Bringing Back Those Memories

Surprised I’ve never seen this, it’s from 2004… Elvis just hepped us to Mark Joseph’s “Bringing Back Those Memories” video. It’s a fantastic clip with lots of vintage scooters and a great retro mod feel, but the song isn’t really my thing. The opening riff sounds like Bettie Serveert, but it quickly descends into teen-idol neoOasisness. Sure, I’m the only person in the world who doesn’t like Oasis, and Mark apparently made quite a stir in the UK when it came out, and Cy probably has a Mark Joseph tattoo on his arse, so maybe I’m crazy, you might love it.

Fire up the willing engine, responding with a roar

Canadian TV host Rick Mercer has driven a lot of different vehicles while interviewing celebrities and officials, but nothing could be better than riding a Vespa following Neil Peart of Rush to the band’s “Batcave” for a drum lesson. Peart, aside from being an amazing drummer, has written two books about motorcycle touring, and another about “road music.”

“Tracy! are you OK?”

WLS scooter crashI heard about this when it happened a couple years ago, and never thought I’d get the chance to see it, but thanks to the dual magic of Tivo and Youtube, here it is: With mere seconds of instruction and an unbuckled half-helmet, WLS Channel 7 meteorologist Tracy Butler crashes a Vespa, during a PR piece with Vespa of Chicago’s Sam Tomaino. God bless you, Vespaway. Now if only I could find Les Nessman’s Vespa crash on WKRP…

Bajaj sidecar antics, starring POCPhil

Bajaj wheelie!

Rossi is allright, but he’s no Phil Waters, who sent us his tips for scooter sidecar jackassery, in this case featuring a Bajaj/Scooterworks sidecar combo:

  • 3-wheel-skid: “With a 120 lb. rider we achieved full 3 wheel drift with a reasonable amount of control. Note the tire stripes on the entire parking lot.”
  • Stoppie: “We completely “Stoppied” a sidecar rig (with the back tire a foot off the ground).” [no video of this one-2sb]
  • Wheelie: “More dangerous than you’d think– If you try it from a dead stop or anything other than a left-skid it pulls too strong to the right causing you to simply ‘drive around’ the sidecar and nothing goes airborne… but you do end up running into whatever is to the right of you.”

Video from POC’s Avon Lake Ohio City testing ground: clip 1, clip 2, clip 3. (right-click to download)