The most bad a$$ rider I ever saw

When I used to work downtown in Richmond there was this small, hole in the wall, Chinese food joint. They had a buffet lunch and was the first place I saw on this coast with televisions everywhere that evidently mimics how those places are setup in the mother country.

So this guy worked there. A very slight guy. Maybe 5 foot something and right around 130-140lbs. He was the delivery driver. Driver is a bit of a misnomer because the first time I saw him he was opening the front door and manhandling this tiny 150cc scooter into the door with a 22 gallon cooler bungied to the back. The cooler just barely fit in the door frame. He pulled the scooter in behind and walked in wearing what looked like Teva sandals, some dockers, a white t-shirt, and his apron. Whenever I saw him riding that was the total amount of his gear. Sandals, pants, t-shirt, and with the apron he cooked in still on.

Here's the bada$$ part.

I was walking down the sidewalk and heard this manic buzzing. It escalated in tone and didn't change pitch for a full four city blocks. I turned and see this guy on his scooter. Turns out he used the throttle on this thing like a light switch. It was either off or on. He's lane splitting, in VA, which is illegal on a downtown street. On one side of him is someone's car and on the other side a city bus. He whitelined to the front of the line at the light meaning he rode up the white strip and stopped at the front. I didn't know at the time but this is legal in Europe and might be legal in California. Either way it's often acknowledged as being the safest place for a motorcyclist to wait out a light. After spending over 10 years being paranoid of a rear end collision on my motorcycle I could understand it. Think about it. You can sit at the back of the line on your bike relying on a brake light that could be covered by a child's fist or you could be between two 3000 pound beasts who have brake lights as bright and as big as run way lights at the local airport.

So he takes off from this light and the bus on his left starts to turn left. Strike me dead if I'm lying, he reached out with the throttle pinned without even a glance, and puts his hand on the bus. I had no idea what he was doing until I realized he was gauging the bus's distance by feel. At this point he had enough speed to start out running the bus and gets in front of it and zips off into the distance. Ballsy move in my opinion.

After that I watched him a lot for riding pointers. He was a master at urban survival on a low powered ride. I'd seen him jump curbs to avoid collisions and not even slow down. All with a cooler on the back three times as wide as he was. Amazing.

Got any stories about the most bad a$$ rider you know?

Third world life skills. I have a friend from Togo and he rides like that too.

I thought that might be the case. The guy probably honed his skills doing some slicing and dicing in barely controlled foreign streets. Still, I have great respect for his skills.

Years ago I had a work assignment in Taiwan for a year, and had a Vespa for transportation. You learn to adapt quickly to the semi-controlled chaos, but the thing is everyone there is playing by the same rules so it works - I wouldn't dare ride like that in the US, as it would get you killed pretty quickly.

I was in Vietnam a few years ago. Scooter riding is an amazing controlled chaos. At times bikes are going in every direction! Look on youtube for some videos.

Most impressive is how a pedestrian crosses a street during rush hour when there is no intersection/traffic signal and there is a constant flow of scooters. Simply you walk very slowly and the stream of bikes separates around you, terrifying and exhilarating all at once.

Everyone on a sportbike is bada$$ to me!