Modern Vespa

I'm not trying to pour a tall glass of hateraid on high rollers, but having been a few times I always leave kinda blah. it's a big ass party in Vegas with scooters. the last one I went to was when it was pouring rain on the dam ride and everybody just jeeped out turning it into a brutal ride back with an added side of "good luck everybody". F and that.

there reason ROM is so epic is that it's a rider's rally. King's Classic and Rage were like that as well. you're in SF, there's plenty of other things to do if you want.

a signature worthy line right there. love it.

reminds me of the idiom: 南辕北辙

Wait while I google it.

nán yuán běi zhé

Exactly. Ha ha.

ahh. yes. perfectly encapsulates NSM... it makes no sense at all, changes direction midway through and the end result leaves you just as confused. well played, Mr. Owens... well played indeed.

I can 100% testify to just how uncanny accurate your description of the "dam ride" is. I've experienced that 2 out of the 3 times i've been down there for the High Roller. I wised up and brought a GPS with me the second time i went down there. I ended up leading a large group of lost out of towner ragtag scooterists back to the strip.

ROM 2023 takeaways, for me:

Objectively speaking, Chandler flying out from Nashville with an engine and installing it in a scoot to ride for ROM was a pretty absurd plan from the beginning.

However, in the end

1. the rides turned out to be as epic as expected.

2. the road trip itself was blast.

Chandler and Ned are good sports and a hoot. Can't think of two knuckleheads I'd rather hang with for a weekend. The laughs we had over Denny's breakfasts were priceless. Ask me about the time Ned took apart the hotel's state-of-the-art $70,0000 electronic beverage machine right there in the lobby to make a cup of hot chocolate. The man's a legit problem solver.

Despite the carnage and mishaps, I'm calling it a spectacular success.

Good times, good times.

Wow! Thanks for the recaps guys. I'm glad no skin was lost, and everyone got to ride some amazing roads and eat tri-tip!

Mike, you are an extremely generous soul.

I'm super bummed I didn't get to head out and ride with y'all.

Thanks again for bringing us along for the adventure!

ROM 2024 = March 22-24, 2024. I asked them and have put it on the calendar.

Why am I not surprised...



And congrats to all who made it happen, one way or another you never gave up.

+100. Despite all the misadventures, comedies of errors, and general absurdity of the whole thing, it was a blast and a half.

Grade A+ -- For a perfect time And I would have gotten away with it, too, if it wasn't for that meddling quick disconnect!

And, of course, the story still isn't over. If you'll recall, when last we saw our intrepid heroes, I had just joined SoCal and CM2 at the post-ride BBQ by Uber rather than scooter, just in time to get some BBQ and a beer before the kegs ran out.

Now, of course, I was at a park ten miles outside SLO with no predetermined way to get home. No worries, though. I caught a ride home with Chris, Kevin, and Ronny, three of the organizers. We laughed all the way back to the hotel, and then after a quick break to rest and recharge, it was out to McCarthy's for some post-post-ride Guinness.

So the next morning I wake up, slightly the worse for wear, to a text from SoCal: Mike, in his infinite generosity and poor judgement, offered to loan me yet another of his scooters (Yellow) so I could do the Sunday ride down to the coast and get a little of the proper ROM experience.

And I cannot tell you how glad I am that he did. It was so beautiful that I almost ran off a cliff just marveling at the ocean at one point. Then, because time was getting short, CM2 and I left the group and did a high speed run back to the hotel so we could check out, load up, and get on the road.

I have what I hope will be some great video still to cut together, but I will say that even the tiny slice of it that I participated in was truly breathtaking.

Then, after all was said and done, we loaded up the scoots and headed south again, where we unloaded, I pulled the motor out of Red, we loaded Red and Yellow into Mike's truck, and I packed up my motor for the flight back.

Finally, the three of us went our separate ways, SoCal and CM2 back to their respective homes and me, giant HEAVY-HEAVY-HEAVY suitcase in hand, to the airport Hilton for one last night before my flight out first thing in the morning.

And the adventure is still not quite over, if you can believe it.

Because as I was getting ready to board my flight, they paged me. Turns out, the TSA had rejected my bag because it was "emitting fumes." So I had three options:
1) Take my bag and go Not Home. They would rebook me, but the bag was officially BANNED. And the rebooking would be...the next day. Hard Pass.
2) Abandon my bag and take the flight; or
3) Leave the bag at Baggage Services for "someone" to pick up, or they'd throw it away "eventually."

