Modern Vespa

Ever since I got my scooter I have telling my wife she would not hate riding on the back, and she said never!

I passed my MSP course and got my endorsement making it legal to carry a passenger last week. The first thing I did was try get her to go for a ride with me. Today she finally agreed if I took her for breakfast.

I am happy to report several things. First she came just shy of saying it was fun. Second, apparently i didn't scare her, as she said I did many years ago (35) when I rented a scooter in Nassau on our honeymoon.

What a difference some practice makes before having a passenger. In Nassau I had never been on a scooter before, an was very shaky no doubt. This time I had two months of practice, and perhaps more importantly the safety course I passed. My Piaggio Copter helmet fit her well, and she liked the tinted shield that went over her glasses.

My impressions of the ride aren't bad. The 250 had no problem with the added weight even with the many hills we went up to get to the restaurant. It did not handle badly. There were a few things to get used to. One issue was allowing extra time to stop and doing so gradually so as not to jostle her in any way. I also had to use a slightly different foot position on the scooter as well as when placing the foot down at a stop. More throttle was required on the hills and especially when starting from a stop at the top of the hill.

I hope I can talk her into taking many rides with me now. I do not think we are ready for that 2500 mile trip that one gentleman was discussing taking with his wife (650 miles the first day!).

Does anyone know the best way for a passenger to mount and dismount the scooter? She said that part was was awkward.

post deleted by Salima

You're a lucky man. My wife has no inclination to ride with me. Her first trip was on the back of a Harley we hired on holiday earlier this year and she really loved the day. She has twicw been on the back of the scoot for about 200 yards and since then has refused to go out on it again!!

Yeah, but just watch out...my wife was much like yours and after about a half-dozen rides on the back of my MP3, she had to have her own BV250.

I have discovered there is no correct way to do it. Everyone has their own perfect method, so with that in mind I guess we just have to experiment some.

Thanks for the suggestions (perhaps her getting her own would be them best of all!)

post deleted by Salima

Yeah! Now if I could only get her interested in MV.
Don' think that's gonna happen though...so, I'll have to do all the 'sharing'.

Congrats on the successful ride! I too had my first successful ride with my wife this weekend. Just around the neighborhood, but it went smoothly. The first time we tried a couple of months ago, she forgot to follow the rules, and we almost fell over at the first turn. That of course made us both a bit nervous and the ride only lasted about 1 minute. This time we rode around for about 5 minutes and it was fun. I figure there is no rush, it rides quite differently with 2 up and I would hate to crash because I was too impatient to take it slowly at first.

The other side is like my wife, she rode my scooter and we wound up buying another one like it, so we have less money in our savings account, but more fun together.