(Looks up at audience, clears throat, takes a deep breath) Okay, I confess to it. My name is Cedar and I’m a scooter addict. That’s right. I ride around on a 50 cc little bike made by an Italian company, Piaggio (yes, the folks who basically invented the modern scooter with the Vespa).
Piaggio Typhoon 50
I have the spiffy sleek little leather jacket (white with leopard print accent). I’m happy to zip along at 70 km/h down a road with the wind blowing in my hair and a feeling of something just short of flying! (And getting over 90 mpg while I’m at it).
Although, right now I’m typing at this computer, and my pretty little bike (pictured on the right) is out on the road being borrowed by my eldest son (who also looks pretty cool on it as well, with his armour, piercings, beard, and long pony-tail).
This post has nothing to do with food … well, almost nothing. You see, there is a company that is producing industrial oils from beef tallow. Yes, you heard it: A bi-product (and waste product) of the cattle industry. This company, called “Green Earth Technologies,” has invented a 2-stroke oil that can be used in lawn mowers, motorcycles, and other small engines. They also have a wider line of products … for cars, marine transport, etc.
So, my nifty little scooter is going to be the subject of a lab experiment. Being a little air-cooled 2-stroke engine, it burns a mixture of gasoline and oil. So far, I have been using the “Yamalube 2″ oil that my scooter dealer recommended. You can tell my bike by the cloud of blue it exhales. Well, being the devout Greenie that I am, I have been trying to find a cleaner alternative. I may have found one.
Having spiked the curiosity of my service guy, I am planning to pick up some of this “G-Oil” and see how it goes. My techie wants me to tell him in advance of when I will be switching over. I will then run my bike on “G-Oil” for a while and let him take a look at my engine. I had a good tune-up done only a month ago, so it should be fit as a fiddle.
Who knows, it may gum things up, but then again it may work.
A fellow scooterphile told me: “I was first shown this oil by the head of Piaggio USA tech services, and he said he had been using it in his SR50 for a while, with great results! It apparently doesn’t smoke as much as traditional oil either.”
So, I am optimistic. I’ll let you know how it goes.
