Vespa PX 125

One of my little pleasures in life is my Vespa. She is a work of art and lives in my house. I bought her 2 years ago in Paris and had her shipped over to Prague. My biker friends tend to be very dismissive of my choice of 2 wheels but I don't care because ever since I saw Quadrophenia I have wanted one.
So far I have only done 600 km on her which I realise is not a lot in 2 years but just like my limited edition Cartier watch, I don't have to wear it every day to know that I have it and to get pleasure from it.
Actually, who am I kidding? The reason I have only ridden 600 km is because I suck at riding it and am an accident waiting to happen. Have ridden lots of 50cc scooters in my time, even owned a Simpson 50cc when I first moved to Prague. I even drove a 150 cc something or other into and around St Tropez one year with my daughter on the back but the one thing I forgot when I bought the Vespa is that it is not an automatic and there in lies the problem. Its one thing to push the start button and go but another thing dealing with the choke and if necessary having to kick start it. The hardest thing for me though is changing gear or should I say changing gear smoothly without flipping the bike! My anti talents do not stop there though. I can't 'bend' into corners -my head leans to one side but that is about it; I have a problem with the foot brake due to having a dodgy knee and so have to sit so far back on the seat am in danger of sliding off and am generally unsteady all round. Added to this I don't even have a license for a 125cc!

Despite all this I love bobbing around the villages on my bike. Vespa's have a distinctive engine sound so everybody stops and stares and whenever I stop at the pizza shop ( yep, could nearly get an job as a pizza delivery girl!) people come and ask me what it is and where I got it from . I particularly like sharing the little waves from the other bikers on the road - its nice feeling part of a club that normally you would never have a chance of belonging to - or even want to for that matter!
We all need to have things in our lives that give us pleasure and no matter what it might be or how bad you might be at it stick with it because whatever makes you happy can never be a bad thing.