Modern Vespa

One of my favorite people in the unit made a bad choice and now their future is in the crapper. BEST case scenario is administrative separation and never working in any sort of government position or contract ever again.

Sooo unbelievably pissed at the person.

How does that saying go?...."A picture is worth a thousand words", or something like that.

Well ... crap.

Got my tag renewals today. Price for our new 2023 Corolla Cross = $152. Price for my 2018 Fiat 500e? $334.

Jerks.

When these asshats with oversized pickups don't even have the sense or courtesy to at least get their front tire to the curb, and sometimes even that isn't enough to keep the butt end of their juggernauts out of the driving lane.

"#@$&@#"

I'd argue that the oversized truck is too big for the space as there's very little room in front of the kerb and the front wheels.

That's not really "oversize" for around here. They're quite common. I just don't like to park next to 'em. Can't see what's coming when I'm backing out.

Fair. I'm just saying the truck looks too big for the space.

That is all.

We have a Toyota Tundra. It's a biggish truck. Parking is the biggest hassle.
In Michigan, huge pickups are common. It's almost a status symbol.

Some parking lots have larger spaces to accommodate all sorts of vehicles. Costco and any of the big box home improvement stores usually have great parking spaces. Malls ... not so much, it seems.

I don't know if it's just an American thing, but people often think they need more car than they need. The vast majority of pickups on the road probably never leave the road. And a majority of the time they just carry the single occupant to work and back.

Don't get me wrong, I love my truck, but we usually only drive it when we need a truck, and then I try to be polite about parking because it a beast.

On the topic of ginormous vehicles, my wife and I pulled into Goodwill last week, and this particular store had special parking for people with high efficiency / low emissions vehicles. Perfect for the FIAT, because that's exactly what it is. When we came out, somebody had parked in the adjacent "special" space. In a Suburban.

It's absolutely an American thing.

Triumph Rocket 3. Exhibit A.

How is your truck even running with your fuel gage that far below E? That is driving on excitement for sure.

Around here, it seems that a certain number of parking spaces in lots are for "compact vehicles only". This does not deter drivers of large SUVs, trucks, etc. from squeezing into them anyway.

Probably because they are closer to store entrances, and it seems to be imperative around here to not have to walk an extra twenty feet if at all possible.

And don't get me started on the people who park their precious Porsches on the line between two parking spaces, taking up both spaces, so as not to get their doors dinged.

Oh, you know 'Porsche Dad' at my kid's school, because that's exactly how he parks each morning. One of these days, when my wife is not in the car, I am going to squeeze into the spot next to him, inches from his door.

Twat Parking and German Cars will be forever linked.

Parking ramps. There are spaces on the inside of the corners marked "COMPACT CAR ONLY" for a reason. I hate it when van's and trucks decide their convenience is more important that everyone else's need to navigate the ramp successfully.

The "compact" label on parking spaces (generally) doesn't mean what most people think it means. There isn't (generally) a restriction on what vehicles can park there. Rather, the "compact" label means the parking space is smaller than the legal "standard" parking space -- which is, non-intuitively, also legal -- but only if it is marked as "compact". And (generally) the compact spaces were put there in order to meet planning code requirements regarding the number of parking spaces required for a given building.

Individual municipalities might have slight variations on these rules, but (generally) that's how compact spaces came to be.

It really has (almost) nothing to do with the size of the vehicles.

Dad taught in Seoul for about three years back in the '90s and nobody could understand why he would possibly want to hold on to his 1962 Corvette. It was an old car. He should get a new one.

For the record, when I inherit that old car, people better keep their porky mouths shut or I'll beat them with my America stick.

Good to know.

I always want to know the "logical" reason for things even if it's different from the logical reason I thought it was.

They're still smaller, though, and the vehicles are still larger.

Except maybe as mentioned in parking ramps and similar situations where it does make a difference and it explicitly states "COMPACT CARS ONLY".

I've never physically keyed a car, but mentally I've keyed a lot of trucks in those spaces.

Jerks.

EDIT :

And another thing ... it's not JUST the difficulty it makes for other people, it's the stupid entitled attitude that makes them think their convenience is more important than anyone else's ability to maneuver through tight spaces. GAH!

By comparison, we had a three day convention last year at a new venue, and the parking ramp was - as they are - challenging. After the first day, our attendants set aside an area on the upper floor with more room and directed people with trucks there and had them angle park to make it easier for them to get out. Definitely a "for the greater good" scenario, and everyone was just fine with it.

It's one of these cases when people who have no real substance have to inflate themselves with props.

All the real Millionaires drive Toyotas* and not McLarens.

*Maybe with one exception who is now in Jail

Many are definitely too large for the diagonal parking spaces, but the parking space was there long before the proliferation of four-door long box pickups which have vecome all the rage here.

Also, the city will allow drivers of large pickup trucks to put the 'curb wheel' over the curb and onto the sidewalk a bit until the far front wheel touches the curb, without penalty.

Few do this however as courtesy isn't their strong suit..

When I was driving a city bus last summer, when we encountered an overly long vehicle parked in such a way in the downtown area as to cause us, or other vehicles to have to stop or change lanes in order to pass by, we would radio in to the dispatcher with the vehicle type, color, and licence plate number, and within minutes, the offending vehicle would be ticketed by a police traffic unit.

And it is.

The large pickups such as this one usually, but not always, are owned by either local ranchers or contractors, and are definitely justified in those cases as practical and necessary business vehicles.

Regardless, in this case, whoever it is just needs to consider how traffic can safely pass behind it without having to move into the center lane of the three-lane downtown Main Street, which due to the volume of traffic in that location can be a problem at times.

Never an opportunity missed, is there Bill?

