My Old Kentucky Home

In my own unique way of thinking, life really is all about choices.  You can chose to put your money in a car that goes 0 to 200 pay for the performance but use it seldom on your 60 mph commute around town.  Or you can ride around in a heavy duty 4 X 4 truck seldom pulling anything and rarely using the 4 X 4 but paying the high gas prices everyday.  Or you might if you were like me invest in a Roketa or another brand scooter and still get wherever it is you want to go while getting around 75 mpg this fill up!  Yes that is correct after my recent valve adjustment I've been getting better fuel economy I was around 69 mpg now I'm usually getting around 75 mpg!

You see if I'm going to put my hard earned dollars into something I'd rather it be a house and land!  You know something that in 10 years will go up in value and not come crashing down like the value of a car over a 10 year period.  See my scooter in the upper far left had side of the picture?  I do have a rather large family 4 kids plus two adults so we do have a SUV for times when we are all together.  I also have a Toyota echo that gets around 40 mpg I picked it up used for $2,500!  It runs great and I want to keep it running great so I keep the miles off of my cars by usually taking my scooter since I ride to work alone.  The car is great for taking kids to school or if I get ready to leave and it's poring down rain.  

We all have our own choices to make in life but at least for me I'd rather drive on the cheap, find deals on things and have more of my money to hold onto then not thinking about these "decisions".  And on the subject of buying a house it really is location, location, location!  I found this place in the perfect location!!  It's close to the schools around two miles close to stores like Kroger, and Walmart but still out in the country!  These are just all things we tried to factor in when we moved around two years ago and have absolutely no regrets!

So invest wisely if your a hard working person like myself  "hold on to what you can" and remember it's all about the decisions YOU make.

Peace to you this evening and happy scootering!

Roketa Scooter Man.  

Well I finally got my mini orchard complete now onto the gardon!

So I'm sorta covered in poison ivy!  I've been clearing out a fence row behind my house and it is finally as of today complete.  I left the wild blackberries of course but chopped down more vines of poison ivy then I think I have ever seen and I grew up on a farm!  I'm not even kidding this fence row was covered in poison ivy and multiflora rose bushes!  So welding my freshly sharpened axe I began the pain staking job of cutting out all of the unwanted weeds so that the wild blackberries can really take off as well as some blueberry bushes I have planted.  I call this agro engineering on a small scale.  I'm taking my half acre lot and planting fruit bearing trees as well as putting things like blueberry and blackberry bushes in the fence row.  Next I'll start my garden and accompanied by the wild plants I already consume sometime in the near future I should be able to supply my own food for a much larger part of the year.  I know most of it I can sometimes buy cheaper but then I don't know where it came from or what was done to it as in pesticides and fertilizers.

I enjoy working for my food it makes me appreciate it so much more when I eat it.  Also I am burning calories while I grow and prepare it for consumption.  Once the trees really begin to bear lots of fruit; I have planted mulberry trees, apple trees, peach trees, pear trees, and paw paw trees, I will learn the art of canning.  Canning the extra fruit should allow me to continue eating my own health foods all winter if I please!
 Like I said in an earlier post I am really getting into this living off of the land idea.  And I like the art of mini farming, as in take a small partial of land like half and acre and turn part of your yard grass into something more meaningful then just more grass to mow.  I fully understand that someday pruning and caring for these trees will be work but the reward will be healthy tasty fruit grown for free right out my own back door!  I am taking a concept once practiced by everyone now seldom seen at least in my neighborhood and reinventing it!

Happy Scooting it's been raining here lately so I've been confined to my car!  Errr but the rain is helping my "crops" so I'll take it.

Peace to you this evening

Roketa Scooter Man

I just can't imagine anything less than 150 cc's!

I mean I am a minimalist but if your going to be hauling another rider or work related items and using a scooter as your daily driver on country roads at least for me 150cc engine is a must!  I just can't get enough horse power out of a 50cc to even make it worth while driving it and up hills are crazy slow.  My 150cc engine handles the up hills the down hills and the extra passenger loads with no trouble at all.  And the gas mileage is so close between the two engines, so why constantly run a little 50cc engine to death when you could opt for a 150 and run it half throttle this way your still getting good mileage but will have the power there if you should need it. But I can see a city driver in a flat area usually with only one person to haul only needing the 50cc scooter.  So I suppose this recommendation would only include country road drivers or drivers in heavy traffic.  Because at least where I live everyone is in a hurry and when they ride your rear like they plan to run you down it is not a fun drive to work!  On my 150cc I can speed up a little and the cars seem to be more considerate of me being on the road than if I'm on my bike or an older 50cc moped. 


