You know the tired old saw, "there's two kinds of riders, those who have crashed and those who will." I have been riding since 1975 and probably have close to 200,000 miles of riding experience, but all that experience doesn't amount to squat against a cell phone distracted SUV driver.

My Vespa GT 200 pinned under a 2002 Jeep Cherokee on Perry Highway. Taken by me with a Blackberry 8900.

This blog is mostly a simple diary about the restoration of a wrecked scooter, but at times it will read more like "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance." I only wish it was as well written. Yes, I DO have higher priorities than fixing this damn scooter, but I know how to fix the scooter.

PROLOGUE TO THE CRASH

It was Friday, March 19th just after 5 pm. I was employed (at the time) as the new Service Manager of a Pittsburgh motorcycle and scooter dealer in Wexford. The weather had been unseasonably warm that week, following a cruel month of record breaking snowfall and it seemed that everyone who owned a motorcycle came down with spring fever all at once and came to the service department demanding service. I needed my technicians to put in an extra hour or two of work on a Friday. It is an unwritten rule that mechanics never work late on a Friday, but they agreed to my extraordinary request, provided I would make a beer run and pick up some food. It seemed like a reasonable bribe, so I mounted my Vespa GT with topcase. I was on my way to 3 Sons Dog and Suds to pick up a 6-pack of Yuengling and a mess of chili cheese dogs, a distracted SUV driver did a panic stop in heavy traffic and I could not stop fast enough.

In the resulting crash, my shoulder was violently dislocated. When I stood up, I found my palm was facing the wrong direction. This was going to hurt for a long time.

The handlebar was bent at a greater than 90 degree angle and the upper leg shield was crushed on both sides but the radiators, brake master cylinders, ECU and instruments all  escaped damage. Because the scooter slid on it's side, there was no damage to the front fork or the spine of the frame. The scooter is damaged far beyond its value, but there was no  collision insurance involved and I have the skills and the time to do the repairs myself.

The worst body damage was on the right portion of the leg shield. I removed the right radiator and pounded it back into shape. The tricky part will be to get the edge of the leg shield to accept the chrome strip and for the glovebox to slip into the slot of the chrome strip. This will take more careful metal work which I intend to do when the strength of my left arm and shoulder returns enough to do the hammer and dolly work, but the initial first fit is good.