Modern Vespa

I was headed up Ritchie Highway (a mostly 4-lane commercial boulevard) to Glen Burnie, MD, today on my LX150 to buy a small arbor press at Harbor Freight. Those of you who are familiar with Maryland may know that Glen Burnie is an old bedroom community for Baltimore steel mill and shipyard workers, and -- despite being solidly suburban -- has a bit of a rough-and-tumble reputation.

As I approached Glen Burnie, I was first in line waiting at a light in the middle lane of a 6-lane stretch when an older Acura Integra sports coupe pulled up on my right. It had a loud pipe and wide tires, and was occupied by four rough-looking, rather large, 20-something guys with thick, tattooed necks and buzz cuts. They had all the windows down as they were all smoking, and I could tell they were having some laughs at my expense (a 62-year-old bearded guy wearing gear and riding a Vespa is an easy mark for youthful derision). The driver suppressed a giggle and asked me "Wanna race?" I said something to the effect of "I'm not sure what the point would be". They were all having a great laugh at this when the light turned green. I was right on it, and totally got the drop on the Integra driver while he was distracted. I could see in the mirrors that his buddies were all cracking up that their friend was being smoked by a Vespa. I kept the throttle pegged, and was soon risking a ticket doing 74 indicated on a downhill stretch in a 50mph zone.

At the next red light -- behind other cars this time -- they pulled up alongside on my left and the big ugly guy riding shotgun leaned out. I wasn't quite sure what to expect after I had employed deception to humiliate his friend. I hadn't needed to worry, though, as he had a big grin on his face, and said, "Dude! That little thing is FAST!". I replied, "Yeah, maybe for the first 200 feet." He and his buddies chuckled, and I could see that the little encounter had ended well.

Now I know very well that the Integra could have blown me out of the water had I not gotten the jump on them, even with a half ton of beef on board (I used to have one back in the late '80s... no dragster, but a peppy little sports coupe). My LX has a few light mods (9.3g rollers, Sito pipe, larger idle jet), but it's of course, no match for even an econobox driver who is on the ball.

I just was pleasantly amused by the opportunity to give Vespa some cred to at least one crew of Glen Burnie rednecks!

Great story, Dave. Thanks for posting it.

I ride a vespa 300, I regularly blow away everything, even unsuspecting sportbikes... hehe
The fact that you can immediately twist & go, without revving or fumbling with a clutch gives me the jump, and the low end torque gets me in front of traffic from a dead stop EVERY time.
I like to pull up alongside Harleys, I watch them chuckle inwardly, I smile & when the light changes they quickly become a distant speck in my mirror.
All in good fun, because I know they were not expecting the mad takeoff speed of the 300.

It is funny how many people don't know that there are scooters that can go faster than 30mph - downhill, with the wind at your back.

It's fun to hear that others get a kick out of juicing the throttle and watching jaws drop.

Great story. Well done.

Good story, there are a lot of Integra owners in Toronto just like that.

Hehe ... I would have liked to see that!

Young guys here like to pull up beside me and rev their engines. It seems to give them a thrill. Unfortunately, I have never had the opportunity to show them what my little 125 can do as there have always been police around when this has happened.


One day though, I plan to race them for 150 yards from a dead stop!

Great story, both content and style. You are a good writer....painted a nice picture with your words.

Thanks for the story... I'm guilty of the same.

I see people shaking their head at me, the light changes, I twist and take off and then you hear their enging roaring as they stay in low gears to catch up and overtake me... which they always do, but they're usually speeding by that time. Fortunately the LXV runs out of ooomph right at the speed limit, and I'm waiting for the opportunity to see one of the fly right past me into the arms of our friendly LE.

Great story, Dave! That's a great way to handle it too. A little humor goes a long way.

I have this mental image of this happening out in front of a cruise night at Marley Station Mall. Good story.

Good job Dave.

Paul

Actually, it was very near to Marley Station Mall.

Thanks for the kind words, everybody. I enjoyed the episode so much, I thought it was worth sharing.

Knew it had to be, given your details. A large swath of my wife's aunts and uncles and cousins (she has many) live in Glen Burnie. Don't get out that way a lot myself though.

i did that with a porsche but in the end they passed me doing about 100+mph.

What a fun and well written story. Reminds me of the first long ride I took on my first scooter. My wife and I bought Buddy 150s when we first started riding this past spring.

On our first ride up the coast in San Diego we were holding our own when we came to a stop light in Encinitas, California. While waiting a gaggle of Harley riders came up on us and started teasing us. One asked if we wanted to race and that he would offer us a head start. "How many miles?" I quipped which broke them all up. They were still laughing at us when the light turned green and we sped off. They caught up to us by the next stop light though.