Boston Globe Scooter Story
Marc Harley Wilson
Globe did a great article on the local scooter clubs here with a few
wonderful pix (perhaps some of you were in those pix??).
Unfortunately the pix are not posted on the website. :-(
But the full story is there:
http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/254/living/The_Gentle_Cycle+.shtml
The only caveat is that the story is from yesterday (9/11/99) and may only
be posted through tonight (9/12/99 11:59p EST US).
If you want a text copy let me know.
Marc
Oh, and for those of you wishing to rip apart the story title "The Gentle
Cycle", Start your engines..! ;-p
Gareth Crispell
Thanks Marc, that was great! I know the park mentioned quite well
and have been there many times. In the winter it is great for
sledding.
Gareth http://www.capecod.net/~gareth
Don M. Haring, Jr.
Did anyone copy this story (from the web)? If so, please email me an
electronic text version. Thanks.
-don
--
Don Haring, Jr., Philadelphia, PA
1980 Vespa P200E | 1966 Millennium Falcon (Deluxe Club Wagon)
1959 Lammy Li150 | 1961 Falcon Futura ... and lots of bicycles
John M. Stafford
from copying the text. And sorry doing a screen shot is too much
trouble.
Enjoy,
John M. Stafford
----------
From: "Don M. Haring, Jr." <har...@fedora.net>
> Did anyone copy this story (from the web)? If so, please email me an
> electronic text version. Thanks.
> <http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/254/living/The_Gentle_Cycle+.shtml>
Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
Share what you know. Learn what you don't.
Steve
The Gentle Cycle
With their quirky charm, scooters prove that bigger isn't always
better By Patti Doten, Globe Staff, 09/11/99
BROOKLINE - Up the hill they come. The bikers. They're more than
20 strong. Their helmets gleam in the midmorning sun. Their shades
mirror the metallic gloss of their engines. Gloved fingers grip
handlebars.
And some broad shoulders display the logo of one of their clubs - the
Boston Stranglers.
But where's the roar of engines? The smell of exhaust from multiple
chrome
pipes? The menacing macho of Harleys?
There's only a cheerful putt-putt buzzing in the air as two dozen motor
scooters snake their way up a hill in Larz Anderson Park on a Saturday
morning. Here above the auto museum with a view of Boston, area scooter
enthusiasts meet several times a month to go for daylong rides and to
share
scooter stories and passions.
What's the attraction?
''I was always a Harley-Davidson man until I got a scooter,'' says Dan
McCallum of Merrimack, N.H. ''A scooter is simplicity at its finest.
Scooters
have a matronly look to them. From behind, they have hips, a
come-play-with-me air about them,'' he says, pointing to his
meticulously
maintained emerald green Vespa.
SCOOTERS, Page F5
''Scooters have finesse. They aren't loud, and they're nonthreatening.
They
aren't like mopeds. Scooters can go 70 m.p.h. and you can get a real
adrenaline rush riding them. Motorcycles are fast and bulky. Scooters
allow
you to have a slow cruise. A cruise back in time.''
Going back in time means, for some scooter riders, returning to the
'60s,
when the mods in snappy clothes swooped through English streets on Vespa
scooters. To other devotees, especially club members born in Italy, it
means
going back to the old country and memories of riding in the country,
with
your girlfriend's arms wrapped around your waist.
''I saw my first scooter when I was 15, and I wanted one,'' says Michael
Charles, 29, of New Canaan, Conn., who started the Classic Scooter Club
of Boston in 1995. ''I liked the shape of it. It looked futuristic. It
was not
something you saw every day. And then I saw the movie, and I knew I had
to get one.''
The movie is ''Quadrophenia,'' a British cult film about a 1964
confrontation
between the Vespa-riding mods and the black-leather-jacketed rockers in
a
small seaside town on the coast of England. The scooter that Charles
''had
to get'' was a little Vespa 90 that he paid for with money he earned
mowing
lawns. He painted it, polished it, took it fishing. Then he went off to
college.
The scooter remained behind in the garage.
After graduating from Boston University in 1992 and following the local
music scene that was rooted in the '60s, he met other scooter
enthusiasts
and they started riding together. Thus began the club, which now numbers
30 to 40 members.
''We try to ride once or twice a month,'' says Charles, who now owns
what
he refers to as the top of the line - a Vespa GS made in 1957. ''We meet
at
Larz Anderson Park. Or if we're riding north to Marblehead, we'll meet
at
the Other Side Cafe on upper Newbury [Street].
''I knew I was onto something the day Fred went riding with me and a
friend. It was his first time riding with others, and he yelled out `
This is the
most fun I've ever had.'''
''Fred'' is Fred Wilson, 74, of South Boston, who was born in Italy.
''I thought, this really is it. I'm not crazy,'' added Charles. ''This
man is old.
He's lived his life. And here he's saying this, riding a scooter, is the
most fun
he's ever had.''
