It wasnt really a day other then a short few hours down the freeway to Yass from Sydney 

Yass is a shortish distance on the main highway and wouldnt often be a stopping point but since the time in getting to the next major town Gundagai was going to mean missing out on dinner it was the only option to stop and rest for the night before the next day ahead which had us travelling to Mansfield in Victoria.

The Scarabeo handled the freeway trip with ease and was extremely comfortable. On approach into Yass the only scary moment came when I ran over half a truck tyre still in the middle of the road. On overtaking a truck i merged back into the left lane to find I was going to hit this tyre head on. Rather then swerve with the truck still close on my tail I braced and the Scarabeo just motored on over it without any shaking of the bars etc. I think I had more of a moment then the scooter.

We ended up staying at the Australian Hotel and had dinner at the local RSL due to the chef at the pub being away for the school holidays. I love these country pubs as you walk in and your welcomed by all that are in them even the locals.Your very much seen as supporting the local establishments... its cool.

The rooms while basic bunks with communal showers at the end of the hall are nothing to get excited about. But after the end of a couple of hours down the freeway its nice to have a couple of ice cold ones and chat about the upcoming ride routes with the gang.

Main Street of Yass as some bikes take off for Phillip Island. These fellas couldnt stop asking about the Scarabeo.

Muz, Jon and Stefan ready themselves for the big ride ahead after spending the nigh at the pub behind 

 All ready to go , and at this stage all nice and clean.

Travelling with larger capacity motorcycles its hard to gauge just how frugal the Scarabeo can be but I made a note over the 2000km's the litres that I filled at each stop and the amount of km's tavelled on the odo.

I made sure after each stop that I reset this and when filling up again I would just take notes and reset. I repeated this for the whole trip.

The best fuel consumption was when I traveled from Batemans Bay to Sydney's Inner West a total of 280 kms on the way home and a mix of going through some southern towns @ 100 km/h and mainly freeway work @ 125 km/h from Kiama to Sydney. This tank came in at 29 KM/L. (This would have to be normal work for me)

The worst was clearly the point between Talangatta and Wadonga which was covered mainly at full throttle with a large pack of motorcycles. The Scarabeo covered this at 21 KM/L.

The Scarabeo kept up... but the pace was quick and certainly at its limit I doubt you would ever need to go that quick on it again nor would I try. You can PM me for top speed as it wouldnt be good to publish that here. The amazement of most at the next fuel stop was staggering.

I spose the comment to make here is that the work the Scarabeo was doing was mostly high speed B Grade roads. These are made up of high speed flowing corners and tight twisty stuff where you are accelerating out of corners heavily and quite frequently.

Motorcycles will normally do between 170 km's to 245 km's on a tank. The Scarabeo on the other hand will easily cover longer distances then this. 

Touring bikes like BMW's etc would have a simalar range to the Scarabeo 500 but would have 25 to 30 litre tanks. 

If I was to stay at a steady 110 km/h in freeway conditions I could easily get a consumption of over 30km/L and a range well over 350 km's. 

In tight twisty sections the scarabeo is set up for a corner by touching the brakes before hand then getting through the corner and accelerating out. 

So when you look at the chart remember alot of these K's were done on and off the throttle heavily and not conducive to the best fuel consumption. So all in all I think this is pretty amazing stuff.

Got to meet a few of my Moto GP Mates at the Island.

From Rossi to Toseland they were all there and Scooter Community was on the spot brushing shoulders with the stars!

Have a guess at who's in each shot with the last two photos are of my mate Caparossi hamming it up right in front of me, gee hes a laugh at times.... 

PS. I didnt really talk to them...... and I dont this Loris meant to do that !!!

 The Journey to and from Cowes for the 2008 Moto GP followed various highways and back roads and was split over a few days of riding.

Riding ranged from Fast Freeway to amazingly fast Country Roads to just plain insane. The trip was accompanied by a group of motorcycles but you tended to join other groups of motorcycles along the way and thats where the speeds became increasingly quick as each bike jockeyed for position.

This story will take us along that journey and how the Scarabeo 500 handled itself along the way. The following was the route taken from start to finish.

Day 1 - Castle Hill NSW  -  Yass NSW - Total 281 KM's

 This involved freeway cruising in the late afternoon with an arrival at 8P. Just getting a start for the following day.

Day 2 - Yass NSW - Mansfield VIC - Total 580 KM's

This was all high speed sweepers on B and C grade country roads. Heading inland from Gungagai and coming around to Wadonga. Some truley amazing scenery around the Hume Dam.

Day 3 -  Manfield VIC - Cowes VIC - Total 286 KM's

This included fast sweepers to tight twisties going over the reefton spur. 

Return Leg 

Day 1 - Cowes VIC - Cooma NSW - Total 639 KM's

This involved mainly riding in High Wind, Heavy Rain and Snow - Totally Insane Conditions  

Day 2 - Cooma NSW - Sydney's Inner West - 510 KM's 

This was a fine day with still a high wind chill factor. Over the mountains from Braidwood to Batemans Bay.

The Down Route  

The Up Route 

Well its getting close to the trip down to phillip Island for the GP and the first thing I thought I had better do was buy an inverter to charge my laptop etc on the trip.

The Scarabeo has a 12 volt socket in the front of the scooter but i want to take advantage of my huge underseat storage I have on the Scarabeo 500 same as that on the 250 ie version.

This I would like to use to power my laptop/phone/cameras etc so all is charged. Its also handy to work from the scooter when it has a 240 volt power source. In these days of doing things on the run it just makes it so easy to be everywhere and have all the available items to make it happen.

So I went and purchased myself a 300 watt inverter from *** smith for 89.95 . Didn't realise but you get a 12 volt travel fridge as a bonus that will hold up to 12 cans!!!!!!! So out I walk with this little inverter and massive fridge that i doubt i will ever use or will it last but anyway.

Without a power socket in the underseat storage area(the 125 /200 has one) I needed an extension socket that ran from the battery out. Again this would be handy to power anything on 12 volt under the seat and plug in my inverter.

So 1st step was to uncover the battery which lives under the seat..... handy 

Next I needed a socket to plug into so to do this i bought a 12 v extension socket that was nice and stretchy, I cut it in half and soldered some clips to the end. I then tested the socket by plugging the end i cut off and watched for the light on the socket to come on. OK found the correct terminals and it was time to put it all back together. Nice

So now I have a socket that will remain under the seat at all times. The inverter can go in and out depending on if its needed. I will say though the scarabeo 500 and 250 run a light when the seat is lifted up. Just be careful you don't leave this light on for too long or inturn if its not needed remove the globe.  

So now my Scarabeo 500 is a workstation and very handy for those long distance trips and the electronic equipement can always be pulled out and run on an ordinary power point 

Pics of the process below