Me with my Valentine…

Joni Jett captured this very private moment between the Frankenstella and me over the weekend. (I’m blushing right now.)

Genuine Scooter Co is having a photo contest on Facebook. I think this will be my entry.

Just for the record, I’m fully aware that I’m a total cheeseball.

And I’m okay with it.

Genuine Love is a post from: Scooter Lust

Click led the Westenders on an awesome ride today. He even ordered sun for us and everything! What a guy.

We started at Alki Bakery in West Seattle, moved on to Bakery Nouveau, then to Essential Baking Co. and finally Grand Central. I headed home at that point but some folks continued on to Macrina in Queen Anne. I had to go warm up – I had quite a chill going and the hot cider stopped working.

The ride was fab and I was excited to get out amongst my fellow scooterists in the dead of winter. Plus Doc saved me a huge chunk of change by showing me how to re-align the Frankenstella myself. I’m looking forward to fixing that because that scooter has been super squirrely since the last time I wiped out and smashed the left handgrip into the pavement.

There’s some photos I took over on the Flickr. I’m sure the Westenders SC Group Pool on Flickr will have a ton from other folks.

Soon to follow: a group ride to all local gyms followed by a group run around Lake Union.

Seattle Bakery Tour Scooter Ride is a post from: Scooter Lust

Happy New Year! is a post from: Scooter Lust

I guess this is what the kids call a “barn find?” Or, in this case, a yard find!

Vintage Trash is a post from: Scooter Lust

scenes from the Westenders Scooter Rally 2009.

Motivation! is a post from: Scooter Lust

I love Celeste, okay?!

Photo by Vu, taken during the Westenders Operation: Flapjack ride on Sunday.

My BFF is a post from: Scooter Lust

This great shot was taken from the back of the Frankenstella during the Westender’s Great Ghost and Grub Ride. It features Nate’s pimped out Vespa GTS, which runs on rocket fuel, and my very large teeth.

The image was captured by my cupcake, Viva. There’s lots more Frankenstella action on her awesome ScooterLust Flickr Photostream.

Bright Lights, Big City is a post from: Scooter Lust

Roger Tango and me at the VCOS meeting, trying to out-bling each other.

Celeste the Frankenstella is now running like a dream, and looks like one, too. So I’ve been riding her exclusively for a few weeks. Partly because starting her up is a consolation prize for the crappy weather, partly because I didn’t get to ride her last fall, and partly because the GTS is due for 3,000 mile service with nearly 4,000 miles on the odometer.

Two weekends ago we had actual Certified Sunshine™, so I jumped in and finished the remaining details (glovebox, turn signals, etc.). Then I spent two hours with a toothbrush and a bucket of hot water detailing the scooter. It was wonderfully obsessive, and reminded me of the Harley guys I would see hunched over their bikes for hours, dabbing at miles of chrome with a fistful of cloth diapers. I washed and waxed her, buffed her up, and glossed all her shiny parts until you could apply lipstick in the crashbars.

For a few months now, I’ve been searching for tassels for my handlebars. Ever since the 5th grade, when Susie Morgan had pink sparkly handgrips on her banana seat bike and I didn’t, I’ve had tassel envy. Now that I’m (in theory) an adult, I decided I would once and for all end the decades of pining by finding my very own handgrip decor.

This mission proved more difficult than you’d think; the only tassels I unearthed were Disney-themed and gaudy. I wanted straight-up silver tinsel, no bells and whistles. I considered making my own, but that project was on the end of a very long list of todo’s.

I’ve also been in the market for some kind of fun and exciting trunk for the Stella; I’ve been searching on eBay and Etsy for a vintage traincase or treasure chest. Last week I went on an adventure to Red Light, the crazy vintage store on Broadway, to search through their collection of 60′s luggage.

So while at Red Light, pawing through stacks of florrid daisy print suitcases, I came across two little gifts the Universe had left specifically for me. A pair of size 12 (!!!) purple old-school sneakers, and not one, but two sets of silver tinsel handlebar tassels. On clearance for $1.

No one could truly understand my joy at this simultaneous discovery, and the cashier was too busy being cooler than me to appreciate the enthusiasm with which I presented my payment. But I promptly when home, drilled a hole in the Stella handgrips, attached the long-awaited tinsel tassels, and took Celeste for a spin in my new purple sneaks.

Decades of tassel-envy burden fell away. I was weightless.

Last night was the Vespa Club of Seattle monthly meeting. They are always a fun and boisterous affair, and I was looking forward to it since I have not had a chance to show off Celeste since finishing her make-over. I was tres excited to share my shiny new additions. I was more excited about the $1 tinsel than the fact that I rewired my turn signals with new connectors, all by myself.

Now Roger Tango, the Prime Minister of the Westenders, gets more bling for the buck than anybody else I’ve seen on the road. His fire engine red Vespa is totally custom and features meticulous attention to detail – from the white rubber trim to the Union Jack seat to the license plate that says “MOD”. His scooter is beautiful and simply perfect. I would not dream of competing against that kind of world-class accessorizing. (Especially since I often have a giant chrome milkcrate zip-tied to the back of my scooter. Very classy.)

Members of the Westenders are assigned a “portfolio”, and I am known as the Minister of Sparkles. I am secretly a 12-year-old girl. I put glitter on everything, and the more shiny something is, the more I covet it. So while the silver tinsel on my bike is truly me, it is not period-appropriate and scooter experts everywhere groan in disbelief.

This does not stop Roger Tango and I from engaging in a friendly, mock Bling War. His full moon chrome hubcaps take the cake – I can’t even compete with that. Even though my hub caps are shaped like stars. I’m a big fan of stars.

