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In newly formed NEPA club, enthusiasts hit the roads for leisure runs

August 11, 2008

Revved up on scooters

CAMILLE FIOTI Times Leader Correspondent

PITTSTON TWP. -- Despite the stormy forecast Sunday, a group of members from the newly formed Scooter Club of NEPA took to the road for the club’s fourth bi-monthly leisure run.

Scooter owner Robert Martin of Falls decided to form the club about three months ago when he started noticing how many scooters he shared the road with. “I see them everywhere,” he said. “I thought it would be great if we could organize these people.”

Martin said the club, which has about 25 members, mostly from Luzerne and Lackawanna counties, doesn’t charge dues. Weather permitting, they usually meet every other Sunday at 1 p.m in the parking lot of the Pittston Plaza. “It’s amazing to pull up in the parking lot and see all these people on scooters,” he said.

The group takes a different route during each run, which lasts about an hour and a half. On Sunday, they planned to ride around Harveys Lake and the Dallas area.

While gearing up for the ride, some teenaged boys racing by in a car yelled garbled obscenities out the window.

“We get that a lot,” Frank Froese of Dunmore said with a laugh. Unfazed by the scooter slurs, Froese, who also participates in motorcycle runs, said he finds the comments amusing. “I don’t need to hide behind a Harley Davidson to feed my ego.”

Gene Barkasy, also of Dunmore, spoke in defense of fellow scooter riders everywhere. “We’re called ‘scooter trash,’” he said. “Scooter people are not rowdy people.”

Barkasy says he owned his first scooter, a Vespa, in high school during the 1960s. He bought his current scooter in 2005 for nostalgic reasons. “I bought it for serenity,” he said. Equipped with an automatic starter and alarm system, Barkasy said his Milano 125cc, which gets 65 miles per gallon, goes at least 65 mph. He drives it to Myrtle Beach, S.C., every year.

Bernadette Zang of Eynon, who has been riding motorcycles for four years, bought her scooter, a Honda Reflex 250cc, last year. She said riding a scooter is much easier, however. “There’s no shifting.”

Recently retired, Zang said she rides her scooter everywhere. “I used to ride it to work. It really saves on gas.”

Zang said she rides until it snows, pointing out that she owns a heated riding suit. She and fellow club member Jerry David, who owns the big daddy of scooters -- a Burgman 650cc -- plan to ride their scooters to the Finger Lakes in New York soon.

Tony Tickowski of Springbrook said he’s been riding motorcycles for years, but also likes the simplicity of scooters. “You don’t need to use your feet, and it’s easy to handle,” he said. “It’s quiet, smooth and fast.” He said his Burgman 650cc, which goes at least 70-80 mph, is just as fast as most motorcycles of the same size.

New club member Freddy Melvin of West Pittston, affectionately referring to his Honda Elite 150cc as his “Hardly Davidson,” took his first ride with the club Sunday. He heard about the club through his scooter’s former owner and an Internet search.

For information on the Scooter Club of NEPA, call (570) 903-5379 or e-mail NEPAScooter@Yahoo.com.

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