The Vespa Club of Chicago has about 80 members. Please join us for a ride or event or two, if you like what you see, we encourage you to make it official: join the Vespa Club of America and choose “Vespa Club of Chicago” as your local Chapter.
Meet a few of our members:
Bryan Bedell is the current Chapter Leader of VCOA-Chicago. Bryan’s been scootering in Chicago for 25 years and a VCOA member for most of that time. In 1995, he attended the first Chicago Slaughterhouse Rally, and was hooked; he’s helped organize Slaughterhouse pretty much every year since. Bryan rides a 1965 Vespa 150, a 1971 Vespa Primavera, and a 1962 Lambretta LI125 and is happy to share his opinions on the differing mechanical and aesthetic merits of the Vespa vs the Lambretta. Bryan lives on the far west side of Chicago in the Galewood neighborhood with his family and also enjoys letterpress printing, photography, graphic design, jukeboxes, and record collecting.
Renee bought her first scooter, “Smore” (a 2023 Genuine Buddy 50) because she lived far from public transportation and wanted to get around easily. She cites that as her second best decision, second only to moving to the city. In no time, she jumped into the deep end, instantly becoming an integral part of the club and the Slaughterhouse rally. Only six months after the first, she bought her second scooter, a 2003 Genuine Stella named “Ruby Soho.” She’s quickly getting the hang of riding the manual scooter, and the associated repairs and maintenance. She tells us, “The community is just amazing. Truly, genuinely good people. I still continue to be blown away by their warmth and generosity.” She was one of the organizers of the first Chicago International Female Ride Day ride in 2024, and she’s looking forward to organizing more women-centered rides and workshops.
Paul Sack is a computer programmer from the northwest side of Chicago. Paul rides a blue 1974 Vespa Primavera and has a 1963 Vespa GL in his garage that we’re all hoping will move under its own power someday (now that his Porsche is running…) He got into scooters back in 2005, riding a Honda Passport, and his favorite memory with the club was watching cargo planes land at O’Hare on our Slaughterhouse 30 test ride. Paul enjoys beer and coffee, climbing, and piano.
Kathy “The Great” Anderson fell for scooters after seeing the eighties Honda Elite ad featuring Devo. She came to Rockford’s first Screw City rally in 1999 and has been hooked ever since. Her Vespas, “Punkin'” a 1976 90cc and “Snowflake,” a 1974 Rally 200, are a never-ending source of excitement, mystery, and drama. Kathy’s a punk-rock accountant who also loves music, cats, throwing axes, cats, hanging out with her awesome friends, cats, and cats. Like Bryan, she’s been involved in the Slaughterhouse Rally as long as anyone can remember. Kathy wants to remind the parents out there to “please keep sharing the fun of scootering with your kids, we need fresh young enthusiasts or our scene dies.”
Jeff T43 bought his first Vespa out of a shipping crate in 1999, when an Italian emissions buyback program resulted in a mass export of vintage scooters. He’d recently seen a Vespa exhibit in London, and the drummer in his band, The Shifties, rode a Vespa P200. He met the local scooter community over the Internet, and soon he was attending rides and rallies, and The Shifties were playing shows with other scooterist-musicians. Aside from playing, recording, and collecting music, Jeff works in film/video production and collects vintage BMX bikes. He gave away that first Vespa, briefly rode a Genuine Stella, then picked up his current ride, a 1972 Sprint “with a nice patina.” Jeff lives in the Six Corners neighborhood of Chicago.