Scooter Diva

Watching the fair and lovely Debbie get used to her new scooter has been great fun. The last time I saw her smile so big was when someone dumped three wiener dog puppies on our porch (no, we didn't keep them but found someone to take them since we have three dogs already).

Yours truly being a generally curious person and wanting to be supportive of Debbie's scootering I felt a need to see what I could learn about the world of scooters, a world I've mostly ignored in my decades of motorcycling. I've learned a great many things already. The world of scooters is a bit like a parallel universe to motorcycles but with smaller wheels. Many scooterists are in fact weird and geeky just like I've always thought they were but then they are just being who they are and not pretending to be what they are not unlike the yuppie biker poser for whom a Harley is merely a fashion statement. I appreciate the willingness of scooter people to not take themselves too seriously, something of which too many motorcycle riders are guilty.

Debbie seems to be getting into the scooter thing pretty well. She had a birthday this past Saturday and I won't tell you which one but suffice to say she's still younger than I am. When I asked her a week or so back what she wanted for her birthday she e-mailed me a list of goodies for her Ruckus including a new rear shock, a storage bag, and an "invisibility cloak" (bike cover). In the end the Birthday Mallard (the birthday counterpart to Santa Claus at our house) brought her a some nice chrome bits and a "BattleScooter" t-shirt to celebrate her first half century on earth. Oops...

I suppose as Deb gets into the whole urban battlescooter thing she'll next get some combat boots, a faux german helmet, and spend her time looking at scooter performance websites for a nitrous bottle to boost the Ruckus's horsepower beyond 5. Yes, they really make Nos systems for scooters.

In my wanderings around the 'net to learn about scooters I've visited a number of scooter forums which are mostly light hearted places but still as devoted to technical stuff, travel, and weekend riding as your average motorcycle forum is. Of the scooter forums I've visited my favorite so far is one in which I cannot even post a message. The site is "Scooter Diva".

"Ah, Doug" you are thinking, "you old perv, reading scooter girl forums like some peeping Tom hoping to see lacy knickers." Nope, I stumbled across the Scooter Diva forum via a link on a Ruckus forum and was delighted in what I found. In particular the sub-forum "Scooter Virgins" is great fun. I know what you nasty old bikers are thinking. Stop that.

I was delighted not because I caught ladies talking about sex or about what secret pick up lines that would actually work on them (I'm married now, pick up lines would be useless info) but because the women are much more honest about their newbie riding experiences than we men are. I found I really enjoyed the pleasure the women were taking in discovering the very basic parts of riding on two wheels. Especially in the Scooter Virgins sub-forum the women talk about the thrill of things like their first 30 mile ride, the first time they road over 50 mph, the first time they rode to work and back or rode after dark, all those little adventures which are part of every motorcycle rider's experience and for some, a part of a now very distant and more innocent past. The experience of the newbies brought back a lot of fond memories for me. When guys are noobs they talk about their first crash, the first animal they hit and killed, their first speeding ticket. Women do have a slightly different perspective on the whole two wheel deal.

I fear that a life time of riding big bikes, expensive bikes, some of the best motorcycles money can buy, has left me a little bit jaded at this point. I may actually need a scooter or some little bike so I can ride along with Debbie on her Ruckus to keep an eye on her but also to help me reconnect with what it was about motorcycles that got me hooked on riding forty plus years ago.