Motorcycle and Scooter appreciation

A grand more and have the realish thing

I don't get the Vespa thing at all, the balance is all wrong, wheels too small and the mechanicals aren't that stellar either. What's the attraction?

Attraction is making the BRAAAAAAAAAP-BRAP-BRAP noise. And the smell. And they're joyfully anti-macho, and fun to ride. And they look cool.

the smell - strawberry Putoline!

Had a 77 50 special my younger years along with a ciao and si....well a few of each.

The moulton of the bike world.

The Vespa is well named. When flying down the Embankment swishing between the cars it feels like you're riding a wasp. It's exhilarating.

Bike polished and tweed suit prepared for the Distinguished Gentleman's Ride tomorrow.
I fully expect to end up in the hipster thread.

There's a few things wrong with that 152l2, it would've never had two lights (headset and mudguard) and the original forks are dreadful, massive range of movement and dive no matter how much you upgrade the springs. Iirc the poorly designed headset means the throttle tube is constantly seizing too so the carb spring can't close it, good for cruising, bad for MOTs. For circa £2k much better projects can be found Sparks.

I'm in San Francisco at the moment with this lovely Silver Special at my disposal, brakes are a bit sketch with a pillion going down some of these hills.

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@inchpincher I'm extremely jealous of the location and the bike...

I'm registered. But tempted to throw the mountain bike in the car instead. Is it worth missing a sunny day on the bike for...?

It was a lot of fun two years ago, there were only about 350 0f us when I last did it, but it was definitely a very special experience being in central London in such a big mob of bikes. They are expecting 700 or so tomorrow, there will be some shiny things to look at. Should be a very nice day as well, so you just have to make up your mind whether you want to pedal or vroom in the sunshine.
Pretty much a win either way, really.

That was good fun. Lots of interesting stuff to look at. Did you see the fully-enclosed thing with a canopy? Barmy. I was playing with my new GoPro today:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GizDfFI7FGU

Did you get lost at the start? I was in a big bunch of about a hundred, following someone who had a pillion passenger waving a DGR flag. It gradually dawned on us, after a u-turn next to Waterloo station and then twice around the IMAX roundabout, that they had no idea where they were headed.
We caught up with everyone in the end, but completely missed out about half the loop. Did anyone actually go over Tower Bridge?

I went over Tower bridge, but not before spending quite a while tooling around Southwark in a group of ~20. Similar deal to you. Caught up with everyone eventually. What were you riding?

Took my 390 Duke out for some light offroading yesterday - Three Lochs Forest Drive, it's a fire road through some FC land that the public are allowed to use - was quite fun even though road tyres are not exactly at home on gravel.

Caught up with a group of 3 riders on the way home, 2 nice old Triumphs and a modern Harley. Sounded amazing but they weren't exactly fast so when we got to a nice straight bit of road I passed them and gave them all a friendly wave.

Pretty sure they took offence at being overtaken though as when I got stuck behind some traffic as the road got back to town they caught me up and then rode like utter fucktards to get past me in a built up area and then bullied their way into the queue at some roadworks I presume to extend their lead.

Have to admit I took the bait and when I saw them sitting in the queue in the right hand lane at a fork junction I nipped down the empty left lane and cut across as the lights for the rh turn changed just as I reached the front of the queue. Oops.

I was on a green Moto-Guzzi.
Apart from the period of navigational embarrassment at the start, I had a thoroughly good time. It was a pity that there wasn't a pub carpark to pull up in at the end though. I got the feeling that everyone would have stayed a bit longer if there had been more of a focal point.
Hadn't realised that we were just about in the Crossbones Graveyard, where the Winchester Geese used to end up.

I realised today that I want a bigger bike. But something slow and noisy. Didn't know it was a Crossbones either. I'm sure all those folks would be thrilled to know that they're interred in a car park.

Did you see the little pit-bike chopper? It even had a suicide shifter.
I wondered about the legality of having it on the road, but it had a numberplate on it.

I didn't see that. But I saw a lot of stuff that probably requires finding a... sympathetic MoT examiner.

It turns out I'm not a vampire, and I do show up in pictures.

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That's a terribly nice motorcycle

It is! I've spoiled myself a bit really, It's so nice that I can't really imagine having anything different.

Ah it is a guzzi, of course it is terribly nice.

lovely! Griso?