Modern Vespa

Not posted for at least a year, perhaps two but...

Do I win a prize for lowest scooter mileage in the past 12 months?

Since my last MOT my one and only scooter and I have done 121 miles!

I have not been ill, the bike has not been broken down or in a garage (in fact far from it, it has been there and reliable when needed).

I have actually swum and run way more miles than this.

Hope all you are surviving and not out running up lots of miles with non-essential journeys.

Keep well.

Charles.

I was at 3333 miles the day we got sent home in March. I've added 11,000 more since then.

Across all my rides I actually put on more miles last year than ever.
Time off does that....

Hey, Charles! i think it's been a while. From your avatar, you haven't aged a bit!

You may just have the MV record for the year...though there's probably a lot of competition from less-committed riders elsewhere (we seem to keep finding 10 year old scooters with less than a few hundred miles on them....).

It's been a lean year for me.....virtually no social riding, mostly just commuting, with a few 100 mile trips to see my mother, and that's it. Some mechanical problems to keep me in the garage more than on the road at the end of the year.....

4248 Miles for me! mostly pleasure miles than commuting due to WFM. not bothered too much!

Charles ... the moment is not the most favorable for travel, more or less many of us have reduced the contacts and therefore the opportunities for meeting with scooters.
Alone there can also be satisfaction but the atmosphere is sad and gray ... going out with our beloved parallelepid object with two (three) wheels becomes an effort.
So ... it doesn't matter how many miles you do but how you do them, if you do a short distance but you are in a good mood it is better than doing a lot but not happy.
Polish your travel companion, do maintenance, admire it and enjoy the company it (at the moment) offers and when you think you are in tune use it by making a great treasure of the little good sensations.

PS: with mine i have covered just under 4000 km (2485 miles) in two years.

About 4,500 miles between the old and new Vespa. April and May were locked down tight here: if you were caught driving anywhere but to the grocery store or a medical appointment, it was a $200 fine. I rode a little bit in our neighborhood, just for the mental therapy.

Those travel restrictions were eased by June, and we packed up the motorhome and went north where we spent the rest of the summer riding in the Black Hills. That's where most of the miles were accumulated. No problem social distancing.

When we got back in October, I traded my 2009 GTS for a 2020 HPE. Some medical stuff kept me from riding until almost Christmas. Less than 1,000 miles on the new scoot. One week ago, good news from the doctor, and I'm looking forward to some riding.

If you've seen any national news, you can understand why we haven't gotten much riding in here in Texas lately. We are due to get our second vaccinations in another week (if supplies get in), and I'll be ready to head out early summer for some more good riding. I have a new scooter that I need to get some miles on to get it to "open up."

121 miles are more than the 106 km I've ridden on my Vespa in 2020.
I've used my other bikes more

Are you also a summer (beach) scooter rider like me?

Well I bought mine as a prize for having been promoted at work.
I was a sailorman at the time and already had the Guzzi so yes, the LX was her replacement for daily commuting and such, including home-beach trips in summer.
Then I bought some more bikes, worked with the Vespa for a bit (postman) but still it ended up doing an average 1000km/year....
Together with the Guzzi and Suzuki I'm around 13-14.000 km every year...

It was late 2019 that I started my Little Experiment of riding from home (central New Jersey) to Gotham and back on a regular basis, which was just abut the time we all started hearing news about some strange virus someplace in China. My motivation: I do freelance IT work for individuals in NYC, and this work has me traveling twice a week on average. As such, I was big on saving time and aggravation, since up to that point I'd been riding Melody from home six miles to Long Branch to catch a train to Penn Station (subject to delays of various kinds), then hit the subway to my final destination. Frequently a three-hour event, one-way, whereas hopping on Melody could cut my commute time by as much as close to two-thirds, not to mention being a lot more fun (at least in decent weather). My weekly mileage, as a result started to go up…way up.

Then of course, came the Virus That Dare Not Speak Its Name. Nervous curiosity soon sifted to worry, then near-panic. Suddenly, my workload dried up, and I was left twiddling my thumbs and wondering What Comes Next. What came some time afterward were calls from clients, some old, some new, in need of tech assistance (especially under these circumstances), and wondering if and how I can manage to get work done for them while maintaining safe practices, or at least as safe as reasonable. That's when the little lightbulb went off somewhere above my cranium: the Vespa is perfect for this moment: about as socially-distant as travel can get, fairly speedy, few issues parking (and fewer still in ghost-town-empty Gotham), and room to carry as much heat as needed. Once again, my mileage jumped, and my clients were put at ease.

Back-of-the-envelope estimate of last year's mileage: roughly 5000 miles, also counting the few club rides I managed. There were a few multi-state rides I wanted to do, but obviously couldn't, which wold've added another 1k to that total. As I await Melody's return from the dealer (replacing shocks and the belt that blew up in spectacular fashion last week) I'm guardedly optimistic that the extracurricular mileage will go up at least a bit this year.


Someday My Princess Will Come (Back): But it's still a bit icy, so I'll cope.