This morning I tried my route to work on my new Xcaliber 600 battery powered scooter.

First I go for about a mile through Stevenson Ranch (where I live) with one gentle uphill run of about 1/4 mile, then a gentle downhill run of about 3/4 mile, then a stepper downhill run of about 1/2 mile down MacBean Parkway, then it's pretty flat for about another 1/2 mile down Tournament Road.

Then I get to this canyon area called "The Summit Park". There are three ways down the canyon that leads to work. Each way starts off with an extremely steep run - so steep that it's probably unsafe to ride a bicycle... Unless you are fearless or related to Evil Knievel...

So I walk that part. Then there's a roller coaster run of about a mile down through the canyon. The brakes on the Xcaliber are not the greatest... They're drum brakes and basically they're meant for stopping on the flat at speeds of about 10 MPH (IMHO).

Then my route empties into a big park - all flat the rest of the way to work - about a mile.

The route I take HOME is different. I ride on what are known locally as "paseos" (spanish for sidewalk I believe) a.k.a. "bike paths". The paseo system wanders through the city of Santa Clarita. When you're on the paseos you never have to deal with car traffic, so they're *perfect* for e-scooters.

The route home is about three or four miles. It's a steady gentle uphill run up through the santa clarita valley. Then I get to a steep hill on MacBean Parkway and there's no way my e-scoot would pull me up that hill :-) To give you an idea, when I used to ride my old suzuki GZ-250cc single cylinder motorcycle up this hill I always had to downshift into 4th gear.

Anyway - on my loop this morning, the batteries totally ran out of juice *just* as I got to the bottom of that steep hill. No big problem, because I knew I was going to have to walk it anyway.

A middle eastern fellow out at Santa Monica beach stopped me today. He asked me "how long have you owned this?" (my new e-scoot) and I told him "less than a week!" His son is interested in powered scoots - probably leaning toward the gas powered models... I played up the benefits of the electric scoots - quiet, easy to throw into the back of a car, socially acceptable, etc.

I had a great ride out there at Santa Monica today. Bike paths were built out there back about (guessing) twenty years ago during the roller skating revival years - before the advent of inline skates. When the bike paths were first installed there was a big controversy about who had the right to use them. Roller skaters were sometimes chased off the paths...

Seems like everybody is welcome now - joggers, walkers, bicyclists, roller skaters. The weather was beautiful today - sunny, warm (70 degrees) and a slight breeze. I rode north up to where the bike path changes to "pedestrians only" , turned around and road back down to Santa Monica pier and then back to where one of the bridges cross Pacific Coast highway. When I got up to the palisades above PCH the battery in my scoot went kaput- no problem, I was about two blocks from my car.

Was a real unique experience riding out at the beach. I have ridden ten speed bikes, I own a motorcycle, a car - this is a *totally* unique and relaxing experience.

Here in Santa Clarita it's almost spring. We're having a bit of cool weather right now in mid-april but in a few days it should warm up nicely.

I sold my kawasaki concours motorcycle over the weekend. I still have my Suzuki intruder Volusia motorcycle. Two bikes in my garage was making things a bit crowded and besides - one can only ride one bike at a time.

Lately I have been studying zero emission vehicles (i.e. battery powered vehicles). I've always been interested in them, I suppose because my father was an electrical engineer.

While I was selling my Kawasaki, I tried out one of those battery powered electric scooters. The folks at the Santa Clarita Auto Fair had one at their College of the Canyons parking lot. I tried it around the parking lot - however the model I was trying was pretty underpowered.

I did some research on the web and found a larger scooter made by H.Y.C. company from Taiwan. The model name is Xcaliber 600. Check it out! It has an 600 watt motor.

I'll post more about it when it arrives.

Harry

I'm probably crazy for wanting to do that but it's like - ever since I was 18 years old I have liked LITTLE bikes - mini-bikes, etc. I've had the Suzuki for almost three years now - enjoyed it a lot - has plenty of power for me. I've had the Concours for about six months now. Also - plenty of power, took me all over california last fall.

And power is nice, but (see if this makes sense) I have learned about myself - I prefer "kit" over "power". I'd rather have a *super* cool Vespa P200 that has been restored beautifully than a big old powerful bike. Why? Everybody has those big powerful cruisers. I like the idea of having something DIFFERENT.

I'm sure bush and his aides gave the invasion of Iraq long and hard thought. This wasn't they decide on a whim...

And if you remember your history, Neville Chamberlain flew to Berlin (?) and Hitler PROMISED he wouldn't expand his military forces, etc. Chamberlain flew back to England waving the piece of paper that Hitler had signed. A few days later he could have used that piece of paper to wipe his ass because hitler had invaded Poland.

But no, people forgot about that - "Saddam just needs more time" - well time ran out for him. They gave him twelve years to clean up his act and he's still doing dirty deeds.

Forget Saddam - he's dead meat already - but I think the big problem is what do we do after Saddam is gone? Will the Iraqui's hate our guts? Or will they welcome us? Nobody knows for sure about that....