DEFEND YOUR RIDE: Nick At The Sunflower Drive-In

Q: Neat scooter Nick. What can you tell us about it?

A: I solemnly swear that this scooter rocks the house. This is a royal blue 1987 Honda Elite. It's simple. It gets the job done. It's fun. I've only had it the last year.

Q: Oh, this wasn't like a project you started in '87?

A: No, it's not something I started in '87. That would have been really... Gosh, I would be such a brilliant mind in the minds of scooter enthusiasts if I had done that from age four to tweny-nine. I live with a couple of people who are my yoga students, older individuals, and they have all sorts of fun rides. They had this one in their garage and it wasn't being used. I was like hey, I call them my faux parents. Hey faux parents, you think I can have that thing, or buy it? They said, sure, so ever since I've been riding it around.

Q: So you teach yoga?

A: Yeah, I teach yoga in Folsom and Midtown, Sacramento and I take it to work whenever I can.

Q: Do your yoga skills come in handy when riding your scooter in terms of keeping it balanced?

A: I guess more than anything, you need the aspect of awareness. It's so easy to get distracted when we drive our car, but when you're on a scooter like this, it's dangerous. Not just because of me on the scooter, but the people around me! It's created this sense of awareness and presence when I ride. It's amazing. I feel like I'm breathing the whole time. I feel like I'm always focused. There's been a few dodgy moments when cars have come at me, but I see it happening way before it happens, so I can slow down and move to the side or get myself out. So more than that, I think the yoga skills, the breath and the presence and the awareness, really helps. Everything is yoga, so like, riding this is yoga to me.

Q: Wait, aren't you wearing a helmet?

A: Yeah, not through my hair, through my face. I use an open face helmet and one time I was riding without my sunglasses and I caught a dragonfly right in my eye and it hurt.

Q: Gross. And parking in Midtown must be easy with it?

A: I can park it anywhere! I've parked it behind dumpsters. I've parked it on the sidewalk--probably not supposed to. You know how many miles per gallon that thing gets? It fills up on a little less than a gallon and I get 100 miles out of it!

Q: Really, as in a gallon? Like three dollars worth of gas?

A: Yeah, in the summertime more like four dollars, but yeah. So heck yeah, I ride everywhere. Any chance I get, I ride it. It saves me so much gas.

Q: Is it freeway safe?

A: This one's not freeway safe. This one only goes--revved up to the maximum--probably 44 miles an hour.

Q: What's your favorite road in Sacramento?

A: My favorite road in town is Winding Way, coming down from Hazel to Sunrise because it's windy and I actually think I might be able to get it up to like 46 or 47 on that road, gunned! Like totally gunned up! And tucked. If I get into a ball and tuck, I can get around there pretty fast.

Q: Have you thought about wearing one of those aerodynamic unitards?

A: No, not until right now.

Q: Does your scooter have a nickname?

A: The Blue Bomber.

Q: Interesting. OK, for our last question Nick, if Blue Bomber had a human emotion, what do you think it would be?

A: Yeah, he feels pretty sexy. This is a courageous scooter, no doubt. Every single vehicle on the road is bigger than this one. To zoom around with a 200-pound guy on top of it, that's pretty courageous.