August,2012. We belong to the main scooter club in the area, the Los Angeles Scooter Group, which has hundreds of members and runs three or four organized rides a month. All skill levels and sizes of scooters are included, so the rides are varied in order to accommodate the differences. A splinter group sprang up last year called, embarrassingly, the Adventurists. It’s for more experienced riders who want more difficult routes (read, curves and hills). Scoots have to be at least 150cc in order to keep up, 250cc if you’re going to ride two-up, like we do often. One of the early rides was to start out by our house, so we invited everyone over for a pre-ride danish, donuts, and coffee knosh. I’m sure the neighbors were thrilled. While Loni and I did KP duty, our ride leader, Justin, read out a few “rules of the road” for group riding.
Our destination for the day was the Santa Monica Mountains, which are loaded with squirrely roads, but specifically The Rock Store, perhaps the most famous of all biker hangouts. What better spot for a load of scooterists? It resides along Mulholland Highway, and you can see its squiggles on the map below.
You can see an area labeled “Victory Jon Photography on the map, at a particularly hairy turn called “The Snake.” He sits there every weekend and photographs everything that passes by, then posts every day’s pics and offers to sell a high-res copy for way too much money. The best I can do is to link to a shot of us passing by his lens. This link might disappear after some time passes, so don’t blame me if it doesn’t work. We did a little sightseeing along the way, had a brew at the Rock, and mounted up for the ride home. A fun day.
Later in August, Loni bagged out but I went alone with the group on a huge rally held each year in the south bay area, called Swerve ‘n Curve. A south bay club hosts this one, and we just join in. Our contingent met up at one of L.A.’s icons. I think my lime jacket is getting a little faded. Time to get a new one.
This year the ralley was gigantic, almost too big. Well over 200 scoots, which can be a nightmare for other motorists as the group tries to stay together through city streets.
After a lot of horn-honking, red-light running, and assorted fist-waving, we made it down through the beach communities to the Palos Verdes Peninsula where there were less lights and a lot more scenery along the ocean. A rest stop shot gives you an idea of the number of bikes, but there’s even more behind me from where I’m taking this picture. The cliffs overlooking the ocean are just to the left, where you can see those two little figures.
The end-of-ride destination was some rich bloke’s house there on the peninsula. Very nice of him to host the party. They had a band, drinks & nibbles, and a poolside lawn area where we could mingle about. I love his neon scoot! And, all riders are welcome on this one.
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