Nashville’s scooter enthusiasts are gathering in the city this weekend and welcoming riders from several neighboring states. And while the rally isn’t the largest in the nation, organizers say they bring a special Nashville spirit to the event — one that welcomes all kinds of scooters.
As the sun set Thursday, vintage Vespa scooters rolled into Sylvan Park, puttering to a stop in a gravel driveway to begin their rally weekend. Two camps of riders are coming together here: the vintage aficionados and the modern riders.
But when it comes to the pecking order for all motorbikes, they stand together for the modest scooter.
“I like them because of the history, they look cool, they’re unique and interesting,” Nashvillian Ross Cochran says. “I really could care less what anybody thinks of me when I’m on it.”
Cochran knows all the makes and models that will crisscross the city. They’re hitting tourist destinations like Hatch Show Print and the Johnny Cash Museum.
There will be competitions and parties, and because some of the scooters date to the 1960s, they’ll inevitably spend some time fixing the bikes that break down.
“If it gets from point A to point B, that’s all that really matters,” participant Kerry Campbell says. “Scooter people run the gambit. Anywhere from pristine paint jobs, you know, every little last detail, every little last piece of metal polished, all the way to the other extreme of like, you know, what they would call a rat bike: If it needs to be fixed, you need to fix it with duct tape.”
To the layman, defining what counts as a scooter could be a little difficult. But those who gathered knew where they were drawing the line. There wasn’t a motorcycle or a moped to be seen — just pride and a sense of scooter street cred
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