But What If Someone Sees Me?!

I try not to look at them honestly, its kind of embarrassing. The scooter riders, the little throwback modders, and old women with bicycle helmets, the hipster kids with “ironic” mustaches, the kids on pit bikes and mini bikes. All of them, I tend to just close my tinted visor, and ride through the fog that inevitably fills the inside of my face shield this time of year. Better survive that little bit of blindness then make eye contact with them, and god forbid, what if they WAVE?! Those silly, small, impractical motorbikes with engines too small to get out of trouble, tires that won’t hardly stick, and brakes on either handle. Its idiotic, dangerous, and back to the big one… Yes, embarrassing. Mostly embarrassing.

I wouldn’t get within 100 feet of this guy for example.

But…Here’s the thing…I ride them too. I am ashamed, but unless you have tried it yourself, well you don’t know how fun they are.

Now I’m not saying you should go out of your way to be friendly, I still wouldn’t wave or make eye contact, because lord knows if you give them that, then they will try to get more from you. Try to say hello at a stoplight, or have a conversation comparing bikes, and we don’t want that. No, just open up to a little understanding, maybe even try it yourself. If you do, you will realize how stupid you can really get on one.

Small bikes are just so EASY. They don’t even seem dangerous, you can wheelie, stoppie, jump, smash, grind and skid them like the Wal-Mart bicycle your dad taped together from parts for christmas when you were 10.

Would I play tag through suburbia on my R1? Yes, but I would end up dead. Have I played tag on a Honda Elite80 scooter in suburbia? YES! It was fantastic! The bike would top out at 45, and it would take 30 seconds to get there, so everywhere I was stretching the throttle cable which threatened at each corner exit to break. I would jump curbs and bottom out, take turns and drag the center stand, and every stop left a dark trail of powdered rubber from the 15 year old rear tire being locked up.

As I’ve found…we all do it. See?

Me

Toe

Joe

Kevin too

Like I said…Its just too easy to do really stupid things.

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4 Comments

  1. small capacity bikes rock. i used to ride my dads piaggi0 and rip the shit outta it. it was a little done up and would max out at 80, i would pick it up on speed bumps and get a little air, speed by cops in areo tuck and they look at you and think “it just a scooter” damb good times then i bought a beater cb400tii and ripped that for a year then in october was cut off by a bus. RIP cb400 now im building another, why cause small bikes give you respect even when you give them none.

  2. The smaller the bike, the more fun I have on my commute to work. So far the smallest thing
    is a DR650 (not very small). I have been threatening to get me a shooter one of these days
    and smash on it on my way to/from work every day. Me thinks the time is comming soon.

    But… LOL @ the waving and talking. I give everything on two wheels a node or a wave…. but scooter wheels aren’t big enough to call wheels so they get snubbed *giggles*

  3. Small bikes are a blast. Nothing to be ashamed or embarrassed about! If many of our top riders and world champions were embarrassed by smaller bikes, they wouldn’t be where they are today and with the skills that they have.
    Too many in this country (USA) have a hang-up about bigger is better and more fun and more cool, and that’s really a shame, because they are missing out (as you mention) on a lot of fun and also skill building.
    In fact, if more riders would experience smaller displacement motorcycles BEFORE they jumped on 600s or 1000s, there would be less injuries and deaths and probably better riders on the streets and at the track.

    Small is smart!

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