This afternoon I tried a neighbor’s scooter (not the stand-on kind, but rather a wanna-be vespa-type scooter).
Poor John had to throw himself between me and a car in the parking lot when I panicked and accelerated. Straight forward. Into the rear end of a very nice pickup truck.
So we learned a few things from this experience:
1) When John is having to make a last-minute decision his first impulse is to throw his body at the problem–not thinking of the danger to himself. What a man!
2) When Jana is nervous (yes, I was visibly shaking), she accelerates. Brakes? WHAT BRAKES!!!!!?????
3) If Jana is going to own a scooter she is probably going to wear out the soles of her left shoe very quickly because of her Fred Flinstone style braking response.
4) I LOVED RIDING THE SCOOTER!
Most of my life is lived at a snail’s pace. I can’t run, jump, cavort or bike very well. I amble. But maybe, soon, I’ll be scooting. Wind whipping through my hair, imagining that I’m in Paris or Shanghai. Baguette, roses, and calico kitty in my back basket. Scarf flying at my neck. Bugs in my teeth because I’m grinning ear-to-ear…..
Note: a part of me is saying, “SCOOTER–what are you thinking??? Do you want to lose your other leg, too?” The other part of me is saying, Geez. it’s not any faster than a bicycle. And think of all the wear and tear you can save on the car…”
3 comments
Regarding item #2, I think that response may be genetic (think Becky meets garage just after passing her driving test).
I’m nervous for you. If you tip to the right, can you reliably catch yourself with your mechano-leg? I guess it’s no different than the situation you’ve faced on a bicycle, but it still seems a bit more dangerous with a scooter.
I have to admit that I’ve toyed with the idea of getting a scooter or motorcycle, but then I hear mom’s voice in my head saying something about disowning me if I ever got a motorcycle. That has always put pushed those ideas away. Now that I have a child, I’m even more aware of how my injuries/death would impact my family.
Like you, I was quite concerned w/the leaning to the right thing. As John can attest, he had to practically force me to try it out–as much as I wanted to I figured I would just tip over on my right side. However the scooter is really bottom heavy and I can balance quite well without any feet on the ground at all.
As I did lots of practice laps I purposefully turned to the right over and over again to see what would happen. I’m still very hesitant to ‘lean’ into a right turn so my turns are very wide. But they are definintely possible and I never even came close to tipping. Because the foot platform is low it’s actually pretty easy to stick my right foot out on the ground if i need to.
If I chose to do a scooter thing I would undoubtedly rack up lots of miles in parking lot practice before I took to the streets. And the streets I would take to would all by local around-UCI pokey-slow streets to boot.
oooo!! do it! you’d be perfectly smashing on a scooter with basket and flowers. they’re so fun, too. and they really are a nice way to put around when you’re just being local (think runs to campus, trader joe’s, panera).
i love scooters. even though i crashed my brothers the very first time i ever rode one (what can i say; i was 13). he was very nice about it. matt can be a sweetheart. i rode a friends to the store a few blocks away a couple of years ago an dit was so lovely.
yay for scooters!