Modern Vespa

I was remembering our recent scooter vacation. Me and the BF rode into Millwaukee and took the Ferry over to Michigan.

I remembered the most insane part of the trip was following him into Milwaukee and to the ferry. He was following the GPS and it was leading us into a crazy mess of Millwaukee highways filled with very aggressive drivers.

As I was following him, in my head was this mantra "Oh holeee crap!, Oh holeee crap!, Oh holeey crap!" I kept my cool but I was amazed that we made it at all with all the lane changes and twists and turns and aggressive drivers. I was totally lost and just doing my best to keep up.

So where was your "Oh holeee crap!" ride and how did you do?

When I had a B125, I was on my first longer-distance venture from Asheville to Charlotte. I got thoroughly lost, which included a couple instances where the surface street turned into an entrance ramp for the beltway with no warning and no chance to turn around.
I fared alright, but at the time it felt like finding myself in a shark tank with no idea how I'd gotten there.
"Don't mind me, just passing through!"

Everyday day here is one because,between the tourists who think they can stop right in front of you without looking behind them and the general idiots who don't use directional,have brake lights that don't work etc etc, it's always fun to get where i'm going alive. However yesterday i did my own. We have this bridge that has weird grooves and i try not to come home that way but yesterday i did. I had a bunch of stuff on the floorboard and i looked down to see if it was alright just as i hit the grooves. One should be not looking down. Should be looking straight ahead with loose grips on the handlebars if they don't want to soil themselves. Good thing i have great reflexes still.

I think the days that are challenging are the ones when you are in unfamiliare territory. My last encounter like this was passing the the Dallas/Ft. Worth area during afternoon rush hour in the middle of the week. Going west to east it's probably about 50 or 60 miles of really heavy traffic from the point where I-20 enters on the west side and I-30 leaves the area on the east side. For me, the only bothersome part is being unfamiliar with the area and not knowing which lane I need to be in to transition from I-20 to I-635 and then to I-30. Oh... and I had to stop for gas about mid-way through too. That turned out to be simple to exit and reenter the freeway, but just another "unknown".

-Craig

Rode into the mountains on my buddy 150. I was really low on gas due to our ride leader taking a wrong turn. went up a dirt trail, down a very steep mountain (on dirt...) and then over some territory that was NOT scoot friendly to a gas station.

There have been scary driver incidents too, but that was the closest to me thinking "I'm going to run out of gas on a mountain....."

I was in the southern part of Baja california, and I came out of a corner fast and there was a donkey in the road. Barely missed it, and slowed down considerably after that.

I will paraphrase Mrs Aviator. She's told this often enough for me to remember her words fairly accurately. There is no doubt the following scooter rider's viewpoint is different from the lead rider-

We were entering Firenze, coming from Pontedera, very tired on a very hot day. AV47 in lead, Mrs Av totally dependent upon following him to get to the hotel. We are dumped onto what looked like a four lane roadway with seven lanes of rapidly moving, lane changing traffic. Vehicles changing lanes into spaces that seemed slightly smaller than the vehicles. We are in second lane from right, with Mrs Av trying to stay close enough to AV47 to preclude someone cutting in between and blocking her ability to see him. "Three Second Rule" dwindling to "Half Second Rule". Then her worst dream comes true - an Ape with enclosed cargo compartment fills that tiny space between us, and Mrs AV loses sight of her "navigation device". Mrs Av swears he was in that position for three weeks before he merged right. Mrs Av closes the gap and a few seconds later AV47 spots our exit, we merge right, just make the exit and return to a sane environment - at least by comparison.

My craziest isn't one of massive roads, speed or traffic, but one where Garmin took us to a spot that turned out to be dangerous in a different way.

Seven members of the 7 Bridges Scooter Club were on a ride to Tennessee to traverse the entire Natchez Parkway from near Nashville to Natchez, Mississippi. It is around 460 miles.

On our second day getting there, in northern Alabama, with me leading a group of 7, my Garmin GPS took me up a very narrow, hilly road. Don't get me wrong, it was cool but not working for us.

We kept going, crossed a very small wooden bridge and ended up at a dead end. The end was in a very hilly area and one of our riders dropped his Aprilia trying to turn around. A farmer came up to us there and told us that Garmin sent people there all the time. It must seem to be a shortcut on their maps.

