Namely, scooters are perfect for gentrifying neighborhoods which are often short on parking and heavy on people who are impressed by Vespas.That puts us smack in the target demographic, all right. I should look into a scooter myself.
(...and this was the giveaway for my pal Marko.)
hey! Maybe I'm white after all!
ReplyDelete(oh, wait...)
WV: difem. *snicker*
I don't know...I'm pretty expensive, require a lot of bacon and ammunition and I have a big 'carbon footprint'.
ReplyDeleteThe Vesparados ride again.
ReplyDeleteVespas are cool, at least (like all scooters) up to the exact moment they loose their grip on the road and become projectiles, along with any riders.
ReplyDeleteThen they become cool to everyone watching, but not participating, in the rider's long, fast slide to scabrous, inglorious road kill.
Scooters are awesome. They even make 400cc and 650cc ones that are capable of cross-country touring.
ReplyDeleteI met a guy in Eastern Washington that had just ridden a Honda Silverwing "super-scooter" from Portland to Chicago and was taking the long way home via US Route 2.
In very urban areas scooters make all kinds of sense for the parking angle alone.
ReplyDeleteGot to tell you though, from the inside of a Minivan or an SUV scooters look like air and feel like a rough patch of road.
ReplyDeleteAside from which I believe I'm too big to ride one safely...heck, I'm too big to drive Tam's german skateboard, who am I kidding.
Do you have any idea how stupid someone 6'7" looks trying to extract themselves from every two seater ever built?
Anonymous:
ReplyDeleteYou should look into something like the BMW R1150GS or R1200GS with a set of raising links and/or custom raised seat.
I know several folks in the 6'4 to 6'6 range who ride those bikes even without raising links.
WV:GYPSYMPR
Appropriate enough for this motorcycle gypsy. 15-20k miles per year.
Wow, according to that article I'm not white. Even though the light reflecting from my body can blind people in the daytime.
ReplyDeleteYou white people are all wierd.
ReplyDeleteLook at #8 on your white list:
http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/2008/01/19/8-barack-obama/
Didn't you fools see how socialism destroyed the black, brown and yellow people?
Shootin' Buddy
My buddy Pete was hugely drunk one night and crashed his Vespa at about 40mph into a brand-new slow-the-traffic barrier that had been erected in afternoon - it had never been there in the street before before. He rag-dolled and landed in Bozo's front yard, minus both of his Doc Marten boots - the laces had blown off and left him barefoot. You gotta her him tell the story though, I suck at storytelling.
ReplyDelete...See, ya lose me at "hugely drunk" + "Vespa." That's a no-go. People think scooters are safe, little toys. They're right about the "little" but an oopsie at 50 mph on 10" wheels in traffic is messy. I shudder every time some d00d buzzes by, helmetless, in shorts, T-shirt and flip-flops, tunnel-visioned on dead ahead.
ReplyDelete--I ruined my knee at 15 mph, though the worst damage came from fighting it -- you can't catch 260# at 15 mph on one leg; the leg gives.
Tam, my 'chine is. no. flippin'. Vespa! It's Indian iron, roughly Vespa-shaped but with a smooth, smooth 4-stroke. They haven't the cachet of the Italian job -- nor the price tag.
(Captcha: unflob. Which I most desperately wished to do the day I wrecked).
The heck with a Vespa, save some money and do this to any old bicycle you have laying around....
ReplyDeletehttp://www.zoombicycles.com/
In CO, scooters under 50cc do not require license plates or registration. One fellow I know had a 150cc Vespa, and broke the "1" off the chrome nameplate. He never got a plate for the thing even though it was capable of 55 mph.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if changing the designation on my bike from inches to cc would help?
Damn, I guess I have to give up my White Folks Decoder Ring--I still prefer my CB900F.
ReplyDeleteOh no, Miss X, you are la plupart blanc des blancs!
ReplyDeleteThe Indian version is even MORE WHITE- it was made in the third world, by indigenous people, instead of by a (yes, Italian, but still) corporation.
When you're riding it, you're the only white person around, it's like having a black friend in your garage!
And leave my pea coat, Lapsang Souchong, forty sweaters, long holidays, and 38 other SWPL things out of it.
While they are easy to ride little things, and indeed, quite enjoyable, if I was in the buying mood, I'd go for a "custom" motorcycle. Don't need much power to it either, as long as it has decent accelleration for safe overtaking of the occasional slowpoke, and a topspeed of 80mph+(though I'd cruise slower than that, I'd prefer not to have to strain the engine). In other words, 250cc would be plenty enough for me.
ReplyDeletePetey was normally on a fast sport bike or riding MX or Trials - or on the track racing - and at the time he was a bit young, but he was wearing a helmet. He got incredibly lucky to land on Bozo's yard.
ReplyDeleteOne of our friends in Calcutta got run over by a street car on his Indian Vespa and went to Brahama.