Stress

In early July, the scooter I am riding in the Cannonball developed a loud exhaust noise. Now, the bike did have almost 7,000 miles put on it in one year, so we assumed the exhaust had just rusted through. If only that was the case...

It turns out that the exhaust on newer Vespas has a small issue where a gasket can fail, causing the loud noise, but also venting really hot air into the engine compartment. In my case, that hot air melted the rear brake line. A real mess... and there are not piles of spare exhausts lying around.

Today we went to visit the sad scooter at Vespa Detroit, where it is waiting for parts. Very soon it needs to be prepped and ready to ship to Portland for the ride. I need to make sure it is running well before that. It is entirely possible I will be making that checkout ride in Portland.

Everything will be fine.

Yikes.