Modern Vespa

Man, that is one sweet bike. Lucky devil.

Year, model and displacement please

'09 Triumph Bonneville SE, 865cc 67bhp, fuel injection.

I went for a ride this afternoon down to the Mourne Mountains and ended up in the middle of a Northern Ireland Vespa Rally in Newcastle, then up into the mountains to the Silent Valley Reservoir and Spelga Dam. Lovely.

Nice pictures Doug. Looks like a nice place to visit.

Well the riots in Genie's street have made page 16 of Time Magazine.

Fame at last huh ?

Bill X

Holy gorgeous, I want to go to there. This has become one of my new life goals.

Lovely, Doug!

Yesterday was the X9 Forum's annual Stamford ride, always scenic and delightful. This year we visited the Yew Avenue at Clipsham, where I found a yew with my name on it (well, my initials):

Great pic, Alice.

Fantastic views, Doug. Must get over there some time.

Glad you made it back safe, Charles.

Went for a spin up to Ballycastle today and as it was sunny came back via Torr Head. That is the Mull of Kintyre you can see in the distance and yes that is no illusion, the road is that steep, so steep in fact it was almost coming off the centrestand on its own.

Spectacular, Doug. Really gorgeous.

We're just back from a long weekend camping near Hereford. Second chance to use our new tipi, and I think I'm in love with it

I passed a bike just like M's new ride on my way home last night. Not my usual sort of thing but boy is it pretty.

I also saw a Suzuki Gladius and thought it looked rather attractive. What's happening to me!?

DAS, DAS, DAS

I must admit, I'm a teensy bit jealous and I suspect I might just do direct access, so that I can ride it. I did, after all, let him ride my TMAX off road to see what it felt like. Shall we form a DAS posse? (You in Jim?)

Yeah, I know, I've been procrastinating for 2 years now! Last night Howard was all 'we should do an off-road course!' and I was all 'dude, GEARS!'

I reckon we should - I think I can do it, barring my rather unfortunate wheelie....

I think its worse riding a PX shift than a motorcycle, tbf.

You guys know how to ride geared bikes already - you should be able to pass standing on your heads! I'm scared stiff of gears, hate driving a manual car, don't even deal with pushbike gears all that well. Plus I'm still traumatised from my first attempt at CBT when I hired a geared bike and promptly grabbed a handful of clutch and fell off. (Hired a moped, went back, aced it, never looked back.)

You are welcome to come and batter the PX any time you like in an effort to learn them - though I think gears are a lot more fun on a big bike. The PX goes so slowly that it can't scare anyone. Except maybe a tortoise.

And yourself.

That's VERY kind - might well take you up on that!

(It's slightly beat up already, right? I only borrow friends' bikes if they're beaters.)

Yes, pre beaten by some cock of a car owner who knocked it over on the second day of ownership.

The bodywork is what you might call "delicate".

I warn you that the mirrors are for ceremonial purposes only.

I rode Christos' PX around a field somewhere on the south coast about 3 years ago - that represents the extent of my experience with geared bikes, somewhat tarnished by the fact that I didn't actually shift gears at any point during my ride

I'd love to join the DAS club as well, but that does rather beg the question of what the hell is the point of it when a) i can't afford another PTW, and b) even if i could, it would have to live in the road out front of the house, which is c) completely out of the question.

Well, for me, it's having the option to hire abroad; it's near-impossible to hire a scooter larger than 125cc, and I'd like to tour Australia one day.

Also I'm chipping away at the world of motorcycle journalism, and the ability to ride geared bikes would give me a lot more to write about; I once had to turn down the chance to be in a RiDE feature test-riding bikes for shorter women (yeah, yeah) because I can't shift.

Well there's no problem riding the PX then - I look like a bear on a rollerskate so you should fit just nicely.

The only manual scooter I rode was Dougs very pretty LML.
Great to look at but unbalanced, pulled to the right when the brakes were used and truly terrible tyres that made me almost drop it when trying to perform a U -turn but apart from that it was lovely.