Happy scootering

Roketa Scooter Man 

How and why I became a teetotaler!

I received an email on why I had included not drinking in my list of healthy habits.  As the sender mentioned that one drink a day can actually be good for you especially red wine.  And I want to clarify my reason in a separate post.  While looking back at my long life of almost 35 years I have a B-Day in around a week!  I realized that all of my serious bad mistakes, stupid things I’ve said to someone, actions I wish I had NEVER taken all these things happened while I was under the influence of alcohol!  You see I used to be a diehard beer drinker I loved drinking beer, all different kinds and I drink it almost everywhere I went, ballgame, social party, weekends, while watching a movie, while visiting friends just about any function I felt the need to have a beer.  I drink when I was happy for someone or something I drank when I had a bad day; I could always find a reason to have a beer there really were sooo many! 

My wife did not drink and never liked me drinking thou I never acted much different she just did not like the smell or the thought that I was even partially dependent on a substance.  This became the focus of many arguments over the subject with her fighting for me to stop permanently and me fighting to keep doing “what I enjoyed”.  I even thought of alcohol as an “enhancer” if you could watch a movie that was nice but you could enhance watching the same movie if you were able to drink at the time you watched it!  Looking back I was becoming dependent on the substance as I suspect may others out there have or are in the process of becoming. 

So I challenged myself to stop not by telling myself I would forever quit drinking, just this week, then this month finally, after this year.  It has now been going on four years since I had made that decision and I feel great!  I will likely never drink again I don’t want the expense; I have acknowledged the fact that I will never be the type of person that can drink half a glass of wine a day and nothing more ever.  And I have found that after the first year the desire evaporated I found that I could have great days, bad days, things go horribly wrong, and yet I could get through them all without alcohol!  Better yet I have found that working out as in lifting weights, doing the Insanity program, cycling, kayaking, running, are all much better ways to release the tension of life and yes even riding my scooter is a much more efficient way to release the stresses of everyday life than drinking. 

But this is just me and my way of looking at life I fully understand that some people have no issues with a glass of wine once in a while and nothing more.  I also fully understand people’s desire to get impaired often and it is their choice, not for me to judge them in any way.  I don’t tell others what they should and should not be doing it is a free world I just post what works for me in my personal life and under my circumstances.  A wise man once told me an old Indian proverb “You can never fully understand someone until you have spent a day walking in their moccasins”.  None the less here are some facts about alcohol and its effects on the body.  Oh and one more side note I also have replaced my nightly beverage with Green Tea and yes I'm a total addict!!  I don't put sugar in it I like it plain but I drink like six cups a night, all different kinds as long as it's got green tea in it and I fresh brew it, no prepackaged teas!  

Alcohol and the Brain

Most of us have witnessed the outward signs of heavy drinking: the stumbling walk, slurred words and memory lapses. People who have been drinking have trouble with their balance, judgment and coordination. They react slowly to stimuli, which is why drinking before driving is so dangerous. All of these physical signs occur because of the way alcohol affects the brain and central nervous system.

Alcohol affects brain chemistry by altering levels of neurotransmitters. Neurotransmitters are chemical messengers that transmit the signals throughout the body that control thought processes, behavior and emotion. Neurotransmitters are either excitatory, meaning that they stimulate brain electrical activity, or inhibitory, meaning that they decrease brain electrical activity. Alcohol increases the effects of the inhibitory neurotransmitter GABA in the brain. GABA causes the sluggish movements and slurred speech that often occur in alcoholics. At the same time, alcohol inhibits the excitatory neurotransmitter glutamate. Suppressing this stimulant results in a similar type of physiological slowdown. In addition to increasing the GABA and decreasing the glutamate in the brain, alcohol increases the amount of the chemical dopamine in the brain's reward center, which creates the feeling of pleasure that occurs when someone takes a drink.

Summary of alcohol's effects on the brain - Move your cursor over the colored bar in the lower left-hand corner to see which areas of the brain are affected by increasing BAC.

Alcohol affects the different regions of the brain in different ways:

• Cerebral cortex: In this region, where thought processing and consciousness are centered, alcohol depresses the behavioral inhibitory centers, making the person less inhibited; it slows down the processing of information from the eyes, ears, mouth and other senses; and it inhibits the thought processes, making it difficult to think clearly.
• Cerebellum: Alcohol affects this center of movement and balance, resulting in the staggering, off-balance swagger we associate with the so-called "falling-down drunk."
• Hypothalamus and pituitary: The hypothalamus and pituitary coordinate automatic brain functions and hormone release. Alcohol depresses nerve centers in the hypothalamus that control sexual arousal and performance. Although sexual urge may increase, sexual performance decreases.
• Medulla: This area of the brain handles such automatic functions as breathing, consciousness and body temperature. By acting on the medulla, alcohol induces sleepiness. It can also slow breathing and lower body temperature, which can be life threatening.

