Modern Vespa

On Friday, after sleeping in and missing the Mexico ride, I went to Coronado Island and snapped this photo.

A few more from my regular camera

Fantastic pics, it looks like it was a great time.

I'm on an "every other year" schedule, so I'm seriously considering next years event in New Orleans. Also seriously considering getting a Vespa...

As for the event-parking-interuptus, "only in California..."

We live in this GIANT beautiful country and we can't get a different location for Amerivespa that it hasn't been in the past few years?
.

So what was the total count of scooters? Did you break any records?

I believe there is a pretty competitive bidding process to be able to host Amerivespa and it can be tough to find enough folks in a local area to help organize this type of thing. I imagine it takes a lot of volunteers to pull of something like this.

Perhaps 2014 is the year I get to my 1st Amerivespa. It would be a long ride for me from Dayton, but perhaps taking in some of the Natchez Trace Parkway along the way would make it more than worthwhile.

Wonderful photos!

Cheers!

Gianni

Great pics, thanks to everybody who posted, and welcome back SoniaM --

Hi Belkwinith.

No one has answered so I'll take a guess.

I don't know how many people registered, which wouldn't be an indicator anyway cause some folks had no bikes but attended.(I met some fun people from all over).

I was in the lot in the morning of Saturday. There were two rides that day.

One was a long ride to the hills called "elves and elephants". I guess about 100.

The other ride was the "poker run". Again guessing 150.

There were scoots left in the lot. Another 25.

And I talked to a group of ladies that morning that were skipping everything and headed to the beach. Another 5(I wanted to ride with them)

I imagine there were others scattered. Maybe another 10 -20.

Im gonna guess 300.

That's a good amount. I think the rally will keep growing.

Between this and the MB posts I'm so envious .

Sometime in the next year or two we'll make it for sure.

glad everyone had a blast!

It was pointed out to me by a AV old timer that having it in San Diego, as beautiful as it is, puts it in the bottom left corner of the country.

They were saying the numbers have huge potentials. Its all about location and how easy it is for people to get to.

I brought up that I thought since there are so many frikkin scoots in California I thought the turn out would be massive.

He had to remind me that just because someone owns a gts 250 or whatever doesn't mean that that person is tied in with a group here.

Well to be truthful, they had over 600 for Lake Geneva WI. So there are a lot of midwest riders, who ride, despite the weather.

Plus what you said, not everyone is into rallies. I was amazed at the lack to news stories on these scooter rallies. They seem to be totally ignored by any news organizations. While Sturgis gets all kinds of press and word of mouth.

Makes you wonder if Amerivespa should pick a central location and see if that will make the rally grow bigger. If was at the same place every year, would that make an impact? All this is for the organizers to decide.

WOW

Did all 600 ever go on one group ride together or was there different rides set up up for different folks?

The "elves" ride saturday was a total 9 hour ride. I'm too much of a wimp for that.

I believe there were at least 2 rides a day, both short and long.

But the longest was about 2 - 4 hours. Not everyone went. I went on two rides if you count the parade on Sunday. That's where everyone lined up and we all rode into town and then parked.

It may have been an Amerivespa record, I don't know.

Interested in going to NOLA next year. I told my BF, "I DON'T CARE! WE ARE GOING!"

Plus I have heard that Amerivespa has some contractual obligations in NOLA.

Thanks for posting pics. Keep them coming. Jimmy looks just like what I thought he would.

I've already mapped out a scooter friendly route (no interstates) from Dayton, OH thru central/southern KY to Nashville, TN (410 miles). Then on the Natchez Trace Parkway from Nashville to Natchez, MS (397 miles). Then on to NOLA thru Baton Rouge (170 miles). 977 miles total

It would be 2 1/2 days of riding - 2 of which will be very long on my Super Fly 190. I think I could do it.

About 950 miles from me - I would do about 200-250 miles a day just to have fun and take it easy.

This means at least 2 weeks off of work for me. But it would be awesome to ride across the country.

589 miles for me on super slabs. (I 10 from Jax to NOLA is pretty boring). 610 if I avoid highways. Could probably do it in one day.

Perhaps 2014 is the year I get to my 1st Amerivespa. It would be a long ride for me from Dayton, but perhaps taking in some of the Natchez Trace Parkway along the way would make it more than worthwhile.[/quote]

Maybe we could trailer down. I've got a 6 x 10 box trailer that 2 scoots would fit in.

