Modern Vespa

i had my first experience in the rain ( well just after it ) in the morning rush hour in madrid (which is total chaos). I was at the traffic lights at the front of the queue of cars ( 4 lane boulevard in each direction ) and when the lights changed as i accelerated away my rear wheel caught one of the white lines as the scooter went shooting out sideways. i tried to hold it and almost did but ended up going down almost taking out another scooterist. Luckly there was a policeman 5 metres away who immediately stopped the traffic. i was fine, just a wee bruise on my ankle where the scooter eventually came to rest. the scooter has a bit of a graze on one side but not too bad. nothing bent or anything. i picked her up and continued on my way ( much more aware of the lines!) after the policeman asked if i was ok or if i needed first aid.
my thoughts on the incident:
i'm glad it happened that way with no real consequences, just scratches on my vespa and a fright for me. it has given me an opportunity to learn about how dangerous the painted lines are, about how quickly something like this can occur and that while the gts250 can seem quite an easy scooter to control, it does actually have a lot of power going to that back wheel that needs to be under control at all times. Friends told me to watch out for the moment you start getting comfortable on the scooter as you can become complacent and thats when things go wrong! i had just got back a few days ago from a 1400km trip getting to know the vespa and i believe i was getting too comfortable, especially with the acceleration from a standing start.
i've had my first incident and hopefully i've learnt. i had read the books before but i think learning out on the roads will be my best lesson.
it hasn't put me off driving in the rain, i'll just be a helluva lot more careful next time! besides, i bought the vespa to use as day to day transport for the whole year. anyway, from what i've experienced so far the wind is far more scary ,although i didn't have any problems in it but that was because it was so gusty i was only doing 60-70 kmh on a road where most people do 100-110kmh!
lesson number one -AVOID THE WHITE LINES ESPECIALLY IN THE WET!

Glad to hear it was a minor mishap. You must've been on the crosswalk to have that rear tire touch the white lines?

Here in Barcelona the "white crosswalk lines" have been a common threat to two-wheeled motorists for as long as I can remember.

As you learned the hard way, you should never accelerate or brake over them, in wet or dry conditions, or you'll probably slip and go down.

However, we have so many motorcycles and scooters here that the city has begun substituting a very light paint that doesn't alter the texture of the asphalt instead of the heavy, thick stuff they're still using in Madrid and other cities.

Ride safe!

cheers.
yeah i went back to have a look at the spot last night. it's got everything that you wouldn't want to drive on! heavily painted zebra crossing and bus lane markers as well as very slick metal plates the size of a cd dotted between the painted lines! Hopefully that's a lesson well learnt!
In some places they have changed the zebra crossings for a series of white squares which take up a lot less of the surface area and are much better but they are few and far between.
what are the drivers like in barca? do you ever read www.vespania.org ?

Drivers in Barcelona exhibit considerably more awareness of two-wheeled vehicles than drivers in most Spanish cities, including Madrid.

This makes a very big difference when lane splitting, filtering through traffic at lights, cruising the emergency lane in heavy traffic, etc.

Wasn't aware of vespania.org. So many websites to keep track of!

Painted lines in the states are just as bad. You also have to look out for the big painted arrows on turn lanes as well.

They don't even really have to be that damp. I had the bike step out yesterday on a stripe or something, and it wasn't even wet out.

theyre almost designed to take motorcyclists out painted lines.

why cant they paint them with that *grippy stuff* they use on approach to roundabouts.

i love that stuff. you can really lean it over, IN THE WET!! and brake like a mad man.

thpriest.

I'm glad your OK. I've had my scooter for 7 weeks now and went on a crazy adventure ride and rally with about 75 scooters with no problems. Today, I went to the grocery store and pulled out of the parking lot and my rear wheel slip through the turn for a second on the painted line and it was completely dry. So, that little scare made me more aware of that transporation art in the road.

The worst paint on pavement is the kind with the little glass beads that reflect light at night. It will be slippery dry or wet.

Painted lines are so few and far between here, but I'm always keeping my eyes open for road stuff. Pine needles are the killer here...they're everywhere.

Glad you're ok.

I've always been on the lookout for the paint, but until this past summer I never thought about the black tar stuff they use to fill cracks in pavement. That stuff gets so slick in the heat. I just about killed myself going around a nice banked turn at decent speed a couple of months ago. The front wheel went crazy and I barely held on. It felt like the front tire blew out. The most frightened I've ever been on a scooter.

suit scoot- what grippy stuff do you have on the approaches to roundabouts?
here in madrid we just have puddles of diesel, fucking great big craters and big shiny black painted patches where they have pretended to remove certain road markings!
send us a photo of the grippy stuff so i can stuff it up our mayor's............

thpriestwhoisrapidlylearningaboutthemadriddailyassultcoursebutwhoisenjoyinghiswonderfulvespa

it looks like sandpaper on the road.

http://www.danburyplan.idps.co.uk/workshop/roads/photo25.jpg


the red stuff.

Glad to hear you are okay.

When I lived in Florida, the paint lines on the road were so thick they were actually bumpy and a bit precarious & slippy in places. The roads stay in such good shape there that they just repaint the lines on the same piece of concrete over and over again. Unlike Michigan, where pretty much the road is tore up about 15 minutes after they put the orange construction barrels away.

suit scoot- cheers for the photo. it'd be great to have that stuff everywhere. in certain areas in madrid the zebra crossings have no 'safe' area, they are painted blue and white! a 2m thick band of 'ice' painted onto the road! now i'm off to find a printer that can print me a 2metre by 2metre copy, then off to see the mayor.........!
ps-i saw u were asking if u were the only metalhead in the music topic. i used to be a bit. now i like 60's and post metal, of which i left u some links. not sure if u'll like it or not.

lynn- madrid sounds like a mixture of florida and michigan! they usually keep repainting lines on top of old ones, not because the surface is good, it's not but because the volume of traffic is so great that to do anything like that would cause chaos. but they do like random digging up of roads too! usually they dig them up, fuck about for a bit, create chaos,fill them in, then dig them up a month later because they've forgotten something!

The head of that department must be a retired surgeon.

Your slippery lesson reminded me of mine, very early in my Vespa career. It was a right turn, over smooth concrete, with water running over it from a sprinkler. I had a red light and wanted to squeeze in before a tuck coming. I accelerated into the turn--and zig-zagged to stabilize it again, with a huge adrenaline rush, and a note to myself never to do that again.

http://www.amazon.com/Street-Strategies-Survival-Guide-Motorcyclists/dp/1889540692/ref=pd_bbs_sr_3/002-3915050-6628858?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1190886653&sr=8-3

Stuff like that ("avoid riding on white road marks") I learned from the above book (quite a good one, although there's enough similar ones).

It's pretty easy to learn how to operate a scooter, but for some of the other defensive-riding type of stuff, it can be worthwhile getting a book on motorcycling.

QUOTE!

Also here in Italy white painted signs on the road are a major concern to bikers.
Luckily, they are increasingly beginning to use that grippy stuff you talk about, but there are huge differences from area to area. Tarmac can be slippery, as well.
This time we can say thanks to EU regulations for imposing grippier materials for new roads.

Indeed, they really are the same vehicles with the same dynamics.

In any case, if you find yourself in one of these situations, ride it out and don't slam on the brakes. Remember to steer into the skid, just like a car.

Mmmm. Flat track racing...

My experience with white lines happened when I stopped and put my foot down on one. It was slightly wet and my foot slipped and I had one of those instant adrenaline rushes. Nothing touched the ground but my foot but I made a mental note to myself in large letters.