Shortly before my sister’s husband turned 40, he bought a Porsche. It was not a middle-aged-crazy car, he maintained, because he bought it while still in his 30’s. And, truthfully, I believe him, because he’s not really a mid-life crisis sort of guy.
This September, my brother-in-law and I will both be 45. (Interestingly, my brother-in-law and I share the same birthday, and were born about 150 miles apart.) This year, I’m considering a new vehicle in advance of my birthday. I love fast, sporty cars, and drive my father’s BMW every chance I get (which means whenever I’m in Houston), but a sports car is not in the cards for us this year, or probably any time soon. However, the vehicle I’ve been coveting is small, shiny and Italian.
I’m thinking about getting a Vespa.
If, as you read that last sentence, you thought that you could hear way off in the distance a great wailing and gnashing of teeth, it was probably my parents. (A boy I knew in high school gave me a ride home from a musical rehearsal on his motorcycle when I was fifteen. I thought my parents might never let me out of the house again. Eventually they did. I haven’t been on a motorcycle since.) While I believe that I’ve made noises within their hearing about coveting a scooter, I’m not sure it ever occurred to them that I might be serious about it.
Am I serious about it? I’m not entirely sure yet. Almost two years ago, a Vespa shop opened on a corner that I pass on the way to my office each day. On nice days, the scooters are lined up along the sidewalk, shiny and cute, promising the wind in one’s hair breeze on one’s face (hair safely tucked in a helmet, of course) and no worries about parking spaces ever again. They look like such fun.
Paul and I have talked about selling one of our cars (my 11-year-old Prizm), and seeing how we get along as a one-car family. We live 1 1/2 miles from my office, Paul now works from home, and I only rarely need a car for work. Except on rare occasions, I think we’d manage just fine with only one car… but a scooter would provide each of us with a vehicle, and more flexibility, while reducing our overall fossil fuel consumption. (This idea makes sense!)
Before buying a Vespa, I think I should learn to ride one. (Yes, I am sometimes practical that way.) The models that I think are possibilites have 50cc engines, so I wouldn’t need a motorcyle license. I would, however, want to know that I enjoyed riding a scooter before trading in my car for one. Finding a place to learn seems to be a bit of a trick. One of my coworkers (who also has scooter fantasies) has been trying to find someplace where we can rent scooters, but she hasn’t had any luck yet.
Last Saturday, we went to the Seattle Scooter Insanity street party next to Big People Scooters. Over 100 vintage Vespas, Lambrettas and other Italian scooters lined the street, some shiny and restored, others battered and sporting art-car style paint jobs, all wonderful examples of cool Italian design. Those that were running, however, brought back memories of a not so cool - quite warm, in fact - visit to Florence, where the dominant smell in the air was scooter exhaust. If I buy a scooter, it will be one with the most efficient, clean running engine I can find. (See? Not crazy at all.)
Have you ever ridden a scooter?
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15 responses so far ↓
No, but a pathologist I know coveted a bright red scooter because the little boy across the street from him as a child had one and he didn’t. He looked absurd on it. Unfortunately, he tried to drive it like he drove his big white Navigator. I saw him have several near misses while pulling out of the labs driveway. Then one day the FedEx truck in front of him stopped suddenly to turn, he tried to but didn’t and slammed his left side into the back of the truck. Long story short….delayed rupture of spleen, shattered femur (stopped counting at 64 pieces when they put Humpty Dumpty back together), hip replacement, three surgeries, two rehabs and a lot of headaches for the rest of us who had to take up his slack.
Please, please, please…..listen to your mom.
PS: He also lived only 2 miles from work.
Oh, she could get in an accident just as easily in her car. That’s not enough reason not to get one. It makes PERFECT sense to me. With their lifestyle, it makes less sense to have two cars. Plus, I want to get invited for rides. Seriously, though, do people on scooters get injured more than people who drive cars?
maybe what you need to do is map routes that are safe and be a bit more cautious than the guy was. But I’ve heard that Vespa’s do guzzle gas or pollute or. . . I don’t exactly remember the exact phrase.
Having worked on an orthopedic ward at Harborview, and having ridden a bicycle in Seattle traffic, I consider the Vespa to be the accident that has everything. In terms of safety, Vespas have to be right up there with unregulated bungee jumping. Unless, of course, you never ride it. Reminds me of my mother’s verse about swimming:
Mother, may I go out to swim?
Yes, my darling daughter-
hang your clothes upon a limb,
and don’t go near the water.
