Tag Archives: Scooters

In my opinion, the Genuine Blur 150 is one of the finest scooters available anywhere. Period. In the seven months I owned my Blur, I rode a little less than 5000 miles. During that time, I rode on surface streets, on the freeway, on twisty roads, on hills, in traffic, and out on the open road all by myself. I pushed it to its safe and reasonable riding limits and that riding experience will probably be forever the benchmark in how I grade the performance of every scooter I’ll ever ride.

I’ve been a certifiable scooter crazy person for over a year now. The scooters I like the least still enjoy preference over almost any motorcycle. That is, until I started looking at Triumph. It’s the british thing. I’m such an english petrol-head at heart. From dad’s ’69 MGb GT to my MINI Cooper S, I’m a fan of of pretty much anything UK and internal combustion.

A few months ago, I got the Triumph motorcycle itch. With the prospect of selling the Blur, the thought of a Triumph Thruxton was looking very tempting. So I headed down to MotoPrimo in Lakeville, MN and got a test ride on a Triumph Bonneville — since the Thruxton is but a modified Bonneville.

I bought my first scooter not quite a year ago. It was a 1979 Vespa P200E. I loved that scooter, at least until I started riding it regularly. After a winter of working on it, looking at it, falling in love with the lines and its aircraft heritage and italian sensibility, I finally rode the thing for a couple months. Love and hate. Loved the look, and the handling wasn’t bad. Hated having to shift gears while learning to ride on two wheels, and soon learned that the brakes were mostly for show. I remember one particular ride in late March where I realized that if I were on a twist-and-go scooter, I’d be having worlds more fun.

A week later, I sold the Vespa and bought a Genuine Blur 150 on the recommendation of David Harrington and local ModernBuddy.com buddy, EP_scoot, who both have one in their garage. At first, I loved the Blur. It was so smooth, the brakes were magnificent, and the power was about the same as my P200E. The riding experience was a huge improvement over the P200E and I fell in love with scooting past the point of no return. But over time, what I thought I could live with in terms of imperfect ergonomics got to be, literally, a pain in my ass. As much as I loved the way the Blur sounded, handled, and usually sped away from traffic, after about half an hour my arse usually started hurting.

I’m a scooterist at heart. I love the sheer economy, the rich and quirky history, the goofy subculture, and how easy it is to just chuck a scooter around town. I pull for the Mods when I watch Quadrophenia. My first scooter was a Vespa P200E, and one of the first things I did was paint a Union Jack on the tire cover. Even now I’d really like to get a Stella and completely mod it out — cover it in mirrors, lights, and british iconography. Then find myself a ratty green parka and put some armor in it. However, mod aspirations aside, I must admit a deep, dark secret.

Lately, I really want a Café Racer.

Day Three — No really, it’s a scooter obstacle course. After the thrill of blocking had run its sharp half-life through my system, I found myself once more at BlueCat Motors. The ride went great. No major incidents, nobody that we know of got lost or separated. Nobody wrecked. Pretty much everybody had a great time.

There is really only one thing about RMB that I could complain about. When there’s an activity, such as a meal, it needs to really get going right away. There were two activities at BlueCat Motors — the “pig roast”, and the gymkhana. In both cases, neither got going with any sort of expediency. That ended up being a real detriment to both events. People didn’t know when food was happening, and it actually interrupted the start of the gymkhana. And once the gymkhana eventually got rolling again, people had pretty much lost interest if they hadn’t up and completely left. Which is too bad because it was pretty darn entertaining.

Day Three — Blocking is my new favorite thing. Last year, when I attended the Rally without a scooter, I had a great time. My favorite part was the gymkhana — a scooter obstacle course and no, I’m not making that up. What I didn’t do, because I was sans-scooter, was participate in any of the group rides. I didn’t have the nerve to ask anybody to let me ride cupcake, so I pretty much just sat that part out. Boy was I missing out!

Here’s the thing. All practical use aside, riding a scooter is really, really fun. The only thing more fun that riding a scooter, is riding a scooter in a group. I learned this months ago after joining the Heck’s Angels, only to have it further reinforced during what I can only describe as Pizza Lucé rides. There’s something really exciting about zipping along with a group of a dozen or so scooterists, in staggered formation, all growling and snarling in the least intimidating manner possible. The looks you get from other cars, from pedestrians, and other 2-wheel riders are just classic. Basically, it’s a big grin parade.

Day Two — “Hey Marty, hold up!” No sooner did we return from the history ride was it time to head over to Scooterville for the evening rides. This would be the first time most of the rally group would converge. Four separate rides would leave Scooterville around 7:00, weave their separate routes, and then re-converge upon BlueCat Motors in St. Paul.

Scooterville sits on a little U-shaped street that leaves and then re-joins Cedar Ave. There are several bars and clubs on this U and even another motorcycle shop. So whenever you’re at Scooterville, there’s always something coming around the U to get back onto Washington/Cedar/Minnehaha Ave. While we were gathering for the evening ride, some guy rolled up in a Delorean tricked out in fabulous Back To The Future fashion. I would hope that there’s even a Flux Capacitor inside. What was even more entertaining though, was how at least half a dozen people with cameras in gun holsters rushed the street to grab a photo of the guy as he waited to turn at the stop sign. I bet he gets that a lot.

Day Two — Today was the real start of the rally. Two events on Friday. The first was a daytime sightseeing ride aimed at showing the out-of-towners the sites around the Twin Cities. Being a non-native, I wanted for sure to be on this ride. Starting at the official hotel, about 40 scoots gathered for what was supposed to be a small, informal ride. But with that kind of turn-out, a couple of us had to step up and do some ad hoc blocking to get everybody through the intersections. All well and good by me.