The Road Less Scootered By

On Sundays I don't have to be at work until noon, so I was able to get out for a few hours in the morning on a scooter adventure. I left home around 8:00 AM and it was still misty in the Issaquah valley, so I figured I'd scooter up and see if things were clearer on the plateau.

This is the Tradition Plateau trailhead. I'm actually headed up to the more developed Issaquah Plateau.

Here's a vanity shot of Swifty's headbadge.

Swifty has 16" tires, a front hand brake and rear foot brake.

The local skater kids can't resist the bare walls of the trail tunnel.

The city keeps repainting the walls beige, the kids keep redecorating it.

This is "official" beige art.

The trail switchbacks up to the Plateau.

Swifty's handlebars are 53 cm wide and offer good control.

Swifty's front brake has good modulation and stopping power.

Tiger Mountain in the background.

Swifty doesn't have a kick stand, but I'm getting good at finding picturesque things to lean him against.

This staircase on the Plateau has a little grove for bike or scooter wheels.

Looking back at Tiger Mountain

A mossy retaining wall.

I'm getting the hang of my camera's self timer. See how slick the trail looks? That's ice. It's really too slick to kick!

I kick anyway (very, very carefully!)

It's cold but the sun is working on warming up the day.

More mist and mountains.

The unpaved trail is actually better scooting this morning. It's crunchy, but not as slick.

The pond by the hospital is like a mirror this morning.

Here comes the sun.

I improvise a stand for Swifty from a stick.

Back on the paved trail. It's still damn icy.

Swifty's deck is textured like a skateboard.

It's shaping up to be a bright, clear day.

Another shot of the ice. I wound up walking the slickest sections very carefully.

But mostly I scootered. And since I get asked a lot, yes, I switch off which foot is kicking.

I've got a high-vis slow vehicle triangle on my backpack.

Still misty in the valley, but I'm going to head a bit lower.

I'm scootering down into that fog bank.

This is the Issaquah-Preston Trail. I'm not going to Preston today, but I'll kick up to Highpoint.

As I climb gradually east and the sun climbs in the sky, I come out of the fog.

One of the little trailside streams.

This is one of my favorite spots.

I cross under I-90 at Highpoint and head west to the trailhead and the Powerline Road

An overlook at Tradition Lake on Tiger Mountain above Issaquah.

The rolling terrain of the Powerline Trail. Super fun mountain scootering!

A bit of still water beside the High School Trail.

This was a wonderful descent.

At the base of the mountain now. Almost back in town.

The return to paved trails.

I love the way the moss is gradually eating away at these old foundation stones.

So that was my Sunday morning. I'm still getting used to a big wheeled scooter and eventually I'll post a detailed comparison of Swifty to my other scooters. But I know this already: this is a scooter that can handle the road less travelled by.

Soggy Swifty Scootering in Seattle

I've got a new vehicle! It's a SwiftyOne and it came all the way from the United Kingdom. I picked it up in Seattle last Thursday. It was a damp day and Swifty doesn't have fenders (yet) but I still had a blast riding this machine. I'll be posting a lot more about Swifty in the coming weeks, but for now here are a few photos from Swifty's first day in Seattle.

Me and Swifty in front of G and O Family Cyclery in Greenwood. Photo by Madi Carlson.

Seattle's Greenwood neighborhood abounds in transportation options: Cargo Bikes, Kick Scooters, Spacecraft...

One of my favorite bits of commercial street art

The Norwegian Bus Stop.

More lovely street art on Fremont Avenue.

Swifty's 16 inch wheels do fine on rough, uneven sidewalks.

It's a damp day in Seattle. We get a lot of damp days, hence the moss.

Swifty survived his encounter with the Fremont Troll.

Swifty along the shores of Lake Union.

Mercer Street Books is one of the finest little bookshops in Seattle.

Swifty checks out the tourist sights in Seattle.

There's a whole lot of art in Seattle.

The Space Needle and rain welcome Swifty to Seattle.

After 8 miles of soggy scootering, I fold up Swifty for the bus ride to Issaquah.

Swifty tucked behind one of the seats on the Sound Transit 554 bus to Issaquah.

Swifty's home in Issaquah.

Monkey Light M204

The folks at Monkey Light sent me their M204 Bike Wheel Light to review. The M204 is a compact little unit consisting of a circuit board that contains the LEDs, a couple of switches and the electronics, a connecting cable, and a battery pack that holds 3 AA cells. The circuit board is completely coated in clear, flexy silicone and the battery pack and cable look nice and waterproof.

I put it to the test by submerging the whole thing in water. Yep, seems nice and waterproof.

The Monkey Light M204 comes with a bunch of nylon zipties and nice clear installation instructions. It also comes with a couple of metal security zipties if you are worried about someone stealing the light off your wheel.

You can use either alkaline or rechargeable AA cells in the Monkey Light. Depending on which brightess/color of lights you select, a set of alkaline cells can run the Monkey Light M204 for up to 60 hours.

Installing the light is a simple process taking less than five minutes. I installed the light on my pal Hugie's old Schwinn. Note: the reflecting looking thing at the top of the picture below is Hughie's front light, it's not part of the Monkey Light.

The Monkey Light itself is ziptied to the spokes.

The battery pack is ziptied to the hub, 180 degrees opposite the light to keep the weight somewhat in balance. Hughie and I didn't notice any real adverse effects of the weight but the Monkey Light people don't recommend going over 40 mph with the Monkey Light. I don't think Hughie's Schwinn has ever been anywhere close to 40 mph, so we figure he'll be OK.

You can toggle the light through 40 different color/brightness/flash combinations. All the modes are quite eye-catching.

When the wheel is in motion, you get to see the full effect.

When commuting at night, I get to see various lights and reflectors on bikes. Things that move with the wheels, things like the Monkey Light M204 or Salzmann Spoke Reflectors really stand out. They add a lot of visibility for not a lot of money.