4/15/2009 — With my Vespa at the vet overnight, I figured I’d extend my light rail travel from the day before and see the city. I caught a ride with The Mrs to her office and hopped on the train from there. She’d just passed her riding test with flying colors, so good scooter mojo was in the air. During the off peak times, it’s less than $2 for 2-1/2 hours of ride time. I rode the rail all the way from the Mall of America up to Franklin Ave. where Scooterville is. They hadn’t had a chance to look at my GT yet, but took it out right away once I showed up. I really didn’t want to rush them, I was just curious if it’d be looked at that day so that I could plan my otherwise empty day accordingly. Coleman hopped on for a evaluation ride and I headed next door to Whiskey Junction, where they have the world’s most amazing on-tap root beer. Two pints later, I headed back to Scooterville to see what the wobble verdict was.

Turns out Coleman rode the bike up city streets, even up the highway and couldn’t feel a thing. “Like butter” he tells me. So I hopped on the GT and went ’round the block real quick and sure enough, butter. I rode the bike home and no wobble whatsoever. Strange, but I’ll take it. The whole way home, I couldn’t help but notice how much zippier the motor was. With the temp at 67º, the cold blooded italian was finally up to temperature it seemed. So much power, and the whole way home there wasn’t even a hint of a wobble.

High points
Riding the train and flashing back to the two weeks I spent in Korea back in 2005. Especially remembering how all the Korean kids were using their phones as music players, pausing mid song, having short conversations on their earphones, then continuing on. Sure, this is very familiar to iPhone users today, but then it was completely foreign to us in the west.  Also enjoying fantastic root beer and catching the end of a Twins game — just enjoying immensely the luxury of time. Then on the way home, I saw the most bizarre, tall, reversed tandem bicycle I’ve ever seen.

Low points
Not getting any sort of good resolution to the tire wobble issue. I have a feeling I haven’t seen the end of this.

Nathaniel Salzman