In the short term, alcohol can cause blackouts -- short-term memory lapses in which people forget what occurred over entire stretches of time. The long-term effects on the brain can be even more damaging.

How Does Someone Become an Alcoholic?

Why is it that some people can drink socially and not become addicted while others become alcoholics? The reason has to do with a combination of genetic, physiological, psychological and social factors.

Genes may be an important factor triggering the development of alcoholism. Research has indicated that children of alcoholics are four times more likely to become alcoholics themselves; and while this statistic is at least partly due to environmental factors, scientists have determined that there is a genetic link. Researchers are working to pinpoint exactly which genes increase a person's risk of becoming an alcoholic in order to develop new medications to treat alcoholism.

Physiologically, alcohol alters the balance of chemicals in the brain. It affects chemicals in the brain's reward center, such as dopamine. The body eventually craves alcohol to restore pleasurable feelings and avoid negative feelings. People who already suffer from high stress or psychological problems such as low self esteem and depression are at higher risk for developing alcoholism.

Social factors such as peer pressure, advertising and environment also play an important role in the development of alcoholism. Young people often start drinking because their friends are doing so. Beer and liquor ads on television tend to portray drinking as a glamorous, exciting pastime.

Signs that someone might be an alcoholic include:

• Drinking to forget his or her problems
• Drinking alone often
• Lying about his or her drinking habits
• Losing interest in food
• Feeling unhappy or irritable when he or she is not drinking
• Losing memories of certain events ("blacking out")

Alcohol and Death

Alcohol is a poison, and it can kill. A person with a blood alcohol concentration between 0.35 and 0.50 percent can fall into a coma. Anyone with a blood alcohol concentration over 0.50 can die. People have died after drinking too much at once, as well as after consuming large amounts of alcohol steadily over a long period of time.

I suppose after finding all of these things out I decided that the risks of drinking far outweighed the reward let alone the actual week cost to purchase the product!

Peace to you thou no matter what your habits might be these are decisions we all have to make on our own.

Roketa Scooter Man

Got off work at 11:30PM EST last night and it was raining!

But if you like me and own a Dry Biker wind and water resistant jacket you can ride in the wind, rain, snow really whatever and your core will stay around normal just your riding in 70 degree weather!  I always keep two layers in my storage compartment!  First a pullover it's simple but effective for adding an additional insulation layer to my tee shirt I wear all the time to work.  This is a good combo late at night on the way home with a chilly temp in the cool night air.  I also keep my Dry Biker jacket I purchased several years ago like 15 possibly but these sort of jackets never wear out!  This way on cool rainy nights I can wear all three layers then lean slightly forward on my scooter and the rain goes off the windshield right onto my helmet and over my body for the most part.  I usually stay dry as long as it's not totally poring down rain.  I also have gloves leather ones to keep the rain from going up my jacket selves.

So if your going to try late night rainy rides on cool Kentucky nights you might think about keeping a spare Dry Biker jacket under your seat just in case.  I still had an enjoyable ride home and love my ride into work today it's sunny and 70's what a change from last night I tell yeah!

Peace to you in scooterville

Roketa Scooter Man

Over one year and counting still riding my Roketa Scooter still saving money still happy!   

So who exactly is Roketa Scooter Man?

To fully define oneself I think it's important to list who I am not.  I am not concerned with the color of ones skin to me we are all humans and I love as much diversity as possible.  Also I have no concern what someone's sexual orientation might be it is one's own right to love whoever one chooses.  I find the most interesting thing to look at in the mall while shopping with my wife is "people" you see we come in so many different shapes and sizes colors and ages that each and everyone of us is truly unique.  Yet no matter what each of our views on life may be we are all someone's son or daughter and in this common human factor we should be able to someday unite and be one social network of interconnected peaceful humans.  In doing this unifying act we will spend more time helping each other and solving problems affecting our species as well as the world rather than wasting time and energy fighting amongst ourselves. 

