He claims he’s “spent the last 20 years riding and restoring scooters,” and is “active in the vintage club scene.” So it’s possible it’s just a coincidence, though it seems weird we’d never heard of each other until now, in the smallish world of vintage scootering. Anyway, I’m not gonna hassle the guy, it’s not that big a deal, neither of us uses eBay much anyway, but I just figured since he didn’t seem interested in clearing things up, it was up to me to make it publicly clear that he’s not me, and vice versa.

If you’re looking for an Amerivespa wrapup, you’re in the wrong place, buddy. I’m still sobering up from Niagara two weeks ago. So it’s about time for a review and some photos, eh?

Amerivespa wasn’t in the cards this year, so I decided I’d hit an old favorite, Niagara. I’ve been to the Tundra Schmuck’s Niagara Falls Rally several times in the past, but it’d been six years since my last visit. After paying an exorbitant rush fee to the Passport Bureau and some last-minute changes-of-plans, I ended up in the backseat of Karrie and Casey’s Forester at four in the morning on Friday, dreading the generally-expected Niagara torrential mudstorm. Our plan was to meet up with POCphil and POCjames early Friday, shift our gear to Phil’s new ‘69 Mystery Machine van, and show up in Welland, Ontario, ready to drink, long before dinnertime. Well, the best laid plans, duty-free, and a leisurely fish n chips dinner dumped us at the motorcycle club campground at dusk. We found a quiet spot and rushed to set up our tents before dark. Moments later, I was introduced to my main source of entertainment for the weekend, Matthew and Danielle from Buffalo, who putted over on a VBB from their pikey village built from tarps and a late-model Volkswagen GTI. We finished setting up and spent the rest of the weekend trying to get away from Matthew and his detailed summaries of the War of 1812 and the French and Indian conflicts. It was nice to be at a old-school camping rally with the buzz of 2-strokes (See what I did there?) and the sort of drinking you can only do when you’re locked down at a campsite for the night. Turnout was a fraction of Niagara rallies past, but it was the right fraction, loads of old friends I hadn’t seen in years, like Ian and Rob, Rich, Sam and Larry, Bill, Christian, and Karm (I’m sure i’m forgetting lots, sorry!). We also made loads of new friends, like Stuart and Vanessa from Toronto (if you ever want to make friends at a rally, start kicking a soccer ball around), Matt and Sharon (who I’d somehow never met in all these years), and several others whose names are escaping me. News of the Blackhawks’ victory over the Sharks spread around the campfire and we all hoped for a Canadiens comeback the next day. We drank, arm-wrestled, and reminisced long into the night, not a drop of rain in sight, and at 4 AM I settled down to the most comfortable rally sleep ever.

Waking up Saturday, I was still comfortable and dry. Just as I sat up and thought “could it really be this temperate and dry?,” it started to rain. Luckily, while it rained on-and-off all day, it never really got going and the site stayed pretty mud-free. We spent the day wandering the tourist areas and seeing the Falls, then stopped at the legendary Mints, a gentlemen’s club that’s become a Niagara Rally tradition, that I’d somehow managed to avoid on my earlier visits.

I’m not a fan of strip clubs, but I’m willing to endure them occasionally in the name of camaraderie and sociology. I’d always been under the impression that Mints was located in semi-rural Welland in an old warehouse on the river, and was suitably lower-rent (and thus more fun/interesting) than most strip clubs. Turns out it’s in Niagara Falls proper, and it’s just a run-of-the-mill crappy-music-and-neon strip club. Strip clubs are creepy enough on weekend evenings, but at 2pm or so, we were just about the only people there, the ‘talent’ was severely lacking (never look at a stripper in the sunlight) and neither the girls nor the waitress seemed interested in taking our money (very odd) so while a few rallygoers took advantage of the club to its fullest potential, our posse (which was nearly half-female anyway) just watched the Flyers/Habs (sorry, Habs) and Champions League final highlights on big-screen TVs, endured a lot of Kid Rock, consumed a few beers, and left with our pockets fuller of loonies and toonies than expected.