It's displacement is the only thing about the Rocket 3 that is remarkably large...for a motorcycle.

It's not longer, heavier, faster, nor more powerful than many other motorcycles out there, and it's physical size is substantially smaller than any automobile that I can think of. It's hundreds of pounds 'lighter' than most larger touring bikes.

It 'usefulness' is the same as any other motorbike ridden as a pleasure vehicle, and that includes my GTS. And believe it or not, it pleases me to own and ride such a magnificent machine, and that's really all I care about these days.

One of these years, I'm hoping that your 'hard on' for constantly bashing something that I thoroughly enjoy might start to soften a little.

I would happily settle for your indifference to what I ride or own, rather than the constant sarcasm at every opportunity.

Any chance?

our otter swim a week from monday has been cancelled.

apparently the otters are a bit too mouthy (not the usual play-bite "grab" they often do, this is far more aggressive and could lead to serious injury--at 6-8 pounds in weight, they have a bite strength of nearly 450psi) and the rescue doesn't wish injury (or the lawsuits that would inevitably follow in modern human society sadly) on anyone, so they had to cancel it.

harumph.

Well, I drive a white Yukon. I am not inflating anything, bragging, waggling or compensating so I'm cocking a snook at all of you who are being rude at me because I chose to drive around in a chest freezer. In my case, my first truck was an F150 and it was an excellent car. Probably the best vehicle I've had. Its purpose was to be a boating accessory to carry all the clobber you need to maintain a large boat. When the warranty expired, I bought the Yukon for the same reason (there are only the "big 3" dealers where I live) and then, sadly, I sold the boat during Covid because I was a victim of creeping decrepitude.
Would I buy another? Absolutely, except GM is getting so greedy these days...
Please think about the logic of trashing an owner because of what he drives. As Vespa affectionados, you have surely heard some gormless people insulting us for no good reason? You don't have to be that person.

Love the otter shot! They are the cutest thing to see but they were incredibly destructive on boats and their poop has to be experienced...Most boat houses out here have electric fences to keep the little buggers away. Having said that, they are hours of fun watching them in a marina!

I think your otter buddy needs to post what's pissing him off. Shame you have to cancel. That one looks really friendly.🙂

It just amazes me whenever someone calls my 2013 Nissan Frontier (Navara / D40) a "compact truck".

It's the same dang size as a 90's GM OBS 1500 series or similar vintage F-150.

When someone says "compact", I think of my '80 VW Rabbit SportTruck or my '84 Mazda B2000. And they were both wholly adequate!

Around there perchance, but around here every Bob and his cousin own a jacked up, big tired, crew cab pick-em-up. It's hard to find a single cab pickup, nearly impossible to find an extra-cab, half-door-in-the-back type pickup.

But the question is...do they know how to angle park them without blocking a lane of the street?

Single cab pickups are uncommon here as well, and one with a standard transmission might as well be a unicorn.

I have the 2007 Frontier. I believe the current term is "midsize truck", but yeah -- it's the same size as the full-size trucks of only a decade or so earlier.

Perfect truck for hauling two GTSs, though!

I have a 2019 version of that truck. As basic as it gets, except for the King Cab.

We owned a 2002 Nissan Frontier for about fifteen years, until my Iowa farmer father-in-law passed away and my mother-in-law moved here to be near us. She's in her 80's and didn't drive anymore and offered her under 30 thousand mile, 2013 Ford F-150 farm truck to us for 10k when it was worth between 20-25k on tbe used market.

We had no real desire to own a full-size pickup, but the Frontier was old and was going to need replacing before too long anyway, so we bought the larger Ford from the MIL.

The F-150 is a great pickup, no doubt, but for practically, It doesn't do anything better than the smaller Frontier did, and if it hadn't been offered to us at such a bargain price, we wouldn't have purchased it.

Not at you for owning one. More at the lack of consideration many who drive them seem to have for other drivers. Our Tundra tows our 24' camper and is great for moving sofas. But I also try to be courteous driving / parking it because I know it's a behemoth. MOST people don't need a land yacht for a daily driver, though.

I put the blame more on the auto manufacturers for promoting trucks as your best option for daily transportation. But considering the profit margins on trucks are significantly higher, it's easy to see why they do.

You do You JB

If we lived in a society where our choice of vehicle was dictated based on physical need, there wouldn't be much of an automotive industry.

Sometimes it's just nice to have Big Stuff!

Couldn't agree more. Many years ago we drove a Dodge Grand Caravan. The kids were at an age where they didn't travel with us much any more, it was mostly our cargo hauler. So I started keeping track of how often I needed the cargo or passenger space in the vehicle. Over a six month span there was 1 trip with significant cargo, and 2 with more than two passengers, never more than 4. So the van was replaced with a compact car. My theory was that it would be far more economical to rent the bigger vehicle the few times I needed it than to pour fuel through it every day. The compact cost less to buy, less to insure, less to drive, and less to maintain than the van did. Part of that is that we're pretty high mileage, over 50,000km/year as compared to the average Canadian driver at around 16,000km/year, so fuel economy is a bigger deal to us than most. The savings week over week was surprising, and it works out that I've needed to rent or borrow a truck about once per year, and neither costs near enough to make me consider owning one.

My point here is not "don't buy a truck", it's more consider whether or not you really need to own one. The math works out differently for everyone, but I suspect very few people have bothered to look at how they use their vehicles or how often then need the full capabilities of their vehicle. Taking the time to do that can save you some serious cash.

OR ...

Supposedly it can help, you know...'compensate' for a rather personal inadequacy, but also having a Vespa at the same time recalibrates and balances the formula so that one ends up being just average again.

I drive a Tundra, but also this. I call it balance.