Scooter in the Sticks

Exploring life on a Vespa, Royal Enfield Himalayan, Honda Trail 125, and a Kawasaki W650

Winter Riding Story: First Drop

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The story I’m asked about most often regards winter riding. More specifically snow.

Steve Williams and his Vespa LX150 scooterMan 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.

Vespa LX150 on a snowy roadEarly 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.