New owner of Stellar Blue Meteor 350 (Nila)

[Clampett]

Day to weeks on the wait since ordering. She finally arrived yesterday. It was late when I was able to go pick her up.
Her name is Nila. Restraining to the break in (run in?) speeds is difficult. At these low speeds, the 5th gear felt useless except going flat or down hill.
Dusk made her look more black than blue, but she is still photogenic eh?
As a rider of Vespa Primaveras, the first thing I missed was the storage!!!!
Spent the evening installing a rack and Givi top case, Ram balls, and adjusting the shifting lever.
Ordered a Givi windscreen that I'm hoping works well.
Anyhoo, here she be:

 

[ChampRoyal]

Welcome Nila

Great looking machine but I'm biased

 

[CNDguy]

Very nice!

 

[Lostbearing]

I like you lunch box Nice bike!

 

[mcmd]

Yes, those are great bikes. I had one for about a year and made the mistake of test riding the SM 650. Once I had the taste of more power I had to have the 650 so I traded the 350 in. Great bikes, both!

 

[Clampett]

Yes, those are great bikes. I had one for about a year and made the mistake of test riding the SM 650. Once I had the taste of more power I had to have the 650 so I traded the 350 in. Great bikes, both!

I've went the opposite. Had Gold Wings, downgraded to CTX1300, then Shadow 750, then Kymco 400, then Vespa 300, then Vespa 150 twice. Still have and ride the 150 the most. Nice, slow, light, easy maintenance, 97mpg. But sometimes I get a hankering. The 650 does smack some grits but I like Slow Poke Rodriguez. Speedy is kewl but my wick is burning low and not much wick left to trim.

 

[Clampett]

Installed the Givi windscreen and a Givi top case. The little tank bag wasn't quite enough by itself.








I had planned on installing some risers, but they won't work as is with the way the Givi windscreen mounts.

 

[Galvanised]

I've went the opposite. Had Gold Wings, downgraded to CTX1300, then Shadow 750, then Kymco 400, then Vespa 300, then Vespa 150 twice. Still have and ride the 150 the most. Nice, slow, light, easy maintenance, 97mpg. But sometimes I get a hankering. The 650 does smack some grits but I like Slow Poke Rodriguez. Speedy is kewl but my wick is burning low and not much wick left to trim.

Yes sir! Nice.

 

[OldSchoolGuy]

Installed the Givi windscreen and a Givi top case. The little tank bag wasn't quite enough by itself.








I had planned on installing some risers, but they won't work as is with the way the Givi windscreen mounts.

Sweet ride! Diggin' the lil mascot! Whats his name?
Welcome to the group..... enjoy your ride!

 

[Clampett]

Sweet ride! Diggin' the lil mascot! Whats his name?
Welcome to the group..... enjoy your ride!

Thank you for the welcome. I have a large collection of stuffed (besides me) animals. But Pandas are my fav. I have several of the 6-10 inch that I keep on different rides and all the small ones are called Ying. So, when I ride, it's always Ying with me. Mama Panda helps me plan rides:


Some of them get me tickets for no helmets :




Sometimes they go without me:

 

[Clampett]

Long way home today after visiting mom:

Russian Orthodox has a food festival every Nov and they do have some good eatin.
This is the old building and the new one that is currently used is to the right.








Nothing really special, but every bike I've had, I always stop here and take a few photos.




An old coal mining town that only has a few descendants of the original settlers who are mostly there due to inherited land.






Just a beautiful mural in Foresdale along the highway



This is a section of what's left of the original Hwy from Birmingham to Jasper (Alabama).

 

[ChampRoyal]

Awesome thank you for sharing

 

[Woodstock]

Long way home today after visiting mom:

Russian Orthodox has a food festival every Nov and they do have some good eatin.
This is the old building and the new one that is currently used is to the right.








Nothing really special, but every bike I've had, I always stop here and take a few photos.




An old coal mining town that only has a few descendants of the original settlers who are mostly there due to inherited land.






Just a beautiful mural in Foresdale along the highway



This is a section of what's left of the original Hwy from Birmingham to Jasper (Alabama).

I enjoy everyone's pics. More is good.

 

[Clampett]

Out & about playing Alabama Tag game on Adv forum:

 

[BikerBear650]

I'm loving the pants protector you got on the fork that is just a nice bit of extra. One thing I love most about RE bikes is everyone thinking you plopped down a fortune for some restored 1950s-1970s bike then they stare at it even more and see that it's actually brand new.

Even better is a lot of the community are mopedders as well! I have gotten some squids asking me about RE too. 3 hours on a Ninja is not the most ortho setup vs all day rides on a RE.

 

[Acedoc]

Day to weeks on the wait since ordering. She finally arrived yesterday. It was late when I was able to go pick her up.
Her name is Nila. Restraining to the break in (run in?) speeds is difficult. At these low speeds, the 5th gear felt useless except going flat or down hill.
Dusk made her look more black than blue, but she is still photogenic eh?
As a rider of Vespa Primaveras, the first thing I missed was the storage!!!!
Spent the evening installing a rack and Givi top case, Ram balls, and adjusting the shifting lever.
Ordered a Givi windscreen that I'm hoping works well.
Anyhoo, here she be:

Did you realise that “nila” is also the word for the color blue in Hindi ?
happy coincidence, me thinks

 

[Clampett]

Did you realise that “nila” is also the word for the color blue in Hindi ?
happy coincidence, me thinks

I did a search prior to naming her and found that. Checked the pronunciation too. Didn't want to appear to be a Red Neck Alabamian. Oh wait......

For my blue Vespa, Stitch. Blue in Italian didn't work. I even have stickers of Stitch on the Vespa.

 

[Clampett]

Well, the ground hog did see his shadow today....but it was a nice ride.

An old abandoned church that was built when my mom was a child:


Just because of the name:


I remember when my dad purchased one of those old Allis Chamlber tractors with a rear engine. No more mule plowing the garden.
Couple folks in the community and next one over out did him with the larger front engine tractors. This is the only one left around the area from that generation.

 

[Clampett]

An Out & About photo. While running errands, I took a side street shortcut that I've taken many times, but never noticed this old classic that has obviously been sitting there for a long long long time. Did a U-turn and let Nila pose with this old timer.

 

[Clampett]

Went out playing tag on the ADV site today. Took a few photos along the way.

I love taking photos of old buildings. This is just south of Locust Fork, Alabama


And this is the tag photo I went after which is just NW of the same city. They have a gate and warning signs for when there is a heavy rain.


This is the tractor warning sign as soon as you come up the hill from the low water crossing.


Still about 20 miles from home, I spotted my neighbor out with his heavy equipment and snagged a photo to send him I was there. He'd left about 5 minutes prior to the photo:


Studebaker pickup:




Along with old vehicles, I collect photos of deserted/abandoned buildings, old barns, vacant structures, etc.


And the new tag I placed for others to find/photo.