This is the fourth in a series of posts dedicated to living with the 2009 Piaggio BV250 Tourer. The previous article is here.
A Two-Wheeled Caste System
There are quite a few two-wheeled cultures and subcultures. From Dirt Bikes to the fastest, Moto-GP-with-turn-signals motorcycle, and from Scooters to Cruisers, there are lines drawn in the sand that must be crossed with care. Within these groups, there are sub groups that prefer new to old, Japanese to European to American, etc. Many of these cultures are brand and even brand/model specific. Groups are often exclusive of those that are “close but not quite the same”, or “so drastically different that there’s no connection whatsoever”.
I truly believe that as you age, you either become more tolerant of other people’s opinions, filtering out the stuff you don’t care about after listening to the argument, or you can become the “get off my lawn, you damned kids!” guy that just isn’t interested. I’m more of the former — I have friends that are the latter, and that’s fine, too. I just get to ride more and different iron.
I’m also not much of a “joiner”. I fit into the ranks of the Moto Guzzi club very well because they’ve never demanded that I join and I’ve never done it. Yet, they always welcome me to their events and I have many friends in the club. I think that if they took PayPal I’d probably join, but mailing a check in is just something that keeps getting deferred and finally forgotten about.
The nice thing about not being a joiner however, is that I keep my options and opinions wide open about what I should be riding, or what kind of rider I am. I’ve decided that I’m a rider of anything on two wheels (ok, three if you count the MP3), and I’ll give each bike under my butt a fair shot and try to understand what the engineers were trying to accomplish by creating it.
I’ll ride it like the engineers designed it, and explore the borderline conditions that “hopefully” they, too, had anticipated. Finally, I like to explore the culture and people around my rides. Motorcycling and Scootering are extremely social, more so than car clubs and almost any other daily activity, and it’s extremely important to understand the culture that you’re joining or signing up for when you mount your ride. In this case, I’ve been exploring the culture of the BV250 Tourer. Continue reading “2009 Piaggio BV250 Tourer – Day 4 – Scooter Culture”
