Thursday, August 27, 2009

It Is Not Possible to Ride A Vespa Reasonably

Hey there, been a while. Sorry for the huge gap in posts but I've been in a bit of a creative slump. On to today's moto-ponderment.

The speed limit in downtown Phoenix is 25 miles per hour. Everyone drives at least 35 mph, but that's another issue.

Yesterday I took the Vespa GTS to work, partly to give it a bit of exercise, and partly because that thing is just so much darned fun. I could take the Vespa on the freeway if I wanted, but I usually don't. Scooters were meant for surface streets.

Anyway, on my way home last night, I stopped to wait for a red light fairly close to my office. An officer of the law stopped immediately behind me. This was a bad spot for me to be in.

You see, the Vespa is crazy fast off the line. It does 0 - 30 in no time flat. I can, and frequently do, find myself going 50 mph without realizing it.

I did my level best to roll easily away from the stop light, I really did. I still wound up going 35 in a 25. I assume the police weren't interested in me, but just in case I backed it down to 25.

25 is an impossible speed to maintain on the Vespa. Seriously.

Eventually, the officers took pity on me and passed so I could resume puttering along at 35. Then I noticed the second police car behind the first. Argh.

Anyway, no ticket, but a whole lot of struggling to control a high-strung scooter around the police. That bike was made for hooliganism. It's fast, it's has incredible handling, and I can't really feel the speed the way I can on the Speed Four.

I strongly recommend you get one, if you're able.

2 comments:

Baron's Life said...

Lucky...!
some people just don't like Scooters or Vespas and will go out of their way to annoy you as if you were a sisy or something like that

irondad said...

You sound like one of those crazy riders whom the cops need to keep an eye on! God knows what kind of mayhem an out of control Vespa could create.

The best safety device in the world is a cop in your rearview mirror. I'd just prefer it be somebody else's mirror.

It was actually sometimes frustrating being on the other side of the badge. I'd be wanting to get somewhere. Everybody around me freaked out and crawled.

Maybe there should be signs in the front of police car windshields like the buses have.

"on my way somewhere" or "hunting".