Modern Vespa

Apologies to our Southern Hemisphere friends but to the rest of us how long is it before we spend a few hours riding for pleasure where you live.

Traditional for me its early April here in central England for ride outs and then May for overnight touring trips.

No need to appologize to us antipodeans...take your Northern numbers, flip them aroumd 6 months and you covered us down below

When weather conditions are reasonable, meaning no snow, no icy roads, +0°C, no rain, and in the weekend (I do not use the scooter on working days) I go for a ride.
In winter not too long trips, maybe max 2hrs. But I try to ride the whole year round if weather conditions allow. My most recent ride was on December 31st.

Real longer rides is for summer, or let us say from May to September.

Winters here can be quite diverse. So far this winter is mild. Tomorrow it is expected to be cloudy but dry and maybe +4°C. I plan to take the scooter for a ride.

Once Omicron recedes a bit more - possibly next week - I'll be riding 52 miles roundtrip several days a week as long as the roads are dry and the temperature is above 20F.

Just got my winter maintenance parts from AF1 for the Beo - new belt, valve cover gasket, caliper rebuild kit.

(Belt replacements every 7500 miles feels excessive to me, 1.2 cents' worth of belt per mile, but I'm doing it. That's more than twice the cost of belt per mile for the LX 150.)

I hope to get in a ride tomorrow.

34.5261° N, 83.9844° W

Why this link to omikron? The best place to be in this pandemic is riding your scooter in the free air.

Here in the western hemisphere 34,5°N is similar to Rabat, capital of Morocco.
No winter there.

The ride certainly isn't the issue! Didn't particularly care to, and was more or less told not to, be in-office at all during the omicron upswing.

I'm as close to Montreal as I am to NYC, so not for a long time. We head for Florida for March and most of April, but I can't bring both scooters and my boat, so the boat wins.
When we return, I should be ready to put the batteries back in the Vespas.

This is Fahrenheit not Centigrade.

For the big win, playa, what you obviously need is a bigger boat - so you can put the scooters IN the boat.

Its supposed to be deeply fuggin cold here for a few days... like minus 18C plus a hefty wind, but there's always a few days each winter where it is above zero and the roads are dry, so I'm rarely off the road for long.

The problem this winter stems from a new bicycle, every time its decent the silly thing just drags me out.

The day before yesterday for instance.

When the rains wash the salt off the roads, the sun shines and temps crawl into the upper forties I'm back on the road.

I hope by March 1. My crushed elbow is 6 weeks post surgery and healing fast.

I'll be riding tomorrow. It's the best time of year to ride in these parts.

Whew (and…Ow!). Glad you're healing up decently.

Over Here: I'm largely healed up, save for some minor hinkiness in the right shoulder and thumb/forefinger area of the left hand. The real delay is the paperwork for the insurance payout, but that's now moving along, while the new ride is patiently waiting at the dealer. Hopefully no more than a couple of weeks, and weather permitting, I'll be out there.

Every year is different, anywhere from mid-March to mid-April before the roads are clear enough and it's warm enough to actually enjoy it.

So long as the weather is fine and the roads are dry I will ride, although I keep to a maximum ride time of 4 hours. It's just too cold for all day long distance riding. Like you Coddy, May onwards is a good time to consider full-day and overnight touring.

With some luck, short rides in late April.
Proper season tends to start mid/late May...could be throwing slush from the sky still in early May.

This ain't a country for riders

Riding my bikes all year but just local rides until spring then longer rides into the Chilterns.

It's minus 26 degrees Celsius this morning, but feels like minus 37 degrees Celsius this morning in the world's coldest capitol city, and much too much snow on the ground to even think about riding my scooter.

Just took mine out for it's yearly MOT (in the UK) and it's the first time I've been out riding since Oct last year... The old girl passed with flying colours, ready for a new year! It's back inside now, so I'll probably really start to use it in a couple of months when the temperature warms up... I remember, in my youth, when I was around 19/20 I used to use my old P200E Vespa in all weathers, getting up at 5am to ride 10 miles to work, in whatever the weather bought... but alas, at 56, that ain't gonna happen now!

Graham

I am out on a ride today.

Just pulled into Shrimp R Us & More after a 70 mile ride to Welaka.

Meeting a friend for a ride around the area, then back home.

Around 55F when I left home, 60+ now. Warmer heading home.

I am glad that I live where I can ride year round.

Bill

Send some heat over to us Bill, at this moment, it's cold foggy and very damp (4 degrees Celsius ) not ideal riding weather- thank god for heated handlebars!!

Graham

Too much "can't scoot" attitude in this thread lol So what? You can still ride to the other 99.9999999% of the places that aren't the office! Sure you can! Just need a truck. Tow AND carry



If anyone else thinks they can't ride scoots, bring me your problems, I will solve them lol

The original question to which the responses were directed referenced a "day out." 8°F today does not a "day out" make, although if I have a short trip to make, the roads are clear and dry….

But what about the food Bill? Shrimp R Us sounds like my kind of place and it's only 250 miles from where I live. To me, a ride without a good food stop is not a ride. Cheers!

The food there is good, but they told me that food would take 45 minutes after ordering to come out of the kitchen.

And we wanted to ride.

So we rode five miles south to Renegades for a nice lunch.

We swapped rides, I got to try Gregg's Moto Guzzi and he got to ride Rocket for ten or so miles around the area.

I loved the Guzzi.

But am good with my current collection.

Bill

I haven't stopped riding yet, except on days with icy roads or snow cover.

My chilliest long distance ride on the interstate this winter was at around 39 F (4 C). Not without challenges, but the feeling when you finally get to the destination makes up for everything.

I'm confused. Riding to work and back qualifies as a "day out" but riding to anywhere else doesn't? Are you a Vespa courier person?



Anyway, yesterday was -10 C. I went out on two wheels to run two errands. Was going to take the electric fat bike to get a little exercise but remembered that one of the errands was by one of my favorite pizza joints. Way easier to bring the order home on the Vespa so I took that.

TLDR: I traded six pack abs for six slices and a winter Vespa ride and regret nothing

25 morning miles burbs to city, followed by 25 nighttime miles city to burbs, up to 2.5 hours a day in the seat, to me constitutes a day out, as opposed to an errand or two.

Something in the neighborhood of a 50 mile trip feels like a "day out," no?