Actually, Fred, the route we took wasn't the one I had planned. I usually take Orchard Lake down to Lone Pine, which then takes me over to Franklin. But you signaled a left at Long Lake, instead, which seemed like a nice change of pace to me.
As it turns out, your route may be better. Although Lone Pine is a really nice trip, Long Lake turned out to have a pretty decent shoulder in which to ride. More importantly, we avoided that miserable section of Orchard Lake between Pontiac Lake and Lone Pine, when I have, on occasion, been unable to get over to the left lane in order to make the turn onto Lone Pine. Instead, I've had to pull into a driveway on the right and wait for a chance to make it across one-half at a time. Of course, if my 'ped went as fast as yours this would not be a problem, would it? ;-)
You're right about the "straight up single speed." Darn. There's a lot of speed just waiting to find its way out of that raucous engine at full throttle. I've got both Chris at Moped Warehouse and Marcel at 50cc trying to find a smaller rear sprocket for my baby (since I've already jammed in the largest front sprocket that will fit), but if I overdo it my 0-25 MPH time is going to be about ten minutes!
Hey, Chris, how are you coming with the Minarelli variator you've been teasing us about?