My Scooter is my Conscience

It's been a while...

2008-08-19T18:37:00.000-07:00

I've kept up on riding and continue to soldier on through what now
looks like fall, even though it's August. I don't really know what's
going on with the Geezers anymore because we don't really get together
anymore to ride as a group. I guess the good people of Port Angeles
can rest assured that the rowdy bunch of chain-weilding, patched up,
army jacket wearing hooligans aren't terrorizing the streets. Funny
thing is the Chains were connected to our wallets and the the crazy
patched up army coat that were so scary were our fishtail parkas we
wore during the winter to keep warm while riding and the patches were
a throw back to the Mod culture. Go figure.
I've been keeping Sophia maintained and running well all by myself
(thanks to Mike for selling her to me and telling me what books to
get) and plan to pick up a new rear rack so I can mount a spare tyre,
whitewall of course.
My friend Jaybee is getting the final touches done to his P200e and it
should hopefully be done by the end of the month. I don't know if
he'll be around to ride it though because he took a new job over in
Paulsbo at Peninsula Paint. Hopefully we can get a chance to ride as a
group before he moves over there.

Here was a Poster for the Future Event

2008-07-03T17:54:00.000-07:00

With the looks of everyones hectic schedules, it would probably be best to push it back to next spring. Either way I'm having a great time riding and My Mom has really taken to riding her Metro.

Our Future Rally!?!

2008-05-29T21:23:00.000-07:00

For a while now the Geezers Scooter Club has been throwing the idea around about holding a rally in Port Angeles, and it is starting the come into fruition. The first annual Burning Ring of Fire rally will hopefully be taking place this Summer...that is if we get our asses in gear. If we get everything in order we hope to get the Capital City Scooter Club in Victoria, the Vespa Club of Seattle, the Scooters of Bellingham and maybe if we're lucky, some of the clubs from Oregon as well.
The first annual Burning Ring of Fire rally came from the idea that the local Geezers should get together go on a ride through town and end it all with a large potluck of incredibly spicy food. Here is hoping it all goes off well.

The Garden City Moustache Ride MMVIII

2008-05-22T15:19:00.000-07:00

It started off with me packing my tweed suitcase with some clothes, my
Porkpie hat, Chelsea boots, Winklepickers and my camera. I headed down
to the ferry at 4:10 and met a Westender named Chuck. We loaded our
Scoots on last and went up to the terrace to get some pictures of the
ferry leaving Port Angeles on the 5:15, it was just like Jimmy in
Quadrophenia except for the fact that it was a ferry and not a boat
and I wasn't tripping out on blues but I'm a Mod so that's got to be
worth some points. eh?
6:30 comes up on us and we pull into the inner harbour. I get stopped
as usual whenever I go to Canada. I go through the same thing every
time, Why are you here, How long are you staying, How much money do
you have, ARE YOU SMUGGLING DRUGS INTO CANADA!?!?!?!. I even got chuck
pulled to the side which sucked but at least I had someone to talk to.
After about twenty minutes of sitting there before they realize I'm
not a terrorist or some kind international Drug lord I'm on my way to
check into my room. I was lucky enough to get upgraded to a suite for
the weekend at no extra cost so that was pretty cool, I was able look
in Ah as I discovered they had a Tea Kettle and stove, it was awesome.
After getting into my room having a quick cup of tea, I headed to
Soprano's sports bar for some good Canadian beer and some bad Karaoke.
Cut to the next morning I decided to go light on the beer because I
really didn't want to have to end up getting pulled over or worse
arrested or killed Just because I drank more than I would need to.
Because of that I was able to get up at 7:00 the next morning and
watch some fine Canadian programming like radio CBC, the french
version. they had some cartoon about a Kung-Fu couple going after a
Jaguar man and one of the good guys was a loup-garou, I swear I'm not
making it up. I had a good breakfast that consisted of a Oatmeal and a
cinnamon bun.
Once I finished Breakfast I took the liner out of my fishtail and
headed out for a morning pre-ride ride. I had a mix of people giving
me the thumbs up and people who couldn't stand the smell coming from
the blue 2-stroke smoke coming out of the exhaust. I didn't really
care though because I was having a fun time and that's what it's all
about. I stopped at Roberta's hats and took a peek inside at all of
the awesome hats they carry. I wanted to get a top hat but I also
didn't want waste my money because it's not something a person wears
very often these days, but then again thats why it would be perfect
for me.
After forcing myself away from Top Hats and Bowlers, I headed down to
the main causeway to meet up with everyone who was going on the
morning ride. Geoff was there, he was one CCSC members I met the night
before, a pretty cool guy and as a plus he had a picture of my scooter
as his computers desktop image. Geoff lead the ride out at about 10:30
and at 10:45 the riding party got separated into two parts, myself in
the back party. Since we had no idea where they had gotten to, we
decided to make a trek through the back roads of Victoria and up to
the top of Mount Douglass Provincial Park.
After taking in the sights and heading back to the causeway I picked
up my rally pack, met with some more people and talked scooters for
what must have been a couple of hours. most of the group decided to go
for a second ride but skipped out and instead went back to the suite
for a nap in the true Geezer spirit. I woke up and went to eat at
Earls, Earls was a place I loved to go to when I used to go to
Vancouver, BC. The food is great, the drinks are too and all of the
servers are incredibly beautiful. I had a pasta dish, the Chicken
penne alfredo. Later that night was a SKA show but I wasn't really in
the mood to jump around in 27º inside a stuffy building to SKA Music,
even though I know it would have been really cool. Instead I watched
some movie on CTV about a Gay kid that wanted to go to the prom in a
catholic school. That doesn't make me gay does it? If it does, oh well.
The next morning started Pagliacci's with a Harpo omlette and a nice
side of black tea. I was able to talk to some members of both the
Vespa club of Seattle and the Westenders, mostly about JP Patches and
if the Mods and Rockers event is going to take place this year. They told
me I was a shoe-in for Best dressed Mod. After finishing breakfast and
shooting the breeze, we to the causeway yet again. Sitting around on the
causeway lasted until about 1:15 for me because I needed to catch the
ferry back home. I met Robert and his wife on there Pink Scooters on
the way home and had a fun ferry ride home. now if you want to see
some of the pictures I took go to
http://scoot.net/gallery/2008/05/gardencity/ (can't make the link work)
look under Mod Kevin to see my pictures.

