Mia has moved!

Yep, that's right: The Illustrious Travels of Mia Scooterpants has moved to a new domain name!  The blog is now at The Lady Scooterist - and not only talks about the adventures of Mia, but of Scooterlou as well, as she's back in my little scooter family!  Come read about Mia and Lou at the new site!

Why I will never, ever participate in the Jill Behrman 5K

I don't typically work Saturday mornings, but today I had to assist a workshop on campus - which meant primo scooter parking, as hardly anyone is up at 8 am on a Saturday morning in Bloomington.  I think I picked the wrong spot to park in, though.

For those of you who don't know, the Color Run is a marathon where at certain points along the marathon route you get covered in colored powder, and eventually you end up looking like a rainbow.  Scratch that - this wasn't an official Color Run, it was the Jill Behrman 5k.  Well, little did I know that I'd parked Mia a bit too close to the Bloomington Color Run Jill Behrman route...

There weren't any signs stating this ANYWHERE near the motorcycle parking spot I'd parked in, but apparently Mia was parked in ground zero for a purple powder bomb of some sort.  I walked up to her and saw she was pretty well coated in purple stuff.

So, I dusted her off best I could, then dusted myself off, because by that point I was covered in purple dust, then rode home, loaded my pockets with quarters, and took her off to the nearest car wash. (She'd been needing a bath for a week, anyway, after she and I fell into a muddy patch as we tried to sneak down that dirt patch on the hill in the first picture...)  I sprayed her so hard with soap and water that I think I knocked a body panel slightly loose, hah.  As all the purple powder mixed with the soap and swirled down the drain, I thought my troubles were gone - until I got a closer look as I was rinsing her off.

Yes, even post wash she was still spotty, and not just around her speedometer - her left and right fairings were streaked, her trunk not only had streaks down it but also sported a new scratch that wasn't there this morning and was obscured by the powder... I was so absolutely pissed off that I was shaking.  My Mia, ruined by the frigging Color Run.  I didn't know what to do - do I contact parking operations for IU?  Do I call the IU police?  Do I cry about my ruined scooter?  What if this gunk got into her engine and she dies?  I was shaking due to being so stressed out.  Mia's pretty much my life.  Then Ross said "Lemme try using rubbing alcohol on her."  

And it worked.  THANK GOD.  I was about ready to have Wick's Wheels price out a couple of new body panels so I could message Parking Operations and tell them "hey, you never posted anything about an event happening here, and so I'm holding you responsible, pay to fix my scooter."  Now I get to try to come down from the resulting panic attack, haha.  My poor Mia.  I must have hugged her five times after Ross got all the purple off.  But yeah, this event's soured me on the Jill Behrman 5k forever now - they obviously don't give a crap where they spray their color stuff, or if it damages anyone's property, so... I mean, come on, how hard is it to move the color bomb or whatever further down the street so people's personal property doesn't get damaged?

Current odometer reading: 1690ish miles

1 year, 1500 miles

Yes, that's right - I finally hit 1500 miles.  And as of last Saturday, I've had Mia for an entire year. I put probably more than twice as many miles on Mia as I had on Scooterlou, my old Honda Metropolitan, in the first year I owned her.  Speaking of Scooterlou...

There she is!  I've been hoping to meet her new owner for a while now, and when Bryan shot me a message saying "oh, Scooterlou's at the shop", I raced over so I could see her.  And there she is, looking much like when I traded her in last year, but with more miles on her.  (I think she's around 3100 miles - I traded her in with 1740.)  Her new owner is incredibly friendly - he handled my excited flailing quite well!  He even kept her little crocheted basket cozy, and was thinking of adding some beading to the bottom of it to cover up the fraying bits.  I think 'Lou is in very good hands now, especially after meeting her new owner. :)

Today was a very good scooter day.

