Photos of the “Jet Powered Honda Metropolitian” have been circulating for months, but Engadget’s piece is the only one I’ve seen that actually tracked the guy down and got the story.
Month: August 2006
Jamie Oliver crushes Vespa
The celebrity news just keeps coming today. British chef and well-known scooterist Jamie Oliver crushes a Vespa in a fat suit in commercials for his new TV show. As an obese scooterist, I am not amused.
Around Australia
Australian scooterist Julio Languiller is a quarter of the way into his 15-day, 10,000-mile trip around Australia for at-risk and homeless Australian youth. Languilller holds world endurance records on Honda 50, 125, and 150cc scooters and is a veteran of many long-distance charity rides. The Cannonball Run starts in less than a month, their ride is less than a quarter the distance in two-thirds the time, but they’re mostly riding vintage scooters, not 600cc Honda Silverwings, so we’ll cut them some slack.
Ashton Skootcher
Trophy husband, stepfather, Kabbalah poseur, practical joker, and bad actor Ashton Kutcher is now a scooterist. Save us.
Something’s scooty in Denmark
In other celebrity scootering news, Danish royals Prince Frederik and Princess Mary were photographed riding a Lambretta LD around the palace grounds last week. That’s a much more romantic thought than Demi and Ashton.
Genuine Blur 150: a first look
Genuine unveiled their new Blur 150 at the Minneapolis rally this weekend. We had a good look at it, and a brief ride, and we were impressed. Here’s a photo to whet your appetite, we’ll post a review and more photos tomorrow. (Photo © 2006 2strokebuzz)
Na na na na, hey hey hey…
Looks like Becks’ 15 minutes of fame are up. Fortunately, there’s always the Chicago Storm! Note: they’re also holding Dance Team tryouts soon!
MSF’s group riding video
From Scooter Diva: The MSF has produced a Group Riding Safety Video (right-click to download, it streams poorly). It’s definitely worth watching for some good tips (hand signals!) and Lindsay Buckingham-esque guitar riffs.
Tukker update
Jo and Ants, tuk-tuking across the eastern hemisphere, are still rolling and still blogging. They’re off to the Ukraine today after an unintended 4-day stop in Volgograd, Russia. They seem to be under the impression it’ll be easier once they get through the Ukraine, but we’ll see!
Smoky two-strokes clobbered by SUV in emissions test
We overlooked this story from Portland, OR’s Williamette Week, assuming it was just another rehash of the “Vespanomics” story. But the Scooter Scoop read it and brought it back to our attention. Suspicious of all the pro-scooter hype out there, they did their own tests, comparing a “Piaggio-made” (ha) Stella, a 1968 Vespa, and a Subaru Tribeca. The results weren’t pretty for rotary-valve 2-strokes, but it should also be noted that the Tribeca is hardly the worst offender in the SUV kingdom. A 4-stroke Vespa LX or a Bajaj Chetak vs. a Ford Expedition or Hummer would have been an entirely different story, we demand a rematch!
Microcar & Minicar Club National Meet
If you can’t make it to Minneapolis this weekend, the next best thing is in Crystal Lake, IL: The 2006 Microcar and Minicar National Meet.
Another new Genuine: The Rattler
While we guessed right yesterday about the new Genuine Blur being based on the PGO G-Max, The Scooter Scoop reports that Genuine has another scooter on the way! The new Rattler will be available in 50cc and 110cc 2-stroke versions, and appears to be a Genuine-ified PGO PMS (once again, a big improvement, name-wise). If you like the style of the Genuine Black Cat, based on the PMX, but were turned off by the graphics, the rattler would be the bike for you. Going by the specs, though, we remain much more excited about the Blur, and look forward to seeing it in Minneapolis this weekend. The Rattler is the fourth of PGO’s eight current scooter models (ignoring the trike) Genuine will bring to the U.S.
Morphous test ride
JustGottaScoot has a go on the Yamaha Morphous.
New scooter from Genuine?
Genuine Scooter Co. is rumored to have a new scooter, the “Blur,” in the works. We’re hoping it’s It’s the US version of the the PGO G-Max (which was road tested by P.J. Chmiel this spring)… specifically, the PGO Evo G-Max 150.
Merry-go-round (follow-up)
BBC reports that Crawley, West Sussex police are investigating the “Merry-go-round” video posted last week on YouTube, in which two presumably-teenaged girls were thrown from a playground merry-go-round spun with a scooter tire. Remind me not to post any rally videos on YouTube.