I dreamed last night that you were the proud owner of a new Mini-Cooper. Cute. Sporty. Compact. Fuel-efficient. And very, very cool. Just right for a mid-life whatever.
when we went to greece a couple of years ago, there were scooters that you could rent - we tried - it was really hard - so we didn’t end up renting them - I highly recommend you test drive them before you buy! I think just like driving a motorcycle, scooters can be driven safely… but I would study whatever there is in training (ie. read up on the motorcycle licence requirements)
Does a Honda mini bike count? IT was a blast! ‘Course, I didn’t ride it on the street, and I still have a tiny burn scar on my inner calf where I got a little too close to the engine…
Try riding one UP Queen Anne Hill…then think about riding one down with the brakes burning out and no help from the belt drive…
Gosh, since everyone’s raining on your parade I guess I’ll go ahead and tell you that the Chinese joke that cars are metal wrapped around meat while scooters & bikes are meat wrapped around metal — you choose which is the better idea.
Yes. You know I’m wishy-washy about most things, so here goes…
I started my motorcycle phase with my grampa’s 1972 Honda Trail 90, which is vaguely trail-bike shaped but is really a 90cc scooter. Because I thought it would be really embarrassing to kill myself with something wimpier than your average lawn mower, I took the 1-800-CCRIDER training course and learned how to ride real motorcycles. Following suit is a requirement of our friendship, Kimberly–it’s a fantastic course and only fools would attempt to ride without it.
Then I proceeded to ride my Trail90, then got hooked on a Honda 650 HawkGT a friend lent me, and then had to force myself to ride the Trail90 occasionally.
Here’s the deal. You’re necessarily going to go slower on a scooter, and you’re going to be limited to city streets. Even if yours has enough CCs for a bit of highway use to be legal, it would be insane to attempt it. So, in a falsely reassuring way, a scooter will seem the safer choice, and at first I did feel safer on the Trail90 than on the HawkGT. However, within a week, I knew the Hawk was the safer bike, and the Trail90 was a death trap, because a real bike has (a) loads of pickup, to squirt you to safety on short notice (speeding up into the direction of safety, by the way, is the most effective way to get out of most kinds of trouble), (b) incredibly powerful brakes, to halt you to safety on short notice, (c) incredible turning power, to swerve you to safety on short notice, (d) enough weight to provide gyroscopic stability even at 5mph on a bumpy road, (e) enough street cred to earn you some tiny bit of respect from the morons in SUVs, (f) enough power to intimidate you into riding conservatively.
Scooters, by contrast, have less pick up than most wimpy cars, meaning that you will have to learn a whole new rhythm for moving in traffic. Their stopping distance is comparable to (or greater than) most cars. They’re wobbly even at high speed and feel horrible on a bumpy surface. They’re hard to steer hard. People in SUVs will never, ever see you nor take you into account in their traffic decisions.
Yes, scooters are cute, and they make a fun little buzzy sound, and they seem vaguely ladylike, and you’d think their wimpiness would be a built-in hedge against aggressive riding. Since you already know I take a more aggressive approach to traffic than you do, ask some other scooter riders who don’t seem like me how long their wimpiness lasted. Most people who get scooters become a little throttle happy after a short time, because at first they do feel “safe,” and they proceed to ride beyond the braking and steering limits of their bikes. It’s nearly impossible to ride beyond the braking and steering limits of even a tiny motorcycle.
With all that in mind, I say, by all means go for it. Riding is a blast, and it’s a wonderful, sensible, and fun a way to get around a city. Take the course first. You’ll learn on their small motorcycles, i.e., make your mistakes and break off little bits and pieces of THEIR bikes, not yours. After you pass, if you’re still into the whole idea, ask to borrow a friend’s real small motorcycle for a little practice on a parking lot, and then borrow a friend’s scooter for the same. Be sure to try all those hard swerving, braking, and braking-in-a-turn maneuvers you learned to pass the riding test, and then you be the judge. I’d lay odds on your choosing a small motorcycle instead, and I’ll be thrilled to help you pick something out!
I still miss my Hawk GT. Maybe someday I’ll get that VFR800 I’ve been drooling over…
Hi,
Michele sent me.
I love music and cats!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Nadia
A scooter you say? Hmm, how do I answer this without jumping up and down and clapping hands in glee?
I don’t.
Pause for scooter excitement frenzy.
Now, what was your question? Oh yes, scooters. Yes, I have been on one and yes, I would like to own one. OHMYGOODNESSINEEDASCOOTER.
Did that answer your question?
A Vespa? Every voman should vespa. Those things are not only eco-great, they are just so gosh darned fabulous as well.
And PS, Michele sent me.
When I read “Vespa,” my face lit up and I did literally clap my hands in glee. I have always wanted a Vespa (since age 14 anyway). A red one.
I’ve never been on one. Learning to ride also seemed a bit of a deterrent (I don’t even ride a bicycle). A motorcycle course sounds like a good idea.
Based on nothing but the vicarious thrill it would give me, I say go for it.
If you can balance a bike, you can drive a scooter…and they are as fun as they look. As far as the danger…you’re at just as much risk if you’re on a bicycle. Wear a helmet, keep your legs and arms covered, pay attention to your surroundings, and just have fun with it. If I hadn’t bought my convertible, I’d be out there looking for a good scooter. Honda Elite, most likely…