I am money conscience not a money hoarder.  Having been employed since I was 12 I for one can say I know the value of a dollar.  And nothing irks me more than spending my hard earned dollars on things that either hold little to no value or things that I believe are unnecessary.  An example would be a huge truck, in that not only would I be out the initial cost of the truck, taxes and insurance but also the constant fuel expenses.  Another thing would be a T.V in my bed room I really don't like watching T.V much anyway but can stand one in the living room and in the kids bed rooms but I never plan on putting one in my bed room would be a total unnecessary item to me.  I don't like any debt but a mortgage anything else better be a medical expense because if I can't afford it with money I have already earned then I don't need it.

I'm a bona-fide health nut!  I don't know about you but my family plan insurance policy eats up my check like it's shredding paper!  So I really can't afford unhealthy habits like smoking, drinking, junk food ext.  Sure I eat my fair share of sweets but I stay within my BMI as close as possible, exercise six days a week, walk everyday, and still do lots of yard work when the weather is warm.  I love feeling good and eating right, taking multi vitamins, and staying away from known hazards appears to be keeping me feeling pain free everyday.  I start my day off with good o'll black coffee mixed with a small amount of raw coco and a touch of raw cinnamon this amount is usually around half a pot of coffee.  Next it's Greek yogurt around 10:30 it's loaded with protein and little to no fat sprinkle some Nature's Path flax seed granola on top for a 200 calorie brunch. Then I eat some leftover pasta, or salad basically whatever home made food I can find from the day before in a small portion for lunch.  While at work (second shift) I bring a snack usually pumpkin bread home made of course to hold me over until super which is another salad with fish on top or some source of  protein like nuts of any kind.  But on most days I skip supper or just eat half because I drink a protein shake instead after my workout.  What's in the shake well one huge scoop of ESA amino acids, two huge scoops of protein from Kroger not sure on the brand, two cups of coconut milk, one small container of Naked coconut water, several handfuls of spinach, then I top it off with blue berries and black berries or strawberries which ever I happen to have and two bananas.  One blender of this will last me two and a half almost three days. 
 I don't eat, hot dogs, hamburgers, bacon, pork, deli meats, stake almost all meats I do however eat fish and eggs, cheese just no red meat, pork, chicken ect.

Some day if I live long enough I'd really like to see the world.  Since I know this would normally be really expensive I'd like to see it via sailing around the world!  Much like Joshua Slocum did in years long since past I'd love to stay fit enough to sail from country to country living off of my boat as a main base then biking through the countryside seeing all of the vast wonders and natural sites that particular country has to offer.  Of course this means sailing lessons are in my far off future as well as someday having the money to buy a sailboat!  But these are all reasons why I live the life I do today in the here and now.  I eat right and exercise to stay in shape for future hiking and traveling tours I save money now to have that money to chase my dreams at some distant future I hope is actually obtainable!  So I'd never compromise my health today not knowing if I might really need this body to fulfill my distant gypsy soul desires down some beaten path tomorrow.  Nor do I wish to spend everything I make today not knowing if I might actually find the money to make my dreams a reality in the future.

I love growing what I eat thou admit-tingly I'm just now really getting into this!  I have started an orchard, next week I should have my garden in and I am currently foraging for wild plants everyday.  So in around 5 to 10 years I plan to have this part of my life down to a science being that 90% or so of my plants and fruit in the summer season comes from my own back yard.  I might get into canning for the winter months but have to continue to take baby steps in the right direction.

There you have it just a little bit about me personally wither that fits what you might have been thinking already or not I can't help but it's really just who I am.

Thanks for reading

Roketa Scooter Man  

Ever wonder how the CVT Transmission works on your scooter?

 

CVT Scooter Transmission

Continuously Variable Transmission CVT

How does it work?

Scooters were meant to be easy and so a lot of complication has gone into making them simple. Here’s how to demystify the transmission without even getting your hands dirty. The biggest development in the scooter world since, well the scooter world began is the now ubiquitous Constantly Variable Transmission (CVT), and since that is one of the major driving forces behind concessional scooter licences and the scooter boom in sales – pause for breath – almost no one knows how it works. Let’s fix that right here.

The transmission laid bare. At rest the belt sits between the front pulley halves, while the rear pulley halves (hidden by the concentric clutch) are held together.

Scooter engines, like all automotive engines, need gearboxes to make them more efficient at driving the vehicle. Without a gearbox, a scooter’s speed would be completely dependent on the engine speed as the ratio between the engine and the rear wheel would be fixed – like an old singlespeed bicycle. Good enough to chug along on the flat, but remember how you’d run out of legs downhill, and uphill? Getting off and walking was often easier.

Remember getting your first three-speed hub-gear bicycle? And what a difference it made? Then you traded up to a 10-speed derailleur machine. Remember how much easier life became? Sure, you still had to shift manually, and you could get caught in the wrong gear at the wrong time, but when things went right, you could really fly.

