Spring road assessment

2014 will be season five for me as a Vespa commuter.

To be honest, I don't recall the beginning of any previous riding season being quite so challenging.

Spring road assessments are usually the responsibility of municipal work crews who hunt for and fill in potholes.

This year is different.  There is a combination of unusual climate conditions in play.  For one thing there is a lot of snow.  There are still substantial snowbanks by the road side.  Then there is the sun that now rises early enough, rides high enough above the horizon,  and sets late enough, to melt the snow cover no matter what the ambient temperature may be.

Finally there is the un-remitting cold front.  Arctic air is pushing down and surrounding Montreal in its embrace.  Montreal's climate this year is more like the climate you usually get in Quebec City.  I remember going to Quebec City in April.  Montrealers had shifted to spring outerwear for a good few weeks.  In Quebec City, there were snowbanks, and people were still in parkas.

When you combine these ingredients what you get is runoff from the snow melt that collects in roadside puddles where it gets splashed around the roadway.  Because the ambient temperatures are so low, the water freezes and you get swaths of pavement that you could play pond hockey on.  The problem is compounded by the fact that the public works people have gotten to the end of the road salt allotment, so now they're hoarding not salting.

As usual in the spring, there are some massive potholes here and there along my commuting routes.  In the south, they'd call them sinkholes.  Combined with the ice coverage that just kind of happens here and there, commuting on two wheels is just way too risky.  The expressway is treacherous in places (like ice covering a lane-width for a ten to fifteen foot stretch), and the surface streets have even larger ice surfaces with oncoming traffic precluding use of the other lane as an escape route.

So that's how I find myself doing road surface assessments during my morning and evening commutes.

It was above freezing overnight and today we hit 6C.  I could have ridden this morning, the ice was all water.  I'll see if that holds for the evening commute.

This is not something you can take a risk on.  Sure, you can take your bike out to toodle around the neighborhood.  But risk a commute?  No way.  Not yet.

Interestingly there were powered two wheelers in use today downtown.  No motorcycles.  Only Asian 50cc scooters.  Not likely to have been commuters though, at least no one with a thirty kilometer route to tackle.  Last night I saw a guy on a BMW GS going way too fast on a service road, passing traffic.  He looked all Paris-Dakkar'ish and way too exuberant.  I prayed that he didn't hit an ice patch.

Patience.  Patience.

Unique patch collection up for grabs

A while back I posted about my online adventure where I purchased a ModernVespa.com patch with BitCoin.

I mentioned that there were limited edition patches and that there were just a few MV members who had virtually complete collections.

The MV member known as Tomjasz (in real life Thomas Jaszewski, and an accomplished horticulturalist whose work endures in Las Vegas at the Bellagio) is offering up his complete collection in a silent auction.  Reaction to the offer is coming in on a related discussion thread.

I put a bid in, though I very much expect to be rapidly and soundly outbid.

Tom asked if I would put up a post with a link to the auction to spur interest further.  I am honored by the request and pleased to offer this post.  I doubt that the ScootCommute will drum up much more interest than the posts on MV, but you never know.  Every bit helps.

Good luck Tom!

I sincerely hope my bid gets trounced in a vigorous stampede of patch hunters, and that Tom profits from the sale of this rare and pristine collection.  In my hands, these specimens would end up gracing my jackets and being subjected to the merciless elements.

I can't resist...

... bringing back this little guy.

He started out way back in January 2012.

I brought him back at the end of March 2012 and we haven't seen him since.

So I thought we could check in on him and see how he's doing.

Say so long!

There's no telling when we'll see him again, if ever.

This is what happens when I can't ride.

Another weekend, another dump :(

Here's hoping that the inexorable law of averages means there's hope for great weather later this spring.

Walk a mile in my shoes...

Here's what a noontime stroll looks like in Montreal's underground city.... if you condense a fifty minute walk to 22 seconds, that is.

Underground art

What does a rider do when it's not safe to ride?

OK, I get it. I did what good writers are not supposed to do.  My opening statement begs an unspoken question. Why is it not safe to ride?  I'd better get that out of the way before tackling the real subject of today's non-riding post.

It's not the cold, at least not directly.  I have enough equipment to deal with the cold.

Even at -15C like today, at this time of year the sun's rays are busy melting the snow.

You can tell this is happening because of the water trickling from the base of the accumulated snow.  And there's the rub.  That run-off water spreads to the roadway.  The sun manages to keep a thin layer of the runoff water liquid so the cars spread the liquid portion out into a very thin layer which freezes solid.

During last night's commute there were numerous places where the roadway was a sheet of ice.  That's OK in my Honda Civic, or any other four-wheeler.  Definitely not OK on a motor bike.

That's why I'm still not riding.  I need mostly positive temps from dawn to dusk to avoid large-ish and otherwise unavoidable ice patches.

Back to the original obvious question.  What to do?

The answer in Montreal is to do what other animals do in the winter.  Head underground.

Montreal is renowned for its underground city.  Miles and miles of interconnected sub-subterranean tunnels and mall space link most of the downtown core, including most of our major hotels, our department stores, boutique chains, food courts, concert halls, convention centres, restaurants, office towers, many condominium towers, and the list goes on, and on.

Our underground city has lots and lots of stairs.  It's possible to get a really good workout wandering around down there.  That's what I've been doing at lunch time since the new year began.

Truth be told, there are many utilitarian stretches of underground tunnel and not much relief for the weary eye.  You can begin to feel like a mole.

What a joy then when the annual Underground Art project brings installation art to the underground city.

Numerous artists do their best to rattle the cave-dwelling pedestrian's complacent meander with large art installations that make very big statements.  The event is curated, so there is lots of useful information concerning the work and the artist.  There are materials available online, an audio guide, and there's an app for that (of course there is).

There is no hope of giving you more than the merest glimpse of this marvelous week-long marvel.  You can learn much more by clicking on the link above if the spirit moves you.

You never know the wonder you'll encounter round the next bend.

Life's pleasures

We got a wallop of snow yesterday.

But spring is nevertheless in the air.  The winter's snow banks were battered and receding before this latest storm and lawns were peeking out along the sidewalks.

The Primavera is the new Vespa small frame model that takes its place in the Vespa lineup with the venerable LX, and the not so modern PX shifty.

It's possible that with spring in the offing, the name of the new Vespa model became a subliminal message that inspired the editor of the chi-chi insert in this morning's paper to feature a piece on Vespas.

In the world of riders there are many two-wheeled alternatives and brands, and each has its loyal devotees.  It can't be denied however,  that three brands are particularly iconic.  Harley, Vespa and...

Well maybe there are just really two.

I was going to say the third was BMW.  It occurs to me that to say so may betray more of a personal preference and less of a statement with universal appeal.  As I was going to commit "BMW" to the page, I thought of the chorus of jeers and taunts that would come from the justly proud owners of Triumphs, Indians, Ducatis, Yamahas, Suzukis, Hondas, and... well, that third place spot will have many, many contestants vying for the honor.

All that being said, this morning's Plaisirs de vivre - Living with Style magazine struck my fancy as you may easily imagine.

Spring is definitely in the air.