... but he can learn, sometimes. :P
I occasionally ride one of my scooters to school at night, around 10 miles away from my apartment. One night in mid-December I made the trip in the rain; I had a feeling I shouldn't, but I was being stubborn. About 2/3 of the way there, I went to make a left turn and the scoot almost went right out from under me. I must have hit mixed oil/water puddle or something. Luckily I am a good enough rider that I was able to get control again rather quickly, with nothing more than a slight scare. I haven't ridden in the rain since-- but that's not much of a feat, since it so rarely rains here.
In early January my red scooter needed another minor repair; one of the forks of the front suspension had begun to leak. No problem; I took it to the shop and got it promptly fixed. On my next ride after getting it home, it wasn't handling well. The rear wheel felt like it was fishtailing a bit, so I parked it and didn't so anything with it again until this weekend, when I finally had some time to inspect it thoroughly and figure out what the problem was.
Check out what I found!
The motor mount bolt had begun to work its way loose, leaving the engine, transmission and rear wheel only tenuously connected to the frame. It took me a heck of a long time to get the bolt back in, find the nut...
... and get it back in place and tightly secured (OK, I went back to the shop for some help.) Anyway, it's all fixed now. Took it for a test ride and it's handling very well.
So what have we learned? 1) Be careful when riding in the rain; 2) Inspect your scooter very frequently; if a nut, bolt, screw, etc. comes loose while riding it can be very unfortunate indeed.
Since that the weather is improving, I'll resume hiking in March. Camping may resume in March or April. We'll see.
