Amerivespa 2005

13th Annual National Rally
June 2nd - 5th
Cleveland, Ohio

Review by Dave McCabe

There is a strong connection between Ohio and scooters and it goes a long way back. In the ‘fifties the Vespa Club USA had a regional club in Cleveland. Around the same time, Cleveland had one of the strongest Lambretta dealerships in the country. (For a great story about scooter sales in Cleveland in the 1950s and 1960s be sure to read “We Went to Church A Lot” by Ken Oden in the Spring 1998 and Summer 2002 issues of American Scooterist.) Also, since the inception of the Vintage Motor Bike Club (VMBC) in 1972, the Midwest has been a hotbed of motorscooter enthusiasm. Today Ohio is the state with by far the largest number of VMBC members. In more recent times, Cleveland has had a strong presence in the national scooter scene with Pride of Cleveland Scooter Club and a chapter of the Rovers. In short, there are a lot of serious scooter enthusiasts in Ohio. It was time the VCOA brought our annual show to Ohio.

Amerivespa was a four day event and it started out with our traditional Thursday night opener. The Cleveland chapter of the Rovers Scooter Club hosted the event. We meet at the Warren Tavern. It was a great opportunity to mingle in a low-key setting with many of the folks we’d be seeing throughout the weekend. Thanks Rovers for buying me and everyone else a beer. What better way to make friends.

Friday we met up at Pride of Cleveland (POC) Scooters for registration, a short ride, big barbeque and scooter technical sessions provided by Genuine Scooters and Scooterworks of Chicago.

Many of us were impressed with what a fantastic scooter shop POC was. I was a kid in a candy shop. There were a wide variety of new and used scooter models to choose from, along with plenty of other scooter-related merchandise. The shop was well stocked with basic parts and after-market ad-on goodies for all types of scooters. There were separate sections for riding apparel, scooter magazines and performance products. All of these items were out on the showroom floor so customers could look at everything. I got to do some proper scooter shop browsing.

Attendees who arrived on Friday were treated to a short ride through the city which ended at Cleveland’s Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Later that day, back at POC, there were tech sessions and a free BBQ dinner sponsored by Pride of Cleveland Scooters and Genuine. The Scooterworks tech session, lead by Massimo, was great. Rally-goers got to learn some valuable tips while checking out the limited edition Fireball Stella. The Stella was set up on a small lift under a canopy. Massimo lead his discussion with a small P.A. system so that everyone could hear. The presentation couldn’t have been better and the event added a different element of interest to the rally. Thanks Massimo and thanks Scooterworks!

Saturday was a jam packed day starting with a 60+ mile ride around Cleveland and environs. The long ride ended at McCarthy’s Ale House. Scooter riders parked in a blocked-off street outside the dinner venue and immediately registered for the Concours d’Elegance, the VCOA’s scooter judging competition. This year a conscious effort was made to improve and expand the scooter judging for our club. New categories were created for Vespas that were meant to better represent the various Vespa models and the evolution of the product line. There included a category for “wide-body” early Vespas and another for “sports” Vespas such as the GS and SS. There were also more awards in each category. Some of the categories had as many as three winners, a top prize winner and two honorable mention awards.

Following the scooter judging was Amerivespa’s gala dinner, an elegant setting marred only by slowness in getting the food served. There approximately 300 attendees came together for a nice sit-down dinner. During the dinner the scooter judging and other special recognition awards were presented. Our treasurer, David Hunt, was presented with the award for club member of the year. Janice Ashrat (#2561) received the furthest ridden award for having ridden here P200 from California to Florida then to Cleveland. John Gerber (#5) rode the second furthest leaving from the Boston area on his Cosa 200.

Sunday dawned and many folks missed the breakfast at the Juniper Grille. Some people (like me) even missed the club meeting. After breakfast the rally moved south to Vespa Cleveland. Our hosts at Vespa Cleveland made sure we were provided with pizza and plenty of cold bottled water. Vespa Cleveland has a beautiful showroom, on a par with many of the nicest Vespa dealerships in the country. Inside the showroom it was cool, clean and comfortable but it was hot in the back parking lot where the vendor displays, gymkhana, slow race and raffle took place.

The fix must have been in because the winner of the slow race was, Federico Musi, a sales representative for Piaggio USA who had flown out from New York. Federico said that his secret was that he commutes to work everyday on an ET. While stopped at lights he practices keeping his scooter upright without putting his feet down.

The skillful winner of the gymkhana, Stan Obal, received a Corrazo jacket, presented directly from Corrazo’s owner, Bradford Duval (#2609). The rally culminated in the raffle. There was much anticipation for the raffle since Vespa Ohio in partnership with Piaggio USA had donated three Piaggio scooters to give away during the weekend. (The first, a Piaggio LT 50, was given away Friday night at McCarthy’s Ale House.) The last two, an ET2 and a PX150 were given away Sunday afternoon. At the commencement of the raffle Jillian Schultz, Vespa Cleveland store manager, pulled out the two winning tickets and set them aside in separate envelopes. This helped assure that all of the raffle tickets received a fair shot at the big prizes. The winner of the PX150 was the son of the winner of the Stella last year’s Salt Lake City Amerivespa!

There are too many people to thank here for their help with Amerivespa Cleveland. Samantha Gunn (#760) and Atti Bethlenfalvy (#2307) do stand out as the two who probably get credit for the initial idea and early organizational planning for the rally. These two worked closely with Cleveland’s two major shop owner/managers Jullian Schultz of Vespa Ohio and Phil Waters of Pride of Cleveland Scooters to unite Ohio’s diverse scooter community and host our big event. Also, as with previous Amerivespas, local scooter clubs chipped in and helped host specific events throughout the weekend. Thanks are due the Rovers (Cleveland chapter), Pride of Cleveland, Gem City Rollers (Dayton), the Columbus Cutters and the Ten Year Lates (Cincinnati).

Concours d' Elegance Winners

Widebody Vespa:

Sport Vespa

60s-70s Original

60s-70s Custom

Modern Manual Vespa Original

Modern Manual Vespa Custom

Automatic Vespa

Lambretta Original

Lambretta Custom

Vintage Other

Best Auto Other

Best on More than Two Wheels

Krylon King

Rat

Best in Show

Best Radical Custom

People’s Choice