We headed back and the rider riding second balked at the wooden bridge and stopped. I didn't notice until I had ridden around a corner and up a very steep hill. In an effort to turn around to see what had happened to my friends, I found the hill was so steep that I had to put my foot down to catch myself, but the ground was too low so I dropped the bike, my first and so far only time in thousands of miles. The paving was very rough so I was left with deep scrapes on the side cowling along with a broken rear brake lever. My helmet was scraped and my hand felt broken, but wasn't.

You don't want to drop a Vespa GT as it then wouldn't start for a while, really messing up our timing to get to the destination of the Barber Motorcycle Museum outside of Birmingham.

From that point onward, I was more careful in placing waypoints to avoid allowing the GPS to do such a thing again.

I'd say any of the highways near downtown Chicago. Fast speeds and aggressive driving. A lot of cars changing lanes jockeying for position. Turn signals/indicators are optional. Must be texting and talking on cellphone. Plenty of tailgating. Nothing like being in traffic at 55+ mph with a SUV 10 feet on your ass while the driver is talking on the cellphone.

I had an o'sh*t moment when I was test driving my BMW c600. I didn't really know the area around the dealer and while on the ride, the street I was on turned into I-55. Fortunately, I was loving the scoot, but up until that point, I really had not been on a major super highway. I just gunned it and was pleasantly surprised that it wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. I don't think I'd have every sustained 70+ mph in traffic for more than a second or so until that point. Traffic wasn't too heavy, so I quickly calmed down.

You may remember several months ago that I inquired about avoiding Chicago on my way out West.

Nothing against Chicago in particular, but I try to avoid the major commuting routs for all major cities that are not my intended destinations or stop-overs.

On those roads I encounter the biggest concentration of overly-aggressive drivers. Everyone seems to be in a blind rush. The constant last-second lane switching, over-the-top speeds, and the one-upmanship that's always taking place always makes those roads a miserable riding experience. I'm not a wimp about riding, but...

They know the road and the exits. I don't. They show little mercy.

I usually leave my GPS off during long trips, but on these roads it stays on so I can alert myself way ahead of time to needed lane changes and exits and give myself time to safely maneuver to where I need to be. The sooner I get off these sections of road, the better.

I am used to Chicago so I get you, but this would also describe our ride into Milwaukee. It's not so much the complexity of the ride, it's the ruthlessness of the other drivers, that made it so hair-raising at some points. They left little room for any error.

Like Mr. and Mrs. Aviator, an aggressive taxi cut between me and my BF and I was treated to watching this taxi "dog" my BF by about one foot. I just kept my cool but I swear I was functioning on brain stem alone. It was pure survival mode kicking in. Nothing to do but react.

Minutes later, we were on the exit to the ferry, it's funny how quickly you forget the incident and file it away to be mulled over later. Because loading onto the Ferry in the rain was another, holeee crap moment... I guess that particular day was full of them.

This qualifies as post of the month, if not year.

When I purchased my 250 several years ago, I went on Garmin and routed myself through Cincinnati heading back south towards Kentucky. I knew the roads from Cincinnati heading south, but wasn't familiar heading into and through Cincinnati from the north and wasn't wanting to run I-71 / I-75 on a new scooter. I had a friend drop me off in Mason Ohio, I exchanged funds for the scooter and clean title and headed south. My gps routed me through the roughest, war torn area of Cincinnati. I had to have been the only human without a gun. A friend later told me that I was lucky to have escaped the area unscathed, and it was an area not to wander after sunset. Miles of one way streets with scores of people standing about during the middle of the work week. I made certain not to box myself in at stops and kept an eye out for an escape route. Pretty sketch for sure. When I stopped on the south side of Cincinnati for gas the fuel pump did its deal and I was stranded for several hours waiting for it to cool off. Thankfully Scooterwest was open and able to diagnose my trouble and instruct me what to do. Big shout out to Max, and thankfully I had enough fuel to get through the hood unscathed.

Once in Bangkok, I got stuck at a major traffic jam (which is very typical of Bangkok) and needed to find an alternate route. Instead of taking to the sidewalks, I heard if you took a short cut through Bobea market, it emptied out over onto some train tracks and would allow me to cut over to Rama VI.

