Introducing Optimus Pride

Soca Scooter is no more.

he had a good 6 year run and at first, he never failed me. Alas, the time eventually came when I couldn’t rely on him any longer. It made no sense that I would be ready to bounce starter and mash gas and………nothing! he just would not move. The vexing thing is that I knew what  was wrong but the problem was that I just never knew when it would happen and the time I took him to be repaired, he worked perfectly fine. Now that I’m writing this and think back, the problem started happening a while back but somehow I was always able to get him moving again and never realised that it was actually the start of an issue so I guess it was just the end of the road this time. Anyhoo, I just couldn’t afford to take any more chances and I had to replace him.  I’ve talked bout Bumblebee here already. He is my Lamborghini…my weekend ride if u will, and driving up the road in my neighbourhood is just not his scene.  I needed another “Corolla” to handle that and all the jammin I put the things thru on a regular basis. Enter…Optimus Pride.

Optimus Pride is like a Soca Scooter2.0 and he’s a chunx bigger. He breaks apart when I have to load him up into a car and he’s low and close to the ground so I won’t feel nervous driving on a slight incline, all the while hoping with everything in me that we won’t tip over. He’s .6mph slower than SS but Bumblebee has gotten me used to the slower speed so no big deal. It’s weird though, the handles and controls are shaped differently and for some reason, there are times (more often than I’m willing to admit) when I press the control at first and we head in the wrong direction.  What the?!? Have u not been using a scooter for the past 6 years?!? It really doesn’t seem to make any sense at all,  but it is what it is. OP (not to be confused with OB 😉) also has front and back wheel suspension so his ride is nice and smooth.

his name…allyuh know u hadda indulge me.

like Soca Scooter, he’s originally red. Unlike Soca Scooter he came with alternate blue panelling that can be switched out depending on the mood of the user.  I was thinking about what to name him and I figured that maybe I could stay with the “Transformers” theme and use both colours.  Hmmmm…Optimus.  Optimus Prime is red and blue so I can switch out a few of the red panels and use the blue. “Oh self…not a bad idea at all…k, i’ll call him Optimus.” Well the problem with that was that he eh no transformer. when people see Bumblebee in action going from folded to not, he’s a transformer. Optimus doesn’t transform, he breaks down and apart…yes that bothered me (say what u will about me). A friend suggested “Optimus Pride”. Yuh see he’s a Pride scooter…that’s the brand. I thought it was perfect; staying in the “Transformers” theme without actually being a transformer. Quite clever if (by chance) u ask me 🙂

Saturday I was out on Bumblebee and someone said to me, “is that a license plate u have there?” I replied with a “hell yeah!”. I think it was Miami carnival 2013 that I had the idea to create a license plate for Soca Scooter – it was Stax3.25 (my car at the time was Stax3). There was no way that I’d know at that time that five years later, I’d be asking Asal to make Stax5.25 for me.

Aye allyuh have a great week; I gone so.