As a teenager in a small village, life isn’t always easy. If you wanted to leave your home village, you had the choice between one of the four buses a day, with the last one leaving at 4 PM, or you had your own transportation. Luckily, my family had a 125cc Vespa ET4.

For two mobile years, it was my faithful companion. Unfortunately, I didn’t realize that the line on the oil level window wasn’t the fill level, but dried-up oil. The result was an economic write-off due to a piston seizure. And my switch to a car. My father, on the other hand, found a used ET4 a few years later.

Fast forward to the present. My father no longer uses the Vespa. We, however, only had one vehicle. What could be more logical than to add a flexible and fuel-efficient two-wheeler to our fleet? Easier said than done. The Vespa had been sitting unused in the garage for several years and, unsurprisingly, it wouldn’t start. Unfortunately, the battery wasn’t just dead, but deeply discharged and thus broken. A new battery later, it still wouldn’t start. There was a sloshing sound in the tank, but after several years, it was no longer flammable gasoline. Eventually, it was humming along.

After the scooter got a fresh inspection sticker, it had to be moved from South Baden to our place in Hesse. 340km on country roads with a maximum speed of 100 km/h. The Vespa has 125cc, but it’s no race car. My girlfriend accompanied me in the car. Since it’s hard to eat and drink on the scooter, we took regular breaks. You also sweat quite a bit in a motorcycle jacket. In the end, I was still surprised that the journey took over eight hours.

Eight exhausting hours. Even though I really enjoy riding a scooter, the first real ride after years was unfamiliar and tiring. And then, right away, a trip over a distance I had never ridden in one go on a scooter before. But now we have a second vehicle, with which we can also zip through Frankfurt in a super pleasant and flexible way. Goodbye, parking problems!