Christmas Day

Ashbridge Preserve

Christmas brought the first day in a little over a week without either rain or low temps so it was a perfect reason for a short ride on the Bullet.  The absence of low temps is relative, it was probably between 49 and 50 degrees at around 11 o'clock and since we had a Christmas commitment with friends in the afternoon, I could wait for it to get warmer so I doubled up, layered up, and shuffled to the door.

Because of the temps, I had a short flight plan in mind that consisted on riding out Goshen as long as it wasn't uncomfortable and turn around at the point that my hands started to feel the cold.  The ultimate goal was to make it to the Wawa on 352 and 3 to gas up if possible but if not, not.

I headed to Goshen the long way via Malin, to avoid the steel plate on Earles Lane and continued out.  The sky was blue and clear and, because of the layering effect of my riding attire, the cold was not really an issue.  There wasn't much traffic out but there was a pickup truck in front of me most of the way and the road was still a little damp from the rain the night before so I did not feel the need to go very fast.  I got to the Wawa without much problem from the cold, although my hands could feel it, and gassed up.

Clock still on DST!

I left the house with 2600.3 miles on the odo, almost about 90 miles since the last fill-up and when I got to the pumps the odo read 2611.5.  The tank took 1.588 gallons which set me back for $4.89, gas prices are getting better.  Figuring 98 miles since the last fill-up the mileage stands at 61,71 mpg.  I need a little more data but this might be due to the new air filter.  There was another hardy soul and his girl on a Harley at the gas station.  I guess I'm not the only nut case waiting for any excuse to get the bike out.

By the time I got the Wawa the sky had completely overcast but the temps had not drop at all.   Although I had considered going back by way of the 352/926 loop the look of the sky made me change my mind and stick to the original flight plan of a turnaround on Strasburg/Goshen.

On the way back I stopped at Ashbridge Preserve on Strasburg Road for some pics of the bullet.  I figure, no pics, no ride.

The ride back was pretty uneventful, except that I took the DelChester turn a little fast and had to swing really wide to avoid trouble.  It's funny how easy that can happen but not funny if you kiss pavement.  In the end, no harm, no foul and it was a very enjoyable morning ride of just a little over 20 miles.

I took the engine guard off last week before taking the Bullet to work on one of the good weather mornings.  I have the new muffler and Power Commander from NfieldGear but haven't have the time for installation.  The installation the Power Commander requires the removal of the gas tank, so I've asked the husband of one of my co-workers to help me out with that because I don't trust myself not to screw it up so I have to wait on his schedule.

Ashbridge Preserve

Ashbridge Preserve

Ashbridge Preserve

Ashbridge Preserve

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Winter is coming

Clock still on DST

No riding in the last week beyond the regular commute to work.  It rained on Wednesday afternoon and I caught a little of it on the way home but not enough to bother and it rained all day on Thursday so not even a commute that day.

Saturday was a complete rain out and Sunday was fairly cold.  This morning I did not ride in but I did come back from lunch on the Bullet and used that opportunity to gas up on the World's Most Expensive Shell on the corner of 30 and Spring Mill Rd.

At the stop the Bullet had 2417.1 miles on the odo and the tank took 3.133 gallons (which cost me $12.53 at $3.99 a gallon when most other places are way below that).  That is 179 miles since the last fill up for a mileage of 57.1333 mpg.  Probably the worst mileage since the Bullet rolled of the showroom floor.

Thursday's forecast calls for clear and fairly warm, in the mid 60s.  Will definitely schedule in a ride then.

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Sunoco at Lunch

Made a run to get gas on the way back to work after lunch.  I could have gone to the Shell on Spring Mill Rd but I think that is the most expensive gas in the Mid-Atlantic.  Instead of going for the easy road back I took a left at Darby Paoli Rd to the dog leg turn at Brooke and Church.  I wanted to stay on Church, cross Conestoga to Aberdeen and then to the Sunoco at 30 and Aberdeen in Wayne.  However, Church was completely closed off by a work crew so the left fork to Brooke Rd was the only viable option.  That minor alteration meant a ride down Brooke to a right a Conestoga and a left a Aberdeen.  That is just as nice a ride as the Church portion, just a little longer.

After gassing up at the Sunoco I simply took 30 to the left at Spring Mill for the trip back to work.

At the Sunoco the tank took 2.455 gallons to fill up and the odo read 1068.5 miles.  This time the mileage was a little better than average figuring out to 70.61 mpg.  I don't know what caused that but it is a nice surprise.  Next fill up will have to be by 1268 miles.  I would have like to have a picture of the odo at 1066 but it completely escaped me until I noticed the mileage at the gas station

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Oh, the Humanity!

Ouch!

First ding.  Don't like that, first implies that there will be others to follow but that is the nature of things.  Have no idea how this happened.  Found it last night when I came back to work to pickup a couple of things I had left behind at the office and as I walked towards the bike I noticed the scrape. The first suspect was the Fox Tactical Fork Bag; it could have scraped the parking sticker so the bag is gone now.  On close inspection of the bag, however, there was no sticker residue and nothing hard enough on the bag itself to have caused this scrape.  It is a pretty serious scrape that has taken a whole layer of paint off.

