Syracuse Ska Forum

It's Finally Riding Season Again!!!

Just watch out for the numerous and gargantuan potholes out there.

I rode back early this evening from downtown through the Syracuse University area and I was dodging massive potholes left and right. I know it's been perfect pothole weather this winter -- really cold temperatures oscillating with warmer ones, back and forth -- and the city is really, really broke. But I really hope most of these get fixed soon. I'm talking potholes that can easily swallow bowling balls, nevermind 10 inch scooter tires.

Hi, Deb and I ride our Kymco People scooters and love doing so. We live in Oneida, NY. I am very familiar with syr as I used to live in Marshall St area and in the Wescott Nation.Can you tell me of any local scooter events? Are there still nightly rides in Syr?
Keep the rubber side down,
LooseBruce

Hey Bruce!

Did you park one of your Kymcos on E Jefferson St in downtown Syracuse a few weeks back, around the corner from Café Kubal? It was a white People model, which are not at all common around here.

The rides issue has been frustrating. There is another Dan who rides a vintage 60s Vespa that often parks on Westcott Street, usually either in front of Alto Cinco or Beer Belly Deli for long stretches. He heads a little scooter crew that supposedly rides, but I have yet to see it happen or know any details. Jesse and Adam used to ride pretty regularly, but not anymore I gather. There are always scooters around Syracuse University, but all seem to be solitary riders. I've tried to recruit a few of them, but they never seem to show up when they say they will. Chris Nolan and his brother-in-law ride together mostly around Camillus, but again, I've never been able to coordinate anything with them. I see solitary riders downtown off and on, but most of the time I can never catch them and the one time I did, again, the guy never got back to me.

Last weekend I did a lot of riding around Liverpool and North Syracuse, but I never saw another scooter at all, though I know there are some up there.

In conclusion, nothing I know about at the moment you can drop in on, but feel free to hit me up sometime. I haven't ridden to Oneida in awhile and it might be a good excuse to bug someone in Canastota who has a ridiculous scooter collection, including one I sold to him that I later regretted, that I had bought in Oneida. Also, my dark blue Vespa used to live in Durhamville for several years. So, my point is, I know the area a bit.

I got to ride a little bit last week. It wasn't ideal temperatures but it was my first time ever riding a scooter. My normal route is going to be taking Buckley from Liverpool up to north Syracuse.

I'm itching to get back out there but a recent surgery is going to keep me off the roads for a few weeks. Hopefully this rain will clear up by then.

Okay, a little update.

I ran into Dan again yesterday in front of Beer Belly Deli and we had a long chat about organizing rides in Syracuse and just scooters here in general.

He says they welcome all makes of scooters for the rides he is trying to organize, once they going. I think that's the only sensible approach, because Syracuse is just way too small for anything else and the vintage scooters speak for themselves.

His garage in DeWitt is where all those scooters are hanging out and I explained to him that's exactly how Full Moon started, except of course back then it was my garage on Ackerman near SU. I'm pushing him to organize a semi-official scooter shop or at the least, some very minimal hours, because he's likely the only one in Syracuse with all the specialized tools and practical accumulated knowledge from trial and error of working on vintage Vespa and Lambretta scooters. God bless Anthony of Ithaca Scooters, but he's just too far away to depend on for every little thing.

I also suspect I will have to help Dan organize rides, because it's mid-June and he still has no firm plans on that yet. We ran out of time as he was on his way home, but my past experience has been that if you can organize a really dedicated core group of at least 3 scooterists that will religiously ride the same day and time each week, you basically invite anyone and everyone else to join in with them. It's easy once a regular thing gets going to make changes later. But you can't make anything really happen without that dependable core and I suspect that will be Dan and myself and one of his friends. I'll push for that and help get the word out once something is firmed up.