Lucky for me (but unlucky for CM2), he wasn't that far from the airport and other than needing to earn a living, could probably claim the bag for me.

So I select Option #3.

Now, problem 25% solved, I'm racing back through security (Yay, TSAPre!) by crashing to the front of every line, then running through the airport like OJ back to my gate, while trying to call CM2 to make sure he can grab my bag before I actually commit to flying back. Voicemail.

As I'm trying to run and text (don't run and text, kids, especially if you're an out-of-shape middle aged guy), he calls me back so I explain what's going on from the jet bridge, and he says he has me covered.

I text him the check tag # (okay...a check tag #, which I'm pretty sure is the right one) and a picture of it as if they won't know which one, and I'm off.

*Time Passes*

Finally, CM2 calls me and tells me that when he showed up at baggage services and says he's there for a bag (or, as the Baggage Services workers called it, "THAT bag"), the women working there made the most minimal pretense of confirming the tag #, but mostly while getting its fume-y ass the hell out of their storage area.

And Southwest didn't even refund my overweight bag fee (yet).

So the story closes with my motor safely fuming away at CM2's workshop awaiting shipping back to the land of crazy rednecks and me safely home in Nashville, already thinking about next year.

I'll close out with a few frames from the helmet cam, but wow what an amazing time, chaos, breakdowns, improvisations, and all.

It sounds like CM2 just got the first part of Project Smallframe Sidecar.

On a serious note, such an awesome story and whilst it didnt go to plan, everyone enjoyed it.

heres to chapter 2 and tales of whatever madness gets planned.

One for the books boys.
Thanks for taking us along on the virtual ride!

love it, especially how even the escape had issues to overcome. why do you think your bag was emitting more fumes on the way home than the way there? It seems like blown up or not, an engine in a bag is an engine in a bag!

I had cleaned it up really well before packing it for the trip out. On the return leg, I basically just threw it in the suitcase. CM2 pointed out that we'd been so immersed in two stroke at that point we didn't notice it. He said it was pretty obvious when he picked it up, though.

What a great trip and story- this one is EPIC.

That's a pretty epic ending.

Sucks they didn't let the engine on the plane. What a pita…

Raising a glass to engine number 2.

I'm glad you at least made a cameo at the outset. Hopefully you'll join in for some actual riding next time!

An acquaintance happened to see the ROM on Saturday from his plane.

What an adventure! and that double-twist ending what a doozy. ROM in SLO is worth visiting for the scenery and location alone. Add on the fact that the rides are some of the best, and most beautiful. I'm looking forward to the next version smallstate powerplant

The fun just never stops for Chandlerman. But I'm really glad you got out there to experience first hand the craziness of the ROM. Someday....

I 'm surprised the guy you overtake just carries on riding as you coast to a halt. even if he was thinking it was karma for you nailing it past him, I would have thought he would have checked you were ok.

What a weekend. Full of adventure. How will this be topped next year?

The Lammy-Vespa feud manifests itself in mysterious and passive-aggressive ways sometimes...

He couldn't stop to help a brother out? Maybe he has enough problems with his Lambretta. Still, bad form all around. I stop even when I'm in my truck.

I call it "rally fever". We fly you out?

I think that many badly tuned motors all in simultaneous earshot might be traumatic for Jack.

He was also racing in the wrong direction to catch up with the pack, I assume.

To be fair to him, Chandler hasnt stopped as he goes past. Maybe he thought the mentally fast smallframe had slowed down to have another go at the fast overtake.

Great stories and lots of memories for you guys.

If everything runs smoothly there isn't much to remember.

Sad with Chandlerman's mill, tho. Hope there isn't too much blown up.

Best wishes to you all!

//J

It's just yet another top end for my personal Wall of Fail. Everything but my wallet will be fine.

More ROM footage.

Not mine.

you could have it replated https://millennium-technologies.com/cylinderservices/

+1

Seriously, CM2's unicorn side car should not be able to corner that well…

And who's the white Quatrinni smallie special??

Wonder how much is a re-plating something like a malossi 210?

out of curiosity - can stock machines handle this ride? Let's say you showed up on your VBB - is it hopeless? or is there a pack of slow dudes that hang together?

You'd be back with the Lammies doing 50 MPH, but it could do it no problem, I think.

Fun Fact: The broken down scoot at 3:35 in that video saw me blow past the turn on my way to a Date With Disaster.