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Two-up Tuesday
Tuesday, 15 May 2007

Even though Rick’s bike has been out of commission, the spring ride schedule has been kept on-track – thanks largely to Mark, Paul and Marla. Here’s a two-up post, covering the first two scheduled rides of 2007:

April 26: A short warm-up

pat mayer
Our new friend, Pat
On April 26, Mark led the group’s first official evening ride of 2007, and apparently, conversation was the first order of the day since the group didn’t push off until around 6:40. This worked out well for chat’s sake, plus, a new guest showed up – Pat Mayer - that would’ve been missed had the group left on time. We’d seen Pat around town before; in fact, a year or two ago, he sold one of his classic Vespas to a former member (who in turn sold it to Two-Percent Sean). Thankfully, Pat kept his P200, and says he plans to ride it quite a bit this year.

Sunset in April happens around eight in these parts, so Mark and the gang opted out of the Sherman Road loop that’d been advertised in lieu of a short around-town/urban ride. All in all, it was a nice start to the spring schedule.

May 10: Once around the block

nutbars
More packable than pineapples
Rick was designated ride leader on Thursday the 10th, and thanks to Paul and Marla, he at least had an ET4 to make ride leading possible. (Rick’s Sprint chassis/P200 motor transplant was suffering some electrical issues that had tech support at Scooterworks and American Scooter Center stumped. The bike – with rebuilt motor, pipe, wiring harness and electrical system – put out a strong spark, but fired 60 degrees before was supposed to. Rick figured it was a bad stator plate, and was waiting for a new one to be delivered.) The ET4 came at a price, though – Rick had to promise to adjust the idle speed on Paul’s ride.

Macadamia nuts
The club post on Paul and Marla’s Hawaii trip paid off in classic island souvenir fashion - macadamia nut bars for everyone. (Thanks, guys!) Tropical sunshine had tanned the couple nearly as brown as the candy. We, of the pasty-white waiting-for-winter-to-pass-in-Spokane types notice these things...

Pleasant conversation led to the ride itself, with Brian, Paul, Marla, Mark, Rick and Charlotte pushing off around 6:30 for the Sherman Road loop, a group favorite. The course runs past farms, wetlands and the northern fringes of the Turnbull National Wildlife Refuge, so it’s always scenic. The fact of it being spring and having great, late-afternoon sun angles made it especially so.

caffeine
One jacket, to rule them all
There’s an old joke about standup sex leading to dancing (hilarious, if you’re a recovering fundamentalist), and maybe there’ll be one someday about classic Italian scooters leading to classic Italian food – pizza. In any event, that’s where the group wrapped up the evening, enjoying life, brews and fine pesto pies at Bennedito’s, one of Spokane’s best neighborhood pizzerias. Fantastic!

Coming up: news on the life of Brian (cool new tat’, PX bodywork). dingbat
 
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