Back at the campsite, we continued on in the same vein as Friday night, turning in much earlier to get an early start back home. Sunday began early with warm sunlight to dry and air out our gear. Aside from a couple van transmission scares (always in line at the border! And US immigration has no sense of humor!) we made it back to Cleveland uneventfully (so good to have you back, ATT iPhone service!) and then westward back to Chicago while the Blackhawks finished off the Sharks.

So, really, as I tried to explain to Matthew, rally reviews are painfully boring, but man did we have a good time. Niagara was my first out-of-town rally back in 1996, and while the oversaturation of rallies and threat of awful weather resulted in a fairly small turnout, it sure felt like old times. Longtime co-organizer Ian Whalley quit a few years ago, and this year was his partner Rob Stuhr’s turn to retire, leaving the fate of the rally in Rich Easton’s hands, I suppose. Compared to most rallies these days, Niagara sort of seems to run itself, but I’m sure Rich and Rob (and Siobhan and their kids and the Welland MC) surely put in loads of work to pull it off and it was worth it, we had a great time. Thanks guys, and thanks to Karrie and Casey and Phil for letting me sponge a ride up there. The photos attached are probably of no interest to anyone but the six people in them, but here you go…

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• Schwinn (bicycle) dealers have had it hard since Schwinn’s 1990s 2001-era (see comments) decision to sell inferior bikes under the Schwinn name in big-box stores. You can argue all day that even top-end Schwinns are made in Asia now, and/or nothing compared to their former glory, but the general issue is that there is a marked difference between what’s sold at Schwinn dealerships, and what’s sold at Wal-Mart. Schwinn corporate maybe has a lot to answer for, but their dealers always seem totally right-on to me. They love the brand, they love cycling, and they know their stuff. Incidentally, that’s everything a good scooter shop should be.

• So, it says a lot (and it’s probably a good thing) that very few Schwinn bicycle dealers sell Schwinn scooters. Maybe the scooters weren’t even offered to the bicycle dealerships, but it seems more likely that a Schwinn bicycle dealer is uniquely positioned to realize that Schwinn will slap their name on anything, AND that even in hard times, it’s best not to sell something you can’t support 100%. The two products have little in common, it’d be like a car dealership deciding to offer steam-powered tractors. They’re both vehicles, but the parts supply, technology, customers, and expertise do not overlap. At all.
• Schwinn’s making some tentative steps into e-bikes. They’re playing it pretty conservative, but that’s probably smart. It’s interesting that some bicycle dealers have jumped on the e-bike (UM, E-Go, etc) bandwagon, and others avoid them like the plague. I’m really curious how that market develops.
• Bicycles are, like scooters, a great example of “You get what you pay for.” Sure, certain brand names will artificially jack up a price, but when it comes down to nuts and bolts, you can see the differences in quality. Scooters or bicycles, the cheapest asian models are assembled and sold by unskilled retailers without any support or personal contact. They’re made of components that are often second-quality, and sometimes dangerous. They feature outdated technology, or superficial imitations of current technology.
• Short term savings matter little when you can’t source a replacement part or constant niggling problems keep it off the road. A good bike or scooter costs more, but comes with long-term support, a personal relationship, and quality. Parts and accessories will be available for years. Vina bought a 40-year-old Austrian three-speed at a garage sale for $10. I have a 15-year-old Schwinn cruiser, our local bike shop can get us any replacement part we need. But every time we’re in there, someone wheels in a three-month-old Wal-Mart bike with a cracked weld or some goofy mechanism that can’t be repaired or replaced. Sound like any scooter shops you’ve been in lately?
• The cries of elitism come into play in both markets, too. But looking at the bicycle world is a good way to distance yourself and see that in an underegulated market (oh, the laws are there, but not the enforcement!) you end up with bottom-of-the-barrel deathtraps competing with top-end luxury models, and you start to understand why insiders are frustrated with all the junk out there. Cheap bikes rob sales from knowledgeable dealers, threaten consumer safety, and turn potential fans away from the hobby before they even get started.
• On the other end of the spectrum, spend any time in a respectable bike shop, and you’ll see folks strut in with a credit card and buy a $4000 racing bike because “I was thinking about trying a triathalon” This, too, happens in scooter shops, and usually ends with Mr. “I don’t need a helmet, I’ve been riding dirt bikes since I was a kid” dropping his new Vespa 300 before he makes it out of the parking lot. And in both markets, there’s always the “audiophile-quality” “better” parts available for upgrades. Again, common sense prevails, but few people have it. I like to think that when you buy a well-designed product, the engineers that designed it knew what they were doing, and if you find yourself needing to upgrade, you shoulda bought a better one in the first place.
• Last note: You always see people asking “What’s a good scooter can I get for $500.” For $500 you’re just getting into the juicy part of the bicycle market. Who would want to be on the road on a motor vehicle that costs less than a bicycle? A lot of top-quality custom bicycles cost more than scooters! And you could use the exercise!

