If there is one thing about using a scooter as a commuter that is inconvenient, it is the service conundrum. While you wait service is difficult. The BV hit 20k miles, so it was time for a big service. Belt, rollers, oil, valves & brakes. This is not an hour long service. All told, to have it done would be about $600+. I decided to do it myself. Fortunately, my brother had a bike sitting around largely unused as he does not like to ride in the heat of the summer, so I've had a loaner to work with for the last week or so while I have had the BV torn down.
The loaner for the week was a Ducati ST4s that has seen less miles than the BV500. Needless to say, short of both being of Italian origin, these two bikes could not be further apart in terms of the riding experience. It turns out, the differences are about more than the bikes themselves. Before I go too much further, let me preface this with some knowledge. Though I have ridden bikes with gears throughout the years, this is the first time I have spent time with a manual transmission as a commuter, so keep that in mind as you read the rest of my thoughts.
First things first; dear god the ST4s has some tall gearing, and this one has had it's gearing changed to something a little more approachable. Even so, this is a bike that takes the "Sport" of in sport touring downright serious. While I am not going into a full review, as a commuter, fitted out with the standard side cases and an additional Givi top case, the Ducati was a very capable commuter. Space for my laptop case in the top case, and storage for rain gear, tools and a change of clothes in the side cases.
The truly educational part of the loaner had nothing to do with the 'how it rides' questions. The thing I found the most educational was that drivers treat the 'sportbike' differently than the scooter. Not just a little bit. It wasn't my bike, and I did not have the same comfort level on it that I do on the scooter, so I was riding it slower and much more deliberately than I do the scooter. Less hooligan behavior and generally a better citizen on the road.
Despite that, drivers treat the sportbike with outright hostility and aggression. Seeing it first hand was very enlightening. In the roughly 10 days I rode the Ducati, I witnessed more antagonism towards me and what I was riding than I see in a year on the scooter. Sportscars having to show their superiority with illegal double yellow passes (I was doing ~63 in a 45) in both instances. Tailgating to 'intimidate', and my personal favorite was 'pulling over to allow me to pass' when I was sitting 100ft back and quite happy with the drivers 5mph over.
Coming to understand that he sportbike format elicits an emotional reaction from a large cross section of drivers that create aggressive behaviors has been interesting. Switching back to the scooter with it's repairs complete only validates everything I think I learned: drivers seem to feel the need to compete with, and or assert superiority to the sportbike, the same drivers seem to look at the scooter and assume superiority with the need to assert it.
That lack of aggression makes it so much easier to ride safely.
The experience makes me want to put some long time riders of sportbikes and sport tourers on a Maxi-scooter for a couple of weeks to see if they witness the same behavior.