Current odometer reading: 1504ish miles (Mia's currently parked in a parking garage while I'm on campus)

Spending a little more time with Mia

Mia, hanging out with some other scooters in the IU Art Museum parking lot

Yes, I'm spending a bit more time with Mia these days.  And, well, downright spoiling her, too.  We (Bryan, myself, Ross, and Gina) all moved to a new house on the west side of town - and because of that, my commute to the office has ballooned from a 3 minute, half-mile roll down a hill to a 20 minute, 5-ish mile slog through traffic to get back over to the east side for work.  So, since I work a lot, of course I'm going to be riding a lot. :)

from left to right, starting closest to the garage door:  Mia, Donna Stella, Big Macintosh, and Carmen Stelladiego closest to the camera

Plus, we've now got a garage!  Which makes for happier scooters, I bet.  Or at the very least scooters that aren't exposed to the elements so much.  I noticed that due to all the winter riding I did earlier this year, there's a fair bit of rust on Mia's exhaust and other metal parts on her underside - going to have to get in the habit of at least toweling her off when I get home once winter hits, if we have another nasty winter.  (I plan on upgrading her exhaust once her warranty expires, so I'm not super worried about the rust.)  It's incredibly nice to have a place to keep Mia where she's out of the weather and kept warm and dry.  (And it makes getting ready to ride in the morning much more pleasant, too!)

Current odometer reading: 1287.2 miles

Finally hit 1000 miles!

Yep, Mia finally hit 1000 over the weekend!  I crossed the 1000-mile threshold while scootering through beautiful Brown County on the way home from Nashville, IN.  Sunday was a beautiful day for a ride, especially through the woods - not too hot out, nice and sunny, and lots of road to ride on.

We even made our way out to Bean Blossom, and found the covered bridge there - it was a little nerve-wracking, trying to go slowly and not wobble so much on the raised wooden tracks for cars to go over, but it was still fun!  My friend and fellow seafoam Buddy rider, Mary Alice, took this picture.  I swear Mia's in there - hiding behind Donna Stella, the blue Stella, but there!  (There's really no way to get a good picture when all your scooters are in a covered bridge...)

Current odometer reading: 1028 miles

Scooters at the car wash, and more

Yes, that's right - I took Mia to the car wash to blast off the layer of pollen she'd accumulated while I was in Florida.  It was actually kinda fun!  Mia and her scooter buddies (Big Macintosh, Donna Stella, and Carmen Stelladiego) got all nice and clean and shiny.  I also found out that thanks to the new transmission, Mia now tops out at around 50 mph - granted, that was at full-throttle after a few minutes of warmup, but still!  I can sort of keep up with all the scooters that are higher than 50cc!

One of my new scooter buddies, Melissa, has a little tree air-freshener hanging from her scooter's hook - so, while I was at the car wash, I figured, why the heck not?  I'll get one too. :D  Now the entire hallway in front of my apartment smells like vanilla.  Awesome.

I also captured this elusive sight - Bryan on a Buddy!  He said Mia's a bit slower than he's used to, haha.  

On top of all the fun we had cleaning scooters, we also went for a bit of a ride yesterday and today.  It was much needed after being in Florida, absolutely scooterless, for a week.  I think I went into scooter withdrawal on day two of vacation.  It was bad.  But this weekend fixed that!

Current odometer reading: 929.7 miles

Mia had a busy Saturday last weekend.

Yes, Mia had a very busy Saturday last weekend.  Usually I end up going for a ride on Saturday, if I'm feeling up to it, so that ends up with Mia seeing a lot of action - but last Saturday was exceptionally busy.

It started off with bringing Mia to Wick's Wheels to get a windshield installed - and Scott surprised me and showed me new performance transmissions he got in. (It's this one, by NCY, if you're curious.)  So, Mia underwent a fair amount of work before our Saturday ride.

And there's Scott, hard at work on Mia.  The new transmission went in pretty quickly, and the windshield, while puzzling, was a pretty smooth install too.  (Although it turns out that the brackets were originally installed backwards, oops)  Once everything was all done on Mia, we went on a nice ride - off to Griffy Lake, then to the IU stadium for some awesome pictures.

All in all, it was an awesome day - Mia rides so much more smoothly with the new transmission, and while I didn't figure out the windshield installation issues until after I got home, that's gonna make future rides much more pleasant.

Below are some more pictures from our ride!

Current Odometer Reading: 905ish (not entirely sure, as I'm in Florida right now, and entirely scooterless! Boo.)

So much riding this weekend.

I think I put at least 60 miles on my scooter this weekend.   Yesterday, we had an impromptu Hoosier Ride out on Mt. Gilead Road, just outside of Bloomington - lots of twists and turns, and plenty of trees that are all covered in leaves now. And today, I took two separate rides - a short one out to Cascades Park with Ross, and a longer one out to Paynetown State Recreational Area with Bryan and Gina. The latter ride was somewhat terrifying - it was the first time I took a scooter out on a road where the speed limit was higher than 45 mph. Motorcycles whipping past me at 55 mph (although likely much faster, but 55 was the speed limit) was scary. But! We made it there and back in one piece. Now I'm recovering from lots of riding.

