Ken O'Shea, reporter, Prime Time, RTE
What's your bike? An '03 Vespa PX200
What attracted you to it? Arson. I used to own a beautiful little black PX80 Vespa, a really good machine which never gave me any problems apart from a couple of snapped cables, which you would expect. One morning I emerged from my flat to find that it had been burnt out. The petrol tank on a Vespa is under the saddle. Some galoots decided it would be a good idea to stick a rag in the tank, light it and let nature take its course. That was a couple of years ago. I've always driven scooters - Vespas or Lambrettas - since I was old enough to hold a licence. I finally got back on two wheels in October.
Why were you drawn to two rather than four wheels? In my younger days in Cork I was a confirmed Mod, so a Vespa or Lambretta was the only option as a broke 17-year-old. Also, the freedom you get with a Vespa is great - freedom in terms of dodging traffic but also the liberation you can only get on two-wheels, driving by the sea on a summer's day - unbeatable. These days, I live in Dublin, the inner-city, so owning a car would be pretty pointless.
Did you do any training course before you took to two wheels? Yes, my Mod buddies, Rossi and Hutty, took me down to Kinsale and showed me how to pop a wheelie on a souped-up PE200 with an expanded exhaust and bored-out pistons while smoking a fag and without losing your pillion passenger. Invaluable advice which every rider should know.
Do you hold a full or provisional licence? The latter, to my eternal shame.
Can you drive a car? I know how to but choose not to.
Motorcycle fatalities are rising - do you worry? Every time I drive it. Because every time I get up on it, some goom-bah in a car does something which threatens my survival.
Any family resistance to the scooter? My father was very much against it - he was a rocker in the 1950s, driving Triumph Bonnevilles in England during his time in Dagenham. To see his son in a fishtail parka on a Vespa was a cruel blow for him. He has yet to recover.
What do you use your scooter for? To and from work in Donnybrook every day. Driving to the Forty Foot for a fag at sunset in the summer. The usual.
What's the bond that links bikers closer than motorists? Fear of cars and hypothermia.
Your worst experience with motorists? It happens every day . . . a car trying to pull out at a junction, the driver looks, if he sees another car he waits, if he sees a bike he pulls out. In the split second it takes to make the decision, his brain makes a simple assessment: "Can whatever is coming down the road hurt me?" With a bike the answer is "no", so they pull out and leave it to the biker to deal with the situation. Most people on two wheels know this, so we drive defensively. We assume the driver in the car ahead is going to do the exact opposite of what he should do in any given situation. Eight out of 10 times, they do. I know, from what I see every day, that the vast majority of bikers are hurt and killed because drivers see us - but they don't "see" us.
Any biker issues for the Minister for Transport? Open bus lanes to bikes. Don't make us wear fluorescent tops. Tackle the insurance industry, which exploits people who pick two wheels. The state seems to take every opportunity to punish people who want to do the one thing that will dramatically reduce traffic. That's dumb.
Any tips for survival? Drive defensively. If you think that muppet in the swimming-pool size Volvo is NOT going to pull out, that he HAS to see you, think again. You may have all your lights on, it may be daylight, you may be 10 yards away, but you'll be lying on the ground with a broken neck. And he will tell the cops: "Honest, I never saw the guy."
Your dream machine? A garage full of every vintage Vespa and Lambretta I could get my hands on.