Modern Vespa

First day out for all of them. Their enthusiasm and huge smiles were infectious. No training, probably no MC licenses, no protective gear But having a ball.

Miguel

Anytime you can get out with a group of fellow enthusiasts is cause to smile.

Sigh…the things I'd want to say to them regarding safety, at least in terms of helmets and such…hopefully, they'll figure that out the "easy" way.

Well, regarding helmets, I presume they are all wearing them. Helmets are not optional in California.

Minimum helmet and gloves.

Indeed, hopefully by just tipping over the scoot in their driveway and breaking something like a nail.

Sadly, some folks won't be told and do learn too late!

Miguel,

I am curious about the group.

How do you know them?

How do you know that it was the first ride for all of them.

Did they form a club while buying their first scooters?

Meet up on line?

What did they think of their first ride?

I will be curious to see how many of them stick with scooting.

Bill

The impression that since they appear to be low-speed, easy-to-ride, "fun" vehicles, seems to drive lots of people to think there is no need for any kind of safety gear or license to ride scooters. I really think there needs to be a concerted effort from scooter aficionados to advocate aggressively for gear and proper licensing and training in order to counter this wrong impression.

I won't ride my bicycle without a helmet. I do, however, sometimes run errands on my Vespas on very hot/humid days with my helmet as my only safety gear. Yes, I'm tempting fate, but, considering I do 45 miles on my bicycle down the big hills around here, and I'm not going much faster than that on the Vespas for those errands, the risk is about the same, maybe even more so on the bicycle, as I'm smaller and less visible, and have better suspension and brakes on the Vespa (the GTS anyway -- a disc upgrade for the PX should be happening over the winter).

Me too, for the same reasons you mention. But the big difference with me is that I don't actually ride my scooter over about 40mph at all, and certainly not among traffic that exceeds 40mph on average.

I mean, I'll take my scooter down the road to the mailbox among 30mph neighborhood streets in a helmet and flip flips and a t-shirt. But if I am going somewhere that takes >40mph to get there, I take a big motorcycle and wear (nearly) all the gear. If I were riding a scooter on those >40mph trips, it'd be geared up. Of course, I have more money invested in moto gear than I have in all three of my scooters combined.

FWIW I agree bicycles on the road are in far greater peril than you are on a scooter, not only because of better brakes and better visibility, but also because you ride in with traffic and not in the bike lane. Bike lane is far more dangerous.

I WISH we had bike lanes around here. Most of the roads I ride my bicycle on do not even have a rideable shoulder. So, I ended up riding on the white line, hoping that I don't get hit or run off the road.

But, yes, riding a scooter with the flow of traffic is MUCH safer than riding at 1/2 to 1/3 the speed of traffic along the right edge of the road with impatient drivers whizzing by.

Going with the flow definitely is to be preferred.

My old Vespa GS160, back in time, had difficulties to follow the 90km/h pace (56mph) on our roads. I was regularly being sort of pushed aside by impatient cars overtaking while there was not enough room.
On the BV 300 I have no issue with following the pace at all, which is reassuring.

My relative bought a nice Genuine Urbano 50 on her own whim. She has no mc license and rides in shorts and a helmet, lends the scooter to her unlicensed kids who have already low sided it once. My advice is superfluous. Luckily it is now gathering dust in the garage after I straightened the handlebars.

Sad.

What's really unfortunate is that far and away it's beginners who do this silly stuff, who have the least amount of experience and skill to actually be able to ride safely to begin with. Experienced riders are far more likely to gear up and get the right training.

But the reality is, we project this image. It's rare to see anyone in a movie or on TV depicted riding a scooter with a helmet on. And it's common to see scooter riders on the street with no helmet, especially when you get to places where scooters are common, especially rentals. For example, I almost never see someone at South Padre Island riding a scooter with a helmet on. But that's because they are rentals and obviously beginners, and it's not like they brought a helmet with them on spring break.

That's why we need to make a real effort to overcorrect and try to fix this perception.

Bill, comments below in red.

