Pat Riot Posted January 4 Posted January 4 Well, that was annoying…but funny. Funny Vespa Story In the Spring of ‘82 my ship pulled into Naples Italy for liberty. One nights a couple friends and I were looking for this bar we were given directions to. As we are approaching this bar in this dark alley we see it is surrounded by Vespa and other assorted scooters of every size. When we walk in the entire place looks like a movie depiction of a U.S. biker bar and it’s full of Italians dressed like movie bikers. It was hilarious to us, but we dared not laugh. We got some dirty looks until we told the bartender we wanted beer and he shouts something in his native tongue ending with the word “Americans!” All of a sudden we were welcomed with open arms. We didn’t pay for one drink and none of us really remembered how the night ended. The one thing nearly every guy in that bar wanted to know was “Do I look like an American Biker?” Most of them did. The few that didn’t did, if you know what I mean. 4 1 Quote
Alpo Posted January 4 Posted January 4 The second Matt Helm book - The Wrecking Crew - takes place in Sweden. At one point our hero is making a phone call from a public booth, and while he's waiting for the phone to be answered he's watching a couple go down the street. They are apparently on a date. On a Vespa. The young man is wearing a suit. The young lady is wearing a dress, white gloves and high heels, sitting side saddle on the pinion pad. Has a nice hairdo. And as he watches them he's thinking of the reaction of an American girl, who got all dolled up in a dress and heels and makeup and a new hairdo, and the boy shows up to take her out on a motor scooter. 2 3 Quote
bgavin Posted January 4 Posted January 4 I have a joke about Vespas and fat girls... but not appropriate on a family board. 3 Quote
Pat Riot Posted January 4 Posted January 4 Well, if there ever comes a time that I cannot get onto a motorcycle I will have me a scooter that I can step on to. 1 Quote
Rip Snorter Posted January 4 Posted January 4 Summer before I was going off to second year of college a family friend had a Vespa for sale and I had the money. Dad was a Doc, and entirely against motorcycles, motorbikes and scooters. I ended up with a hand-me-down car, newly fitted with safety belts, unusual in 1963, a convertible and a total chick magnet. I did finally have motorcycles for some years after I graduated. The Vespa worked! 2 Quote
watab kid Posted January 5 Posted January 5 i always wanted a vespa to park next to my triumph Bonneville , they are/were the best scooter out there for in town , now if id thought mine would come with the accoutrements in that add id have run out and bought it .........juist sayin 1 3 Quote
Eyesa Horg Posted January 5 Posted January 5 Had an Allstate 50 scooter to get my 17 year old butt to work at one time! About 10 or so miles each way. It would scream along at about 35 mph. 3 Quote
Pat Riot Posted January 5 Posted January 5 Years ago in the Navy I rented scooters in Italy, Greece and the Virgin Islands. Lots of fun for getting around. In Italy and Greece they were Vespas. No idea what the St. Thomas VI scooter was. 2 Quote
Eyesa Horg Posted January 5 Posted January 5 Rented one in the Bahamas, don't remember what it was. 2 Quote
bgavin Posted January 5 Posted January 5 I have a great love for riding on two wheels. Yes, I did rent one while visiting St. Thomas and St. Croix... a real blast getting around. Today, I have two daughters who are R.N.s here in CA... They tell me about the bike riders who come in on ambulance gurneys, and their leg is on the bottom shelf. I sold my last Harley for exactly this reason. In my urban area, bikers are getting smashed, trashed and killed at a severely high rate. 4 Quote
Gracos Kid Posted January 5 Posted January 5 2 hours ago, Eyesa Horg said: Had an Allstate 50 scooter to get my 17 year old butt to work at one time! About 10 or so miles each way. It would scream along at about 35 mph. I had an Allstate Compact that I drove 5 miles up US Hwy 129 to the Boy Scout Meetings when I was 12 years old......Finally swapped it for a 12 ga shotgun when it got to where I couldn't get it to start. 3 Quote
Injun Ryder, SASS #36201L Posted January 5 Posted January 5 Back in the late 50's, my mom and dad rode these. For some unknown reason, we had four of them. My mom's was powder blue and white, the others were red and white. We would go on rides of 100 -200+ miles on some days. My dad had a cushioned pad made and attached on my mom's bike for me to sit on. Other times, I would stand in front of my dad if I was tired of sitting! 6 2 Quote
Pat Riot Posted January 5 Posted January 5 When I was in 10th grade there was a bar not a hundred and fifty feet from our house. The guy that owned it gave his kid pretty much anything he wanted. He got a Vespa. It was an older model. Heavy as heck but had the biggest engine you could get in those scooters and he kept it in a shed behind the bar. One evening he was out messing with it so I went over to check it out. He only tooled around in the parking lot on it. I asked him why he only rode it in the parking lot and he said he didn’t know how to shift the gears. The gear selector was a ring to the inside of the throttle on the right end of the handle bar. I looked at it and figured it out real quick. It had 4 gears. I told him all he had to do was pull in the clutch lever, let off the throttle and turn the selector. Being a spoiled rich boy dumbarse he told me I didn’t know what I was talking about. The look he gave me was purely snotty. I told him I would prove it and he let me jump on it all the while threatening me if I wrecked it or damaged it. Well, I took off and whadda-ya-know, I was right. I hit