Modern Vespa

Why watch a coronation when you have a royal chariot to ride!

I finally have something to contribute here

Warm sunny and dry weather here in the Pacific Northwest; so I was able to get out for a a ride with some friends. It was a P200E mini rallye in Roseburg, Oregon! Two friends and I put about 75 miles on the road, with a variety of pitstops. Taco's! 3 pubs, 2 bridges, a few spots by the rivers, a gas station/bar?! and this covered bridge was a highlight. All three scoots ran great! Each is tuned and kitted, and are all comparable in power. GPS top speed had us at 78 for a nice stretch. Super fun day

I got my blue smallie back from a loan to a friend and soon had it running nicely after freeing a stuck throttle. Today was great weather to go further than the short test runs I made while getting gears & clutch adjusted just right. The bike was really running well so let's GO!

I got an early start on Memorial Day weekend by visiting the cemetery/mausoleum where my grandmother's remains are kept. I recently learned that my old boss from my first job when I finished school and his wife are here too.

Saturday rides…

Conditioners and PK 50 S

Why so many, mini split air conditioners?

I have no idea mate

Looks like it

Scooters that have entered the cocoon.

Isn't that kind've the opposite of leaving the house? What's the occasion?

I had the Smallie out today and when I went past, the gate around this old sketchy used car lot was ajar, so I let myself in and shot a picture. Yet another specimen of Vanishing Nashville.

Maybe for the better when it comes to sketchy subprime used car lots, but it's still part of the town that's fading fast.

I went past the tire store that has mounted all my scooter tires (and a few car tires, too, thanks to Nashville roads) and they had a sign up saying their last day in business is Wednesday. I was there last week and it was business as usual (they do a lot of fleet management), so I assume the building was sold out from under them. Still a bummer, because they're fast, super-nice, and it's less than a mile from my house.

At least the Smallstate is running like a top, It sat there and idled at 1,000 RPM's the whole time I was taking my pictures, and that was after a few miles on the highway.

I love hand painted signs. That too is an art that's dying out. Your smallie and that sign made my day!

That is a great snap of your Smallstate!!!
Dig it.

Speaking of hand-painted signs… I have a friend that does pin striping and hand painted vintage advert signage… he has been promising (threatening) to do a Vespa service sign for me for a few years. He finally did a Motovespa Servico sign for me… worth the wait!

Awesome sign, BN! I have a little enamel Vespa Service sign, but nothing on par with that.

There's still a fair amount of handpainted signage here. I try to stop and snap pictures with it when I can, especially the stuff whose days are obviously numbrered. I fully expect M&M Motors will be turned into condos any day now.

A Sunday a.m. market run with my honey as a rare passenger. Comfy riding after a recent rebuild of the front end, incl. all bearings and suspension. I threw in a brand new plug for good measure.

Yesterday was just magnificent. If you look closely, you can see Mount Baker in the second photo. Mount Rainier/Tahoma is out of frame to the right.

This was taken about 30 seconds before I snapped a shift cable and was stuck in 3rd. Luckily I live at the bottom of the hill.

Gorgeous. The scoot and the scenery.

Since they're disappearing rapidly, I rolled out tonight and got pictures of the Smallie with all the handpainted signs along Dickerson Road, which was (is?) a sketchy strip of mostly subprime used car lots, used tire stores, junkyards, and the like here in East Nashville.

Most shots here are of beautiful scooters in beautiful places. I decided to go in a little different aesthetic direction and capture places that will soon only exist if you know how to view older images on Google Street View.

One of the buildings I was expecting to get a shot of had been painted over in the past few days. Change is coming hard at East, so here's a little of what's not quite left.

Good eye there Chandlerman.

Awesome pics Chandlerman! When I get the Rally sorted I will go find some signs too!

More luck than skill, but thanks nonetheless! It's all kind've the same picture over and over, but I figure that it's good practice. Yes! I'll continue the series over the course of the summer. I started with murals, but once you pointed out that handpainted signs are a dying (dead?) art, I figured I should start capturing them since they're disappearing fast.

Good Stuff man.
Dig it.

I also shot a 360 timelapse of my ride to photograph all those signs, so I tried pulling it together into a video. I'm very much a novice at video art, but I figured I'd subject y'all to the opportunity to watch it in any case.

And No, for those who are wondering, I've learned nothing about the dangers of riding in shorts just because it's super-hot out.

Somewhere in Oconee County.

Winder- Barrow County Speedway. Dirt track racing every Saturday night.

The wildfire smoke over New England has ebbed in the last couple days… not totally gone. But an otherwise great day for a ride at 82 degrees & sunny.

I had it in mind to visit some industrial aspects of town:

Oh almost forgot: happy pride month.

Looks like it was a great day for a ride!

I'm going to guess that warehouse with the auxiliary coolers is a crypto mining site.

I was going to go hit some more murals, but didn't quite make it happen. Oh, well.

I did see a nice black lambretta, while out rubbing a couple errands.

You think so? I don't know much about those facilities but have heard the mIning is wicked energy-intensive. Building appears part of swm intl - some custom engineering outfit

A Bretta painted black? Not a common color choice but maybe an interesting story there worth hearing!

Dress yourself to express yourself is good advice every month of the year! My guess is a building with several units, each with its own thermostat.

...

One of these days, my scoot will leave the house too.

Come on SC. We got to get you out there soon. Sorry if I haven't been following the saga but what's been holding you up?

Didn't get a picture but I saw a Lambretta being worked on in Brooklyn yesterday afternoon. Was walking back to the car after a friends kids first bday party in Prospect Park and saw a scoot in pieces up the street opposite from where we parked. He was rebuilding a hobbled together Lammy. Nice chat for a bit about scooters and such before we had to get back to Philly for another bday party. He mentioned his old club in SF was in a Third Eye Blind video and I could have sworn someone on here posted about that recently but can't find the post now.

Took the Rally out for a 60 mile shake down ride

Pretty color, that, and what a nice day there too. That's my home town.

Absolutely amazing shots!

Today was a day like a holiday.
Nine members of Vespa Club of Ukraine got together for outta city ride.
For sure not a something impressive for everyone but for us such rides becomes very rare since the war started.
So it was nice 145 km ride outside of Kyiv with improvisated picnic on picturesque glade.

Not even Waffle House can resist the forces of Gentrification.

My daughter and I used to go to this one every few weeks. I got my wife to go once, after which time she refused to ever set foot in the place again.

It could easily have been the inspiration for the SNL Waffle House skit, and that was just at breakfast.

Pour out some syrup for my fallen Housie.

Well this Vespa hasn't left the garage on anything other than test runs (battling an air leak which I think I fixed) but tonight I took an evening ride to highlight some hand painted signs, old and new and a mural I painted a few years back right here in petaluma. oops forgot to swap out the s2's plate....

Gorgeous bike and some great backdrops. That's awesome that you even have some of your own murals to snap pics in front of.

The weather here has been stormy for the past few days, but I still managed to sneak out to get those pictures and get in a nice little twenty mile ride between storms.

I'm really diggin' all the rust belt dystopia,

It's not the rust belt, it's the boom town bulldozing the old to make way for the new n' fancy.

Yes, technically not the rust belt, but a disappearing part of city scapes with a vibe I have always been fond of. I used to love crawling around junkyards looking for bus parts. I had some epic scores back in the day. I also miss all those mom and pop auto-electric and radiator shops, and grimy parts house counters that smelled like burnt coffee, old grease and cigarettes.

OMG, I think I feel a haiku coming on.