Lonesome Scooterist in Kerry
Seriously, I thought getting back into scootering was going to be simple. How wrong I was…
Way back in 1993 I needed my own transport to get to work, so myself and then husband went along to buy me a scooter. There sat a lone-Vespa, a red PK100. My husband had previously had a Vespa so, £570 quid later, the Vespa came home. I live in Ireland and the Vespa made the trip, from my then home in Canterbury to Kerry in around 1996, not bad for a 100cc machine!
Fast forward to the present, and the scooter has been in the shed for several years: kids, work, blah blah. Then recently my kids (now adults) both bought bikes so, with an 'if you can't beat 'em, join 'em' and out came the scoot. Bit of a clean up, air in the tyres and hey, the engine fired, yee ha!! Up and down my road I sped, full of scootering joy, before getting the sensible head on (a rare event) and thinking that a bit of a service, new tyres and even some tax and insurance might be advisable. Therein began my difficulties.
I rang my local reliable scooter guy, “Ah, sorry, I'm working 'up the country' till Christmas.” This was back in June, oh, the frustration.
Then, along I trekked to the licensing office to renew my learner permit (provisional licence). “Madam, this licence is more than 5 years out of date. Fill in this form please. But we can't process it today, you need to come back another day.” Glumly, away I went, to return the following day. “Madam, we can't process you today, you need to have a medical.” OMG. The following week, medical completed for a mere 50 quid... hopes were high. “Madam, here is your permit, but you still can't ride your bike, you have to have 18 hours of training”. Now, at 30 quid an hour, you do the math... I hadn't bargained for all this when I got my Vespa out of the shed as I'd done my basic training in the UK, but admittedly a 'few' years ago. Since the two options open to me were to stump up 540 euro or never ride my scoot again, so I started my training.
Meanwhile I tried to tax and insure my scoot. Insurance no issue but the tax... “Madam, this will cost you 550 euro”… “WHAT?! You can NOT be serious.” (John McEnroe accent needed there.) “Yes, you need to pay all the back tax.” “But my scooter has been off the road all this time.” “Ah, if you'd declared it off the road back in 2013 you'd have been OK, now you have to pay it all.” This was getting very silly now. From wanting a little scoot spin occasionally I was now going to have to rob a bank to do it.
So, not wanting to hand over 550 euro to the tax office, I go online and start looking at scooters for sale... and find a VERY nice 1982 Mk 1 PX125, original paintwork and Italian sticker still on the mudguard, I just couldn't resist. So, that is what we did. The whole shebang admittedly cost a bit more than the 550 euro the tax office wanted, oops.
Scoot came home in my camper as I still wasn't finished my training, but the plan was to complete the training on the scooter. Aaaaarrrgh, more issues! If I'd left it as a 125cc I could've done it, and got the smaller A1 category licence. Now it was 150cc it was too powerful for that category BUT not powerful enough for the next category up! WTF, who makes these rules? So, back to training on a regular motorbike, which I've never had any desire to ride, and, not only that, the 400cc training bike began to have issues of its own so I ended up completing my training on a 600cc Suzuki Bandit!
So, hey presto, I'm finally legal! Now all I need is... some scootering buds! The Kerry Scooter Club is just waiting in the wings... the inaugural meeting was today, at a well-known coffee emporium in Killarney. Today it was just the two of us there, me and the scooter! Come on, let's be 'avin' ya, Kerry scooterists, let's do it, let's have the roads of Kerry buzzing with scoots :)
And the PK..? I 'sold' it to my son thereby expunging the back tax and I'm planning a flower power paint job for it in the summer. After all, what's better than one scoot on the road…two, of course!