Ditto!! I tried but the comment back at me was, "they're just scooters!" I suggested riding classes and left it there.
Miguel

JAS67 and Mr 72. I was a massive road bicyclist for all my adult life until a couple years ago. I have two superb bicycles that are models that have won in the Tour de France (Pinnarello, won by team Sky, now Ineos and they still ride Pinarello), and a Calfee Dragonfly (won by Greg Lemond's team, the first carbon fiber bikes in the Tour and the first to win). As I got older (mid 60s), I just found a good two hour ride would take most of the day between getting ready and then recovering. The recovery is what hurt the most. It would take me hours to muster enough energy to move on with my day and I resented that.

I've since bought an e-bike (link) and ride about 50-60 miles per week, almost always on the lowest assist level. I think a combination of the assist going up hills and bursting off a light coupled with a more comfortable, less cramped riding position has taken enough of the strain off my joints and muscles that I almost never hurt from biking like it did before. Also, I can smoke virtually any road biker on my e-bike. It will assist up to 50 mph but I run out of gears at 35 mph. I typically ride in the high teens/low 20s mph. Also, putting a basket on the rear rack has turned it into a mule for me and I almost never drive my car anymore. I do almost all my shopping and errands on it.

One thing I did when I got the ebike was to get a downhill mountain bike helmet with a chin bar. It's light, airy and has good chin protection, something my traditional road bike helmets just don't have. It always felt ironic to wear lots of protection gear on my PTWs and virtually no protection on my e-bike. I also ride with some older armored MC gloves as well. I rarely see any road bikers wearing protective gear like I do. Now I can't imagine biking without protective gear. NO one has ever chastised me for wearing it either. I think some riders see me and wonder why they are wearing protective gear.

Here's a link to the helmet I got. It was pricey but its airy, light and comfortable. I ordered 6 different helmets from Amazon and tried them all till I found the best of the bunch. This was it. Then I returned all the others. Shipping both ways was free (Thanks Mr Bezos!)
Best Miguel

Thank you, Miguel.

I hope that they will keep riding and loving it.

Please keep us apprised if you see them again.

Bill

Miguel -- I was also a "massive road biker" in my 20's and 30's, but, my knees hate the hills around where I live, even with a triple crank. I also loathe riding up those hills at 6 MPH in the summer heat and humidity around here. I built a full suspension mountain bike up as my road E-bike with smooth tires and a TSDZ2 motor when I was recovering from 4 broken ribs + broken clavicle and scapula. I couldn't take the jarring of the rough PA roads on my road bike, plus, couldn't stand to climb when still recovering either. This made riding a bicycle MUCH more fun for me. The up-hills suck less at 12-15 MPH when I get a bit of a cooling breeze over me. Also, there are some hills around here that are busy roads with no shoulder, so it reduces my exposure to traffic on those roads as I can get up them more quickly and on the the faster downhills and then to the less-traveled roads.

I find that I get just as much of a workout as on a non-powered bike, if I measure my workout in time instead of distance traveled. I tend to work at the same level, just travel farther and enjoy it more.

It also enables me to use my bike more practically for transportation. I even ride it to work some days. I live about 20 miles of hilly roads from my office. On a non-powered bike I average 12 MPH over those roads, making it an hour and 40 minute trip each way. I don't have the time to spend over 3 hours commuting, but, with the E-bike, I can do it in about 50 minutes to an hour, making it just about tolerable time-wise.

There are many reasons I choose to not live on the east coast (I grew up in Boston and left when I was 19) and I've became more entrenched in California over the decades. Bike-friendly roads was added to the list over time. I see videos of roadbikers riding on Pennsylvania roads and I cringe. I rarely ever ride a road without a bike lane. The county I live in is just launching a new road project to improve bicycle friendliness on one of the busiest roads during commute hours. The bike lanes will be protected by something like a curb or a berm. They are having a Zoom meeting in two weeks to review to with citizens and get comments so I'll know more then.

It might take a generation of more but e-bikes, e-scooters, e-skateboards and such are rapidly and dramatically changing the commuter transit options.

Keep pushing!!
Miguel