June Ride-in

Yesterday was the first Sunday of June, so it was time for the monthly Ephrata Ride-in. I've decided to make it my custom to go to the ride-ins, then go to church from there. Unlike last month, the skies were mostly clear, and the sun was shining steadily. My son and I parked the scoot next to a row of cycles and headed up to the main parking area to look around. I only took one pic of the gathered bikes so as not to annoy anyone.

There were only a few scooters aside from my own that I noticed, and they were all maxi's. I had begun to lose all hope for humanity, until I happened to see a Vespa across the sea of chrome. My son and I made a bee-line in that direction whilst dodging pedestrians and riders alike. As we drew near, I noticed an MP3, and then a Fly-50, and finally a trailer proudly advertizing Vespa of Lebanon. At first I was a bit disapointed, since I had been hoping to find like minded folks. I perked up when I noted the ivory colored BV-500 and went over to have a look. It was sitting right next to an MP3-500 which is significantly smaller in person than it at first appears when viewed in pictures on the Internet. The front wheels are also very small at 12", which I find a little off-putting. I've become so accustomed to the larger wheels on my People 150 that I'm not sure how well I'd like going back to 12's. I know I certainly did not like them on the GV-250.


Back to the BV-500. The gentleman attending the booth was kind enough to allow my son and I to sit on it. My son's feet reached the rear foot rests with ease and knee room to spare, so that would be no issue. I found the foot space to be a little better than the People 150, though it still had that annoying hump in the middle (One advantage of the Kymco GrandVista is that it has a flat floorboard with lots of room). On the subject of foot-room, the BV does not have any forward footrests as do the maxi-scoots, so the rider is stuck with their feet flat on the floor. Of course, the riding position of the big-wheel scooters tends more toward that of a standard street bike, whereas the maxi's have more in common with the seating position of a cruiser.


The BV-500 is certainly sharp looking, and the seat seemed very comfortable for the short time I was ensconced upon it.

After looking at the scooters, we visited a few of the other stands, and then left for church at promptly 10:00. We took the back roads to get there as it would have only taken about 10 minutes had we taken the direct route, and that would have been little fun.

After church, we started on our way home, only to become stuck in traffic on our way back through Ephrata. Thankfully, there was some entertainment at a Cycle business (the name escapes me) near the Honda dealer, so my son and I stopped to watch for a brief moment.


The riders seemed very skilled, but I wanted to get home, so we left after only a few minutes. My son was fascinated, but he reluctantly put on his helmet and hopped on the back of the scooter for the ride home.