Modern Vespa

At WKRP in Cincinnati. Friday night meet-up at The Comet.

Saturday morning before the rains…

Michigan primavera on the move…

At Jon Gick's suggestion, we stopped off at the old Cincinnati Union Station for a WKRP club photo.

We are the super friends.

This is awesome (Edit: had wrong emoji!)

Can you put some mv names to the picture?

CM you're one tall mother. That's a great pic! I met Ed Asner when I worked at MTM Studios. He was a really nice man! Hope you guys are having a great time.😄 Yeah, I'm old enough to have seen that show!

...who's on the Series 1 Lammy?

I can't because I'm really the only MV'er in our club. From left to right, though, it's MTD (riding my SprintV), some dummy whose name I don't recall on a smallie, Miles on his GS, PJ on a Rally 200, Brooks on an OG Allstate complete with pogo stick fork, and JJ on the world's loudest Series 1.

Our fearless leader Willy got separated from us when everyone but him pulled an illegal u-turn, then rode on sidewalks against one-way traffic for three blocks, then the wrong way down a one way to get to the station to get this picture. Sorry, Willy!

As we were standing there looking for something to prop a camera on, this guy goes grooving through the middle of the street and asks if we want him to take our picture. He was carrying a highball glass of bourbon, maybe, with a big square ice cube in it like he just walked out of some fancy bar, so he set his glass down and shot some great photos, then picked up his glass, slid back into his groove, and kept rolling. He took really good pictures, though. LOL! I look like some sort of cartoon character riding the smallie, which makes it even better to me.

We had an awesome time. Minimal sleep. Maximal fun and beer. Loads of good riding. The Vulcans and Ten Years late clubs threw an amazing rally. That's JJ Herzog, who's originally from your neck of the woods--Portland, OR--and worked as a mechanic out there for years before moving to Nashville for work. That Lammy HAULS ASS. And he's a much better rider than I am from lots of racing.


We rolled up from Nashville on Friday, hit a bar in North Cincinatti called the Comet on Friday night for opening Meet 'n Greet. I was amazed how many times those cones in front of the scooters got hit by passing cars. I think I counted five just in the short time I was out there. I was assured by the locals that sort of thing was totally normal, so nothing to worry about.

Saturday was a little chilly, but beautiful skies and sunny. We rode about 80 miles, plus getting to and from the ride. Curvy, crappy roads, so I barely ever even got into the power band, but a great time was had by almost all. One accident at the very tail end of the ride. Turning into the park where the BBQ was, one guy hit some sand on the road, then two more bikes joined the pile. Unfortunately, one guy broke his arm, so he probably wouldn't call it a great time.

Saturday night party was at North Side Yacht Club, which was an awesome punk bar and nowhere near a body of water unless one of the neighbors has a swimming pool.

Nashville Snakes damn near swept the awards. We won Best Vespa for Myle's GS, Best Lambretta for JJ's Series 1, and I took home the "Fever's Choice" (judge's favorite) with the BooBadge. I was (and still am) thoroughly stoked about that.

Then, on top of that, our Fearless Leader Willy won the raffle bike! And in one of the most boss moves ever, he declared that it should go to someone else (I personally think he didn't want to have to convince his wife he didn't buy another scooter and claim to have won it in the raffle).

The next ticket drawn was the bartender at NSYC, who didn't have a scooter but desperately wanted one, so he brought a new scooterist into the fold with that move. Good Karma at its finest!

We rolled out of bed Sunday morning at the crack of 10, just in time to clean up all the beer cans in the AirBnB and load up scoots for the drive home.

Such an awesome time. We're already scheming for Band Camp, Slaughterhouse, and a few other rallies this summer and fall.

yesss - nice rally write up there. good to see the boo badge is out living it up.

Love that narrative! The cones! Sounds like a great rally. Hey is anyone going to West Coast Vintage Vespa days in Santa Barbara. It's on my bday so I am booking today! Would love to meet some of you out there

JJ and i are friends!...not online friends, but offline friends. We first meet around 2000 at Portland Spring scoot rally. We also both raced scooters for quite a few seasons. My phone doesn't have the best pixels, so it was difficult to tell it was him or a doppelgänger. I mean he did have his JJ clean cut hair, the JJ hoody and jacket, the JJ denim pants, the JJ boots, and JJ's S1 scooter with the CP silencer. It just threw me for a curve ball that he's in the wrong part (i mean different part) of the country. I didn't realize that he moved.

He's a great guy and builds LOTS of fast engines. The Casa Performance engine that's currently in his S1 Lammy legitimately pulls over a Ton on the GPS. That's really fast for a full bodied Lammy. Especially a S1. He once asked me if i wanted to give the bike a test ride, but i declined because i didn't have my racing leathers!

Ride to Coro

Fantastic write up Chandler! I'm glad to hear the Boobadge (heh heh, there's boob in there) got its first of many awards! Most Excellent

Thanks for the post, Chandler. That smallie sure has come a long way from Waxhaw, NC. All your hard work looks to be paying off big time.
PC73, nice post. I really hope to get down there some day.

He's mostly here, but still has his house and life back in Oregon. And, yes, he's kind've like a comic book character who's always wearing the same thing, no matter the circumstances. Like I'm not. It RIPS. And he rides it fast, too. We wound up racing just a little bit coming back from the post-rally cookout on Saturday, but I'd lose my nerve when we got up to like 70 (on crappy Cincinnati surface roads) and then he'd pull away.

He's a great mechanic and I love wrenching with him. We're working on another buddy's Lammies and P200 (yes...three projects simultaneously. Don't ask. ). Full rebuild plus porting on the P200; new top ends and better port timing on the lammies. Part of why the projects have dragged out is that we all have too much fun just hanging out. heh heh...heh heh..."boob." No kidding! Lookit that "before" picture.

This is for Chandlerman and boob

I love it!

Gorgeous!

Ride to The Basin

After a restful weekend of prayer and meditation in Coro, I was left to my own devices to get from Hamilton to the other end of the road. There a game of cricket was to be held.

Saw a few old scooters and that....

so. many. smallies.

and just so many super-cool vehicles in general.

I definitely need to visit NZ sometime.

I wonder how hard it would be to bring a container of those back with me when I do?

No, our photographer was a lot friendlier looking (and acting) that that guy seems to be. Plus much less possible explanation for where he could have walked from with his big ol' ice cube not having melted.

because of the under-shirt shadow at first glance I thought he was wearing a leotard

It's called a "singlet" and it's the required wrestling uniform.

haha oh but singlets end in shorts, leotards in bikini bottoms!

Roads we like

First weekend day this year when it really felt like spring.

I hear you, that looks like fun but maybe a bit fast for me.

That's amazing Terry - I want to go hang out on that beach all day! What a beautiful area you live...

Took a lunch trip to get a vegetarian turkey hoagie. That's what a sub is for the rest of you weirdos out there who don't know what a hoagie is. Anyways Capriotti's is the best in the biz. You may have one near you.

Left the house to the wash and then for sunset ride.

LOL the pink foam picture! Outstanding pictures of an outstanding scoot, too.

Eley called me up wanting to ride this afternoon. I was originally going to take the GL, but it decided to start leaking gas while it was warming up (grrrrr), so I took the Lammy instead.

That's a stealthy looking scoot!

I only need to be invisible to the cops!

Nice!
But, it's called a Po'Boy damn it.

Went on a ride up the local mountain thought this tree was more impressive than the Chetak

Who knew The Dive Motel & Swim Club was world famous?

Fixed that for ya CM: