Category: Legal & Safe

Corazzo’s “Ramp Test”

Corazzo has released a technical/snuff film showing some very unscientific tests of their jackets. Surely, it’s mostly for entertainment value (it’s listed as “comedy” on YouTube), but there’s probably something educational buried in there. Corazzo’s “Shop” is my usual riding jacket, so in the sequel, I wanna see how the “Shop/UnderHoody” combo compares to the “Transparent Vinyl Raincoat/Naked Bradford Duval” combo.

CBP seizes 1400 scooters at Texas border

Another Chinese scooter grey-marketer busted, this time by U.S. Customs and Border Protection. CBP’s press release doesn’t name the importer, but the scooter in the photo appears to be a CF Moto “E-Charm” CF150. It seems unlikely that CF Moto would risk importing illegal scooters, chances are this was another company buying CF-Moto scooters (or knockoffs) from a third party behind CF Moto’s back, possibly similar to the Lance/SYM controversy last month, (Though Lance presumably would have ensured their bikes were at least EPA-legal.)
(Thanks, bermshot!)

UPDATE: About 400 of the scooters were CF Motos, according to this story. Lev Mirman of CPI insists the bikes meet specs, and the government “grasping at straws to halt any shipment from China.” Also in our comments below, POCphil reports the seizure also included Aprilia Sport City 250s.

Scooter in the Sticks swears an oath

I’m 100% with Steve on this post. Every scooterist I know complains about distracted drivers on mobile phones, and every scooterist I know talks on the phone and plays around with electronics when they’re driving a car.

Worse, more and more scooterists are rigging up phone/gps/mp3/helmetcam contraptions on their bikes, even as they complain about distracted cagers.

Try it for a week: when you’re driving your car, don’t use your phone, don’t use a GPS, don’t play with the iPod or Pandora, don’t even touch the radio dial, see if you can do it. I bet you can’t. I bet I can’t.

Powersports Mail-Order Mega-Warehouse Condescends To Scooterists *UPDATED*

While perusing the local craigslist today I came across a post (which I dutifully tagged as spam) announcing the new scooter oriented online shop by traditional powersports mail-order powerhouse Dennis Kirk. Their new site is called dkscooters.com and offers accessories and gear for the scooter owner. For many years the Rush City, MN based retailer has had excellent catalogs aimed at several powersports divisions from off-road to metric cruisers. Now in the digital age they’ve made a separate website to group the items that would be more likely purchased by scooterists. They have covers, locks, jackets and even one token brand of 2 stroke oil. But when looking in the top category on their left-hand menu, helmets, I found it lacking. Not that they didn’t have my preferred brand or that they didn’t have a Valentino Rossi replica lid, but that of the 163 options there wasn’t a full-face helmet to be found. Do scooterists not deserve the same protection offered to other power-two-wheel enthusiasts? Do they really think that scooters are so harmless that no one needs the protection available to a cruiser pilot? Or is this completely sensible and the only question is why the website isn’t entirely pink with bunnies around the border?

Write this post off as a narrow minded rant if you’d like. Dennis Kirk will probably have no problem with the free advertisement (normally I’m a big fan and until now shopped their at least once a year). And it could be said that you shouldn’t even buy a helmet online without trying it on first, and you should buy it from the local shop where you tried it on. The behavior of embracing and marginalizing scooters at the same time just seems a bit insulting.

UPDATE: Dealer News reports on the news of the DK online store for scooters. The article gets some interesting comments from a few of the prime movers in the scooter commerce arena. LINK

Seattle’s All-City Scooter Community Day

I love the idea of Seattle’s All-City Scooter Community Day. There are always a lot of rides and rallies in any major city, but we’re usually just enjoying ourselves and we rarely think of ways to engage the greater community. I keep thinking of ways it could be expanded: transportation forums, local government involvement, riding classes or demonstrations, rider education, and maybe even some community service… with a lot of planning and publicity, it seems like a terriffic way to promote scootering.

Prima Pullman Jacket review

8738Over the past few years it’s been great to see scooterists finally getting more concerned about safety and wearing protective gear, and it’s hard to say which is the cause and which is the effect, but at the same time we’ve seen more scooter-specific gear becoming available.

You could argue that there’s no specific difference between a motorcycle jacket and a scooter jacket, and you’d be absolutely right. The demands of either are pretty similar, and any of the thousands of motorcycle jackets out there would certainly protect you equally on a scooter or motorycle. The difference is fashion. 10 years ago, your choice consisted of three varieties: The too-colorful leather “Power Ranger,” the leather classic “Biker,” and the hundred-zipper Scotchbrite-and-black-fabric “Tech.”
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