Glad to be the Slowest

This past Saturday, I put together another ride. It was not one of our monthly rides and I put it together on short (3 days, I think) notice and there was rain in the forecast. Therefor, I wasn't too surprised when only two other scooters showed up. What did surprise me, was, that for the first time in our club's history, only manual shift scooters were present.

Obviously, we are not a "vintage only" club, but it was still kind of interesting to have only shifties. I had planned a route with 2 variations. One if I had some beginners showed up (which was what I anticipated), another if only experienced riders showed (which I figured was pretty unlikely.) Well, in addition to being only shifties, it was also only experienced riders.

I have only been riding scooters for less than 2 years and I really enjoy introducing people to the world of scooters and helping them to improve their skills. Our club is almost entirely made up of newer riders and that is the way I like it, but it was kind of refreshing to have a ride made up of only experienced riders.

As we wound our way through Tucson Mountain Park, I realized that I didn't have to look behind me as often. Partly because there were only 3 of us and partly because we were all comfortable negotiating corners at speed. After topping Gate's Pass and maneuvering down a steep twisty road, we eventually found our way to a long stretch of straight, mostly flat, two-lane black top, so I opened my Stella up.

It was then that I realized that I was not only riding the "slowest" scooter (In the pic above, you can see my black Stella and two P-200's. The red one is pretty modified and is VERY fast.) but I was also the rider with the least experience. I found it to be quite "enlightening" to know that I could ride as hard and as fast as I chose and still not have to worry about my compatriots.

It was with a light heart that I led our little group through a particularly dangerous section of road that has decreasing radius, downhill left turn that has claimed two scooters in the past. We finished our ride at Sir Veza's Taco Garage, where 4 member of the Green Valley scooter club met up with us. Note: If you look out the window, you can see that it started raining shortly after we arrived for lunch. I had a wet, soggy ride home. But it was still fun.