While we’re talking site news, I apologize for the lack of posts lately. You may have noticed Brooke and now Matt have been posting occasionally, which is great, and hopefully they’ll keep them coming. Honestly, I haven’t ridden a scooter for months, though I have been working on my Vespa 150 and hope to have it running reliably for Amerivespa in Lake Geneva, WI in June, I’m really looking forward to that. I also recently (finally) finished designing a special issue of American Scooterist celebrating the life of one of America’s most outspoken devotees of the Vespa and scootering in general, John Gerber, who passed away in 2010. It’s on press now and will ship to VCOA members soon.

Read more about scooter VINs and WMIs from Dr. Buzz.

I can’t think of a single bad thing to say about Alex or Motorsport. In fifteen years of scootering and frequenting webforums, I don’t think I’ve ever heard a complaint about the shop or Alex. And on the other hand, while some potential advertisers are close friends and may pose a conflict of interest, I’ve never even met Alex in person, we have what appears to be a professional mutual respect. He asked me what it’d take to get his ad on 2SB, so I picked a price higher than I thought he’d pay and told him he’d have to commit to a full year, and he wrote back. “Is that all? We’ll do it!”

So Alex gets his ads, 2SB gets some operating capital, and I can’t see this deal influencing the editorial content of 2SB one bit, aside from maybe guilting me into posting more frequently and adding some new features. I hope you’ll patronize Motorsport, recommend them to friends, and let them know that you appreciate his support of 2strokebuzz and everything else he does for scootering.

You also may notice that the email updates are coming from illnoise(at)2strokebuzz(dot)com now rather than my work address, which I’d been trying to change for a few years. You might wanna add that address to your address book to prevent spam filtering (and also because it’s 2SB’s contact address!).

If you’re not following us via RSS OR getting email updates, you can set up either by clicking the appropriate links in the top-right corner of the site.

Cutting this cord will force me to set up a better service, and I will post that info prominently on the site when it’s all working, hopefully over the weekend. Sorry for the inconvenience, but it just needed to be done. It sucks to have to start from scratch with RSS and newsletter subscribers, but I need to re-take control of my feeds.

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.

WINNERS:

1. Bob Hedstrom: -16°F, 10.1 mi
   1/15/09, Minneapolis, MN, 2007 Vectrix
   … I’d been riding a Vectrix a lot during the past summer and always trying to test its limits. I really wanted to see what extreme cold would do to battery performance.
   After checking the temperature at 10:45 am and it was still hanging in at -19. Time to ride. The Vectrix has a lot of torque and even the bare looking portions of the streets had a bit of slip to them. I had to be very careful but kept it upright the whole time. I outriggered my boots in all turns… Map
2. Tom S.: -11°F, 11 mi
   1/15/09, Omaha, NE, 2008 Yamaha Zuma
   Commuting in my Jeep is not a whole lot different from being on my Zuma at these temps so I bundled up extra good and headed to work on the Zuma of Doom! 90mpg is always better than 12mpg!… It’s getting cold enuff to where I’m ALMOST ready to give it to the Minnesotans… NOT IN A MILLION YEARS!!! haha!
3. Colin Doyle: -10°F, 14.1 mi
   12/15, Collegeville, MN, Honda Ruckus 50
   Video!
4. Luigi G.: -7°F, 10.1 mi
   1/16/09, Dover MA, 1970 Vespa GTr
   I had to do the run early in the night instead of just before sunup as I needed to get finished packing for the long ride to the FYBO rally… (epic report in comments below)
5. Stefan: -6°F, 10.3 mi
   1/16/09, Cleveland, OH, 1980 Vespa P200
   Old lady was driving me into work…I see the temp at Walgreens was -12°, and i’m all like “it’s on!.” get to the shop, fire up the “mf’n juggernaut beotch p-deuce”, map out a nice 2.5 mile loop, and run it 4 times.…Is it true the runner up prize is a 3 second pull on a bottle of malort with an old style chaser?

THE RULES

1. All rides must be on a two-wheeled motorscooter. No motorcycles. No sidecars. No three-wheelers (Yes, the Piaggio MP3 has three wheels and is ineligible.)
2. Entries must meet the minimum distance requirement of 10 miles of continuous riding. List your distance in miles (to one decimal place if desired), and measure your route using a GPS or Google Maps if possible. Scooter odometers lie.
3. List the ambient temperature in degrees Fahrenheit as listed by NOAA at the time and place of your ride. No, wind chill doesn’t matter when you’re already riding 30+mph. If the temperature varies over the course of your ride, post the average of the high and low temperature.
4. Coldest temperature wins. If you go 100 miles in 20°F, and somebody else only does 10 miles in 19°F, 19°F wins. If two riders claim the same temperature, the longer distance will be the tiebreaker.
5. This is just for fun, and on the honor system. If you want to lie it’s up to you. If somebody claims they did 10 miles in 15°F in Florida, we’ll know something’s up.
6. Your entry must be a ride you just did. Don’t post about how last year you rode in really cold weather. Don’t post about how hardcore your dad is. Your ride must take place between 11/27/08 and 02/28/09
7. Contest starts at 12:01 am on November 27, 2008 ends at midnight on Feb. 28, 2009.

HONORABLE MENTION

People living in colder climates (aka, Minnesota) have an advantage in this contest so we also separate competitors by state. If you’re riding in cold weather for your neck of the woods, enter anyway, you might win honorable mention for your state. The same CWC rules apply.

HOW TO ENTER

If you’re not already registered on 2strokebuzz, go ahead and register. Your email address will be kept private.
After you’re signed in, cut and paste the following information into the comment form below. Be sure to fill in all the blanks. “Your Story” and photos are optional, but we’d love to hear/see them. 2strokebuzz reserves the right to repost your linked photos, especially if it’s a great photo or if you’re a current leader.


Name: **First name, last initial at least**
Temperature: **°F
Distance: ** miles
State: **
City: **
Date: **
Time: **
Scooter: **year make model**
Your CWC story: **optional**
Photos: **optional, (use tinyurl if possible)**
Map: **optional, (use tinyurl if possible**


NEW: Rye set up a CWC Flickr Pool if you’d like to include your photos there.

Please use the comment thread of this page for entries only. Badmouthing, backpatting, and bragging is welcome on update threads on the main site.

Good luck, and be safe. This is a non-commercial, totally unsanctioned event and is being held informally just for fun and bragging rights. The organizers accept no liability for injury or property damage. Riding in cold weather is even more dangerous than riding in warm weather, don’t ride outside your comfort level or take unnecessary risks.

Sorry about the lack of posts last week, I had an impromptu business trip, family in town, Halloween, and an overnight camping trip. Lots of stuff is coming soon, including a long-term in-depth field test of the Benelli/Andretti 150XT, reviews of my new Scorpion EXO-700 Neon helmet, ICON Pursuit gloves, and the long-promised Corazzo shop jacket review, plus a few books I’ve been meaning to review for a while.