Helmet selection

People down play the importance of selecting a good helmet. It's like those car insurance commercials where they ask people how long they've researched buying their car, and then how long they've researched purchasing their car insurance. Scooters (<50cc's anyways) don't have insurance. So ha, suckers. (More on the economics of ownership in a future post). But it's important to determine what kind of scooter helmet you want. Do you want to look cool? Or do you what to not die? Some people sport the o'l german WW II type half helmets. They wear'em with sunglasses, and look damn cool. I went for a full size matching bright yellow icon mainframe helmet with flames and tinted visor. Badass? To say the least. It also protects my entire head, so if I get into an accident I actually have a chance of survival. Also no bugs in the face & mouth. It also hides my face so people can't recognize me and/or see if I'm checking them out. So finding your style of helmet is no simple task, and should be thought out as well. Caveat: you still have to keep in mind you're not on a motorcycle, henceforth if you have small scooter, you might look kinda silly driving a small scooter with a big helmet on.

Blog is 24 hours old!

My blog is 24 hours old!  Here are some reviews from my critics:

"nice blog...i wanted to learn about scooters"
"Awesome blog!!!!"
"what could you possible have to blog about"
"just for the record... I don't think you're a douchebag"
"oh dear... a scooter blog.. douche"
"if you ever write about me, please don't use my real name"
"god your an idiot"
"i'm reading it nerd"
"that was a good read, I like your writing style"

"oh my god... i died a little inside"

So all in all, a great success so far!  Stay tuned for more posts.

Types of scooting personalities and their rides

These are stereotypes that have come from no scientific premise or cohesive rational whatsoever. Hey, it's my blog, I can do whatever I want.

• Europeans - they primarily drive Vespas, wear A/X mesh clothes, have hot models in the back seat, and look too damn cool. Wait, they mainly exist in commercials (and in Europe, I guess).
  

• Girly girls - they drive bright red/pink scooters (mostly Vespas, or those flowery patterned Honda metropolitans), have matching outfits, make you want to throw up. Maybe a small dog or two in their hand bags.

• Hippies - they drive old school scooters, like retro-style Vespas or Lambrettas. Damn things breakdown all the time, and are a pain to fix and maintain. They still probably smoke too much pot. Get a job.

• Motorcycle-wannabes - kids who can't afford Ninjas, so they go for the scooter. They go for more sporty scooters, so Yamahas or Suzukis. It's an upgrade from annoying those mini-razor bikes/ATVs though. They take off the governors and catalytic converters so it makes more noise, still don't realize chicks are not impressed.

• Poor college kids - Apparently scooter are HUGE in the midwest (source: my friend Sam who went to college in the midwest, apparently everyone has them around big campuses out there). These are kids who are too lazy to bike, too lazy to find a car parking spot, and too lazy to wait for a bus. They primarily drive cheap pieces of junk, like those tiny Honda ruckuses, Chinese-made whatevers, Korean Kymcos, etc.

• Guys like me - eh, you think you're cool by going off the beaten path. You have a big SUV and feel too self-conscious to drive that thing 1/2 mile to work. You recycle...sometimes. You probably have an iphone too. Douchebag.

A history lesson

Back in college, I worked part-time as an EMT for a private ambulance company. (Side note: this company went bankrupt a few years back...but shortly renamed themselves and painted over the old ambulance decals with their "new" company name). Anyways, a friend of mine also worked for this company, and I saw him riding to work on a little black scooter. And since this guy was one of those cool guys (you know, guys who wear tight punk clothes, big aviators sunglasses before they were mainstream, and listen to bands that don't even exist yet), I thought, "man, a scooter is cool because it's so uncool." So I bought a scooter.

Wait, I'm forgetting something. Oh yeah, there was about 3 months between the thought "I'm getting a scooter," and actually buying one. Step 1: do your homework. Surprisingly, there are not that many scooter books out there. At least, not ones that fall under these mandatory categories: in press, in English, not only for purchase in bulk pallets. So after a week, I ended up with a general history of scooter book and a book on motorcycle driving techniques (these are actually quite good books to read before buying/driving a scooter, I'll reference them once I'm feeling not lazy). After that, I checked out the few scooter stores in Boston, and found "the one." A future post will contain my rantings on where to buy a scooter in Boston and my brief bias experiences with them.

Introduction

A friend of mine once said he "blogs like everyother douchebag out there." And I though, "hmmm, I've been called a douchebag before, why don't I have a blog yet?" After divulging further in this idea, it seems to me that most people have specific goals/themes in their blogs (addendum: blogs that people actually read). For example, some of my friends document their adventures in Australia (http://jasoninaustralia.blogspot.com/), others their poker careers (http://thepokerjournal.blogspot.com/), and even others containing the mindless rantings of a metrosexual pseudo-psychotic narcissistic jew (http://jonsportsblog.blogspot.com/). I on the other hand, do not have much to contribute as a twentysomething year old working/living in Boston. That is, until I remembered my passion: riding my scooter. And since my girlfriend no longer listens to my scooter stories, I've decided to share them with the rest of the world (world = my few friends at work who are ridiculously bored and have thoroughly read today's headlines on epsn.com, cnn.com, nytimes.com, and even fark.com). Welcome, to the rantings of a Boston scooter enthusiast.

[Update: Oh, and I just sent this to my girlfriend to proofread, her only response: "nerd alert." What a girl.]