I don’t mention Scooter Swag nearly enough, it’s a definite must-check-weekly and saves me the trouble of posting every…scooter…thing I see, because I’ll never keep up with them. Tracy Ball has added Cassie Maringer to the ScooterSwag team, and Cassie’s recent burst of activity is astounding. There’s so much scooter stuff out there it makes you wonder if it’s not time to find a new, less hip hobby.
Category: Stuff to Buy
Greetings from POC Phil
Our buddy POC Phil has struck fame again, wearing what appears to be some sort of Jedi tunic and a Los Corazones Negros shirt on a red Stella with an unidentified woman, on an American Greetings card due on shelves in June. They look so happy! (Click on photo to enlarge.)
Scooteristas’ calendar
If one calendar of scooter chicks is not enough (it never is…), the Portland Scooteristas also have a 2007 calendar. They boast 25 ladies to the Debutantes’ 17, but I’ll leave the quantity-versus-quality debate up to you. I’m thinking the world really needs a 2strokebuzz calendar. Hmmm, maybe, not.
Kyle visits SIP
If you’re reading this site, you’re probably the type of person that happily gives up a day of your European vacation to hunt down the local scooter shops. Chicago scooterist Kyle Hart is too, but he was lucky enough to visit Augsburg, Germany, where the “local shop” is S.I.P.. Instead of the usual modern Piaggio dealer who hasn’t seen a GS in twenty years, or repairman’s shed full of rotting scooter corpses, S.I.P. is a huge, modern shop catering to an international crowd of vintage and modern scooter racers and customizers, and judging by Kyle’s great photos, it’s an exciting place to visit.
17 girls, 17 scooters, 12 months
I’m not sure where the extra five girls ended up (Smarch?), but The Debutantes Scooter Club calendar is back for its second year of 11×17″ cheesecake, featuring our favorite Deb, POC Michelle, as Miss November. They’re available now, $15 online or $12 in person, with 10% going to ScooterRelief.org, which (crap!) reminds me I still have a big chunk of Slaughterhouse money I keep forgetting to send to ScooterRelief.
Free “Scooter Babe” pattern from Crafty Planet
Our good friends Matt and Trish at Crafty Planet are offering a special holiday deal for 2strokebuzz readers. Order any fabric (including, but not limited to, the 1 2 3 4 scooter-themed fabrics shown above) and get a free Sublime Stitching “Scooter Babe” Pattern now through the end of 2006. Just put ‘2SB ROCKS’ in the comments field when checking out and the pattern will be yours. Even if you’re not crafty, or not buying for a crafter, the Planet offers loads of great handmade gifts.
Peg Perego Red?
The green Peg Perego Vespa GT seems to be everywhere these days, at wildy different prices, but The Conran Shop in the UK is the only place we’ve seen it offered in red. It appears to be the Peg Perego Vespa, anyway, minus the mirrors and the topbox, and with two small extra wheels.
Listpic
Pssst! Secret Sales
We’re not sure why both the Phils (McCaleb of Scooterworks USA, and Waters of Pride of Cleveland Scooters), would both choose to include the word “Secret” in sales that they seem to be promoting pretty vigorously, but both promise the best deals of the year (in-store only), and both insist you “bring a truck.” POC’s “Super Secret Sale” is this Friday (11am-7pm) and Saturday (10am-6pm) at 2078 W. 25th St., Cleveland, OH, and Scooterworks’s “Super Secret Santa Saturday” is December 9, starting at 11am, at 5410 N. Damen Ave., Chicago. As Phil (the POC one) says, “Santa can’t be trusted – shop for yourself.” (The full text of POC’s email is posted as a comment, below).
Scooter Swag Christmas
Scooter Swag (which I’ve been putting off posting about for ages, because I was trying to figure out a way to give it the props it deserves, but what the hell, i’ll just post it all snarky and halfass like this…) has a comprehensive rundown of the surprising number of scooter Christmas ornaments available this season. For the record, Tracy, Precious Moments figurines are neither “ironic” nor “cute,” even with a scooter.
