Yes, I still travel slowly--just not as slowly as before

The wife and I were in town running some errands this past Saturday afternoon and I suggested we drop by the Vespa dealership "just to look." Once there, she began walking through the showroom on her own, looking at the various scooters and not standing beside me and looking bored. This is unusual behavior for her when we're at a bike shop or someplace else that is of interest to me and not to her. I knew something was up, but I couldn't begin to guess how the afternoon/evening would end.

I pointed out the dark gray Vespa GTV, which I thought would be a fine scoot for me. To my great amazement, she said, "Well, I don't like the seat, but fine. Get it now as long as I can have one for me." You could have knocked me down with a feather. "Uh... Sure, dear. Sounds good. Which model and color would you like for yourself?" I quickly stammer as I rush to get the salesman's eye before she can change her mind. "Oh, and by the way, happy anniversary," she says. Wow, what a gal!!

We spent the better part of an hour selecting a scooter for her, talking about the various Vespa models, their engine displacements, top speeds, weights, etc. She decided that an LX 150 would fit her well, and I agreed. She liked the Midnight Blue color, which surprised me as I thought she would have chosen the lighter Sky Blue. I guess after 20 years, just when you think you know somebody, they go and show you that you really don't...and twice in the same hour!

Heavens, who would have thought that after all this time together, we would have stumbled upon a two-wheeled activity we can do together--one that we both appear to like. I love my wife dearly, but she never warmed up to my other love of cycling. Even the tandem didn't do it for her; after a few token rides, all the miles on that bike have been with one of the kids as stoker.

But scooters, well I can dig that, too. Especially if she can.

I rode my new scoot right out the door as soon as the paperwork was done; we had to wait to pick the blue bird up on Monday morning. It was a nice, pleasurable ride home in perfect late spring evening weather.

The grin stuck on my face was marred only by the obnoxious arrival of the red Oil Pressure warning light on the instrument panel. After a frantic call to the dealership and a long and involved series of posts on the marvelous Modern Vespa forum, the Vespa GTV has returned to the service department for diagnosis. All indications are that it was not actually a problem with the oil system itself, but rather a faulty sensor. This has become a hassle, but not a show-stopper, as long as the problem gets resolved quickly without any long-term issues.

On the good side, they had my wife's LX 150 ready to go Monday. She's in love with the color and really likes the look of the matching top case. Since my wife had never driven a motorcycle, I rode it the 20 miles home.

I must say, in around-town riding, the LX is much easier and even a bit more pleasant to ride than the larger GTV. I suspect this will equalize as I gain more experience on my own scoot, but for now I particularly enjoyed the throttle response on the LX as being not anywhere near as sensitive as the GTV. I attribute this to using a relatively greater percentage of the LX's power capabilities than the GTV at any given speed. In short, it took more twist on the LX to achieve the same speed as the GTV, thus the LX was easier to modulate and didn't have the tendency to jump speeds as dramatically as the larger bike. The LX felt smooth at all times.

When I got it up to speed on the long country roads between the larger town where the dealership is located and the smaller bedroom community where we live, however, I could appreciate the larger wheels and greater mass of the GTV over the LX 150. If I wasn't very careful, anytime I shifted in the seat, the LX had a tendency to sharply jump to the left or right. I would never want to take the LX on the freeway.

Once home, I followed the wife and her new scooter to the local elementary school parking lot for a lesson. I don't think I'll ever get to drive that scoot again. She took to it like a fish takes to water and was soon zipping about. I really missed out, having my bike in the shop, and not being able to ride alongside her. After 40 minutes or so around the parking lot, she took to the residential streets around home and put on 20 miles of sub-25 mph stop and go before I knew it. I'm glad she had so much fun; I'll bet that by the time I get home from work today, she'll have another 20-30 miles on the bike.

I'm having a hard time getting her to wait until we complete the MSF Basic RiderCourse before she wears the thing out.