I do not have a classroom yet, so when an assignment for my grad class asked us to discuss “wobble” moments I decided to approach it literally and try to relate what I am learning about teaching back to what I’m still learning (after 17 years) about riding a motor scooter.
Balance is essential. The more your scooter leans to one side or the other, the more force is required to return it to a neutral position. And just like on a bicycle it is easier to balance when you are moving forward. How did I learn this and other scootering skills? I read a motorcycle safety pamphlet from the PA DMV and took a permit test. Once I passed the permit test I got on a scooter and tried to figure out how it worked for myself. I talked to other people I knew who rode motorcycles and/or scooters and I asked questions. Each time I took another ride I did my best to adjust my handling based on the results of my last time out. The most difficult handling issue I came across? Figuring out how to handle a curve when you’re already moving.
A mistake many scooterists make is to speed into a curve and then brake while turning. Doing this throws you off of your projected path, and what you’ll notice is that the more you brake during a turn the more you will wobble. The key to good cornering is to brake before you reach the turn, look ahead to where you want to be, and then to lean and accelerate through the turn. The forward motion of the engine when you accelerate helps keep the scooter (or motorcycle) steady and allows you to be pulled towards your destination and then return to a perpendicular alignment (or “pose” if we’re talking about pose, wobble, and flow).
Part of being an efficient scooterist is understanding your vehicle and getting a feel for it. I learned to ride on a manual shifting 1973 Vespa with a 150cc engine. I then updated my ride to a 2004 Aprilia automatic scooter and later to my current vehicle, a 2014 300cc Vespa GTS. Switching from one bike to the next required not only a break-in period for each engine but also a “getting-to-know-it” period where I learned the specifics of handling each one. As the scooters (and engines) have gotten bigger, I have needed to adjust my riding style accordingly for safety and maximum efficiency. My ultimate goal is to flow smoothly along with the traffic that surrounds me.
Many factors can affect your flow. Riding with a passenger forces you to adjust all of your movements. Part of this task requires transference of knowledge from you to him or her. Synchronicity is necessary, as your passenger needs to lean into and out of curves at the same time as you do. The added weight of a passenger forces you to break and accelerate more slowly. Weather must also be taken into account, as wet roads increase the distance you travel before you stop and the speed at which you can safely move around corners.
So how does this relate back to my education classes? In the same way that a scooterist needs to know his scooter a teacher needs to know his or her students. Adjustments must be made depending on the size of the class, and a balance must be found that conveys the necessary information to the students while still allowing them to have their individual voices be heard (and valued). The speed at which lessons progress must be determined through trial-and-error as well as feedback from the learners themselves. If an obstacle appears in the road I must either work my way around or over it. Obstacles can cause wobble, but experience, attention, and adaptability will enable me to resume traveling with the flow of traffic. When I am unsure of how to overcome an obstacle, I will remember to consult my peers and also experiment in order to figure out what works.
Scootering (like teaching) also has its own online community. For anyone who is interested in learning more, there is a website called Modern Vespa and (more appropriately) here is a link to a known issue with “wobble” that can occur when riding the Vespa I own.
I hope this was sufficiently relevant. Thanks for reading!
-Eric L