Do it. Now. If I was guaranteed a free Vespa, I might eat at Burger King and go see a Twilight movie. “I Love You Man,” “Transformers,” it’s like they know all my favorite movies. I’m looking forward to the “Eat a live scorpion, then see your grandmother naked, win a Vespa” promotion.
Month: July 2010
Play the Burger King® “The Twilight Saga:
Carter Brothers/SYM-USA HQ
destroyed in fire
Steve at the Scooter Scoop worked for SYM-USA for a few days, so we’ll defer to his ex-insider-coverage of the fire at Carter Brothers’ Alabama headquarters. Glad to hear everyone’s allright, but man, that’s bad news for SYM, Carter Brothers, and scootering in general.
Pinasco Gears Up For New Stella
Pinasco sent out an email announcement last week describing their new exhaust for the 4-stroke LML Star (AKA, the Genuine Stella 4-stroke. It is described as made from special INOX steel. That must make it fast. The dyno charts included in the email showed an increase in power from about 7.5 to 8 HP, but increasing the RPM range by about 1000 RPM or more. The best part is that it looks pretty cool. I think that’s what’s most important. So when the Stella breaks through the red tape to put smiles on the faces of Californians and other fans of two superfluous strokes, Pinasco should have something with which to void your warranty.
Massachusetts Cracks Down on “Limited Use” Scooters
The Massachusetts RMV is targeting scooterists that have registered their “Limited Use” scooters as mopeds. Many states don’t require plates for mopeds, so some dealers and scooterists exploit the confusion to register bona-fide scooters as mopeds to skirt registration fees, insurance requirements, parking restrictions, and licensing requirements. When enforcement officials aren’t clear on the laws, it just makes things worse. It’s up to you to be certain your bike is registered and titled legally and that you meet all requirements to ride safely and legally.
World Cup Semis!
Well, a few upsets later, our brackets got a serious shakeup but “tnpsc1” stays in first for now. Argentina and Brazil’s losses bombed most of us, and all the Holland fans I made fun of when this started are looking good now. I’m no math wizard, and the scoring of this contest frankly makes little sense to me, but I *think* as it stands now, if Spain wins the tournament, “tnpsc” (whom we suspect is Patrick from P-Town) wins it. If the Netherlands beats Spain in the final, Kevin “Brazil Sucks” Slater wins. If the Netherlands beat Germany in the final, Matt “m5matty1” DeVries wins, and if Germany wins, it’ll be “Mythdraug,” who’s been posting comments for years on 2SB and lives in Chicago, so it’s about time that I admit I’m not really sure who “Mythdraug” is. But don’t quote me on any of that (the winners or the players). Note that I haven’t bothered to say what happens if Uruguay wins. If they actually beat Holland in a couple hours here, I’ll try to figure it out. Note that I fell to “second to last.” so I’m way out of the running. The only World Cup match I’ve ever seen in person was Germany/Spain in Chicago 1994 (a 1-1 draw), so there’s that. I guess I’d pick Germany over Spain, they’re on a roll and I like the team better. On the other side, I’d love to see L’orange win a Cup finally, but it’s also be neat to see underdogs Uruguay pull it off. In any case, I’m cheering for the NED-URU side of the bracket in the final.
EPA Retracts Certifications
from Four Chinese Manufacturers
The EPA has withdrawn certification for off-road vehicles from four US importers, Hensim USA, Loncin USA, Peace Industry Group, and Seaseng, affecting 200,000 vehicles. All four companies used broker MotorScience Enterprise to handle their emissions testing. Three of the four companies also import scooters, but it appears no scooters were included in the action. The EPA alleges MotorScience provided “tailpipe emissions information was either incomplete or falsified.”
Continue reading “EPA Retracts Certifications
from Four Chinese Manufacturers”
Merge: Dance ‘n’ Ride
Starting a couple weeks ago, and into the foreseeable future, Chicago has a weekly Mod allnighter at LateBar called The Merge. It seems to be run by a rotating coalition of mod groups and scooter clubs (and it’s so nice to see teamwork in Chicago lately). You all know how 2SB feels about dressing nice and dancing, so we haven’t been yet, but the next two weeks look promising for folks more into the scooter thing than the preening thing. This Friday (July 2, 2010), there’s a long midnight ride out to Skokie Lagoons leaving at 11:30 from Late Bar. Next Friday (July 9, 2010) the whole shebang’s being run by The Secret Society SC and Mayday SC (flyer above), with another ride and more scooter-related stuff than usual.
UPDATE: From Jordan:
Every 2nd friday of each month till November will be scooter night with us, SSSC & MDSC together with friends. Officially the scooter night starts next friday (7/9) and hopefully we can pull all the local scooterist to join the fun. The plan is to meet somewhere for dinner, ride etc. and head to LateBar for night of dancing :-)
ANOTHER UPDATE: From Jordan, on this weeks’ events with new flyer:
RIDE TO EVENT AT 9:45 PM START AT NEW WAVE COFFEE (CORNER OF MILWAUKEE AND LOGAN).
Casey S. (Secret Society SC) will spearhead the ride starts from New Wave Coffee: http://www.newwavecoffee.com/
Chicagoans: New Tags Today
A reminder to Chicago scooterists: New city tags start today. There’s usually a grace period through mid-July, so if you don’t have ’em yet, move fast. All motorcycles and scooters registered in the city need tags, even if you never park on the street. (They’re commonly called “parking tags” but they’re technically for “road use”). Also, remember that a city tag allows you to park in residential parking zones without a specific zone permit, which is pretty handy (though baseball and special event restrictions still apply, which isn’t always made clear).