Scooter in the Sticks

Exploring life on a Vespa Scooter and Royal Enfield Himalayan motorcycle.

From Gray into the Light

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Almost two months have passed since my last post to Scooter in the Sticks. Finally, I’ve emerged from gray into the light.

Vespa GTS scooter on foggy forest road.
Riding through a foggy morning in Rothrock State Forest.

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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Risk Assessment When Moving From a Scooter to a Motorcycle

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BMW K75C motorcycle parked beneath a freeway overpass.
I’ve always known the motorcycle was heavy, but I didn’t consider what that meant in terms of protective gear.

A Heavy Pile of Steel

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.

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Vespa in Fog

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Vespa scooter on foggy roadThe Lure of Riding in Fog

I really can’t help myself.  When I wake and see fog outside all I can think of is feed the dogs and get the hell on the road. The pull of that magic atmosphere is strong despite the obvious risks.  Like riding in the snow, I sometimes hesitate posting because I don’t want to suggest you ride in the fog.  Or any other adverse weather condition.  While it’s something I’m prepared to deal with and accept the additional risk, it is not something for every rider in every location.

Still, I make the choice to ride my Vespa in fog on three consecutive mornings.  This day the fog was particularly dense in places with both visor and glasses fogging up making it hard for me to see and for others to see me.  Normally I ride with earplugs to cut down on noise but went without them so I could more readily hear approaching vehicles.  This is particularly important when you’re wandering around the road taking pictures.  I would consider it a monumental failure to be hit by a car while using a camera.Continue Reading

Intoxicating Insanity

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Steve Williams, Vespa rider and blogger.

Are You Nuts?

I confess an ulterior motive to this post; I’m testing a new blog post editing application — Blogo. Rather than always have to be online to create posts in the WordPress site, this would allow me to work offline, work on multiple posts, ready images and tags, and pretty much do everything and then just push it to the site. A big question is how it handles images — specifically where do they go when uploaded. I like to know how some things work. Especially related to my self-hosted WordPress site.

Unrelated to that task, I wonder how often riders hear the “Are you nuts?” comment in regard to their riding. Or some variation of the popular incredulity people have when they think “motorcycle.” Scooters get a slightly less fierce reaction but it still happens. For me it more often comes up in the winter during a cold ride. Even fellow riders with mutter “Are you nuts?” Generally, the answer is yes. I’m overcome by the intoxicating insanity that riding pours through me. It’s a rush that causes me to assume a heightened risk of disaster.

Don’t misunderstand that last statement. It doesn’t imply reckless behavior or preclude a deliberate, managed approach to the risks associated with riding on two wheels. But the intoxicating insanity is complete. It sparks the pleasure synapses and delivers a rush of well-being that’s hard to describe. Perhaps a poet could. But my feeling is that it’s something you have to experience directly.

And there ends my test of the Blogo application (It’s for Macs only). We’ll see how things look when it’s posted.

Riding Risk: Something Every Rider Should Consider

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Morning Fall from Boss Boyd on Vimeo.
Morning Fall
by Edward McGinty

Reminders on Riding Risk

Every so often, I post this video as a reminder, not just that riding brings with it risk, but more importantly, that risk is something every rider should, from time to time, think about.

A clear understanding of the risk involved when you head out on the road can help inform the skills developed and applied to a ride that will improve the odds that you’ll return safely. And if your family or significant other has concerns about your scooter or motorcycle you’ll be better equipped to discuss those concerns beyond, “I’m safe.”Continue Reading