The story I’m asked about most often regards winter riding. More specifically snow.
Man and His Vespa Scooter
This is the story of my first drop of the scooter, one which occurred while riding in a March snow back in 2006 — just seven months after purchasing the Vespa LX150. The picture above was made just a few minutes after the unfortunate collision with the pavement.
Looking back that was a rapid transition from beginning rider to year round rider. Some may question the effectiveness of the Motorcycle Safety Foundation classroom training . Perhaps I wasn’t paying attention. (seriously — I highly recommend their training)
Doing a bit of research for this story in my early blog posts I saw two themes at work. The first was an early obsession and passion for riding. I’ve seen new riders excited to have a new motorcycle or scooter but not ride much. I was bit hard by the riding bug.
A second theme emerged regarding the expansion of my riding “oeuvre” — basically I continued to push the envelope in regard to time in the saddle, length of rides, time of day and eventually through all types of weather.
I was relentless. And looking back, perhaps not as astute as I should be regarding risk, skill and technique.
And I can’t blame youth for my poor choices — I was 52 years old.
Early Snow Riding
Consideration of riding in the winter was influenced by two rider/blogger — Gary Charpentier and Dan Bateman. They shared technical information, approaches and considerations that helped me make the decision to roll down the street when there was a little snow on the ground.
Reading the story of my first drop again, an event which occurred on March 3, 2006, I shudder at the newbie mistakes I made — going too fast, not thinking through the route, and most importantly not understanding the nature of the snow. Ask any skier — it comes in many shapes and sizes.
So without further ado — here’s a link to a once upon a time in the snow story of my FIRST DROP.
See if you can pick up on the errors.
And as always, I don’t advise this kind of riding. Even a perfect approach can go wrong in the snow. And that’s not ever factoring other vehicles on the road.
Stay safe, keep your scooter shiny, stay at home when it’s snowing.
Good intro to a great post!
So many lessons to learn about driving in sub-optimal traction conditions.
Took me two times, but I learned you don’t downshift when on snow/ice to slow down when on two wheels….first time resulted in no damage to my R1150RT (Maria), second time resulted in lots of damage to Maria. 🙁
Given my record with two wheels and snow/ice, I’ll stick to my sidecar rig for such conditions. That third wheel provides such peace of mind and allows for safer execution of my oath to never let snow trap me again.
I’ve found the only way to effectively deal with sub-optimal traction is to slow down. Often to a crawl, sometimes even slower. It’s tedious work at times and well outside some rider’s idea of fun. It’s like a slow climb up a technically challenging rock face.
I’m getting more and more comfortable being trapped by snow!
I also followed Steve Charpentier’s blog (originally read his stuff in Minnesota Motorcycle Monthly) of riding a 150cc Chinese scooter for a year solid – in Minnesota. The two things that stood out were super-aggressive tires and using snowmobile boots as outriggers. But snow and ice on public roads are hard enough with 4 wheels; not sure I really want to tackle that on 2. Unless you’re going real slow on a Rokon. They’re pretty much unstoppable.
Charpentier pushed the envelop with winter riding. I saw lessons and followed along in some of my own riding but nothing like him. And as time goes no I think less and less about riding in the snow. Cold is ok but snow, well, it’s another matter entirely.
Well Steve, I remember that post. Back in the days when I had no Vespa and was binge reading your blog in an effort to learn what I needed to know before actually buying my first Vespa.
I think I got some comfort from that post. I figured that if you felt that your risk was reasonably well managed riding in those conditions, then I would probably be OK on dry warm pavement, and wouldn’t have to worry about a drop.
It turned out I was wrong about the drop. That happened a couple of years later at about the same speed, in pitch blackness, in pouring torrential rain. I was considerably more rattled than you were, and the scooter and I suffered a little damage, not much.
Dropping a bike sucks, unless it’s a dirt bike, and you drop it in soft comfy oozy mud.
I only ended up riding on snow a handful of times while on two wheels. Once about 120 miles from home. But after reading the weather forecast, continued on and hit the predicted warming 60 miles further. No drops but I sought out the gravel near the shoulders. I still seek out gravel even with a third wheel. It makes stopping so much more predictable.
Great story. I hadn’t read back that far on your blog.
I vividly remember my very first ride in the snow ever. It was the mid-70’s, winter, cold and totally dry and snow-free. I had ridden about 40 miles from my home to visit a friend overnight. When I woke up the next morning for my return trip back to my home, I awoke to about 6 inches of freshly fallen snow. Back then PennDOT didn’t seem to clear the roads as rapidly as they do now. I had to get home, and I remember following the path of some tractor-trailer who had passed the way I was going, earlier that morning. All I had to do was go slow, keep my feet down most of the time, and keep that motorcycle in the rut in the snow from that truck’s tires. I was about 10 miles from home when a PA State Cruiser came up on me, got in front of me going the same way, turned on his emergency lights, and gave me an escort all the way back to my home, him leading the way. When I got home we both stopped and I thanked him for his consideration and generosity. He told me that he had received a call from some trucker going the other way about some “crazy motorcyclist” that that caller had seen plodding along in the snow!
Thank you for posting your First drop story. It seems snow, rain and oil are the scooter/motorcycle nemesis’. My first scooter drop was on a test drive and it involved rain, and naiveté on my part. I remember all to well that jumping up looking around feeling embarrassed and hoping no one was looking. I have had a quick learning curve with learning to ride in 5 years and have had more drops than I like to admit to, it usually involved inattention, fatigue or most recently the newness of the machine. The last time I had an oops it was particularly embarrassing because it was in front of my motorcycle instructor colleagues. Ugh that was a day I was not a happy camper, but on the bright side neither the bike or myself were any worse for wear and that is the icing on that proverbial cake – anytime you walk away from a drop or fall unscathed is a good day.
There’s a fine line between traction and none when the weather is bad. Easy to have a drop especially if fatigued. Always bad to do it in front of other riders — especially a group of riding instructors! They don’t forget.
I saw you tonight at the Triumph opening at Rothrock Cafe. You were going out the door I think you didn’t stay long. You may have been the only motorcycle rider. I chewed the fat with Craig and K and Ken and the gang. I sat on the MP3 today. I was thinking it would be good for you and your snow patrol scooter adventures per our conversation at Saints.
Paul
I didn’t even see you Paul. Didn’t realize you were in the picture. I didn’t have a lot of time and you know how I feel about gatherings. The MP3 won’t solve traction issues but may not fall over as quickly. But man, can’t imagine getting salt and muck inside that complex front end…
I see Vespa dealerships demonstrate scooter protection bars so as to prevent damage to the steel body surrounding the engine. I have to wonder if such an acessaries would be a worthwhile upgrade.
I too have much experience traversing the icy frozen, only, that was in my youth, an experience at age 60 I never wish to repeat.
I’ve looked at the crash bars but they seem more decorative than functional. Probably won’t invest in them myself.
My icy, frozen adventures are probably at an end. I’ve proved I can do it. Now I might just focus on keeping myself intact…