I’m in the market now for a silver glitter seat cover — you know, like the one Susie Morgan had on her banana seat bike.

Keep an eye out for me, will you?

Bling Wars is a post from: Scooter Lust

Bodhi, Hairy LaPinch, Safety Ed, Victoria and RogerTango throwing
the Westenders gang sign and hanging tough in West Seattle.

I’m not sure my friend Victoria knew what she was getting herself into, moving to the West Coast. Or, more specifically, moving in with me. Let’s not blame Seattle at large for my borderless insanity.

A couple of weeks ago, VVB (as I affectionately call her) packed some books, her cat, and a guitar into her little VW and drove 3,000 miles from Connecticut to Seattle. One of her first questions when she arrived was, “Do I get to ride on your scooter with you?”

I was a bit surprised. While she was visiting a few years ago, I tried to get her to ride with me. She had just received a crazy industrial ear piercing, making the helmet uncomfortable. So we didn’t ride. And perhaps it was my imagination, but I remembered her looking relieved to have an out.

With no piercings in the way, VVB strapped on a helmet and enthusiastically mounted the GTS behind me. I took her for a morning sunshine spin down Lake Washington Blvd., which is the route you take visitors when you want them to stay. It’s hard not to fall in love with Seattle riding through the Lake Washington Arboretum, or through the verdant tunnel of foliage along the crystal blue, sparkly waters.

VVB was sold on both the city and the scooter in short order, so I decided to organize a little ride to welcome her to the neighborhood. One of her favorite movies, Almost Famous, was playing at the Pedestal downtown. They project the movie onto the side of the building and you watch under the stars and city lights. Very cool. Very Seattle. It seemed like the perfect destination for a ride, so “Operation: Almost Famous” was born.

I’d never lead a formal ride before, and even when riding with one other person, I defer to their leadership. There are several reasons for this: first, I’m still new to the area – especially West Seattle. (Last week I was pleased as punch to find my way from the bridge to Alaska Junction without consulting my map.) Second, I’m terrible with directions. Catastrophically terrible.

Third, I ride a 250cc scooter and I’ve got a lead foot. Er, lead wrist. Ripping along Aurora at 50 m.p.h. is fine when it’s just you, but when you’re leading a crew of 60-year-old vintage scooters, manual shift Vespas, and 50cc bikes, not so much. I’m always paranoid I’ll leave someone behind because it’s hard for me to tell if I’m accelerating too quickly or going too fast. It’s easiest for me to just follow other people so nobody gets hurt.

But I figured the time had come for me to buck up and take the heat, especially since the ride was my idea. The night before the planned ride, VVB and I mapped the route with the help of Google and took a test run. I printed out the directions and taped them to my headset. I kept the route simple and focused on creating a pretty ride with lots of “ooohs” and “ahhhhhs”. Alki Beach at sunset is hard to top.

We met up at Cupcake Royale in West Seattle. As we’ve already established, I don’t need an excuse to make a cupcake run. But this time it was also a tribute to VVB’s status on my scooter. A few months ago I met Angie, founder of the Ladies Scooter Society of Boston, who said her club had replaced the traditional “riding bitch” with “riding cupcake”. “It’s much nicer, don’t you think?” she said. I have to agree. (Although when it comes to boys as passengers, I’m not sure you could convince them that either is appropriate.) Hence, VVB was my Cupcake, so our adventure began at Cupcake Royale.

The night of the official ride was nearly 90 degrees and clear skies. Flawless. Beall even made it on his new Salsbury – a scooter half a century old that looks like it should be in a museum, not bombing down a busy coastal street. (photo credit – Beall)

Beall definitely gave our little gang street cred. Which brings us to the Westenders “gang sign” in the opening photograph. VVB dreamed that one up and offered a tutorial when we stopped at Hairy LaPinch’s studio on California for the West Seattle Artwalk.

We cruised along the beach and down Fairmount – my favorite secret side street revealed to me by Joni Jett. Then we took Aurora to Pioneer Sq. I held it at a steady 45, which seemed doable for everyone, even Safety Ed with a lawn chair strapped to his ET.

The ride was beautiful and the movie was great. Plus, my Cupcake felt welcomed, which was frosting on the… oh, never mind.

Cupcakes R Us is a post from: Scooter Lust

My love of two-wheeled machines is surpassed only by my love of four-legged creatures. I have the privilege of sharing my home with Princess Nevadelia Lotus Blossom. I’ve been her servant for almost four years. She is a ridiculously beautiful lynx-point Himalyan mix cat with a feather-duster tail. Despite the fact that her enormous blue eyes are crossed, she is a formidable moth slayer. Nevadelia adopted me from the local animal shelter and turned me into a certified cat worshipper.
You can imagine my insane delight when I discovered the Flickr group, Cats on Scooters. Their subtitle is, “Cats are taking over the world – and they’re using scooters!”
While Nevadelia enjoys lounging on the sunny veranda of our residence, The Aloha Cabana, her reign is limited to the confines of the property because a free-roaming city cat is a dead cat. So I was stumped on how exactly I was going to participate in my new Flickr obsession with the cat on one side of the fence and my scooter on the other. Oh yeah… PhotoShop!

I just knew that college education would come in handy some day.
I give you Princess Nevadelia Lotus Blossom, taking an imaginary nap on Aphrodite:

I just may have to make Cats on Scooters our permanent Flickr group in the right column with scooter♥lust.

Cats on Scooters is a post from: Scooter Lust