Month: March 2009

2SB/CWC Spring Party, Sat, April 11!

Hi everybody! Here are the details on the Galewood/Cold Weather Challenge ride and Karaoke party this Saturday (4-11)

Dinner at 5pm
Russell’s BBQ
1621 N Thatcher Ave Elmwood Park, IL 60607

I’ll be honest with you here, this is not the BBQ that made Galewood famous, but it’s a neat, old-school place with plenty of space for us, and if you forget about real BBQ, it’s pretty good in the way that Taco Bell is good if you forget about real Mexican food. And they have fried Macaroni and Cheese wedges.

Ride leaves 6:30pm sharp

We’ll do a quick ride (about 15 miles total) and see all the wonders of the greater Galewood area:

The Des Plaines River (Will it flood!?)
Forest preserves (“Balls Deep!”)
Elmwood Park’ (“Italinate” architecture!)
River Grove! (Home of Triton College!)
Kiddieland (and the “Scooters” sign!)
Maywood Park (Harness Racing!)
More Forest Preserves (Nature!-ish!)
Forest Park (Irish Pubs & Yarn stores!)
Oak Park (The Evanston of the West!)
Lake Street (The Gap! Starbucks!)
Frank Lloyd Wright’s home and studio
A bunch of Hemingway shit

Bonus! An 80-car-long freight train *will* hold up the ride at some point.

Then it’s on to Galewood for a lap around the best neighborhood in Chicago, ending at

BERRYOKE!
The Kat Klub
6920 W. North Avenue
at 8:00
Jason and Mary emcee the best Karaoke around, with a great variety of songs.
We’re talking New Wave, Punk, Mod, British Invasion, and even some indie rock, plus all the usual karaoke cheese.
No cover! Cheap drinks! Friends! Fun! Malört! Peeptinis!

Then! a late-night ride (four blocks) to River Forest Grill for the “AK-47.”

Then! Ride! Straight to your place of worship and sleep next to your scooter in the parking lot, because it’s EASTER!

Ride Map:


View Larger Map

Smallpressapalooza

2SB pal and publisher of the Bumpstart zine, Karen Giezyng, will read tonight at Powell’s Books Smallpressapalooza in Portland, OR. The event starts at 5pm, she’s scheduled to read at 7:15pm. Issue 2 of Bumpstart will hopefully go on sale tonight at Scootmoto, if my internet at home is fixed (it’s been out for a week, sorry about the lack of posts and followup on the TGB story). Issue 1 is back in stock, too, both are great.

UPDATE Bumpstart #2 is now available at Scootmoto!

Scooter (back in) the Sticks

Last spring I posted that Steve Williams of Scooter in the Sticks had decided to stop publishing his blog. Back then I pulled the site from my RSS feed and hadn’t checked it for months. Today I was surprised to find Steve’s retirement was apparently short-lived, and he’s been posting regularly to the site for months. It’s embarassing how long it took me to notice, but I’m happy to see him back, and happy we have lots of his new posts to read through.

SYMpathy for the scooter industry

supermanI recently learned from a third party that my friend and colleague Steve Guzmán of The Scooter Scoop was let go by SYM distributor Carter Brothers shortly after DealerExpo. When I asked Steve about it, he was modest and polite as usual, and I don’t pretend to know what happened behind the scenes, but it’s a real disappointment.
Continue reading “SYMpathy for the scooter industry”

“Swimsuit Issue” is just a Sonic Youth song

Most of us stopped “reading” Sports Illustrated’s Swimsuit Issue in about 6th grade, when we finally tracked down some real porn. But there will always be 6th-graders, so SI keeps publishing it, and comically pretending it’s a guide for women shopping for swimwear. Their portfolio now includes athletes’ wives, tennis stars, cheerleaders, bodypainted nudes, Danica Patrick (you’re killing us, Danica) and the usual fashion models, but, strangely still no men (don’t men need swimsuit shopping advice?). It’s always beautifully-shot, and always edging just close enough to pornography to create a stir and sell magazines. To anyone with a connection to the Internet, the Swimsuit Issue (and even the Swimsuit Issue website) seems as anachronistic as the Sears catalog lingerie section, but as a public service, Michael dutifully searched through the sprawling site to find these photos of Daniella Sarahyba blocking our view of a vintage Vespa 50 Special in Naples, Italy. As fans of imperfection, charm, and natural beauty, we find the scooter much more appealing than the model. Is there something wrong with us if our eyes are immediately drawn to that aftermarket fenderlight, rather than Daniella’s headlights?

Brains

No, this is not a S.P.A.Z. post. Japanese neuroscientist Ryuta Kawashima, who designed “Brain Training” for the Nintendo DS, has determined that riding a motorcycle can improve memory, space recognition and other prefrontal brain functions. That’s a way better excuse to buy a bike than fuel efficiency, right?

You know, our Brooke is a neuroscientist too, and he would say anything Yamaha wanted, if they’ll fill up his garage with Asian-market Zumas, but since Yamaha didn’t come to him first, I imagine he’ll have an interesting opinion on Kawashima’s findings.

(Thanks for the story, Victor!)

Avatars

You might have noticed comments have avatars now. If you’d like to customize yours, simply register (free and easily) with Gravatar. If your mail address in your 2sb account matches your Gravatar account, your avatar will apear. easy peasy. It’ll automatically add it to every post you’ve ever made here, *and* on other Gravatar-enabled sites.

How’s your Piaggio stock doing?

According to Reuters UK, Piaggio reported a 28% drop in net profit in 2008, which reminded us to check on our Piaggio stock: It’s at €0.95, an all-time low since Piaggio’s June, 2006 IPO at €2.30. Poor sales, a bad economy, and the weak Euro all hurt Piaggio last year, as did nearly €100 million in new debt from stock buybacks and a €.06-per share dividend last year, which will be offered again this year, which seems counterintuitive, but what do we know?
Continue reading “How’s your Piaggio stock doing?”

Magnet-Adorned LED Caltrop May Come In Handy

lightTell me this baby wouldn’t come in handy when trying to work on a Vespa smallframe carburetor. You could be right. But I’m imagining being caught on the side of the road in the rain and tossing this little bugger down the hole and heading in after it. A must for the metal-bodied aficionado? Or is holding a mini-maglite between your teeth more comfortable for you? Note to Striker: Send me one and I’ll write another post reviewing it.

Haynes’ “Chinese scooter” book

Scooter-Station notes that Haynes has released one of their famous service manuals targeted to Chinese/Taiwanese/Korean scooters. Probably handy, but it can’t be too specific, even though half the scooters made in Asia are Yamaha Vino knockoffs, there’s a lot of variety there, too, and surely a wide variety of tolerances and torques and such, which is where the Haynes manuals usually shine. Still, knowledge is power, and even if it just covers GY6-style engines in depth, it’d be useful.