Vespa Swoon

In my Blogger profile interests, I list sailing, vespas and Apple. I never talk about the latter two. Before I had kids, my sole mode of transportation was Vespas. I had 7 of them at one point (actually 5 Vespas and 2 Lambrettas), 6 of which were older than me. Having kids changed my priorities a bit: I didn't want to live in an alleyway in the City and I couldn't pop them in a Baby Bjorn and cruise around on my cool vintage scooter. So, I'm down to 3 scooters that don't get ridden very much.

Thankfully I have a brother-in-law who is helping me get a Vespa fix right now. He has bought (and is now restoring) my second favorite Vespa model of all time, a Vespa 180SS (that stands for Super Sport). You know, the one with the trapezoidal headset!



This picture is pre-stripping and bodywork but you get the idea. It has a trapezoidal headset! I had forgotten how excited I get about these things.

I remember the day I first saw my beloved GS160 (GS stands for Gran Sport). I was in Orange County on a business trip, stopped by Go Fast Scooters and BOOM! there she was, with those big fat cowls, original everything and perfectly straight body. Erik usually didn't allow test rides on her but I had a Lambretta in his shop as collateral so he said, "take her out". Holy crap it was the smoothest accelerating scooter I'd ever been on. I bought it immediately upon returning to the shop.

That trip ranks up there with the greatest business trips of my life. That morning I had called my girlfriend and said, hey come down to Anaheim, we can go to Disneyland tomorrow. She did and I credit that "date" with my now-wife continuing to date me. I think she fell in love with my scooter or something.