I just got back from the Rally and...

2008-05-18T22:05:00.000-07:00

Boy am I frickin' tired. I'll have stories and pictures to post later

Maybe I should make a banner

2008-04-30T21:21:00.000-07:00

The rally is getting closer and I've been thinking it might be cool to make a banner to show off the Geezers in Canada. Problem is I really don't know where to start. My first thought was to get a strip of fabric and adhere the Geezer picture I made for a poster. If anybody has a quick inexpensive method, let me now

Upcoming Rally

2008-04-22T11:53:00.001-07:00

Rally season has been upon us for a couple of months now and it's about time the Geezer make some sort of presence. The Garden City Moustache Ride In Victoria, British Columbia will be hosting its 24th year by the Capitol City Scooter Club and I have booked My reservations to stay for the weekend. I'm going to check with the rest of the Geezers to see if they want to come but I think there might be some schedule conflicts. Even with that said I know I will enjoy myself because I have been corresponding with the CCSC and they sound interested in hoping the COHO for a afternoon ride and followed by a nice lunch and vice versa with us.

It's Great to know that Canada and the United States can come together with our love of Scootering. Hopefully we can find other things in common too.

I hope it doesn't snow this weekend

2008-04-18T17:07:00.000-07:00

I decided to ride the 50cc into work today and to my surprise it dumped snow on me. This sucks, it's almost May and it is still so cold out that it is snowing at sea-level. It's almost 5:30 in the afternoon as I am writing this and the sun finally came out and I am hoping the weather takes a turn for the better.

A great way to bring in the weekend

2008-04-11T17:28:00.000-07:00

The Sun was shining today and the temperature was great for riding. I started with some serious riding after work today by heading to the post office to mail my Tax return. I probably should have done it earlier but you know what they say about procrastinating...I don't but I'll probably google it tomorrow. Anyway, after that I went to the one place where I get a chance to get Sofia going at top speed, The Spit. After I got past the paper mill and out to the straight away I glanced at my mirrors to see if anyone was behind me and let her rip. Once I got her up to 65 m.p.h. I decided to slow down, park and take a walk on the beach. When I stopped to
collect my thoughts and have a good chuckle, I noticed that the vibration from the Scooter had moved from Sofia to me. My hands and knees were a little shakey, it wasn't the bad kind, it just made me laugh ever harder.

After my walk on the beach I jumped back on Sofia and blasted toward town at 65 again and headed home. The weather reports said that we should have sunshine this weekend and if that is the case, I'll be on the road.

I also want to say so long to Steve Williams at Scooter in the Sticks, he has decided to hang up the reigns on his blog. I hope he has fun in whatever future venture he choses.

Sofia can now be ridin' legally

2008-04-03T17:54:00.000-07:00

You can read into that title all you want but in the State of Washington you are required to have at least Two mirrors on your Scooter or Motorcycle. As of the 1st of April, I have Two mirrors on my legshield. It was my birthday present from my Parents and I was grateful for them. I also got these really cool scale model Vespas that I set up on my desk at work and the DVD Johnny English from fellow Geezer JayBee. All in all it turned out to be a pretty good day.