I’ve been thinking for a while, with the advent of print-on-demand sites like MagCloud and Hulu that it’d be so much easier to print/distribute a zine these days. I focused most of my magazine energy into American Scooterist for the last several years, but that required months of work per issue and as great as it is, it doesn’t have that 2SB vibe. I’d thought about ‘2SB Greatest Hits’ compilations, or compiling the old issues, but I’d rather try something new, and something fast and collaborative and less open-ended.

Today I heard about the 48 Hour Magazine Project, and that’s inspired me to try something similar. I’ll look into it and figure out some details, but if you’re interested in helping out, drop us an email or comment!

*Someday hopefully someone will find a USB SyQuest drive so I can finish issue 4… and send Nikki a copy of the great long-lost cover photo.

Actual scooter content is resuming soon, promise! If you didn’t notice the ad on the site, we’re kicking off the Cold Weather Challenge next Saturday (11/14) with a ride and Berryoke party at the Kat Klub, be there!

The other day, I made a bunch of excuses why 2strokebuzz has been pretty bereft of life lately, but this one tops them all:

On Friday, Vina and Milena decided last-minute to go to Indiana to visit her family. I stayed home, because I had a lot to do around the house, and I wanted to catch up on 2strokebuzz and Scootmoto. Plus, 2SB contributor Brooke was coming to town Sunday.

So Saturday morning I’d just taken some photos of the new Bumpstart and some neat new Buddy light adaptors we’re going to sell at Scootmoto. I was cleaning up the images for the web and listening to records with our friend/tenants’ dog Lucy, who I was watching for the weekend, when the phone rang.

It was Vina’s dad, who told me Vina, Milena, and Vina’s sister Jen were driving to a pumpkin farm and had been T-boned by a pickup truck who ran through a red light at 40mph. Our new Subaru was totalled, and my 8-month-pregnant wife and my daughter were on the way to the hospital.

Needless to say, I lost my shit. Earlier that morning, I’d promised to meet my old friends Kim and Ken at their son’s soccer game down the street, so I raced over there on my bicycle, crying like… well, like someone who’s just been told his wife, child, and unborn son were in a car accident. After a few more phone calls, I learned Milena was a little banged up but mostly OK, Vina was a little worse, but the main concern was the baby. Vina had gone into contractions as a result of the accident, and the doctors were worried about placental abruption. They decided to deliver the baby ASAP, a few weeks early. I was two and a half hours away, in Chicago, without a car. We hadn’t even packed our bags for the hospital yet.

In the end, Kim drove me to Portage, IN, and Jen’s friend Jackie picked me up there and took me the rest of the way to the hospital, saving them both the full round-trip. I arrived in South Bend in the middle of the Notre Dame/USC game, and after 20 minutes of running around an empty hospital (South Bend shuts down on Saturday afternoons, stupid Domers), I found Vina already in the recovery room, with our new baby, Calvin Thomas Bedell. Calvin (7lbs, 19.5″) was born on October 17, 2009 at 17:17 EDT in the same hospital where his mother, and probably her mother, were born. I’d missed the birth by a half hour or so.

