When scooter news breaks, we put it under a tarp in the garage.
After 16 years of scootering and 2strokebuzz, it’s easy to forget what attracted me to the machines and people that make up this dumb subbacultcha. If the first third of this video doesn’t make you want to stay up all night prepping your bike for a 5am, 250-mile rideout with some friends, there’s something wrong with you.
To our newish friend Bo and our oldish friend Bart, who shared the link on the facebooks, thanks for the reminder!
You can’t buy publicity like this, but if you could, you’d be sure they cited the right brand of scooter in the caption. Between this photo, gas price paranoia, and the weather, I bet it’s been a busy coupl’a days at Genuine dealers nationwide.
Continue reading “Bikini Buddies”
If you’re like me, you hate the idea of the city of Las Vegas on principle, but it’s worth the trip every few years to remind yourself, “anywhere is incredibly fun, with enough scooterists.” I skipped the rally this year, but our pal Jordan from the Mayday SC was there with the mob of British and U.S. scooterists, and brought back a bunch of great photos. Thanks, Jordan!
Continue reading “Vegas High Rollers Gallery 2012”
My pal Jamie just came across an epic poem about a 1984 Honda Elite for sale. No idea what the backstory is, and I can’t backtrack on the site to learn more about author Paul Ruby, but I’d like to think it started life as a Craigslist ad. “Max’s Scooter Page” of Scooter Quotations & Poetry dates it to 2005, and features lots more scooter poems and humorous quotes, some from a few familiar names of the Usenet days, and the early ScooterBBS. Crazy!
Just wanted to remind you that scootsafely.com continues to kick ass, posting long, well-researched, must-read posts, far more frequently than our scattershot sentence or two of blather here. If you’re not RSSing it and watching for new posts, get on it. We’ve been around the block and seen a lot of scooter sites come and go, and if history is any indication, the sites that burn the brightest burn the quickest, so here’s hoping Alan doesn’t burn out and keeps his great site going.
Just updated our Scooter Rally Calendar (down to the right there, see it?) with a few emails and facebook invites we’d recently received. If you have a scooter-related event you’d like to add, just drop us a line (if you did already, we missed it, try again!) or link it up to our facebook page. Thanks!
One of the most super-helpful pages on the internet, SCOMO’s table of vintage scooter cable lengths.. Most cables you buy these days aren’t the right length, Confirming and adjusting the lengths can save big headaches and make your scooter work more smoothly.
Modern Buddy user “cpaden” posted an interesting Electric Scooter Survey and is looking for everyone’s input. Go post your answers there where Cindy will see them, but I’m going to post mine here (and there) because I’m so important and everyone cares what I think.
Continue reading “Electric Scooter Survey”
I’m not posting this drunk Zamboni driver story because it’s funny, nor because 2/3 of our staff are from Minnesota, but because of a paragraph tucked away at the bottom of the story:
…just because Bruss was driving a Zamboni on an empty ice rink and not a car on a busy road doesn’t lessen his coming punishment. [Minnesota] State law allows a DWI to be given for any sort of motorized vehicle, including a lawn mower or forklift.
I might be dense, but I was unaware it’s possible to be arrested for drunk driving at a private event on private property. Many of us, self surely included, have been guilty of some pretty stupid hi-jinks at scooter rallies over the years, and we’ve always hopefully taken our/others’ safety and property into account, but I suspect most of us have been unaware we could get a life-crushing felony DUI in Fresno for riding 500 feet across a farm or campground to visit the bathroom. Rules vary from state to state, but a little Googling shows that this law is pretty widespread. Scooterists have, in general, become far more responsible in recent years, but there are still a few rallies where anything goes, so it’s worth keeping this in mind.
Source: https://smithjonessolicitors.co.uk/road-traffic-accidents/.
We generally dig Veloce Publishing, they have several great scooter and microcar books. They’re a bit more expensive than we’d like, but March 1 is World Book Day and Veloce is offering 50% off any book.
We’ve reviewed their Lambretta LI, A-Z Scooters and Microcars, and Vespa Buyer’s Guide, and we’re currently reading their Caring for you Scooter, look for a review soon.
17 years ago, when 2strokebuzz was a ‘zine and the Internet was new, I ran across Norman, who publishes the great biker zine, Motorcycho. He’d send regular (far more regular than 2sb) packets with his new zine, always with a stack of stickers and postcards and other ephemera, and it always made my week to get a new issue. The other day, Norman came across 2sb on Facebook and dropped us a note, and I’m thrilled to tell you he’s still at it. Not only does he blog pretty regularly, he’s also still getting a new issue of the magazine out once in a while. He’s also got some patches, shirts, and records available, I have a couple of the old 7″ers and they’re great. Now please excus me while I catch up on several years of blog posts…
Interesting note: Norman hails from Port Roberts, Washington, which is a Wikipedia page worth checking out.
Despite Dealer Expo’s best efforts to actually invite 2strokebuzz (after years of sneaking in as “POC employee” “Michelle Rodriguez”) we couldn’t make it this year. If they’re courting us, you know attendance is down, but there are still things to see, and Ron “Detroit Scooter Examiner” Arnold is at the show posting daily roundups. He’s a little disappointed that the indoor electric motorcycle demo area was cancelled, but he did get to see the Genuine Psycho and the new 2-tone Stellas.
Like you, I’ve seen that neato red Vespa Sprint desk all over the web for a couple months now, but unlike you, I just now finally got around to reading the actual blog post. Well done, but not something I’d want to sit on for eight hours a day, ha.
Well, so much for any chance of the SYM Wolf being marketed properly. Ugh. UUUGH. Never thought I’d say this, but Carter Brothers coulda done better. (via Eric, who’s now writing for our new competitor but I’m going to steal his tweets anyway.)
Jen points out that Heritage Helmets now offers Trojan Records helmets to go along with their Consortium-approved Lambretta helmets. They even offer one with both Trojan and Lambretta logos, which is kind of surreal. Beautiful stuff, but, once again, they totally forgot the part that covers your chin and face. If you can afford an extra helmet for parades and photo shoots, pony up!