Modern Vespa

As I am closer to (a few months away) from having done over 30000 miles on shifty vespas and over 20 years (combined years) of riding on shifty vespas alone here I am to share a fall.

Basically I was turning to the left at lower speed and there was a ton of loose gravel. The front tire locked easily and skidded and I felt very fast, so fast that I could only open my arms and palms to "cushion" the fall.

Unfortunately I was not wearing the gloves and unfortunately the road was very coarse. To my advantage I have very meaty hands (gorilla hands), very cushy like a farmer but still... Initially it hurt a lot, it also hurt when the wife was cleaning the wounds.

I normally ride my scooter around the neighborhood at low speeds, I wear the glove about 50% of the time because I don't go fast. As it turns out a 10-15 mph fall can also do a lot of damage if you fall fast in the wrong angle. Lessons learned, wear the gloves even around the block, you never know. I did have the helmet (I always do).

This PX150 used to be pristine. Now is approaching its 20 year mark and it is starting to show battle scars. All I can say is wear the gloves and always look for loose gravel/dirt although sometimes is impossible to spot. This happened to me at dusk. Be safe out there.

Sorry about the crash. Yes, it doesn't take much. Good vicarious lesson for all of us!

Front brakes and gravel aren't a good combination as you already know.

Ouch!!

Sorry to hear that, glad you weren't going a lot faster when you hit the gravel.
I often flinch when I see people riding without gloves... I tripped in the dark walking on a footpath once - so 0 km/h - and grazed my palms much worse than I would have thought possible.
Had a few offs at 60 and 70 km/h and very glad I had the textile jacket and kevlar jeans. I never question whether or not to wear gloves.

Dayum... Sorry to hear about this. Hate to say it, but the scoot looks like it came out worse than you. Heal up man.

Sorry to hear about your fall. My experience has been that loose gravel and wet leaves are the bane of powered two-wheelers. Speed doesn't seem to make too much difference (i.e. the threat is still there at lower speeds), but sharp turns sure do increase the risk.

I did the same thing on an ET4 slowing to turn into our dealership. I was probably going about 2 mph when the front wheel caught and slid. It's one of those things that makes you feel dumb, because you have done this over and over, and never dropped the bike before. The one thing that makes it worse is having an audience.

Gravel can get under your skin and stay there for a while. Have it cleaned out, which hurts like a Mutha... as best you can. Lidocaine sunburn sprays are about the best OTC pain remedy you are likely to find.

This is a great heads up to all of us riders even us seasoned veteran riders.It can happen. Thank you for posting this and tomorrow when I ride I will have this in the back of my head.

Thanks guys ...I visited the same spot today twice. I walked through the road as if I was riding. I stay down taking a look from various angles and what got me wasn't necessarily the speed or so much the turn itself it was the amount of lose gravel in a strip of 1 ft by 20 foot. It was almost inevitable. As I was saying, I already swept the other intersection before because I felt the scooter wobbly before and ia knew it was going to be a matter of time.

I truly wish everyone to be safe. Definitely I am taking the blame on not wearing the gloves but sliding while locking the brakes on gravel was hard to prevent specially when the gravel blends in so well.

On a different note, I noticed that my 05 PX150 disc brake lever does 100% of the braking within half an inch of brake lever travel. In fact, after you press (squeeze) the lever it only goes in half and inch . It seems like there is absolutely no modulation. You go from 0 to 100% of braking power in a small touch. Do you guys know what I mean?

The sketchers that I was riding with. They are comfy and they cool off the feet very well but less than ideal for safety.

I have to admit you do have impressive looking hands. The skin will eventually grow back, but that sucks big time about scuffing up your PX. Scratches show up really easily on something that's bright red too. I bet with the correct touch up paint you could make it look acceptable from 15' away. And i'd use a paint brush, NOT spray paint! I found out that the vespa red touch up paint that's available online isn't even close for a color match.

Road rash pro tips:
-Douse the wound with water ASAP to get rid of the initial sting. You can then wash it properly at a later point in time and it won't hurt as much.

-shave the leg/arm hair off wherever you're going to be sticking a band-aid.

No doubt you learned your lesson about wearing gloves. I personally would almost rather wear gloves than a helmet. Because during a crash, there's close to a 99% chance that hands will make first contact.

^^ Thanks guys. So I am reflecting on this whole incident and I'm blaming myself for not wearing the gloves. There is absolutely no doubt that I would have gone down again even with all the protective gear in the world but the hand injuries were so easily avoidable.

I had the stupid gloves in the glovebox..Duhh. As I am going through my 4th day after the injury I deeply regret not wearing the gloves that day. There is absolutely no doubt that I will wear the gloves from now on all the time no matter what.

For the last 4 days I had a hell of a time trying to do basic stuff with my hands (writing, washing my hands working on tools..even tightening something with my hand or opening a simple prescription bottle). The gloves would have prevented my injuries almost 100%, the skin peeling/rush wouldn't have happened. Lessons learned.