Vina and Milena are both doing well, and Calvin, despite being early, is doing great and looks just like a smaller version of his sister when she was a baby. Milena, having been admitted to the hospital, managed to briefly sneak her way into the recovery room to see her new brother, but thanks to the swine flu scare, no children visitors were allowed at all, so she hasn’t seen him since Saturday afternoon. She came back to Chicago on Sunday with her grandmother so she didn’t miss any school. Vina and Calvin were discharged from the hospital this (Tuesday) morning and will stay in South Bend for a few more days to recuperate. I came back to Chicago this afternoon to be with Milena, and so Vina’s mom could go back to Indiana.

So thanks to some monster truck jackass in a hurry, I missed the birth of my son, we lost our second car in a year, and 75% of my family would be dead right now if it wasn’t for seatbelts and Subaru engineering. It’s not all sunshine. But it looks like everyone’s going to be OK and we have a beautiful son. In a few days, when we’re finally able to get all four members of my family together in the same room for more than five minutes, the last thing on my mind is going to be 2strokebuzz. So thanks again for all your support and patience, we’ll be back soon.

Thanks to the dozen-plus people that rushed around all weekend to help drive us around and help us out, and watch pets, and to get Milena to and from school and keep Brooke entertained, and everything else. And thanks for all the calls, emails, visits, facebook comments, tweets, etc. I honestly don’t think anyone in the world is lucky enough to have a better collection of friends and family.

And thanks to Vina. As we were assessing our situation in the hospital room, she started to panic that we didn’t even have a car seat. “We have a car seat.” I said, “Kim reminded me to bring it. But we don’t have a car.” And we cracked up. At least we still have each other, and two kids who are already probably smarter than we are.

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In the past month or so:
Slaughterhouse
House guests every weekend since before Slaughterhouse
Old friends/tenants bought a house and moved out
We painted and recarpeted our apartment
New friends/tenants moved in
Milena started kindergarten
Work (the job that pays me) has been nuts
Hockey season started
Playstation Fifa10 demo was released

So with all that, and a baby due in a couple weeks, it’s not been good news for 2strokebuzz, but it’s been a fun/busy/productive couple weeks in other ways. I’ve been helping with homework, getting involved in the PTA, sanding, painting, lifting boxes, and I still squeezed in a little time to ride the SYM 150cc “Classic” (Wolf) at Slaughterhouse and my virtual Fire lost to Chelsea, Barça, Bayern Munich, and Juventus a few times. So it’s all good, we’re glad you’re still paying attention, and any day now, Brooke will post something to shame me back into business, both here and at Scootmoto, where we’ve got several new products we haven’t even listed yet. And I’ve done a little groundwork on a new mostly-non-scooter related but hopefully-great web project. Thanks for your patience and support! We’ll be back.

Update: I Tivo’ed local FOX new’s extensive rally preview from last year, but never found a way to put it online, luckily Motoworks did! Thanks for the link, Kathy! I think I got a chance to ride every modern Vespa that morning!

Funny how stuff like this spreads around… The scooter was exhibited last Fall at Nelson’s “The Autonomous Zone” exhibit at TripleBase gallery in San Francisco. Apparently a current exhibition of Nelson’s work at Gottino, a restaurant in NYC, brought the scooter to the attention of a Portugese-language green design blog, and the image ended up on Notcot, where it was spotted at random by John Park at Makezine. In this case, 2SB reader Sharon spotted it there and sent it our way (Thanks, Sharon! This rant has nothing to do with you), but I’ll probably see the Makezine story later tonight when I’m scanning Google News Alerts, and it’ll be on every scooter blog and newsgroup in America by tomorrow, credited to Makezine. I just point this out because it’s interesting how blogs come across stories then other blogs link to the blog they saw it on rather than the original blog, and what could have been a big bonanza in hits for the person that originated the story ends up bogging down their server with anonymous hot-linked image hits. It’s the internet, whattaya gonna do, but I thought it’d be fun to track down the reason that a year-old art exhibition was suddenly getting a spike in attention. It’d be fun to do a website that pulls stories off Boing Boing and Metafilter and Slashdot and Digg and tracks them back to their original genesis, which is usually by someone that put a lot of effort into the story, and was forgotten in the process of re-writing, simplifying, linking, and forwarding.

