Exploring life on a Vespa Scooter and Royal Enfield Himalayan motorcycle.
I can’t say for sure if I’ve gone for a Vespa ride on Christmas Day each year I’ve owned a scooter, but I would not be surprised if that’s true. This year the thermometer was inching toward 50F and offered no suspense or anxiety that some Christmas Day rides in the past have delivered.
It was good to get out and just let whatever noise, concerns, or bothersome thoughts I might have evaporate into the atmosphere as I rolled through the world.
Continue ReadingIt’s always a surprise what triggers me to write an essay for Scooter in the Sticks. This time it was dragging the garbage can to the street for pickup and seeing frost on the car.
There are hints that winter is approaching; leaves descending from trees; geese honking overhead; squirrels and chipmunks growing fatter and fatter as they store the peanuts we put out for the birds. And now frost along with a faint bite on skin that rattles awake ancient programming in my DNA that whispers deep in my brain, “you better get ready…”
Those feelings sometimes emerge while riding, especially when conditions turn toward the surreal or become physically challenging. It happened one morning when I was riding the motorcycle into the mountains and encountered fog.
I discovered (again) that riding is magic.
Continue ReadingAlmost two months have passed since my last post to Scooter in the Sticks. Finally, I’ve emerged from gray into the light.
From time to time, I find myself wandering in a world of doubt, fear, and uncertainty, and everything becomes gray. At first, I blamed the nagging pandemic and how it affected my life yet a close inspection revealed little change in my daily life. I’ve been riding my Vespa scooter and BMW motorcycle throughout the summer and into the fall with little concern for what’s happening in the world, pandemic or otherwise. Still, there is the familiar, comforting rush being on two wheels, my spirit vibrating with excitement and a stupid smile across my face that surely speaks of lunacy.
Yet when I sit down to write about those experiences I quickly descend into a gray abyss where ideas, thoughts, feelings, and memory evaporate. I face a blank wall. It’s an unsettling landscape without a roadmap or destination. After a while, I’m left wondering if I will ever emerge from gray into the light.
Without explanation, I wake to find myself standing in the light with something to write.
And there it is, my Vespa GTS scooter on a narrow road leading through Rothrock State Forest on a foggy morning. The small tires moved smoothly along the gravel, the air full of moisture with the fragrance of leaves, and the feeling of being alive life filled me as I moved through nowhere to nowhere. I remember that morning now and how it felt to be in the world.
For a while, I wondered if the desire to write had left me. Numerous rides during the past four months along with many photographs had not triggered a need to write. My mind was wandering elsewhere. My body was engaged elsewhere. Perhaps it was the end.
And then I emerged from gray into the light.
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Reminders that trigger thoughts of risk assessment regarding my scooter or motorcycle are never far away. A neighbor stopped by today and shared a few stories of riding friends and relatives that had unfortunate encounters with deer and ATVs. It’s not uncommon to hear such things when someone discovers that I ride.
Risk assessment, training, practice, and appropriate riding gear have always been important to me since I started riding 16 years ago. Any illusion that I knew “how to ride” based on the time I spent on motorcycles as a teenager was quickly dispelled at my first Motorcycle Safety Foundation Basic Rider Course class. While I could get on a motorcycle and make it go, I was woefully oblivious to how to be a rider in traffic with other human beings. And decades of successful piloting of cars and trucks did little to inform me of the unique demands faced by being on two wheels.
Moving from a scooter to a motorcycle requires adjustment. A lot of people think the challenge is shifting and a clutch, but I’ve found the biggest challenge to be the difference in weight. My Vespa GTS 250 is around 335 pounds full of fuel, fluids, and gear. My BMW K75C with side cases and windscreen comes in at around 550 pounds. That’s considerably heavier not to mention the weight is higher up giving the motorcycle a distinct feel of being top-heavy. Switching back and forth between machines requires adjustment in my riding behavior and technique.
For several years I test rode motorcycles for Kissell Motorsports and was constantly moving from one machine to another. At each change, I did some basic practice with the new motorcycle to acclimate to its unique characteristics — clutch and throttle, emergency braking, slow speed maneuvers, etc. Those things gave me a good feel for the bike and what I could expect from myself and the machine.
So you would think that I had covered all the bases when it came to the scooter and motorcycle I own. But some recent reading about motorcycle injuries had me realizing I had left something out of my protective gear as it related to the motorcycle. I was set up for the Vespa and it’s comparatively light weight.
The weak link in my gear?
Boots.
Continue Reading“There is no greater enemy to those who would please than expectation.
Montaigne
Inspiration is real. I just look for it in the wrong places. Or in the wrong way. And I hold onto an expectation that it will come if I just wait.
Sitting in the living room, watching the world through the picture window, has become seductively normal. Life exists in that view, and the images, thoughts, and dreams that float through my head comprise my sedentary existence. I began to suspect my inaction and lack of motion was responsible for the difficulty I was having in sitting down at the keyboard and writing. Or doing much of anything else for that matter.
I sat waiting all summer for the myth of inspiration.
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