DB: Yamahopper

Since the purchase of my motorized pony two weeks ago, I have increased the miles on my odometer by one hundred and fifty seven. On Saturday, some buddies, with ponies of their own, and I met up downtown and buzzed our way all over the north end before ending up in Ruston.

The Taste of Tacoma is a strange and bizarre event. I parked right near the entrance to Point Defiance, squeezing my little motorcycle into a narrow bit of gravel next to an illegally parked minivan. I wandered around for about 20 minutes totally overwhelmed and under hydrated. I haven’t seen so many people without their shirts on since I went to Wild Waves in Jr. High, it was awesome. The weird thing is, I couldn’t figure out what to do because I wasn’t really hungry, so I unlocked my scooter and buzzed away happily.

From the back of a small motorized beast, the city looks very different. Somehow the scenery is closer and more tangible than it is from inside a car. My friend Brandon has a 50cc Honda Spree, it’s pink and black and sounds like a remote control airplane. My friend Johnny has a 49cc Yamaha Hopper, or Yamahopper, which is pretty much a BMX bike with a chain saw bolted to the bottom. With my birthday / Fathers Day money I bought myself a Honda Trail 110, which can be summed up as a marriage between a dirt bike and a riding lawn mower. Riding together we have all the combined horse-power of a singular small cruiser motorcycle, but I’m sure we looked like a force to be reckoned with.

We are total nerds about it. I put my man purse in my basket, Johnny had a pizza-box folded in his. We rev our engines at every stop sign, and at a top speed of 27 mph we pretend we are being pulled off the bikes from all the G force. There is something very un-manly about scooters, especially when dudes were passing us on Ducati 1100s, and Harley Davidson’s out cruising Ruston Way. We made sure to wave and beep our horns at every two-wheeled vehicle within earshot, and were met with mixed reception. At one point we were all lined up and getting ready to leave the parking lot near Les Davis Pier and a Police man driving by stopped his car, rolled down his window and said, “You be careful on those things.” Yes sir, we will sir.

Is there a market for delivery drivers in this town? You can’t email lunch….

More and more of my friends are getting on the scooter train, dusting off old relics in the garage or taking the plunge and trading in four wheels for two. Its not just a gas thing, though for most I’m sure it’s a catalyst. I think it’s a sort of counter culture punch at a crumbling system, riding a scooter says “I’m tired of buying into the bigger is better mentality.” It says, “Remember the little guy?” The next generation of Easy Riders is a lot less violent and far more concerned with locality as opposed to national wondering.

Speaking of the scooter train…

I vote that we devote a car of the Sounder to the scooter-ing population. There should be a ramp where you ride up and into the side of the train with seating above the little mobile scooter parking garage. I can’t take my bike on I-5 and it would be nice to mob around Seattle and start some scooter gang rivalries with the 206. It would be like a ferry for dorks that cant go over 50 crossing the sea of Seatac, a scooter/train combo to work is as green as leaves.