Charles now comes up every other weekend from southern Connecticut to
ride with his club friends.
Although it is unclear how many scooters there are in this country, club
members believe that the pastime is growing because many more shops sell
parts than did in the past. And scooters are cropping up in ads, for
Toyota,
Washington apples, and Filene's, among others.
According to John Gerber, who has ridden scooters for 35 years in 70
countries and is an amateur scooter historian, 50,000 scooters were sold
in
this country in 1957, with a dip to 30,000 by 1964. Boston, San
Francisco,
and New York were the main American scootering centers. (The vehicles
remain a popular way of getting around Europe and Asia.)
The early '60s were the years of an emerging counterculture - the beats.
It
was a time when people sat in coffeehouses discussing Camus and Sartre
and the films of Bergman and Fellini. A time when an Italian scooter
symbolized European sophistication and a departure from the American way
of big-is-best consumerism.
However, it wasn't just the beats who rode scooters. A young law school
student, Michael Dukakis, was one of many area students who traveled
through Boston on a scooter, says Gerber. And the nation's first
collegiate
scooter club was formed at Harvard, even though club members were
constantly at odds with the school's administration over the right to
park their
Vespas and Lambrettas in Harvard Yard.
The end of the scooter craze came with the introduction of another
import -
the Honda motorcycle, from Japan. Scooters took another body blow in the
early '80s when the Environmental Protection Agency outlawed further
imports because of polluting emissions. The only scooters on the road
today
made it to these shores before the restrictions became law.
Leo Dertouzos, 29, of Boston, says he bought his Vespa from a friend who
found it in a neighbor's garage.
''It was a mess,'' says Dertouzos. ''It only had half an engine. But
restoring it
was pretty easy. I didn't need a manual and it certainly didn't cost
much. I
have to laugh at the guys cruising down Newbury on $30,000 Harleys. I
think there's a lot more style to a scooter. They may not be macho, but
there's a certain romance about them.''
So states this 6-foot-8-inch scooter fan who also happens to own a BMW
motorcycle. Dertouzos says riding a scooter allows you to look around
and
enjoy the sights - especially on Newbury Street or in Harvard Square.
Driving his Beamer takes a lot of concentration, he says, making
sightseeing
and girl watching minimal. ''Shooting around the city on a scooter,'' he
says,
''is easy because they're so nimble, and you can go up on the sidewalk
and
talk to people sitting outside.
''Sure, it's fun to go 110 m.p.h. on a motorcycle down Storrow Drive
with
the rush of wind in your face, but riding a scooter is more quirky and a
lot
safer.''
Woody Woodbury, 29, became interested in scooters in the late '80s
because he was ''into the mod thing and ska music.'' He bought a 1961
Vespa 50 from a friend who had stored it in the back of a closet. He
bought
three more bikes just for parts.
''Back then, I thought I owned something really rare,'' says Woodbury.
''I
thought I was the only one around with a scooter. Then I read about a
rally
in upstate New York in Scootering magazine,'' a British publication.
He put his scooter in his hatchback, headed north to the rally, and was
amazed to find 100 other scooter nuts. On his return to Boston, he
started
the Boston Stranglers. The group meets Sunday evenings in Allston at the
Common Ground Cafe. There are six hard-core members plus five others
who are less involved.
Woodbury says he commutes from Hyde Park to East Boston every day.
He owned a Honda motorcycle for several years, but finds scooters
''perkier
and more fun to drive. Just like it's more fun to drive a standard car
than one
that's automatic. There's more control and the center of gravity is
better.''
''I used to hate scooters,'' says Misty Woodbury, who's married to
Woody.
''But now I really like to ride. We go to rallies in New York and
Toronto.
You can get into a groove on long trips and it's very pleasant. But
there's
also a downside. Going to Canada, my engine seized up twice. They get
too
hot. They're small two-stroke engines, like outboard motors.''
Charles has also brought his girlfriend into the scootering fold.
Recently they
rode to Marblehead, then out to Weston and back to Jamaica Plain. ''It's
addictive,'' he says.
And they're great attention getters and conversation pieces.
As one scooter rider says, ''It's just like walking the dog. Scooters
engage
people.''
For more information on the Classic Scooter Club of Boston, contact
Michael Charles at michae...@yahoo.com.
This story ran on page F01 of the Boston Globe on 09/11/99.
© Copyright 1999 Globe Newspaper Company.
Quinkman
Bob
Huggy Bear
John M. Stafford <JMSta...@erols.com> wrote in message
news:1999091521...@rottweiler.cwusa.com...
> You can't. The Globe dynamically serves their stories, preventing people
> from copying the text. And sorry doing a screen shot is too much
> trouble.
>
you can't ? I just did.........
(took all of 3 seconds)
The Gentle Cycle
With their quirky charm, scooters prove that bigger isn't always better
By Patti Doten, Globe Staff, 09/11/99
What's the attraction?
SCOOTERS, Page F5