Easter ride with Sofia part2

2008-03-23T17:02:00.000-07:00

The fun continued after I called Jaybee to ask him if he had found the gas mask I left on his p200 "Big Daddy" so he could use the sandblaster to get the rust off of it. one thing lead to another and we ended up meeting at the yacht club. On the way there my engine cut out on me at a stop light and so I had to kick it over when the light was turning green, lets just say I gave her a bit too much throttle and I popped a wheelie through the intersection...at least I had a little bit of unexpected fun.

I met up with Jaybee and we went out to the spit and talked about meeting up on Sunday with the Rev. Bill for an Easter Run and called it a night. The next day we all met at the yacht club again only this time the weather was a little crappier. Billy showed off his new look and we took off with myself in the lead.

I ended up leaving them in the dust after I got up to 60, I hadn't realized until I looked behind me and couldn't see anybody. We eventually met up at the spit again and shot the shit a little more, only to head off to Lincoln park.We noted that the longhouse they have there would make a great location for a rally center. Naturally the Geezers Moto-Scooter club would take first place in all categories of a contest in our scenario.

After a bit of conversation and joking around we all went our separate ways for the rest of the day. I can say I particularly enjoyed the bit of snow we had from about 5:00 to 6:00

Easter ride with Sofia part1

2008-03-23T12:34:00.000-07:00

It was a great day for riding yesterday in the Pacific Northwest. I started by riding over to my parents house so I could fill the tires up with air, after that I got my Dad to ride it around the block. He has always been a little wary of riding a scooter because he grew up in the school of Harley Davidson and even the thought of a classic Italian two-stroke was a little iffy to him.
After about a minute of telling him he could ride Sofia now or wait another two weeks for his tank to come back from being painted he jumped on and started her up on the second kick. I gave him a crash course on how to work the clutch and off he went.

Five minutes passed and he came back. He seemed to have a good time but complained about his wrist hurting from the clutch. He handed Sofia back over to me I went off to have some more fun. (continued in part2)

Its been a while

2008-03-16T14:52:00.000-07:00

I haven't really posted anything for a while but I've still been riding a lot. I went for a ride with some of the geezers last weekend and let Billy ride my Lammy. He had fun on it I could tell so I decided this week I didn't want the fun to stop so I rode Sofia as much as I could in between the rainy patches we have had this week. I have also been working on some pictures that are intended to go on JayBee's Allstate Vespa, he has decided on going for a Yellow Submarine themed Scooter. Here is a mock-up shown above.

Some Jerk knocked my scooter down

2008-02-24T13:09:00.000-08:00

I went to the Gaelic Storm concert last night and afterward I went to have a round with the band at the pub. I decided I would park on the side street where nobody parks so nothing would happen to it. Not a half hour later the drummer came from outside saying "hey man, is that your Vespa out there?" I said yes and he went on to tell me that it looked like somebody tipped it over. The damage wasn't serious or anything but it still kind of pissed me off.

Finally... The Pictures

2008-01-31T20:00:00.000-08:00

It took me a while but I finally got the photo of me getting my Lambretta, here they are.

Could I be a Bastard?

2008-01-19T21:55:00.000-08:00

I saw JB this last Wednesday and he told me about how the Geezers (Bill, JB and Myself) may be sponsored into the Royal Bastard Scooter Club. I went over to there website and it looks pretty kick ass. If we are sponsored, we will be sponsored by Zippy Bastard (Sarah) over in Seattle. I haven't met her but from what I read on the site about her she seems pretty cool. We will have to come up with our Bastard name and then have them approved by The Dieci Bastardi. I hope that Limey Bastard hasn't been taken yet, because if it hasn't I'm going for that!

My Mom wants a Scooter

2008-01-12T13:41:00.000-08:00

Ever since my mom went to Germany in 2000, she got infected by the scooter bug. Since I bought my scooter she has wanted to get one for herself. So I think I will sell her my Honda Metro.

My first ride!!

2008-01-09T08:56:00.000-08:00

After fighting a bought with a flu bug last week I decided to take Sofia out for our first ride on Sunday. Being used to the modern twist and go scooters I had to take a while to get used to the manual choke. I thought I would've had more trouble learning to work with the clutch but it seemed to be like second nature to me. I started her up on full choke, worked it down to mid and finally all the way down, it toke about seven minutes because I killed the first time I went to mid. After that I held in the break, gave her some gas, shifted into first and took off.

I only went out for a five minute ride because I haven't gotten my plates for it yet, I went to the park. I was really surprised by it's initial take off, that sucker is FAST! once I got on the long stretch towards the park I decided to give her a little gas. I passed the entrance to the park because I was going to fast to turn and looked down to notice I was going 50 mph and I was only in third! I turned around by the local airport and stopped by the park for a minute to look around but got right back on my girl because my spider senses were tingling, I had talked to Billy a little bit before about the choke and figure he would probably stop by.

