Ben Montgomery is a damn fine writer for the St. Pete Times. When he’s not covering the impact gulf drilling would have on Florida beaches, he’s giving readers a first timers view of the road from behind the handlebars of his massive new mistress red manly machine as it roars up and down the highways of greater Tampa Bay.

This is a wicked bad riff on machismo, life in the mellow lane, teenage taunting, and the memorable vagaries of owner’s “manuals” authored by the Chinese. As the flood of scooter related mentions goes these days, it’s well worth a read.