I started riding through the market which was packed with people. I weaved and turned through a pack of people, chickens, dogs and cats. People seemed used to a scoot riding through a crowd but I was just waiting for someone to pop out and knock me off. Mind, you it was about 40 degrees centigrade and I was riding in sandals, shorts, a t-shirt and my helmet. It was sweaty, hot and slow. There were people cooking, drinking and shopping all around me as I slowly navigated the crowd.

Once I got over to the other side, there were the train tracks. I saw insane people on scooters riding over the tracks while a train was actually on the tracks. To be honest, I just didn't have the guts to do it. I rode around for thirty minutes trying to find another way out only to keep coming into traffic. I ended up underneath the freeway, eating Som Tum, drinking a Sing Ha and just waiting out the traffic. It then started to rain. I was there for an hour before I finally got a chance to ride home.

Long story short. For a bit of time, I felt like I was lost on another planet.

The craziest area, or place I rode is documented here: Albuquerque to La Cruses and back .
I just briefly mentioned how cold it was, but, it is embedded in Kathleen's and my mind. It was way too cold for any distance riding but we needed to get home because a big storm was brewing , we rode as many back roads as possible but after Elephant Butte on to Socorro it is only freeways, and they were icy with snow on the road sides with strong winds blowing , that stretch is the craziest area I rode- the weather was so miserable there were hardly any cars or trucks on the roads, that was a good thing. We stopped in Socorro and thought maybe we would spend the night but we pressed on and made it back to ABQ before sun set. It was that stretch between Elephant Butte and Socorro which we still laugh about between ourselves, never ever want to be in that situation again but it was something to remember.

Like Mr. and Mrs. Aviator, an aggressive taxi cut between me and my BF and I was treated to watching this taxi "dog" my BF by about one foot. I just kept my cool but I swear I was functioning on brain stem alone. It was pure survival mode kicking in. Nothing to do but react.[/quote]

A taxi is one thing, but try getting cut off by a tractor when you are going 55! I used to commute about 50 miles each way on an Arkansas farm road. During most of the year, makes for great riding... except for the terrible condition of the roads, oh, and getting sprayed by crop-dusters (story for another time)!! But, during planting and harvest season, tractors rule the roads, so watch out. What makes things worse, after the tractor pulled out in front of me dragging a 20-ft wide soon-to-be Vespa guillotine, I discovered I had no rear brakes. Yes the dreaded 2007 "brake line rupture" recall had hit me at the most inconvenient time!! I got GiGi slowed down, changed my shorts, limped into the local Vespa dealer (that has since closed!!), and got it fixed under warranty.

Bottom line, watch out for tractors!!

-Adam

Similar to Aviator Al's adventure above, mine was riding into Firenza during the morning rush hour, barely having an idea of where I was going myself, and with my wife following behind having no idea whatsoever. She managed to stay close enough to me somehow, and we made it without getting separated... but it was dicey. Al's right; if you leave even a scooter-size space, several scooters will instantly fill it.

On my first holiday in Italy we landed at Ciampino (Rome) airport and we picked up our hire car at about 4:30pm left the airport and followed the directions to our villa in Umbria. This involved getting on to the GRA (grande raccordo anulare) a two lane circular motorway around Rome IN THE RUSH HOUR. No sweat?? Maybe not BUT...it was the first time driving on the right, first time in a left hand drive car, unfamiliar road rules, signs etc. The biggest problem however was that this was a two lane motorway, just one set of white lines to separate the traffic with FOUR lanes of traffic fitting in however they could. I thought it would be like the M25 around London and barely move. It was like jumping on a fast moving carousel, holding your breath and jumping off when your exit slip road got close.

As scary as f@*k!

Nothing like a baptism of fire! Nothing the Italians could throw at us for the next two weeks came close. After all we had become experts!

this wasn't on a scooter, but when i was about 21, my mate neil and i were on a road trip in his van. we got lost on our way through philadelphia and ended up in a 'socially and economically challenged' part of north philly. we didn't have a satnav, and the neighbourhood we were in didn't seem to be on our map. we passed through street after street of aggressive-looking young men sitting around on the porches of derelict houses. they seemed very interested in us, and on more than one occasion they approached the van in a not very friendly manner. liberal use of the accelerator helped, and we were pretty relieved when, after about 20 minutes of flying blind, we managed to find our way back to a main road.