second gear and up the road I went. I shifted to 3rd then 4th and I was going about 45 when I slowed, did a U-bop and back to the bar I went. I was literally gone just a little over a minute. When I pulled into the lot the kid was hopping’ mad and yelling at me which attracted the attention of the kid’s Dad and some of the bar denizens. They all came rushing out to see what was going on. The kid’s Dad, who was a friend of my Dad’s asked the dipstick what happened. He said I stole his scooter. The Dad asked me what happened and I told him. The kid flipped out and started blubbering about something and his Dad told him to shut up and put the scooter away. I went home. A few days later that kid’s Dad came to our house and asked me if I would like to have that scooter. I, of course said “Yes Sir, I would love to have that scooter.” My Dad put the kaibosh to the whole thing and that was that. This was the first of several vehicles my Dad put the jammers on. I cannot remember the Dad’s name now, but I can picture him as clear as if it were yesterday. He was a genuinely nice guy. Unfortunately his kid wasn’t and I eventually had to take care of this goofy sucker one day in the high school parking lot. That’s another story for another time. I don’t know what happened to that scooter, but I sure would have loved to have it. 2 3 Quote
Dusty Boots Posted January 5 Posted January 5 I took my now wife to look at a for sale Vespa with a sidecar… she still married me. Would have bought it if I had known she was going to say yes! 3 Quote
Blackwater 53393 Posted January 6 Posted January 6 10 hours ago, Injun Ryder, SASS #36201L said: Back in the late 50's, my mom and dad rode these. For some unknown reason, we had four of them. My mom's was powder blue and white, the others were red and white. We would go on rides of 100 -200+ miles on some days. My dad had a cushioned pad made and attached on my mom's bike for me to sit on. Other times, I would stand in front of my dad if I was tired of sitting! Our next door neighbor was the local milkman. He had one just like that and he used it on weekends to go around and collect for his deliveries! I was eleven at the time and he let me ride it up and down the street in front of the house a couple of times. My dad put a stop to that when he found out. 2 Quote
Alpo Posted January 6 Posted January 6 53 minutes ago, Wallaby Jack, SASS #44062 said: I see this one is towing a generator. Does that mean it's an electric vehicle? 1 Quote
Will Kane Posted January 6 Posted January 6 21 hours ago, Pat Riot said: When I was in 10th grade there was a bar not a hundred and fifty feet from our house. The guy that owned it gave his kid pretty much anything he wanted. He got a Vespa. It was an older model. Heavy as heck but had the biggest engine you could get in those scooters and he kept it in a shed behind the bar. One evening he was out messing with it so I went over to check it out. He only tooled around in the parking lot on it. I asked him why he only rode it in the parking lot and he said he didn’t know how to shift the gears. The gear selector was a ring to the inside of the throttle on the right end of the handle bar. I looked at it and figured it out real quick. It had 4 gears. I told him all he had to do was pull in the clutch lever, let off the throttle and turn the selector. Being a spoiled rich boy dumbarse he told me I didn’t know what I was talking about. The look he gave me was purely snotty. I told him I would prove it and he let me jump on it all the while threatening me if I wrecked it or damaged it. Well, I took off and whadda-ya-know, I was right. I hit second gear and up the road I went. I shifted to 3rd then 4th and I was going about 45 when I slowed, did a U-bop and back to the bar I went. I was literally gone just a little over a minute. When I pulled into the lot the kid was hopping’ mad and yelling at me which attracted the attention of the kid’s Dad and some of the bar denizens. They all came rushing out to see what was going on. The kid’s Dad, who was a friend of my Dad’s asked the dipstick what happened. He said I stole his scooter. The Dad asked me what happened and I told him. The kid flipped out and started blubbering about something and his Dad told him to shut up and put the scooter away. I went home. A few days later that kid’s Dad came to our house and asked me if I would like to have that scooter. I, of course said “Yes Sir, I would love to have that scooter.” My Dad put the kaibosh to the whole thing and that was that. This was the first of several vehicles my Dad put the jammers on. I cannot remember the Dad’s name now, but I can picture him as clear as if it were yesterday. He was a genuinely nice guy. Unfortunately his kid wasn’t and I eventually had to take care of this goofy sucker one day in the high school parking lot. That’s another story for another time. I don’t know what happened to that scooter, but I sure would have loved to have it. I’m certainly looking forward to you sharing your reminiscence of the parking lot episode. 👍 2 Quote
Pat Riot Posted January 6 Posted January 6 35 minutes ago, Will Kane said: I’m certainly looking forward to you sharing your reminiscence of the parking lot episode. 👍 Well, let’s put it this way…I beat that boy’s a** but good. He got a whole new attitude after that. 4 Quote
Alpo Posted January 7 Posted January 7 Near the end of the movie he tells the girl (Cindy? Candy? Been a long time since I saw that movie) that that bitchin' white Chevy is not his. That he actually rides a Vespa. And she tells him that a Vespa is almost a motorcycle, and she loves motorcycles. So she'll go out with him tomorrow on his Vespa. 1 Quote
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