Morphous Morphs Into Morphous Wrex

Ray says I have to tell Morphous Wrex's story, which also is mine. It all started with our sons giving Ray a motorcycle. It's their fault, this whole thing.

Eventually I got tired of waving good-bye as a small pack of motorcycles left our house on lovely sunny days. They all made it look so easy, especially our nephew, TJ KneeDragger. I figured if they could all do it, so could I. Forget that Ray had ridden motorcycles when he was a teenager and that the sons and the nephew are waaay younger than I am, that the last time I rode a bicycle I ended up on crutches for weeks (badly sprained ankle) and that I have never ridden a motorcycle. I had to have one too.

I did some research and consulted my resident experts. Quickly I decided that I didn't want to bother with clutches and such (I really don't like driving a stickshift car around here) and that a scooter was just the ticket. So off to test sit scooters. Hmmm. These are all too tall! I've got a 28" inseam and these scooter seats are at 35". Hmmm. Good thing this has a center stand or I'd fall over. Hmmm. Back to the internet for more research.

Ah-HA! Look at this! Yamaha Morphous. Seat height 25 inches. Ooh! Let's go look at that one! On the 8th of April 2007 I saw, fell in love with, and bought the Morphous. It really was love at first sight and adoration at first sit. The Morphous fits me perfectly and I love it's sleek ultramodern looks. My sons think it looks like a Star Wars Moon of Endor Speeder, but I think it's beauty on wheels. As you can see in the pictures, my Morphous is shiny Midnight Black. Yes, it came with only 2 wheels. Ray gave it a short test drive in the dealer's lot and declared it suitable for me. So Morphous came home with us and kicked my mini-van out of the garage. (Sorry, Blue)

I was lucky and got a spot in an MSF class later in April. Ray took me out to practice in a parking lot a couple of times and declared I was doing well. I didn't want to show up for class never having driven my own bike. So on a cloudy and cool Friday, April 13, I got way brave and took Morphous out for some practice in our neighborhood all by myself. Wow! Look at me, I'm going 7 miles per hour! AAAACK! That truck behind me is HUUUUGE! Turn into the cul-de-sac and get away from that giant grill that's about to eat us! Ahh, that's better.

Oops. What's that doing there? There's another huge truck parked right in the narrow part of the street. Now, how do I get around that truck after I circle around the cul-de-sac? Hmmm. Think about this. So far, so good, but while thinking and visualizing, I let the scooter coast. I found out two-wheeled vehicles don't coast so good at 2 mph. At that speed, they don't stand up on their own.

Wham! Flat on my back under some juniper bushes in someone's front yard. Hmmm. Scoot is still running, I better turn it off. There. Hmm. My right leg's under that scoot between the curbing and the floorboard and I better get it out. Ooo, that leg hurts. Man, 400 pounds is very heavy when it's laying on you. Shriek! That hurt worse, but the leg is now on top of the scooter instead of underneath. Oh, no! It feels broken.

Now what? Hmmm. Call for help. Oops, can't reach the phone which is in the glove box on the far side of the scooter. Well, you could crawl the 3 blocks home. Ah, no. Not. Ok, yell. So I yelled and after some minutes nothing. So I turned the scooter back on and with my right foot, pushed the horn button until the man who owned the bushes I was in came out to see what the noise was. He was so startled to find me there. He called 911 for me and had a hard time convincing the dispatcher that he didn't run me over.

EMS came, picked me up and stuffed me in an ambulance. Off to the hospital, x-rays and oh, yes, your leg's broken into four pieces, have a cast. Nearly one very painful week later, I had surgery to fix the break....one steel plate and 7 screws. A brand new cast. And I had to miss my MSF class too. A long recovery ensued. The cast came off the last week of June. Physical therapy took weeks. By fall I was cleared to get back on the scooter but then the rains set in. In January 2008 I had the screws and plate removed. More recovery ensued, but I was finally ready to try again.

And that's how Morphous became Morphous Wrex.

The wheels are another story.