I was in Izmir, Turkey, on a rented BMW. Through an intersection I went pass the nose of a camel. Buddy behind said the camel reared up and nearly upset it's cart.

Greece and Turkey was fun. A "stop" sign means gear down to 2nd.

Mine was recently
I take a 25mile trip to work the other night along a country main road, single lane each side

I was the first time for a few weeks
I knew the road but I forgot that's its winter and a lot darker at 5pm

I literally had to ride home following the white lines as it a totally unlit road and the oncoming traffic just totally blind you with headlight glare in the pitch black rush hour

I was one glad scooter boy to get home and it's the first ride on the GTS
I honestly didn't enjoy at all lol

When I had the shadow (remember it was an 1100 ace): big, heavy, long, slick street types made for pavement I was taking a back road to Nevada city (city in northern california) that wound through the pine and hills with a mix of sweepers and switch backs(at least that's how it looked on the map) and it was until got to one switch back leaving the 'burbs out of grass valley when it all ended, abruptly...NO MORE PAVEMENT!

Sure, the road continued as a red dirt affair (this wasn't on the map the road was ironically called "red dog road" now I see why )

"Ok", I thought "how bad can this be..." and off I went.

I found out how bad.

The moment the rear wheel left the asfault, ALL 675 Lbs of bike started acting like it was ice skating the front would slide right, the rear left then swap...IT WAS LIKE RIDING A TROUT!....

luckily, I didn't dump it but after a few hundred yards I gave up, turned around and idle/walked back.

Good thing I was alone, otherwise my riding buddies would never let me live it down.

Riding a motorcycle on the Pacific Coast Hwy near Big Sur a couple of years ago.....my wife was on the back. We were going about 35 MPH and noticed a sign that said "PAVEMENT ENDS" and as I was thinking...."what does that mean?", the road changed for about a hundred feet to loose gravel.....the road had recently washed out, which I understand is not so uncommon there. Quite an experience for us, but fortunately,we stayed upright.

Interstate 15 through Salt Lake City, on a rather cold and driizzly day. It got a little unnerving when the rain stopped blowing off my helmet visor and instead started to stick...

Yep.

Snow.

Fortunately, that only lasted a minute or so before turning back to rain again. Felt longer.

I remember another time, I had a Yamaha DTLC 125cc trials bike, back in 1985-6

I had decided to visit an aunt and uncle in London from my home in Northampton and I had to use all the secondary roads as I hadn't passed the test back then.
I was seventeen and on L plates, so couldn't go on the motorway (freeway)
So it meant planning the journey in advance , no sat nav back then or mobile phones

It was a pig of a journey on what's called the "A" roads
What was only about 55 miles direct had ended up about 100 odd at a guess.
Anyway we got there eventually, had a good time and headed home the next day.
About half way it HAMMERED down with rain so I hard I couldn't see hardly anything, it was freezing fog as well as it was winter time

The last 5 miles we were literally frozen solid,it was 10 PM riding throuh the country lanes in pitch black, soaked and freezing in fog as well.
On reflection now, not a good idea, but back then at seventeen it was an adventure.

Suddenly this muppet in a car with a massive set of rally headlamps on full beam blinded us both, even though he'd seen us coming and when I opened my eyes I was passing a cement mixer, then a wheel barrow and I remember thinking, that's odd.
Then a pile of sand and gravel and then I clicked I was actually riding through a roadworks and I'd somehow managed to miss everything !
How I'll never know, because when I'd stopped and actually looked around I'd literally weaved blinded through about 100m of road works and heavy plant, all totally unlit, in the fog.
The company would have got hung drawn and quartered now, but back then they were pretty loose with lighting up roadworks in the middle of nowhere...

I still ride the same country road and I still cringe passing that point to this day.

Well, not CRAZY crazy but....

Last year, about this time of year. My car was getting new tires and I gad some errands to run. I was going to Soulard Market. I wasn't going that far, and utter was REALLY cold, so I had a full length shearling coat on. I got onto the Truman Expressway, not realizing that it turned into I-55. And... It was the start of rush hour. Not at all what I had intended to do. Boy did I get some looks. No one expected the Spanish Inquisition... Oops. I mean, no one expected to see a scooter, doing 60MPH, on a 34F day, in rush hour, ridden by someone in a full length shearling coat. Given that I'm heavier than I'd like to be, I imagine that at a glance, it looked like a bear on a scooter. I got more strange looks that day than all other days put together. Oh, and I had a Christmas bouquet in my front rack. Got off the next exit. The bouquet and I were fine.