As soon as I got back, put Sofia in the garage and went inside my phone started ringing. It was Bill. I knew he wanted to see Sofia in the Light of day and hear her purr. We got to talking a little bit about the Cushman he has been looking at and about his new hat. It looks like my Mod hat is becoming a stapple in our little Scooter Club!

My new Scooter!!!!!!!!!!!

2007-12-31T19:56:00.000-08:00

Yesterday started out like any other day, wake up, shower and eating breakfast. but at the crack of 7 am I was off to JayBee place to pick him up for the ride down to Portland. When I got to his place giant gusts of wind started blowing and the snow was coming down. We decided to bear with it and keep going because nothing was gonna stop me from getting this scooter.

We drove my truck over ice covered roads for four hours with a mix of rain and snow hitting us all the way down only to have it clear up as we got to Portland. We met Mike (the man I purchased the Lambretta from) at 11:45 am in the parking lot of the IKEA near the Airport. He had parked next to his truck and it was beautiful! After removing the cowls and going over the engine with me he hand over the keys. The sensation I had was ten time stronger than when I purchased my first scooter.

After Mike, JayBee and I had a long conversation about Scootering and his ten other Lambrettas, we loaded her into the back of my truck and said goodbye to each other. Just as we were leaving a pellet sized hail storm hit us, luckily I had a motorcycle cover for it but the thunder and lightning was what really wanted me to get out of there.

When we crossed back over the Washington State line we hit a traffic jam so we decided to take the next exit and grab a bite to eat. By this time, Jaybee can atest to this, I giggling like a little girl who pony. we stopped at Burgerville and parked by the window so we could stare at it as we ate. I don't know if it was the burger itself or the experience I just had but it was the best Burger I've ever tasted.

Once we got back onto I-5 it was smooth sailing. We got to have a great experience that day and we even pulled over at one point to take a picture of Shart lane. For those of you who don't know what shart is, look it up. Anyway, we got back to Port Angeles at 6 pm and stopped at Billy's place to show him what I have come to call "Sofia". We stood out in the cold in our Fishtails for about a half and hour looking at it, it was great!

Sofia is now in my Garage and I plan to ride the hell out of her. I will post pictures in the next post.

Tomorrow

2007-12-29T16:06:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow is the big day. JayBee and Myself are driving down to Portland to pick up my 1966 Lambretta Silver special. Here is hoping everything goes off without a hitch.

A Wonderful day for a Christmas Ride!

2007-12-24T16:38:00.000-08:00

I woke up today and noticed the weather was perfect for riding, so I rode about town to take in the sights. I watched as everyone did there last minute shopping tried to remember if I had to do any, luckily I didn't. Now I'm at the house and I getting ready for dinner with family, I'm wearing my winklepicker shoes, black dress slacks, my Mod hat and my Mod polo shirt called "the nice" from atomretro.com.

I hope anyone who reads this has a Happy Christmas or whatever you may celebrate!

The Ratchet Kings

2007-12-19T20:18:00.000-08:00

Last Sunday started out per usual, lounging in my recliner, watching the boob tube when I got a call from fellow Geezer JayBee. The plan was set in motion and within the hour I over at his place. JB grabbed his fishtail and some motorcycle ties that he had bought and we were off to Sequim.

When we got there I saw it in all its Tequila painted glory, a 1980 Vespa P200E. I have come to call it a Tequila paint job because it looked like someone downed a bottle of Tequila and decided to give it the krylon touch. Even with that said it's a hell of a scooter and he got it for a sweet deal.

After we got it loaded into the back of my truck. the guy JB bought it from tied it down and we drove off. We hadn't gotten 50 feet away from the place when we both started to notice it wobble, I pulled over and thats when the real fun started.

As we pulled over the wind decided to beat the piss out of us, luckily JayBee had his M-65 and I my M-51. I t must have been at least 25 minutes of tooling with the motorcycle ties before we both realized we were retared and couldn't do it. JayBee decided to walk up to a guy that just pulled into his driveway and explain our problem, he looked at the ties and couldn't figure them out either so gave us one of his own to use. Another ten minutes he came out again and noticed we couldn't even work the ratchet tie he gave us.

Once we got that situation over with, we stopped at the local 50s diner for some burgers and off the show off the P200 to the Rev Bill. After picking up some supplies at the store I drove JayBee home, got his new Scoot out from the back of my truck and pulled it into his garage.
I couldn't help but think when I drove away from his place " Where was Curly when we needed him today".

My First Blog

2007-12-18T15:47:00.000-08:00

Here I am about to the millions of bloggers out there on the internet. My name is Kevin I am going to try to use this as journal of my scootering adventures. I currently own a little 50cc Honda Metropolitan but on the 30th of this month I am going to pick up the scooter pictured above. A 1966 150 Li S Lambretta. She is a beauty.