A Year Later

Lola Too after one year and 3359.2 miles

A year ago today I brought the Bullet home.  It is still quirky and fun and I'm glad that I bought it.

To celebrate the anniversary I left work at 16:00 to take a ride.  It was another blue and beautiful day with temps in the 80s.  I took a different route on the commute home going on County Line Rd to Ithan and following that all the way down to Clyde Lane.  Ithan, pass Conestoga, is a twisty country lane with wooded areas on both sides and some pretty good snake turns.  I'm glad I found this route because I will probably use it more than my regular commute down Spring Mill Rd from now on.  Clyde Ln is just a short run to Sproul.  I had intended to make the left at Sproul and take that to Bryn Mawr but traffic on the inbound lane of Sproul was backed up all the way to Godfrey so I made the right turn to Godfrey and followed the regular route from there.

Once I got home I changed from my work clothes and went back out again.  By this time it was about 16:45 and home commute traffic was starting to build up so I planned on going up Goshen to Grubbs Mill to get off that line.  The run up Goshen wasn't as bad as I had expected but I still took Grubbs Mill and did a big loop back in that area.

At the Grubbs Mill/White Horse fork I stayed to the right on Grubbs Mill and kept on to Buttonwood almost all the way to its end on 252.  I used someones driveway for a turn around and then veered off onto Pinecroft and Hereford, turning around both times back to Buttonwood.  I retraced my route back down Buttonwood to Grubbs Mill and took the right turn there.   I followed that all the way to South Valley and took the left there to follow South Valley to Devon Road were I took another left.  Not wanting to be on a heavily traveled road I took the next left at Grubbs Rd and stayed on that all way down to Jaffreys.  There I continued on across Warren to Sugartown for the left back to Goshen.

The Grubbs Mill area is bounded by Goshen, Providence, Sugartown, 252.  It is mostly a network of  hilly and twisty narrow country lanes.  It is also mostly covered with wooded areas and there are very few straight shots in the whole area.  Because of this, it is not heavily traveled even at rush hour since there are no point A to point B short cuts.  This area is possibly one of the best motorcycle riding spots close to my house.  A fabulous place to celebrate the Bullet's one year journey.

At refuel 3349.4 miles

Once on Goshen I took the right turn and followed Goshen/Strasburg to almost its end at the West Chester Pike.  I did the turn around at the Bank and went back to 352 to go to the Wawa for gas.  At the Wawa the odo read 3349.4 miles.  That is 147 miles since the last refuel.  The tank took 2.483 gallons at $3.259 per gallon for $8.09.  That figures to 59.20 mpg on this refuel.

From there I just headed back to Strasburg/Goshen and followed that home.  When I left the house the odo was at about 3325 miles and when I returned it was at 3359.2 for about 54 miles on this run.  The Bullet had 35 miles when I picked it up a year ago so in this year we have done 3324 miles together.  Not bad at all.

This last year on the Bullet has been a lot of fun.  Yes, it does have its quirks and there have been some pretty frustrating times with kickstand switch issues which are still not resolved to my satisfaction.  However, on the whole, it is a great bike to ride.  It doesn't go fast enough to put life and limb in extreme danger, it is an attention magnet, and it sure gets a lot of style points for overall cool.  It won't kick over every time so thank the gods for the electronic ignition switch but when it does kick over, it sure is satisfying.  I really enjoy the vintage feel without the vintage hassles.  I still miss my old Yamaha, it was also a ton of fun, but I am glad to have the Bullet and I think I am enjoying a lot more than the Yamaha.

One year later

3359.2 miles at the end of the first year