Showing posts with label scooters are not cool but I would maybe ride a vespa. Show all posts
Showing posts with label scooters are not cool but I would maybe ride a vespa. Show all posts

11 August 2010

motorcycle = win

Friend Sean decided to buy the motorcycle pictured. I'm super pumped on it, because I love motorcycles, I particularly love CB750 cafe racer conversions, and I introduced Sean to the idea of owning this type of bike. 

When we first met he asked about my bike and he said he had always dreamed about owning a Harley someday. I didn't know him very well, but he didn't look like a Harley rider to me. He didn't have a mustache, for starters, and also he is a hipster. I don't see too many guys wearing skinny jeans riding american iron. Mostly they ride vespas, which are acceptable:

  • In urban environments where an adult-sized bike is impractical
  • If someone gave it to you for free
  • If you live in Italy
  • If you already own a real motorcycle
  • If your girlfriend has one
  • If you're on vacation and rent one
  • If you've never heard of a supermoto bike
In the event that any of the above is not true, then they are not acceptable.

As it happens, Sean seemed like the kind of guy that would appreciate classic cafe styling (hipsters having cribbed their skinny jeans and t-shirts look from 60's era rockers anyway). So I sent him some suggestions.

Fast forward some months, and I went with him to review the bike pictured. It's a 77 CB750 cafe conversion, and it needs a lot of work. But it runs, and it was $1900. I can't imagine you can find a bike in that shape for less money, even though you'll have to put some money into it to keep it running. Definitely it's the best coolness value-for-money that I've seen on clist.

Full credit to Sean for stretching himself financially (and it was a stretch) for something he's passionate about. 20 years from now the cost will be long forgotten, but he will remember his first motorcycle forever.

13 May 2010

Imitation is the sincerest form of laziness


Cribbing another post direct from HFL today.
First this superb Vespa advertisement. It reminds me of how I felt on the way to work this morning on my motorcyle: so much wide open space in front of me (after I got to the toll road - the 5 sucked as usual). They call them cages for a reason. You don't even realize how much you can't see in a car until you sit on a bike. On my motorcycle you can barely see the handlebars if you've got your eyes up so you have an unobstructed, panoramic view of the road, horizon, and sky. It's both amazing and awe-inspiring and it never gets old.

Here Guy Martin, a professional motorcycle racer with a personality. I want to hate this guy because he's cooler than me, faster than me, and has seriously awesome facial hair. But I can't. I even tried to dredge up some internet rumors of him being an arrogant dickface but couldn't find any. Winston Churchill and Ghengis Khan? You win this round, Guy.