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Ticket to ride
Leave the car in the driveway and the bike in the garage; these days, the scooter’s the way to get around
BY NINA WILLDORF

getting around in the city is tricky. Cars eat up money and cough up pollution. Biking is well-intentioned and works wonders on the quads, but come on, folks, it’s a little impractical for all your transportation needs. The MBTA is okay, but after too many nights packed onto the Green Line with drunken students, it becomes clear: you need an alternative.

Don’t overlook an option that’s (comparatively) easy on the wallet, easy on the eyes, and, best of all, easy to park: old-school motor scooters. No, not those supremely ridiculous fold-up affairs that every khaki-clad member of the digitirati was whirring around on five minutes ago. Think Italian sex symbol, 1960s Milan, The Mod Squad. Us Weekly recently reported that style icons Sarah Jessica Parker and Kelly Osbourne both tool around town on a Vespa ET2 (Kelly’s is hot pink), a vehicle whose engine is weak enough to mean you don’t need a motorcycle license to drive it. And in a recent New Yorker profile, bad boy Italian chef Mario Batali was also straddling a scooter.

"Around town, they’re the most fun you can have," says Woody Woodbury, founder and president of the Boston Stranglers, a scooter club devoted to Vespas and Lambrettas, whose members zip over to the Common Ground in Allston every Monday night. "You can weave through traffic, park them in small spaces, and pop up on the sidewalk — and unlike a motorcycle, you usually won’t get a ticket." Woodbury recently opened up a meeting place in Providence for scooter aficionados, called JavaSpeed, where fans can sip espresso, compare engine specs, and pick up another scooter (which can range in price from $2400 to over $4000) to add to the collection.

Find scooters closer to home at Boston Scoot, where retro Vespas sell for "anywhere from a few hundred to a few thousand," says Stan, the store’s head mechanic. Just don’t plan on a fast turnaround if you need your new wheels tuned up; their newfound popularity, Stan grumbles, is making the scooter biz a madhouse. "People drop off their bikes and they don’t get ’em back for months," he says. "People are getting into the whole nostalgia thing about them."

Since, thank God, we don’t live in New Hampshire, where people are allowed to live free — and die — without helmets, it’s necessary to make sure your head is appropriately protected. Select a stylin’ helmet at GoManGo Lifestyles in Dudley, a store devoted to all things scooter.

Now that you’re fully outfitted, you might need a little inspiration. Head over to your local video store and pick up the scooter cult favorite Quadrophenia (the Who’s 1979 rock-opera follow-up to Tommy), a veritable ode to the fabulous transportation alternative.

Start your engines.

Nina Willdorf can be reached at ninawilldorf@earthlink.net

Where to find it:

• Boston Scoot, 749 Boston Road, Billerica, (978) 663-7450.

• GoManGo Lifestyles, 20 West Main Street, Dudley, (508) 949-1478, www.gomangolifestyles.com.

• JavaSpeed, 1284 North Main Street, Providence, (401) 270-9485.

www.vespausa.com.



Issue Date: September 19 - 26, 2002
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