I'm only 2 hours or so from Dayton

I could see going to NOLA in 2014. I would go Denver, St. Louis, Memphis (1140 miles) to get the Saddlesore and finish the second day an easy 400 miles into NOLA to get the Bun Burner.

Anyone interested?

from the Monterey Bay Scooter Club

Why don't they choose Phoenix? Phoenix this last weekend would have been... oh never mind.

As much as I like Chicago, I can't see the appeal in that either.

How bout St Louis? Scootin the ozarks...

back to the photos...

Regrouping after the Mexico toll booth...



Puerto Nuevo



View of our seating at Villa Ortega



Tito and the gang kindly let me sit at their table.



Robert, a wealth of vespa information



The food was good







Coastline right next to where the group parked.









Waiting to enter US of A, my watch said it was 93 degrees

LOL, I forgot about that part of the weekend.

Trepp, it's rated to 150+ mph so I just back off at 120 and it's all good! 8)

FYI
It really sucked riding to work this morning and not having The Pharaohs block for me at redlights and stop signs!!

Ha..The 7th photo down shows Sergio at the bar.

I heard he got so shit faced that he wasn't allowed to ride back with the group.

All the better. Sleep it off and come back in the morning.

Was their construction getting to out of TJ (going to Ortega's)? Also, what was the approximate wait to cross the US border?

Kicked out of the park!!! Danny I hope you kept your sun glasses on I am worried about your Resident Gentleman status being revoked. Pssss! Let's keep it quiet so no moderators hear us.

New Orleans sounds doable especially if I can get riders to make a pit stop in Kansas. I've been trying to talk VRM into buying/building a trailer for multiple scooters. That way we can ride AND have a back-up support vehicle too.

Great to see this thread grow like it has. Applause and clamor from this humble MV-er. AV is always the epicenter of the scooter world. (This last sentence sounds ubber gay: my signature hidden in almost every post.)

Omaha Nebraska has a large scooter club. Maybe in the future they could be a good candidate as a host town: Smack in hte middle of this great USA! Do they have direct flights from London? If not the Kok's can chart a Dreamliner or get the Arrmed Forces involved. I know a few men in uniform in high places ***scratches chin***


How did everyone like ScooterWest? Are they as nice as they are online and on the telephone?

By the way, speaking of nice. I received the care package personally delivered by VRM ***bows mockinly*** I am not worthy!

Chocolate truffles, magic brownies (not that kind of brownies but still to die for!) and a couple really funny cards. To the brownies I added a special ingredient which resulted in a dreamlike stage which lasted all night. Yeah I ate them all. I was so busy all night running to many home appliances that it tripped the fuse box. The box it was all delivered in was a hoot in intself with all the cartoons on it.

Sylvie and I were talking about NOLA. I'd be up for it. I suspect it would be better to trail the scoots there and drive. But in my romantic fantasy I see myself scooting there.

more from Monterey Bay Scooter Club

MBSC

Few that I took during my 12 hour appearance.

In my case, YES! I went there with a shopping list, and when I showed it to one of the guys, he said, "come on back!" And I got to go back into the stockroom and pull my stuff!
Then, when I asked about the possibility of someone putting my new dogleg brake levers on for me, one of the shop guys said, sure, I can do that, and put them on then and there! I was so excited!

I'm guessing from the pics that Piaggio didn't have the 946 on display. I'll bet they got hammered with questions unless they had a letter posted explaining all the latest info. I wonder if Cushman 2 made it to the Rally also ?

They were busy, on fire, and prepaired.

It was my first time in there. Bikes being worked on and massive crowd all over and they were very very welcoming to all.

That's service and personality together.

I really wish I would have been there. I've been getting stuff from them for a couple of years but you can always haggle in real life and try to bargain and stuff. You know use that old charm for a discount!

Looking at all these pictures of scooters it makes me wonder why I am so enthused about them. I can feel the excitement in the air just by looking at them.

Edited to add little nothings.

Ditto! But the fantasy ends when that exhaust gasket fails....

You can avoid the super slab for most of it and take routes along the coast. I've done it in the convertible going to Orlando from Houston for Photoshop World when I wanted to get some photos along the way. Fairly easy 2 day trip which is much nicer than interstate all the way.