Picking a helmet

Tonight I had a lot of lofty goals to accomplish on what has been a laid back Sunday.

Instead I started poking around on the internet to find today’s long distance scooterist. (LDS) Four hours later, I’ve blown off my other tasks, but am literally reeling from all the captivating, weird stories out there. I don’t think one a day for 14 days is enough time…..

In addition to the LDS of the day, I found a great equation for helmet purchasing. This is quoted from Brian Holmes, from Scoot Quarterly. I recommend reading the whole article HERE.

I’ve recognized that my angels were with me last year. Not wanting to be shit out of luck this year by taking them for granted, I know I need a new helmet. Nolan helmets has now officially jerked me around on the phone, not once, but TWICE. They gave me verbal confirmation of a free helmet, only to dodge following through with delivery of said helmet. Not wanting to spend, nor having big bucks I’m stressing about buying one. This is a great rule of thumb about helmet purcashing:

Helmet. Controversial. “Let those who ride decide.” But for me, yes. Here’s a simple formula I use to determine the minimum amount of money I’ll spend on a helmet: $1 per IQ point, plus $1 per every year of the age you’d like to live to, plus $10 for every prior crash, plus $100 for every dependent child you have at home.

My total: $416

Today’s pick: Ok, I’m relatively new to scooter culture. I bought my first bike barely a year ago and have since clocked about 13,000 miles. Hard core scooterists probably know about the legend Giorgio Bettineli.

Most of what you will find here is reposted from other sites. Apparently Giorgio has written 4 books, but they are all in Italian. There is also a fan website, and lots of little snippets about him here and there.

This is what I discovered about him tonight:

“In 1994-95, writer and journalist Giorgio Bettinelli rode a Vespa 36,000km from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego and in 1995-96 from Melbourne to Cape Town — more than 52,000km in 12 months.

In 1997, he left Chile, reaching Tasmania after three years and eight months, having travelled 144,000km and crossed 90 countries across the Americas, Siberia, Europe, Africa, Asia and Oceania. All in all, Bettinelli has travelled 250,000km on a Vespa.

Even being abducted by a group of guerrillas in the Congo did nothing to deter him.

His next stop? A tour through the capitals of all 33 provinces of the People’s Republic of China, covering more than 60,000km.

Why, you may ask? Well apart from the four books he has published detailing his adventures, Bettinelli simply does it for the love of being on the road and on a Vespa.”

From scoot.net:
“Giorgio Bettinelli is arguably the greatest scooter-riding world tourer. He has ridden around the world numerous times on a Vespa PX. However, he apparently recently upgraded to a Vespa GT200. He has vowed to ride through every country in the world on his Vespa.

Bettinelli believes “The Vespa is like a bridge to tolerance and sympathy.”[5]

Surprisingly, Bettinelli has few repair skills. When asked what he does when his Vespa breaks down, he replied “You wait. Someone comes, someone helps. A car, a truck, a camel. An hour, a day. Someone comes, someone helps.”[6]

He has written books about his trips, but unfortunately for us English-speakers these books are only available in Italian.”

If you are a Vespa World Club member, check http://www.vespaworldclub.com/homepage/tabid/93/language/en-US/Default.aspx