12 April 2007 Out of the closet and into the traffic!

At long last, I decided this morning to traverse the 24km (48km return) trip to my mum’s house on my new scooter. A word before we begin though: I’m sure most, if not all of us, are aware of the ‘parent’ issue when it comes to all two wheeled things that happen to be endowed with an engine. How often have you heard the expression, “You’ll ride a motorbike over my dead body!”?

Well, in this post I’d like to open up this topic a little more by inviting you to post comments about your ‘coming of age’ or – should I say perhaps ‘coming out of the closet’? – with your parents and their induction into your new-found life as a dreaded two-wheeler. I’d also like to share with you my story of riding to my mother’s house, arriving and showing her my new TGB.

Let me begin by saying that I didn’t surprise my mother out of the blue with the new scoot. I had forewarned her one evening at a Japanese restaurant where we often dine when I come to visit her. I buttered up the news of my recent purchase with the standard euphemistic phrases, including, “it’s just a little scoot,” “I’d only be riding it where one rides a bicycle,” “it’s very cheap to run,” “…nothing as dangerous as a big motorcycle” and so on. Surprisingly, my mother simply remarked calmly, “well, I don’t like it!” and left the conversation there.

Anyway, here I was, braving the traffic of Epping road (my first foray into a four lane, 80km/hr arena where anything sporting an L-plate doesn’t tend to go down well with the other folks on the road. “But confidence is the key,” I told myself, determined to ride safely through the thick of it and without being perturbed by the collective roar of the traffic through which I was already ‘swimming.’

Actually, the biggest challenge proved getting my camera out of my velcro-secured pocket, turning it on and taking the snaps in the red light breaks, all with my gloves on!

Arriving at my mum’s house, I realised how much of a mental workout it is being a scooter on the road – especially a main road – by contrast to driving in a car. How often we zone out and let our minds wander when driving a car! How impossible it is to zone out when on a scooter in four lanes of 80km/hr traffic! Perhaps this is why so many scooter bloggers say that riding always ties us into the moment and gives us a heightened awareness of everything around us. Perhaps that’s the survival instinct at play and we simply have no other choice if we wish to live.

In any case, I was pleasantly exhausted when I arrived at my mum’s house. With no on-street parking, I decided to park on the garden path – how convenient!

I asked my mum to come out and have a look. Her eyes widened as she looked at the TGB for the first time. She began to question me about the usuals: under-seat storage, the top-box, why the headlight is always on, how fast it goes, why I have an L-plate on the back, and so on. While she examined the TGB and listened to my answers, my beloved feline and 10 year-old friend, Lester, came to see what all of the commotion was about. Like my mum, he appeared interested too, but rather more interested in the smell of the tyres and the footwell than anything else (I don’t suppose he’d fancy a ride in the top box, do you?) I dutifully answered all of my mother’s questions, after which there was a somewhat awkward pause.

“I still don’t like it” she muttered. I looked at her quizzically and then noticed the strangest thing: she started to smile! “I still don’t like it,” she repeated, half-smiling, half mock-frowning.

Thus it was my mum came to accept my new life as a scooterist. Thanks for your support and understanding mum! I promise I’ll ride safely.