Postcard from the road: Toronto Scooter Shops

It's always a treat to visit a scooter shop when traveling someplace new. Sure, they usually have a lot of the things I'd find at home, but there's always something that I haven't seen before (and generally must have) and new scooterists to meet.

If you're in town, I highly recommend a visit to Motoretta (Vespa Toronto). The shop has two locations: we visited the one on College Street in the heart of Little Italy, not far from the University of Toronto. If you've visited the shops in the D.C. area, you'll understand Ryan's description of this great store: "it's a combination of Vespa Washington and The District Line." A number of great looking new Vespas were featured along with some hot classic bikes and loads of books, clothing and assorted merchandise for the scooter enthusiast.

For me, the decor was just perfect for a scooter shop. Scooter art lined the walls (some for sale and some not), memorabilia of all types was tucked onto the shelves and there was even a lighted display running along the front of the store detailing the history of Vespa. And merchandise wasn't limited to Vespa branded apparel. There were books on Lambrettas, general scooter tomes, and clothing lines from Fred Perry, Ben Sherman and Adidas.

Needless to say, we left with a bag of goodies (a Lambretta model, an awesome Adidas bag and a Motoretta t-shirt). Well worth the stop in!

After our visit to Motoretta, we spent an enjoyable afternoon exploring Kensington Market were we spotted these fun jackets (pictured below). I was already feeling a little guilty about overindulging on scooter stuff, so I resisted taking one home--put I did snap a picture!

One shop we didn't make it to, and didn't even know we were near, was Vespa Markham. During our visit to Toronto we stayed in a suburb about 20 miles north of downtown to be close to the wedding that was our real reason for the journey north. On our last night in town, we decided to visit Main Street in neighboring Markham, which looked to be lined with good places to eat. Low and behold it was also home to a scooter shop. Alas, we got there after closing, but still took a peak inside the windows--there's always next time!


note: travel log not posted in real time