Here in Toronto, we are finally reaching the point where my morning commute *may* be getting above the freezing point. This is a magical time of year for while I have one machine – a Burgman 400 with Armec sidecar – that serves as my winter commuter bike, I have more bikes that sleep the winter peacefully away until things
warm up and I feel confident enough that the roads are not icy and or salt-encrusted.
So over the next week batteries will be placed back in battery holders, scooters will be dragged out of the backyard storage tent, and my neighbours will once again be treated to the melodious sounds of smaller 4 stroke engines gasping to life after a long hibernation.
The Kymco People S200 will soon be getting new tires and I’ll be looking to work on a few other minor modifications as well for the Junk Run later this summer. (The Junk Run being our event where we take scooters costing less than $800 on an off-road run, because evidently we have issues around sane behavior and using appropriate tools for a job.) You’ll be seeing me post articles about this machine and further updates
on Junk Run preparation soon.
We’re also working on a few other posts – some more “Past Due Reviews” which are our reviews of non current and used machines, plus we’re looking at locations for our “Live to Eat, Ride To Live” series which will be ride reports combined with restaurant reviews. We’ve also got some interviews and rider features we’ll be posting later in the year with a distinctly Scoottoronto slant to them – these won’t be about tech specs but instead will be about the people behind the machines. Or occasionally under them depending if they haven’t remembered to put the side stand down again.
The next few weeks we’ll probably be on a schedule of roughly .75 posts per week as we are in the process of selling the Scoottoronto HQ and then purchasing a new HQ hopefully with a garage and dedicated scooter workspace.
(Doing the occasional repair is somewhat of a chore in a backyard situation. For example I suspect a good metal detector scan of my backyard would result in the finding of several hundred pounds of tools and small yet essential parts which fell to the ground and immediately turned invisible.)
After that, we plan to post a bit more often as we get more time to ride, report, observe and live the two wheeled summer lifestyle. Which sounds more glamorous than the likely reality of someone in somewhat sweaty riding gear which is covered with the evident remains of many murdered insects, chugging a cool drink at a gas station while riding up to the cottage for
some Junk Run practice.
We hope you too are getting out there and shortly getting tired, dirty and bug splattered.
Because a filthy day on a scooter is better than the cleanest day off of it.
Keep an eye on Scoottoronto for upcoming articles and we’ll hope to see you on the road!
Yours,
Jamie Leonard
Scoottoronto Editor, blogger, and Assistant to the Janitor.