Not that I don’t do the same thing, all day every day (though I generally don’t help myself to photos when I don’t know where they came from). I’ve been sort of reluctant to post this sort of sixth-hand story lately, but I guess that’s what what bloggers are supposed to do. Hopefully my occasional hard work on original content makes up for it. Sorry about the weird tangent there, but these things interest me.

In any case, we’re back and there’s some some good stuff on deck, including a Vespa Vednesday Video and some good news from Genuine.

• NEXX X30 helmet review
• I’ve actually been riding the Andretti! I might even write a review eventually!
• Prima Pullman jacket giveaway!
• Signed Chuck Mead CD giveaways!
• New products at Scootmoto!
• Scooter news! Lance vs. SYM, Schwinn’s new distributor, MRP and CPI, SYM accessories, a “Venti” update, and more!
• Vacation pictures!

Charles posts beefy scans of random articles and covers from his boxes of 1987 to 1996 british music magazines he can’t bring himself to throw away. It’s awesome to relive the hepness of my youth, so I check in often and I’m always thrilled, but it was a special honor to get a shoutout when Charles posted the Melody Maker cover from November 19th, 1994, titled “Touched by the Hand of Mod.” I pushed my luck and asked for the insides, and he obliged. I’ve only started to graze through this bounty, but it’s all fantastic:

• The cover (note the photos link to much larger, readable scans).
• An interview with the (not very mod) band Menswear.
• A New Order review (“Touched by the Hand of Mod” was a play off New Order’s soundtrack single “Touched by the Hand of God,” which appeared on this compilation and had a funny video. OMG, a seminal MoWax comp review, too!
• A story exposing ex-Quadrophenia star and Blur’s “Parklife” narrator Phil Daniels’ taste in music (ooh, some cringers in there), and
• A look at the 1994 mod scene, crediting Blur with starting it, listing some Mod literature, a bit about scooters, and profiles of four typically-prattish mods (Jane Elmsley, call me!).

Thanks again, very much, Charles. Brilliant!

I got so much scooter on my mind
Newcastle Sign
“Michelle Rodriguez” on my ticket
Hear Phil Waters get wicked
My crew is few, we hype the Black Jack
Attack then we drank
and yacked, Then slapped the iMac
Now Im ready to post it
(you know I made up most of it)
Hear my favoritism roll, oh
OMG, is that Mattheu Solo?
TGB Lasers, scooters like Razors
Hallways to blaze, with brain and foot pain
The way Im livin, forgiven
What Im givin up
Ron on the Nikon, shoot this now
Where’s the party at later?
As for now I’m grillin at the Chinese pavillion
Man Ive had it up to here
CF Moto logos appear
Kymco’s a no-show,
saw P-town just a bit ago
never-ending show,
Adjust the white balance.
Work to keep from gettin jerked
Changin’ some ways
To way back in the 2-stroke days
Chinese hockey mask molds,
never mind the highway codes
Still thousands sold.
Never question what I am, Who knows?
Cause I’m comin from the bar
What I got better get some
(soft pretzels) master of scooter culture
hard-ridden
Been splashed in the face
But the helmet keeps fittin’
Eating nothing healthy, ranting with Chelsea
Seth and Dave and everyone elsee
Check the spec sheets
ripped a hole in my jeans knees
rolling on the ground, looking for a VIN please
Walked the halls, took the falls
Broke the laws
my Sambas are fallin
more or less square
Getting up there in years
Still. I growl at the plastic cowls
Thanking Christ Indiana’s not my home
So welcome to the Hooiserdome.