about getting from point A to point B in the most interesting ways possible

If you're a large woman in America, your whole life is an opportunity to feel self-conscious, embarrassed, resentful and way too big. You can hide in the corner or on the couch, you can go to therapy, or you can put on your lycra bike shorts and get out there and move.
—Jayne Williams, Slow Fat Triathlete

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September 8, 2005

My night with two Rivas permalink

Pictures from my walk, 8-29-2005I had a breakthrough yesterday at work, and I am now feeling a lot better. It's just a little thing, but it's so exciting. I'm learning!

Last night I biked home on a different route: crossing the Hawthorne bridge, taking 3rd through the Eastside Industrial Area, cutting over onto MLK and riding on the sidewalk for a couple blocks, and then up 2nd. The hill was more gradual, but riding on the sidewalk on MLK, next to 4 lanes of slow moving cars, made me feel kinda like an idiot. So that's out.

It occurred to me that most 3 speeds are geared: hill, flat, downhill. Though mine is geared: hill, hill, flat. I wonder if there's anything I (or more likely, the bike shop) can do to extend my range?
...

pink vespa

Photo by Brad Ralph of a scooter at a rally in Vancouver.
Last night, we met up and went for a ride with the St. Johns Scooter Club. Mind you, we don't live in St. Johns, but they didn't seem to mind. It was a small group, 7 of us, with one motorcycle, two Yamaha Rivas, a Yamaha 75? maybe, two Kymcos, and a Bajaj. One of the first things one of the Riva riders said was that he used to have a 1950s Vespa, but traded it in for the speed, reliability and convenience of a 20 year old Riva. I knew that was a good sign.

Maybe I'm more aware of this than most, but it seems amongst many scooterists, a vintage metal scooter (Vespa, Lambretta, AllState, IWL,...) is the right thing to ride. Unfortunately, these often require a lot of tinkering to keep them going. So I ride my reliable plastic asian scooter, and wish it was just a bit cooler.

This conceit—vintage/metal/european is better than non-vintage/plastic/asian—is barely below the surface in some interactions. I admit, I prefer the looks of the vintage scooters, too. I just don't prefer having something that I have to constantly be coddling.

So, anyways, the group was great. I was so happy to meet up with Riva owners—my first scooter was a Riva, and I loved it—they were nice folks, and a small enough group that we were able to hang out and chat for a while comfortably before taking off. We rode through the NW hills, by the zoo, and then up to Council Crest. It was a beautiful night.

Posted at September 8, 2005

Comments

I guess I've missed it, but what is your current scooter??

Posted by: neca at September 8, 2005 12:24 PM

You may be able to get a shop to change the cog at the rear to a smaller one or the chainring (or crank) to a larger one. This assumes that you want to increase top end speed at the expense of more leg work. The cog or chainring route will likely be not too unreasonable, if they would need to go the crank route, you won't want to do it. And many shops, unless they're real "utility bike heads" won't know a thing about any of this.

Posted by: Scooter at September 9, 2005 8:49 AM

I wonder if brand-new Vespas have the reliability of your Kymco or my Honda? (I hope so, for the price.)

Re: biking on the sidewalk - I love doing that sometimes. It makes me feel like I'm nine years old.

Posted by: Fran at September 9, 2005 9:03 AM

Hey, I love your blog. Very cool little ride, I might add ;)

Posted by: wil at September 9, 2005 12:02 PM