Seattle Sun Newspaper - Vol. 7, Issue 7, July 2003

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Scooter 'insanity' comes to

Lake City coffee shop

By MATTHEW PREUSCH

Beware, Lake City: the scooter brigade cometh.

On Saturday, July 5, the Vespa Club of Seattle will participate in an annual citywide rally for owners of the popular European motor scooters.

Scooter owners are invited to gather on the morning of the event at Soma Cafe in Lake City, from 10 a.m. to noon, before embarking on their big ride to the site of this year's Seattle Scooter Insanity 16 rally: Snoqualmie Falls. The breakfast will be prepared by members of the Belladonnas, a women's scooter club whose members includes Soma Cafe owner Staci Dinehart.

Following the breakfast, the scooter enthusiasts will motor en masse from the coffeeshop to Snoqualmie Falls, said Soma owner Staci Dinehart. A post-rally bash will be held that evening at the Sunset Tavern in Ballard.

The goal of the Insanity 16 rally is to bring together the region's diverse scooter community, which numbers in the hundreds and is made up of clubs with names such as Los Gatos Gordos (The Fat Cats) and the Emerald City Flying Monkeys.

Aside from the big ride, the Insanity 16 rally will also provide an opportunity for scooter enthusiasts to socialize and participate in festivities such as the "Gymkana" an obstacle course for scooter daredevils.

In past years, said Dinehart, the course was notable for its "bite the weenie" feature, a test requiring competitors grab a hanging frankfurter with their mouth while driving their scooter.

"They think of creative things to do," said Dinehart of the event's organizers. She added that in recent years the rallies have been less rowdy and more "family-oriented."

According to the Vespa Club, there are about 750 people in Seattle who own a European scooter. The city's scooter scene has grown over the last 20 years into one of the country's largest.

Dinehart said Vespa owners are drawn to the European scooters for a variety of reasons, including style and mechanics.

For Dinehart, who wears a tiny scooter charm around her neck, it was her former boyfriend, Victor, who introduced her to the scene. In 1993, he gave Dinehart her first scooter, a red Vespa Allstate (a 1960s rarity, as it was sold only through the Sears catalog). But, she said, "he crashed it."

By that time she was hooked, and soon after bought another bike.

Now Dinehart, 33, rides a pearly white 1962 Vespa 150VBB, which won her a Best Vintage Vespa award at last year's Insanity event. She keeps the trophy atop the refrigerator at Soma.

She said she's anxious to bring Seattle's European scooter scene to Lake City.

"It will be good for this neighborhood to see all these bikes together," she said.

In March, Dinehart leased Soma from its previous owners, Vicki Dohrmann and Peter Goddeyne, and dove into a 30-hour "marathon remodel" of the coffeeshop with her husband, Kevin Hanson, who is also a Vespa buff.

Dinehart and Hanson were married at a scooter rally in Las Vegas in February 2002.

Soma is Dinehart's first retail business. While she lives in the Beacon Hill area, she said she was pleased to find a coffee shop for lease in Lake City. "This area has always been appealing to me because it's so funky," she said.

At Soma, Dinehart features the work of a different local artist each month, and holds a reception honoring the artist. In July, Soma will display the work of Ballard artist Randy McCoy.

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Soma is located at 3010 NE 125th St. For more information, call 364-1835. The Vespa Club of Seattle meets every second Tuesday at 8 p.m. at the Fairview Bar and Grill, 234 Fairview Ave. N.