“It” of the day
Becky points out that today’s eBay “‘It’ of the day” is “Vespa Scooters,” which doesn’t really mean anything, other than maybe driving up the price of used Vespa Scooters on eBay for a few days.
Make the Vesp Choice
Here’s an interesting advert featuring a Kylie Minogue looky like, King Kong, and a scooter.
Motorsport Scooters’ new site
Back when you could count U.S. scooter shops on your fingers, Vespa Supershop was one of the best. They always helped out with 2strokebuzz (when we were a ‘zine) and supported loads of rallies in the mid-90s. Somewhere along the way, they changed their name to Motorsport Scooters and a hundred new scooter shops popped up around the country, so we sort of lost touch, though their tech pages were still always in my bookmarks. Whatever happened, they’re making a comeback attempt with a handsome new site and online ordering. Hopefully, their great customer service and knowledgeable staff remains from the old days, I might have to place an order and see. (thanks, Matty for sending this our way.)
Why customize?
This may be a no-brainer for most folks, but I’ve always wondered why scooter and motorcycle people have always had the compulsion to add accessories and/or custom paint jobs to their vehicles. I’ve always gone along with it because I’m a creative-minded person and it appealed to me, but that didn’t answer why it was so commonly done in the first place. The current scooter boom, and my first new scooter, have answered the question for me. Ten years ago, it was nearly impossible to find two similar bikes at a rally. Perhaps there would be three silver P200s, but their states of repair and accessories would generally set them apart. These days, there’s an ever-increasing number of similar scooters at any rally, there were maybe a dozen or more orange Stellas at Amerivespa, for instance. Minneapolis was three-quarters comprised of more-or-less stock Stellas. When you show up to a rally or ride on a new scooter, there are very good odds someone else will be there on the EXACT SAME scooter in the SAME color. And that pretty much explains it all. Obvious to anyone thats ever bought a new vehicle, but funny that in ten years of riding vintage bikes, I’d never figured that out.
New Piaggio/Vespa accessories and clothing
Rather than manufacturing replacement GTS exhaust manifold gaskets, or telling us more about the Vespa S they’ve teased us with, Piaggio and Vespa have put their combined energy into a new fall line of accessories and clothing. Since it’ll be months before PiaggioUSA posts this on their site — or tells Vespaway about it — I’ve translated it from Itanglish and posted it here, so you can call your dealers and pre-order stuff before they even know about it.
Vespa’s new showpiece is a Dainese-designed Vespa Club jacket and gilet (a fancy word for “really expensive quilted polyester liner that’s sold separately”). The jacket “can be personalised with armour protection,” which apparently means it has pockets for armor (sold separately). (The use of the word “Club” is cute, since the Vespa World Club is entering its seventh month of total inactivity.) On the accessories side, Vespa is releasing a line of leather bags designed to fit inside Vespa topcases, including one designed specifically for laptop computers. if that’s not enough leather, try a leather seat, now available in tobacco for the GTS, and tobacco or red for the LX. Why not throw in some matching grips? And a new Vespa Soft-Touch half-helmet? (why no full-face, guys? It’s 2006!) Rounding out the new line is a full complement of of chrome accessories, and a must-have Vespa-branded chain lock (with matching carrying bag!).
Piaggio further dissects your helmet fraction choices, with new three-eighths (Micro), five eighths (Copter) and seven-eighths (X-Jet) models. The “Micro” features snap-on goggles to cover another small fraction of your face. Continuing Vespa’s “personalizable jacket” theme, they’ve also unleased the “Technocomfort” line, with the unisex GT4 jacket, the Executive for the boys, and for the ladies, the, erm, Lady. The jackets can also be “customized” with armor, liners. or goofy leg covers they’re calling “Flapsâ„¢,” at additional cost, though the adjectives “Revolutionary,” “Elegant,” “Dynamic,” and “Innovative” are yours at no charge.
Photos of all this glorious crap (I kid, some of it is possibly worth looking into) are available for your perusal in the 2strokebuzz Gallery:
Vespa Fall 2006 Accessories
Piaggio Fall 2006 Accessories