsport

Once the group broke, we were invited to take a ride down to the Drunken Clam on St. Pete Beach with some of the members of the Saint Petersburg Scooter Club and St. Pete Beach Scooter Club. During the ride, it dawned on me that I had rode tens of thousands of miles on group rides on my Harley, but this was actually my very first time riding on my Vespa with a group. The first thing I noticed that it was all fun and no rules. An unorganized pick-up ride, we just went. We changed leaders twice when they both took an "unplanned detour", but it was just pure fun as we cruised down from Treasure Island to St. Pete Beach. Maureen and I had a commitment we had to get home for, so we said goodbye to our new friends and headed north towards Clearwater Beach on our way home.

Maureen snaps a pic over my shoulder on our ride

On the way home, our stomachs told us that we hadn't eaten since breakfast. Ignoring the time of our prior commitment (I mentioned we are usually late), we stopped in a fun looking beach place named the Kooky Coconut in Indian Rocks Beach. We split some coconut flavored Fuze and a pork quesadilla. Just another delightful surprise of the day. The quesadilla was delicious. Today was truly one those great riding days where everything seemed to exceed any expectations.  I'm looking forward to the next chance to ride with a bunch of fun loving scooterists.

Eating at the Kooky Coconut

Scootin' on Honeymoon Island

Wednesday evening I took a ride to the beach at Honeymoon Island (a Florida State Park). It is really a beautiful island with multiple beach areas; one for pets, one with soft sand, and one with a lot of shells to find.

I rode up to the entrance gate and showed my annual pass. The two park rangers at the gate were very nice ladies. I sat there for about five minutes answering their questions about the Vespa. The said they saw the red color far away and watched me arrive. They were amazed when I told them that I can get up to 60 mph. They agreed it is a great mode of transport to the beach.

My first stop was to the main beach. It was moderately crowded for a weekday, but people do tend to come out for the sunset. I was able to find a spot right in front of the building. I was able to lock my cable to a sign post, but I was rather disappointed that there where no motorcycle/scooter parking spots. Maybe I'll pursue getting these added.

The beach was great, the water was warm, and the sound of the surf took the stress of the day away. I spent about 90 minutes on the beach, and then took off on a little ride around the island. Everyone was so relaxed, and gave me a friendly wave as I rode past. I stopped at the ticket booth for the ferry to Caladesi Island. It was closed, but I took a little walk around.

Finally, I took off to ride home in the sunset, feeling full of life after my trip.

Testing my camera while riding

Last June I got a new camera, and I wanted to test out the quality if I hand held the camera while riding. Probably not the safest thing to do, and I wouldn't recommend it to anyone. I tested this on a street in our community, so I new there would be little traffic. The camera worked pretty well, my next step is to try to mount it with a gorilla post for more extended riding. All of our videos to date have been shot on the Sanyo Xacti 2 waterproof camera.

Here's short clip of me and the beach. I may have gotten carried away with some of the iMovie sounds clips.