2strokebuzz Liebt Motorliebe

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It’s been more than a year since our last (non-CWC) post, and i’m sick of dumb April Fools’ pranks, so here’s something real, and awesome: Motorliebe, aka Lars, Dani, Blumi, and Mariuz, rode across the U.S.A. last summer on Vespa P200s, and I know a lot of 2SB readers had the pleasure of meeting them along the way, especially at PVSC Band Camp. They were self-sufficient, organized, and ridiculously fun to be around, and I think we were all a bit bummed out to see them go back to Germany. Meeting them was a highlight of my summer and reminded me why I love scootering, and it certainly made a certain Thomas Müller goal a little easier to swallow.

Be sure to check out their great video!

Anyway, point being (when did 2sb ever get to the point quickly?) Motorliebe’s photo book about their trip is coming out soon, and was previewed in a great photo gallery and interview with Dani in German newsmagazine Der Spiegel. It seems to be available for preorder from the publisher and amazon.de but I’m a lame monoglot and can’t figure out shipping. I’ve asked the guys if it will be available in the U.S., I’ll let you know when I hear back.

Vespa Scooters – The Essential Buyer’s Guide

Veloce's Vespa Buyer's Guide AppVeloce books, the British motorsports publisher responsible for at least half of the decent scooter books available out there, has published a Vespa Buyer’s Guide mobile app. The last thing I need is more vintage scooters so I’m too cheap to drop $2.50 on it, but if it’s anything like their books, it’s probably useful, worth the money, comfortingly Anglocentric, and <snark>not as well-designed as it could be.</snark>

Epic Scooter Story Proposed By Kickstarter Project

badass

Canadian Gordon Bowman is proposing to publish a book detailing his fathers romantic mid-century journey across the Americas. The Kickstarter page details the project and levels of financial participation. The manuscript is complete and a publisher is sought; with this being the goal of the project. Head over and take a peak at some of the cool photos. The masked bandit photo is what caught my eye. Just about the coolest scooter snapshot I’ve seen in a while.

(Note: Facebook hasn’t killed 2SB yet, but you can also check out the facebook page on the Scooter Diaries effort)

2013 SIP Customshow Winners Announced.

header_011The results for awards at last weekend’s SIP Customshow in Landsberg, Germany are shown here. The show is one of the largest and never fails to have a few examples of custom scooter eye-candy. Some winners have been seen before but are worthy of praise nonetheless. My favorite winner is the Best Smallframe. But the best name for an award is Maximum Respect, and seeing the winner explains it. Very nice.

SIP to produce smallframe cases


Hodgespeed let us know that SIP is currently in the process of making tooling to produce Vespa smallframe PK-style engine cases. Great news in itself, as they’d gone out of production, but to me, the interesting part of the post is the CAD drawings of the mold for one side of the case. You hear a lot of people saying “Why don’t they just make….” Here’s the answer, look at the complexity and SIZE of that mold, and that’s just for one case-half (engine cases having two halves, you see.) So knowing that SIP has invested tens of thousands of Euros already, with all the machining and production costs to come, and testing, and the concern that the demand might be less than anticipated, or any tiny mistake in engineering or quality control could be disastrous, it’s a wonder they’ve taken on the project, though I’d wager most scooterists are certainly glad they did.

Now, a note, because everytime I post something like this, I get emails once a month forever from non-english speakers: 2strokebuzz does not sell this or any scooter parts. If you are interested in this product, please contact SIP in Germany.

Tiny Photos Showcase Electric Lambretta and Vespa

Saigon Scooter Center has thrown their hat into the electric scooter ring. It’s not another new Lambretta rumor, but a conversion of old to new. Vespa and Lambetta models appear, named VTronic and EBretta respectively. It’s a bit disappointing that they stuff a behemoth of a 13″ wheel in the back. And the custom cowl on the P-series conversion looks a bit off. But hey, they are making options for the people that want their transportation energy to not come from fossil fuels. At least not fossil fuels burned near them while riding.

Brits must have excellent eye sight. Most of their websites rely on the smallest photographs possible to differentiate products or events from smudges on the screen. Brit Ex-pat run SSC sustains the long tradition even overseas. Long live the Queen.

Check out the photos and description here!

Any readers riding electric scooters right this moment? Home brew, conversions or off the shelf?

Vespa World Days 2012

MotoBlog.it reports Vespa World Days 2012 in London ended today with record numbers: over 3,000 scooters, 780 clubs represented, and 2000 members at the gala dinner. Vespa Club Sirmione won the “Trophy Club Race” with over 1,600 of the 1,752 checkpoints scattered across Europe. This, of course, makes Amerivespa seem puny in comparison, but that’s not gonna ruin my fun this weekend.

2 Symbas, 1 Couple, No Sense

Obviously I am not spending enough time on the scooterweb, I’ve missed this 64-page, nearly ten-month long AVRider.com thread by a couple circumnavigating the globe on Symbas. There goes my Memorial Day, it’s going to take the whole day to catch up with their adventures. (Spoiler Alert from page 64, it sounds like the trip is close to its end, they’re in Malaysia, trying to organize return shipping to America for the bikes.)

Thanks to velobuff on Modern Buddy for the link. Amazing.

François Hollande, Scooterist No More

Scooter-Infos reports new French President François Hollande (who is incidentally about a mile and a half away from me at the moment) has been forced to leave his scooter behind for the sake of security. We all know the only thing more dangerous than BMW-riding assassins in black leather is moms in minivans pulling out of the Starbucks drive-thru on their way to soccer practice.

London to Woolacombe

After 16 years of scootering and 2strokebuzz, it’s easy to forget what attracted me to the machines and people that make up this dumb subbacultcha. If the first third of this video doesn’t make you want to stay up all night prepping your bike for a 5am, 250-mile rideout with some friends, there’s something wrong with you.

To our newish friend Bo and our oldish friend Bart, who shared the link on the facebooks, thanks for the reminder!

Vegas High Rollers Gallery 2012

Jordan's High Rollers PhotosIf you’re like me, you hate the idea of the city of Las Vegas on principle, but it’s worth the trip every few years to remind yourself, “anywhere is incredibly fun, with enough scooterists.” I skipped the rally this year, but our pal Jordan from the Mayday SC was there with the mob of British and U.S. scooterists, and brought back a bunch of great photos. Thanks, Jordan!
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