My next thought was that somebody had tried to scrape the parking sticker off and caused the damage but I can't imagine why.  The parking stickers are cheap enough as to be practically free so there really is no reason to try to steal one.

The Bullet is never parked close enough to cars for this to be a door ding and it isn't a ding but a scrape.  So, that leaves that option out and it doesn't appear that the Bullet had been hit hard enough by a door to cause this much loss of paint without leaving a ding.

It has me baffled, I guess I'll never know.  The next step is to get some touch up paint, clean off the goop left behind by the sticker's adhesive, and cover it up as best I can.

As Tony Soprano was fond of saying, "what're you gonna do?"

On the way to work this morning, I stopped at the Shell station on the corner of 30 and Spring Mill to fill-up.  This is never a good idea because this Shell has to be the most expensive gas station in the whole tri-state area.  The odo was at 720.2 and it should have been good to go up to at least 747 miles but last night on the way back from work the gas light was flashing intermittently.  Supposedly, that light comes on once you are into the reserves and stays on solid.  Didn't think there was any need to risk going dry even when it meant having to pay extra for the gas.  The tank took 2.52 gallons to fill and it should be good up to 920 miles for the next fill-up.  Mileage figured out to 67.82 mpg.

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Father Peter's Fridays

Luckily for me, I work at an enlightened and progressive institution where employees get Friday afternoons off during the summer.  We call these occasions Father Peter's Fridays because he is the one that initiated the policy of time off on Summer Fridays.  That means ride time!

This afternoon I put into the effect the ride I had planned for a couple of days ago when the rain put a stop to it.  The ride took me to West Chester via Goshen/Strasburg and the West Chester Pike.  Goshen can only be reached by going around Sawmill Rd. and 252 because Goshen, east of 252, is still under construction.  The Goshen/Strasburg run was incredible, great weather, very little traffic, and those nice rolling hills.  On reaching the intersection of Strasburg and the Pike I pulled into the Sunoco station to gas up.  At that point the odo was at 361.7 miles and I only needed a little over a gallon and a half to fill up.  With a calculated range of 200 miles, the next fill up won't need to happen until the odo reaches 561.

From the station I followed the Pike into downtown West Chester where I turned around on High Street.  On the way back I did not follow the Pike back to Strasburg but took the Paoli Pike instead.  That section of the Paoli Pike between West Chester and Sugartown Rd. is heavily traveled and not an interesting ride because it has quite a bit of traffic.  Past Sugartown it is a little more interesting.  From there I followed part of my Sugartown loop to Devon and Darby Roads and to 252.  I did a couple of errands on this ride, went to the vets office and to the pharmacy and then home.

Great ride, the bike keeps doing what it's supposed to be doing.  Push it a little harder now that we are past the 300 mile mark but did not push it much.  Everything ran like clockwork, I did have a couple of false neutrals again and I guess this is one of the things about this transmission.  It's getting to where I can feel the shift better so the false neutrals, when they happen, are not a big surprise.  The port mirror appears to have finally settled in, no big shakes and it stayed in place throughout the ride.  At the end of the trip the odo read 384.2 miles.

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Monday Morning Ride

Still not feeling a 100% but definitely feeling a lot better than yesterday.  At around 10:00 I went out for a mid-morning ride.  Basically just headed out West Chester Pike towards West Chester.  It was sunny and clear, traffic was light, and them temps were in the low 60s.  Stopped at the Wawa station on the Pike to fill-up.  Didn't need it as I had only gone 141 miles since the last fill-up but, since I was there, I took advantage of it.  The tank took a little over 2.1 gallons to fill up.  With an safe range of 200 miles I won't have to fill-up again until I hit 463 on the odo.

After the stop at the Sunoco, kept going west on the Pike to downtown West Chester, which was probably less than four miles away.  I turned around and headed back east on the Pike to Strasburg Rd.  Took that back to Goshen.  I made a left on 252 at the intersection with Goshen because of road work in Goshen so I took the Saw Mill Rd loop to home.

Had a stall on the intersection of Ellis Rd and Strasburg.  I figured that I did not shift all the way down to first and tried to start up in second which probably caused the stall.  Worked it out and moved on.  Also had one false neutral between third and fourth close to the Delchester turn.  Though about stopping at the covered bridge to take a picture but decided against it.  I'll make a run down to the bridge soon with my camera to get a good picture.

Pulled into the garage with 282 miles on the odo.

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Fuel Capacity

The specs say that the fuel capacity for the Bullet 500 is 14.5 liters or 3.2 US gallons.  According to what've seen on the web, only 11 liters (2.9 US gallons) of that is usable fuel.  The other 3.5 liters are need to keep the fuel injection system submerged or some other such thing.  So if you calculate approximately 70 miles to the gallon you should have a range of 203 miles on a tank.  Let's call it 200 to be safe.

The idea is that if you see the fuel indicator light start to blink, you should be planning your route to the next fillup.  Taking into consideration that the lights are not very noticeable, I plan on keeping my eye on the odometer and hitting the gas station before the 200 mark just to be safe.

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