That was the thing about having 10 gears. You could be in the right gear more often, and maximise your pedalling power. A modern scooter is the same, but instead of 10 gears it has only one, though that single gear is infinitely flexible, taking you from tickover to top speed. Here’s how it works.

You can see the two rear pulley halves and the belt sitting

betweenthem here.In his right hand is the clutch inner.

Inside the variator, you can see three of the rollers and, in the

emptyspaces,the ramps they have to climb to change gears.

The two rear pulley halves, with the loading spring

and the centrifugal clutch before it’s all bolted in

Your 10-speed bike had two gears (or chain rings) at the front and five at the back. By operating the gear levers, you shifted the chain between the chain rings, changing the gearing. There were a lot to choose from, but the basic rule was a small gear at the front and a large gear at the back was low gearing, suitable for climbing hills and low speeds (because each pedal stroke caused less rotation at the rear wheel), while a large cog at the front and a small cog at the rear was the highest gear (because each pedal stroke turned the rear wheel more). Moving the chain from cog to cog required extra, spring loaded chain length to fit the different sized gears. While scooter transmissions run on the basic big cog/little cog premise, there are differences.

There are no separate gears and no extra length to the drive belt to accommodate gearshifts. That is how the transmission works as a Constantly Variable Transmission (CVT) system.

The front and rear cogs of your pushbike have been replaced by a pair of pulleys in your scooter, each pulley made up of two, conical, sliding halves with a fixed length belt running between them. The front pulley is driven by the engine, via gears from the crankshaft. The rear pulley drives the rear wheel, again via gears. In between that and the rear wheel is an automatic clutch (so the engine can idle when the scooter is stopped).

It is the sliding nature of the pulleys that creates the really clever CVT. At rest, the front pulley halves are held open by springs, while the rear pulley halves are held shut. This gives the ‘small gear at the front and large gear at the back’ effect of the lowest gear on a 10-speed bicycle. As you accelerate, the front pulley halves close together and that forces the rear pulley halves apart. Remember, the belt that runs between the pulleys has a fixed length, so when the front pulley closes up, the belt has to force the rear pulley apart. When the front pulley halves are forced completely together, the rear ones are forced completely apart and then you have the large front cog and small rear cog of a 10-speed bicycle’s highest gear.

The clever part is that, as the pulleys move apart and close together, the gearing shifts constantly so that two things happen: you never have to change gears; and you never find yourself in the wrong gear. Brilliant, huh?

So how does the scooter know how to change gear? With another clever little piece of kit called the variator. This is a disc-shaped thingy that is fitted to the same shaft as the front pulley. It has a sloped section and carries a number of weighted rollers in a cage around the disc. As the assembly spins, these rollers react to centrifugal force and try to move outwards. As they do so, the assembly climbs the ramp and forces the front pulley closed, which in turn forces the rear pulley open and thus raises the gearing.

When you roll off the throttle, the centrifugal force is reduced and the springloaded rollers drop back, allowing the front pulley to open slightly, which allows the belt to ride lower within the spring-loaded, sliding halves of the pulley, which in turn allows the rear pulley to close up and lower the gearing.

It sounds complex to describe, but it makes riding a scooter far simpler than the old hand-shift set-up. And that’s a good thing. Be happy.

What is gearing?
Gearing, in this instance, is simply a means of changing the amount the rear wheel turns in relation to the engine’s rotation.

The variator
The variator is a disc containing weighted rollers disposed radially in a cage and fixed to the sliding front pulley. As it spins faster, the weights climb ramps, forcing the front pulley halves together, and raising the effective gearing. The variator does not in itself change the gearing – that is fixed by the size of the two pulleys – but it does affect the rate at which the gearing changes. The weight of the rollers may be changed to fine-tune the transmission and is a popular performance modification for scooter owners.

The clutch
The clutch allows the scooter to idle with the engine running by isolating the rear wheel from the transmission. It operates in much the same way as the variator, being of a centrifugal design. As you twist the throttle, the engine increases its speed and the belt drive spins the clutch. As the rotational speed increases, centrifugal force causes the clutch inner to expand, and begin driving the clutch outer, which is connected to the rear wheel.

CVT
Twist and go, baby!
As published in TW SCOOTER MAGAZINE - 19/12/2005
MICHAEL DRABIKOWSKI

Please note that the pictures in the above article are not necessarily from a Roketa Scooter CVT but are general pictures to demonstrate how the CVT functions on your scooter.  

Peace to you 

Roketa Scooter Man