SE, admin and host of the immortal International Scooterist BBS, is in the hospital for cancer surgery today. He’ll be off-duty for a few weeks after a touching (and funny) post yesterday (with instructions for donations). Our thoughts are with you, SE, (B)e (B)ack (S)oon!
Category: On The Web
Vespashopping.com
Almost slipping past our notice at the bottom of the Vespa S press release, Piaggio has announced a new international online store, vespashopping.com. At a glance, items that are hard/impossible to find in the U.S., (their “Club” jacket, and most of their helmets, for instance) aren’t available online, either. The “accessories” listed are accessories for you, not your scooter, but there is a decent selection of gifts we’ve not seen anywhere else (the cute but expensive handlebar-grip LED flashlight?). Surely this endeavor was a tightrope walk to avoid cutting into boutique sales at dealers, but even dealers have a hard time procuring some items, it’d be nice to see more available online.
Ants
Lesley, one of the “new chicks” over at Girlbike, had some ant problems with her Honda Metropolitan last week. This weekend she went to give the Metro a bath and realized the ant situation was far worse than she could have guessed. I have a giant yellowjacket nest in my garage, and I was thinking of writing some sort of Steve-Williams-esque blog entry about the Vespas and the Vespula Vulgari, but after reading that, I think those f**kers are getting hosed down with Black Flag as soon as I get home.
Mods, Trons, Natchos, and Soldiers
Mods, Trons, Natchos, and Soldiers. If you say so, Serpents.
Scooter in the foggy sticks
Scooter in the Sticks is always great, but Steve outdid himself today, photo-wise.
2sb on SCTRCST
I was so busy last week, I forgot to mention that I was interviewed on Episode 9 of Dave Mangano’s “SCTRCST” podcast. Being a chronic mumbler, I was careful to enunciate, but something went awry with the audio so it’s pretty hard to understand me anyway (transcript coming soon). Don’t let that prevent you from listening to SCTRCST regularly, it’s a great show, and usually the guests are much more interesting and easier to understand. : )
Tandoori Sizzler?
Hey, I think I’d post about Tandoori Sizzler Doritos even if there wasn’t a sweet junky 80s-vintage Asian-Vepsa sidehack in the TV commercial. (That’s Scootin’ Old Skool’s second most popular post.) 2sb readers of Canadia [that’s not a typo -ed], you have a mission. First bag of Tandoori Sizzlers I get in the mail nets the sender a 2strokebuzz t-shirt so new, it hasn’t even been printed yet. You can even decide what color the shirts will be.
UPDATE ScooterScoopSteve points out that there are three different versions of the commercial on doritosplay.ca (go to ‘screening room’). Exotic Otter!? Allright, people, I NEED these chips.
Pinoy props, Vespa film quiz
Congrats to John Rana, his Who rides a Vespa? blog was named “Best Sports and Recreation Blog” in the 2007 Philippine Blog Awards. Here’s a from a few days ago.
San Francisco parking map
Where to park your scooter or motorcycle in San Francisco. I’m not sure whether these are official/legal motorcycle-only spots, or remnants of marked-off spaces, or what, but we could sure use something like this in Chicago. (via Charles, who organized the upcoming meeting with the City of Chicago.)
MBI Award winners announced
Thousands of motorcycle and scooter riders in 88 countries voted for the 2007 Motorcycle Bloggers International Riders Choice Awards, and the results were announced today. Scooters, scooterists, and scooter manufacturers took several awards, including:
- Best motorcycle or scooter blog: Scooter in the Sticks
- Best new-in-2006 motor scooter: Piaggio MP3
- Wish we’d thought of that: Piaggio MP3
VespaUSA won second prize for “worst manufacturer website” and the Gilera Fuoco 500 won second for “best concept motorcycle or scooter.”
Congratulations to Steve Williams from Scooter in the Sticks, who beat an amazing amount of competition from motorcycle and scooter blogs to come out on top, he deserved it, SITS is among the most insightful and personal blogs, in any field.
MBI award voting ends Sunday
Only one day left to vote for the 2007 Motorcycle Bloggers International Riders’ Choice Awards. We have no idea who’s winning, but we did find out that 2strokebuzz is among the top referrers to the voting site, and that several other scooter blogs also posted some impressive traffic, so scooters should be well-represented next Wednesday (March 15, 2007) when the winners are announced.
SunL Sucks?
Phil’s review of the SunL microcar got a few laughs over on the SunL Sucks bulletin board. It’s funny that many Chinese brands’ hate sites and bad reviews have higher Google rankings than the brands’ official site. As we always say, if you:
- have no problem buying a scooter you can’t see first-hand, and sit on, and test-ride before buying,
- have no problem risking your life on a motor vehicle that costs less than you spend on coffee in a year,
- have no interest in after-sale support, maintenance, or parts availability, and
- trust a Chinese company and a fly-by-night importer to keep your best interests in mind,
then by all means, buy a Chinese scooter on the internet. Also be sure not to do any research beforehand, and ride helmetless, in flip-flops. You also don’t need a license, plates or insurance and you can park and even ride on the sidewalk. Have fun.
An outsider’s view of the Vegas rally
BMW biker/blogger Beemerchef accidentally came across the Vegas rally in Red Rock Canyon last weekend and wrote about his experience, with some great pictures. It’s neat to hear what a bystander has to say about a schload of vintage scooters coming out of nowhere.
MBI Riders’ Choice Awards: Vote now!
Nominations have been whittled down to a few choices per category, and it’s now time for you, the public, to vote in the Motorcycle Bloggers International Riders’ Choice Awards. Luckily, 2strokeBuzz didn’t make it past the nomination stage, so I won’t be biting my nails on Awards Night, but a lot of scooters–and scooter blogs–did make the cut. Represent!
sctrcst
The vowel-less sctrcst.com (assumedly pronounced “scootercast”) is a new scooter podcast by Dave in (?) Colorado. I haven’t listened yet, but it sounds promising and I’ll by syncing it to the ol’ iPod tonight. Looks like the current episode is mostly about Cincinnati, with a little support from the 2strokebuzz news network.