Reminds me of getting stranded late at night in Brooklyn. Triumph TR-6 with top down, Texas license plates, wearing an Army camo uniiform. Cars stopped in front and back of me, building to my left burned out with windows boarded over. Two youngsters sitting at the tops of the stairs to the building, watching me closely, and my mind saw this emblem from a sister unit in Viet Nam.

I was going to post the same experience, except I was on a scooter and it was around 2 a.m. (I was in town for a rally and made a wrong turn on my way to a late night party). There were a few times where a car would stop and I assumed the worst, but they seemed to have other business at hand. Nevertheless, I didn't stop at any lights, and after about 20 minutes of riding around in circles, I found a convenience store and was able to get directions back into the center of town.

Brendan

No scooter but in a Datsun B2 10 back in the early 70's. My best friends boy friend (went on to be husband and ex husband) who i couldn't stand, decided to drive us back up north out of NYC. My friend lived in Brooklyn until she was 16 so she knew her way around. But no he had to drive. We got lost in Harlem. I look up to see Martin Luther King Blvd. Not a nice section back them. Really bad section of town really. It was 2am on a Sunday so everybody was out. He's like "roll up your windows and lock all the doors" and i'm like " idiot 4 people could pick this little car up and carry us somewhere". BTW his name is Dick and it fit.

Tulsa, Oklahoma: those people are just nuts.......

I'll see your Tulsa and Raise you a Boston.

Riding through Dagenham always scares me

Veered off the bradshaw trail

Riding through Luton scares me more than anywhere else I've been!!!

That might not be a fair comparison. It is my understanding that most folks in Boston actually do possess a drivers license...........

Maybe not as many as Tulsa but the are, or used to be, quite a few without.

I'll score it a tie. A buddy of mine just came back from Boston, handed me a "wicked pisser" tee shirt, and stated he almost died getting it, due to the "spirited" drivers there.

The day after buying my GTS 250, I drove it up the South Island of New Zealand.

I hadn't checked the weather report, apparently there was an extreme wind advisory.

Early in the day, the exhaust gasket failed and melted through the rear brake line, which I noticed when trying to brake before a corner on a downhill in horrific gusty winds. Unnerving.

Later, the winds became much worse: I was blown onto the wrong side of the highway by a sustained 130km/h cross-wind while crossing a undivided two lane bridge with no shoulder over a hydro canal. I was almost scraping the ground for about 300m trying get the bike back in the correct lane, with oncoming cars, and cars behind. I couldn't slow down either, or I would have been blown off the bridge.

At the other end of the bridge I pretty much ran off the road (ever tried to stop in deep gravel with only the front brake, while being unable to release the throttle because you have the front brake in a death-grip?), parked wondering what the hell I was doing. Over the next half hour I watched a number of big touring bikes get blown into the other lane exactly the same way, they parked as well.

A while later, we watched a bus get blown off the road; not a caravan, a full size bus (no one was hurt).

It was a pretty exciting new years day.

I hate navigating the maze where freeways merge in and out in Dallas. Doesn't matter how many times I go through it seems if you miss one sign you can find yourself going somewhere completely different from where you want to go. It also seems like that area is under construction more often than not when I go through Dallas on my way to Oklahoma several times a year. If I'm lucky enough to be on the scoot I take alternate routes that leave me east of Dallas but usually I have to take the cars for either cargo or because I have to go out on some land there that access is NOT scooter friendly - dirt bike maybe but I've sworn off dirt and 2 wheels.

Worst holeee crap was discovering that the paved road wasn't paved and I had to cross a field that had been churned up by cars - under the grass so it wasn't obvious until it was way too f'in late, slippery rutted mud under grass - not a good combo for me probably not even if I'd been on a dirt bike instead of a Scarabeo 500.

On a scooter, the only ride I can think of where I thought "This might not have been wise" was taking my ET4 on the motorway at night.
It was struggling to keep up with the lorries on hills and the headlight wasn't up to the job at all either.

Other than that, I've ridden to work on bikes a couple of times when it had snowed and that was interesting to say the least. Especially on a clapped out old MZ ETZ 2-stroke with a dodgy throttle and a binary clutch.