Symba, unleashed

Orin test rides the first Taiwanese scooter to be given a (misspelled) Swahili name. It’s a good overview, from a scooterists’ perspective. It appears the first shipment has spread around to dealers nationwide. SYM must have a new midwest sales rep who doesn’t know me, because he’s been in touch, hopefully we’ll have 2SB Symba and CityCom 300i reviews soon. If you think you’re going to need more Symba news than 2strokebuzz can provide, be sure to check out Team Symba.

Polini Cup LIVE Saturday and Sunday

Probably the U.S.’s most exciting scooter race in years, the Polini Cup is happening tomorrow and Sunday in Tom Dash Speedway in Atwater,CA. This exciting event will feature vintage scooters, modern scooters, mopeds, mini-moto and go-peds and almost slipped past 2sb’s attention until Joshua Griffith from Seattle Mopeds let us know that MopedTV and the 1977 Mopeds Blog will feature live coverage all weekend (with emphasis on Mopeds, of course.) Sounds awesome, sorry to not publish this earlier but aaaaarrrrgggh DSL! and now we’re in Cincinnati for WKRP and I should be drinking right now goodbye. But definitely check it out.

Salzman on Scooters

A great general look at scooters and scootering from fellow (maybe ex-?) Blur rider Nathaniel Salzman. Very well written and covers just about everything I’d say.

My only minor quibble: He says (in bold, thankfully), “Riding a scooter is 100% as dangerous as riding a motorcycle. Period.” I agree completely, the similarities of scooters and motorcycles are more important than the differences, so the first section about the differences, while well-written, is given too much prominence in its placement. But as I said, that’s a minor quibble. Definitely bookmark this one to mail to friends looking for their first scooter.

MadAss 500

Brooke mentioned the Sachs MadAss 500 a while back, but I’d never seen a photo. Craaaaazeee. Peirspeed (who import the 50cc and 125cc versions) must have given away 300 t-shirts at Amerivespa. I should probably write something about Amerivespa one of these days, but I’m still waiting for Jordan to send the photos from the pool party.
(Thanks for the photo, Mr. Madddox!)

Moped Takeover

Hollywood Holt's

OK, I’ve been waiting for this day for years. between Hollywood Holt’s “Throw a Kit” video (featuring Chicago’s Peddy Ca$h club) and Andy Samberg’s Hot Rod movie, mopeds have officially taken over the hipster market and are finally positioned to become ubiquitous in television commercials and otherwise overexposed and boring, allowing scooters to fade back into obscurity so I can buy them for $800 again. Take note, hipsters, there soon will be folks showing up at moped rallies wearing fanny packs. And not Pac-Man fanny packs from Ragstock, either, I mean actual unironic fanny packs.

That said, “Throw a Kit” is awesome, and the first rap song to ever rhyme “Garelli” with “Minarelli”

Check your paperwork!

Title fraud, or at least title negligence, seems to be growing as a problem in the scooter world. We’ve recently seen comments from a couple Xkeleton owners that they had serious issues getting paperwork for Xkeleton Tricksters bought on eBay. It appears likely that both bought from the same seller, so it’s probably not a widespread Trickster-specific problem, but be sure any scooter you buy is DOT/EPA/CARB certified and has proper paperwork, title, and documentation, and don’t take delivery without it. The problem isn’t limited to fly-by night eBay sellers, Vespa Philadelphia, which recently closed, allegedly lost their Piaggio/Vespa dealership rights and owner Vincenzo Mercuri is rumored to be under investigation for embezzling deposits, tax and title fees, and charging for service not performed. While there may be more to that story (and we’d appreciate any info), it’s proof that you should be extra-careful regarding paperwork.