Wednesday, October 08, 2008

Sure, It's Mean, But

As much as I love to ride, every time I get into heavy traffic, I think if I ever buy a big motorcycle (or maybe even if I repaint my scooter) I'll go with bright yellow, black trim and perhaps a stylized bird in flight, 'cos then I could call it "The Shortest Bus."

It's a fun hobby. It's a challenging hobby. --In a world filled with drivers chattering on celphones, it is inherently unsafe. Best so far? A guy on one of those 49.999 cc no-license-needed scooters weaving in and out of heavy traffic, helmetless, ungloved, T-shirt and slacks, cellular phone to his ear. I trailed about half a block back, getting dirty looks from drivers still recovering from his wake of chaos. If that's the 1% of motorscooterists who give the rest of us a bad name, I realllly hope he gets crosswise of the 1% of motorcyclists...when they're not having a happy-fun rainbow-filled day. Srsly, d00d, your ambition to become a hood-ornament is an act of aggression in need of correction.

--Mysteries of (human) Nature: two groups most likely to be wearin' safety gear on motorcycles/scooters: commuters and mean, gnarly-lookin' bikers. Least likely: kids of all ages on 50 cc toys and credit-card road warrior/yuppies on shiny-shiny Big Name motorcycles -- and members of the last group are also the most likely to wear a helmet while riding a bicycle. (Tam pointed out the Bicycle Paradox; I think it's 'cos Mom or Wifey often rides along when bicycling and Sonny/Hubby dunno "manly" from "stupid.")

3 comments:

Rustmeister said...

There are droves of those scooter riders overseas.

When I was in Greece, they would fill in the gaps between cars at stoplights, getting in front of the cars, etc.

The light would turn green and we'd all have to wait till they got up to speed and off to the side before we could get on our way.

I really had the urge to open a door on one as they flew past my stopped car.

Only the thought of time in a Greek jail stopped me.

Anonymous said...

It's the unpowered bicyclists that tend to behave that way here, hence Stingray's hate-on.

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