Current odometer reading: 859.7

Long, windy ride

This past weekend had me going on a long (and windy!) ride through the countryside surrounding Bloomington.  Most of the roads we went on were 40mph - I may have been riding at full throttle quite a lot - but gosh, it was beautiful out.  I could have done without the wind pushing me around the road, though.  Bryan and Gina on their Stellas weren't getting pushed around quite as much, as those things are heavy, but Ross and Mary Alice and I on our Buddys, we were at the mercy of the wind.

We rode out to Lake Monroe - the area there between the trees, well, that's supposed to be a road, but as you can see there's been some flooding.  We were planning on riding through here and taking a less steep way back into town, but the water was waist high, so we all got to chug back up some very steep hills on the way back to town.  It was fun, though - and I enjoyed each and every one of the 40 miles I put on my scooter on Saturday.

Current odometer reading: 711ish

First long rides of the season

Saturday was Hoosier Ride's first ride of the season!

It was great to get out and ride, even though we had a small group.  It was pretty much limited to the usual small group of riders that come out religiously every weekend to ride, with one new addition - my friend Gina, who just got into the world of scootering.  (And she jumped right into it too, with her first scooter being a bright red manual-shifty Stella, which is sadly in the shop right now but should be good to ride on Tuesday!)  We went out to Cascades Park, one of my favorite places to ride to, and then made our way out to Griffy Lake.  I'm still not too sure of myself when it comes to riding to Griffy, as I'm unfamiliar with the roads there and tend to go a little more slowly when I don't know where I'm going... and I'm already going pretty slow, haha, as I'm riding a 50cc scoot.  I still had fun, though!

I ended up taking a lot of pictures - while the trees are still all bare, the day was beautiful.  Blue sky, warm temperatures, delightful fresh air.  And yesterday was a repeat of that!  So, I ended up riding solo on Sunday.  I went out on Old State Rte. 37, past Cascades Park, until I hit the edge of my comfort zone and decided to turn around and head back.  I don't have the best sense of direction (you should see me try to give directions to someone, it's ridiculous), and so I try to stick to places I know well.  Yesterday, though, I was feeling brave, so I figured I'd do a little exploring - which turned into a 12 mile round-trip ride.  Add that to Saturday's ride - around 22 miles total - and you've got my scooter racking up quite a bit of distance just this weekend alone.  It's been ages since I've put more than 3 or 4 miles on my scooter in a day.  

You have no idea how happy I am that it's riding season again. :D

Current odometer reading: 636.6 miles

The beginning of a new scooter season

Well, it's the start of a new scootering season.  My third one, to be exact.  And this new scootering season is accompanied by a somewhat new scooter - Mia.  She's a 2014 Genuine Buddy 50, in the glorious Seafoam color.

Mia!

She's the one in front, with the spirals on the front and a coffee cup on the floorboards.  She's the second scooter I owned (my previous one was a 2009 Honda Metropolitan, which I barely put 1750 miles on before I realized I needed something different), and I've customized her beyond belief.  I've swapped out her chrome bits for matte black, styled her up with some pretty black swirly decals, and added crash bars and a luggage rack - in flat black, of course.  She's a pretty striking scooter, especially when compared to her other Seafoam Buddy sisters.  (There are four other Seafoam Buddy riders in Bloomington - two of them and I form the Seafoam Buddy Brigade)  At this point she's just shy of 600 miles.

I'm going to document all the long trips I take with her here in my blog, as well as other Mia related stuff.  I do love talking about my scooter, and scootering in general, and as I can't exactly continue my other scooter blog (Go Scooterlou!, which was focused on the Honda Metro), nor ramble on excessively on the shared scootering blog I write (The Lady Scooterist), this'll probably be a good outlet for me.

Tomorrow's the first ride of the season for my scooter riding club - currently called Hoosier Ride, but there's some talk of changing the name.  We'll find out tomorrow if we're still calling ourselves Hoosier Riders or what.  I plan on bringing my camera and taking plenty of pictures, that's for sure. I'm excited to be out on the road, that's for sure.  It's been a long winter, and I didn't get much chance to enjoy Mia before the leaves fell and the snow struck (and those stupid polar vortexes, don't get me started on them).  So, expect to hear lots of rambling from me in the coming months about riding!