THE RIDE STUFF

IT’S a Wednesday morning, and event designer DeJuan Stroud is sitting in his TriBeCa office, dreading his trip uptown for a series of afternoon appointments. It’s not the meetings themselves – the problem is that it’s pouring rain outside, and, he gripes, “I can’t ride my Vespa.”

Stroud is one of a growing number of city professionals who’ve traded in hiked-up taxi fares, traffic jams and sweltering subway platforms for what Stroud calls “a new lease on life.”

Stroud bought his several months ago, after his bookkeeper told him he was spending close to $800 a month on taxis.

“It’s not just the money, it’s the stress of sitting in traffic and being late. I was tired of running into meetings and apologizing.”

His solution: a brand-new pearl gray Vespa with a 1954 vintage design and a custom leather seat.

“I’m completely addicted,” he says. “I can leave a little later; I can go straight to an appointment, park on the street, have my meeting and go to the next one without having to wait for anyone.”

On top of that, a tank of gas costs $3 and lasts a week – and he can ride it in a suit and tie.

“My hair gets a bit pressed down from the helmet, but other than that I look completely fine. I wear normal dress shoes; I do absolutely nothing to compensate.”

Stroud isn’t the only one who says one of the sleek scooters has become as much a part of their workday routine as a morning latte.

“I’ve had mine for about five years,” says public relations consultant R. Couri Hay. “As a publicist I’m always running from one event to the next, and my Vespa allows me cruise right by everybody and zoom up to the front of the line, especially in the Hamptons.”

Aaron Peterson, the sales manager of Vespa Soho, says sales have doubled in the past two years, and that most of his clients are city residents looking for a “quick and easy” way to get to work, or to make their workday rounds.

“We get a lot of wine merchants who have to carry wine, so we make carrying cases with built-in coolers that fit right on the Vespa,” he says. “We also have a lot of people in real estate who’ve found that because they don’t have to look for a parking space or constantly jump in cabs they can increase the number of appointments they make in a day.”

Peterson says almost half his customers are women – like publicist Allison Watters, who bought her first Vespa two years ago, and now rides back and forth between her Gramercy Park apartment and her Times Square office. Her one wardrobe concession is “wearing sturdy shoes” – but, she adds, “What woman doesn’t bring two pairs of shoes to work? Even when I took the subway I had an extra pair of flip-flops.”

Peter Michaelson, who works in television, won his Vespa two years ago in a raffle, and hasn’t gone to work without it since – rain or shine.

“You get good rain gear,” he says. “Nothing stops me short of a blizzard.”

Though Michaelson parks his scooter alongside his car in his building’s garage, others say finding enough space between cars to park on the street is never a problem.

“It’s crazy easy,” says Stroud. “And I’ve never gotten a ticket.”

Each Vespa comes with a trunk, the seat lifts up for extra storage, and there’s a luggage rack on the back suitable for carrying a briefcase or a laptop. You can’t return phone calls or check e-mail like you can in a cab. but that’s part of the beauty, says Hay – you’re completely unreachable.

“No one can text you, and you can’t talk on the phone,” says Hay. “It’s kind of like a Roman holiday. It gives you a little time to pretend you’re James Dean or Marlon Brando before you show up at your meeting.”