Would I have a used one as a run-a-round ? Strokes chin.

Bill X

I give kudos to my Vietbodge that I took around the country - it actually ran very nicely, the brakes were good, the gear change was smooth and it it didn't miss a beat up mountains, across bridges made of sticks, sand, gravel and squashed dragon fruit.

Slightly telling thing is that every other Vietnamese on the road was riding a semi auto. So frankly, if you are a city rider on a budget, there's a lesson in that. We're all better off riding Honda Cubs than true autos or even the PX/LML.

I loved doing the DAS course and passed 1st time may I add. 8)

I do love my GTV but I do love shifting too.......

We have a new addition to our home in East Dulwich. Welcome Calvin who is from Hackney.

what a gorgeous boy so you've collected him already then?

Awwwww That cat knows something.

Good choice.

Bill X

Same thing??

Probably in many cases Scootmom.

I am really digging Calvin's markings. Handsome guy.

Just when it was getting interesting it turns back to cats.......

Is that a real cat, WM? Looks like it's the head of one cat, put onto the body of another, taller, cat (yes, I know cats don't stand up. I suppose I mean "longer"). But I like all cats, so don't get me wrong: I'm not saying your cat is fugly.

Doing DAS is increasingly attractive to me. I would love a bigger scoot, but there's so little choice available, and the big scoots are so expensive that they're hardly an impulse purchase.

And when I get to thinking what sort of choice you'd have in the geared bike world for the sort of money you'd spend on a TMax or similar, it's hard not to think about going the geared route. Plus Alice's point about being able to rent abroad.

The things that keep me dithering are:
- my daily commute is still in town. A scooter is PERFECT for that, and very economical.
- I really don't see why I'd want gears (other than to be able to drop a gear when overtaking, and perhaps because it would add some complexity to riding, which might be good in the way of a new challenge).
- In many ways, moving from an auto to gears is a retrograde step. Modern brakes are so good that you don't need engine braking, and acceleration on an auto compares really well with a similar sized geared bike, because you don't have all the stop-start of going up the gears.
- although I'm really attracted to various styles of geared bikes, none of them really offer an alternative to a biggish scooter in terms of storage and load-carrying capacity (which really is important when you don't generally use a car). And the sorts of geared bikes that do offer something in that line are generally the ones which don't look all that good.

If you're getting a posse together to do DAS, I might well be interested, though.

I have a GTV 250 and a Yamaha XJR 1300SP

The GTV is great for town traffic, not having to constantly change gear is brilliant. On the other hand a big bike is so much better for the long haul. Don't get me wrong i've done plenty of long trips on the Vespa so I know it can cope but the big bike kicks ass for me on that front.

I haven't ridden a scooter yet that can match a big bike on the brakes either.

1. Where's Hobbes?

2. When can I visit?

Unfortunately it will have to wait until next spring as I have used up all my annual leave for this year. That gives us all time to save though.

Good thought, Doug.

If I'm going to have a Harley, I'd better get saving for the tassled jacket, chaps, and chrome-polishing stuff as well

This is a big part of my problem; if I did a 5-day course it would be a significant chunk of my AL gone.

Somebody recommended these guys to me, incidentally:
http://www.alpharidertraining.co.uk/

Calvin is coming in a cab this weekend. So he may be a nutcase for all I know, but he is a handsome nutcase which I think we can all agree means that we can overlook minor flaws like sanity.

I think his head is his own, but even the beautiful may be photoshopped.

I did 4 hours on a 125cc to get the hang of gears ( 1 days holiday).

Then my DAS course was 2 days (Sat & Sun), I passed my test on the Mon morning (1 days holiday).

Bear in mind that you all pretty much have the CBT element and that you all should have enough road craft too. Just the bike, weight and gears to master.....

Cheers - helpful!

May I stroke my chin at this point? No? OK then.

The problem now is the split between M1 and M2. That can be ages (more than a few weeks).