Group riding WITH VESPAS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

CirclesCenter · September 01, 2006, 11:48:47 PM

I was riding home at about 8 pm and along my road there are a bunch of bike shops.

A few custom chopper places, basic bike shops and....

1 Scooter Shop.....

Tonight there were about 40 Vespas sitting out front. Yes 40 Vespas. One even needed multiple push starts before it behaved. Then he sat there pinning it with the little scoot attempting to run, making a weird little sick noise that made me want to get it some chicken soup and an electric blanket.

We all got started up and suddenly I heard and smelt nothing but 2 stroke madness. At that point my engine could have had no oil in it at all and it would have been fine just by getting all the oil out of the air!

Now here's the bad part for the little GS (that now thinks it is a nuclear submarine in the midst of a bunch of paddle boats) There's a Vespa in town that stoplight to stoplight beats 600cc sportbikes. This is not myth, this is fact. I have seen it do it. (It power wheelies with each shift!) But that bike was not present tonight, but I was wondering which one of these evil little creatures might have the power to eat my face.

The GS however was not the Uber bike. There was a Triumph 900 there that held that status.

So we all took off at about 35 ~ 37 mph. The top operating speed of most of the Vespas. I was mid pack and couldn't hear squat except B RR RRR A A A A AAAAAA! (yes with those little pauses cause these bikes are, well weird....) It was like each revolution of the engine was some sort of miracle that wasn't scientifically impossible.

And we rode around in full cluster fuckitude. People honked and waved and yelled and took LOTS of pictures. We got on a 50 mph road and went 35ish. (It was uphill, cut the scoots a break.)

We rode down the main street through the Reno arch and I even led the pack for a bit. (Weird...... I felt like, well I dunno, weird but it was more fun than I had ever had.)

Then back up downtown to a pub where I bowed out. They asked if I did any tricks on my bike, so in the alley behind the pub (which was blocked by innumerable 2 stroke creatures) I did a few, much to the excitement of some scoots. I felt like some sort of celebrity with the way they were all amazed at wheelies and me standing up on the bike with my arms spread. (King of the scoots?

)

It was about 25 miles worth of VERY slow riding. No super-uber-ultra-Vespa ate me. (That would make for an awesome story though!)

I had a huge grin. It was great, the best group ride I had ever been on. Nothing else will ever come close.

Nothing like the stares we got, and the girls yelling and screaming for us.

It was a role reversal, instead of being the bike with no engine to speak of I was the lump of iron super beast, capable of tripling their top speed and going 0 - 35 before they cleared the crosswalk! (if only beast no. 2) I guess that's about what a GSXR 1k or a Hayabusa feels like. But I understood the whole underpowered thing and didn't flaunt my power at all (except when I was choking on two stroke fumes and moved further up the pack, I figured dying mid ride might spoil the night) I just rode with them at their pace.

Hopefully I'll get to ride with them tomorrow.

Vespa riders are cool people, even if they don't get the whole waving thing..... (scoots don't get waved to most of the time it seems.)

(BTW nominate for post of the week?)

Mr.7 · September 02, 2006, 10:17:31 AM

Awsome

(were picking posts of the week now?)

yamahonkawazuki · September 02, 2006, 12:12:54 PM

damn you cc no pics?

guaitukei · September 02, 2006, 01:04:19 PM

This post made my ribs hurt as I fell out of the chair laughing....

You have my vote

Old Mr. Wilson · September 02, 2006, 01:26:54 PM

Vespas are Cool !!!! They are the Kingpin/old standard for scooters. Those are real ones! I saw a dude the other day near LSU at a stoplight. He had restored his Vespa to new condition. Blood Fire-Engine Red. He had installed a hard luggage bin at the back of the seat and had on a leather jacket with a giant VESPA across the back like you'd see a Harley Davidson Hell's Angels wear. I thought to myself......."this guy really gets into it"..............................I have heard of their rallies where 100's of them go buzzing around.....
That must have been far out to go riding with them........I could dig that............

blue05twin · September 02, 2006, 07:49:54 PM

Cool man where's the pic's?

CirclesCenter · September 02, 2006, 08:39:58 PM

Waiting for the Vespa guys to post the pictures., I didn't have my camera and it was a "right now" opportunity.

pantablo · September 03, 2006, 12:42:41 AM

thats pretty funny. cool being the big fish in the small pond once in a while. whole different culture those vespas...

pandy · September 03, 2006, 07:44:01 AM

I think it's cool that the Vespa riders were so open to having someone different amongst them, especially someone who could blow by them in first gear. If only ALL of our brothers and sisters on two wheels were so open-minded!

annguyen1981 · September 03, 2006, 08:41:38 AM

Quote from: pandy on September 03, 2006, 07:44:01 AM
I think it's cool that the Vespa riders were so open to having someone different amongst them, especially someone who could blow by them in first gear. If only ALL of our brothers and sisters on two wheels were so open-minded!

+1

pandy · September 03, 2006, 01:35:16 PM

We saw a small Vespa group ride on our way home from Santa Cruz this morning. There were four of them! Awesome!!!

CirclesCenter · September 03, 2006, 04:42:44 PM

Yeah, but like I said I wasn't the Uber bike there was one of these there:

dadsafrantic · August 19, 2007, 02:53:10 AM

i actually just got my wife an mp3 from piaggio. very cool indeed. feels good at 70 mph.

http://www.piaggiousa.com/pScooters/MP3.cfm#nowhere

simon79 · August 19, 2007, 03:54:19 AM

Hmm...old post revived...

I'm extremely damn curious about the MP3, and I'd definitely like to test-ride one.

[blasphemy_mode=ON;]
But I'm afraid I'd end up trading in my GS for an MP3...

[blasphemy_mode=OFF;]

TheMajekalBum · August 19, 2007, 11:42:13 AM

I got a kymco scooter...not quite a vespa but it's fun to ride...reall make you appreciate the gs "speed"...lol...and up where I like we have a scooter rental place and theres always groups of scooters around...like the smallest group i've seen was 3. Scooters are fun but the gs is more fun.

dadsafrantic · August 19, 2007, 02:10:08 PM

the mp3 is cool. you feel the road twice from both front wheels. that takes some getting used to. very stable on town type roads and alleys. it does feel smooth at 70 mph though. also you will be doing 45-50 around town if you are not carefull.

GeeP · August 19, 2007, 03:33:34 PM

Yep, I've done a few Vespa rides. Good fun, good people, excellent ice cream. 35 MPH does get a little old, but thoughts of ice cream keep me going.

Nikolas · August 20, 2007, 01:54:06 PM

35mph, must've been a 'slow' ride...

I did a rally yesterday and in the front pack we were doing 65mph up a steep hill. Mine tops out at a gps verified 70 with a seized to hell cylinder. After the rebuild I'm guessing 75. Beats pretty much anything off the line. It's pretty much stock engine wise too...

4 is 2 strokes too many.

News:

Group riding WITH VESPAS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!