Month: October 2004

Chicago’s newest all-girl club has shirts for sale. Funny! Email Rachel to order.

Scooterist and punk rock hero Tim Kerr of, well, too many bands to mention at this point, will be DJing soul music at the opening of an exhibition of his art at Delilahs on Halloween night. Not surprisingly, Tim’s art (and DJing) is just as fantastic as his music (some might even say more so, heh). I went to see (hear?) him DJ at Delilah’s a year or two ago, and it was great. Let’s get a good crowd there and talk him into giving up a song for the 2sb CD I’m trying to get together.

Dave Gibbons’ The Originals, (Out now? Vertigo says 10/6, but Amazon lists it as a pre-order), looks to be another good addition to your pile of scooter comics, also including Blue Monday, Scooter Girl, and Deadenders. If your local mom’n’pop can’t get these comics for you, order from the links below and 2sb will get a tiny kickback:

“Guy busted for drunk driving a toy scooter” stories are a dime a dozen these days, but only one features Guy Organ. Thanks Drul.

Currently: 35°

Feels Like: 28°

Call me a pussy, I’m not riding a dodgy Sprint to Justice, IL today.

Here’s details on the aforementioned Stella ride, from P.J.:

Here’s a PDF flyer for the Scooterworks Stella ride on the 23rd, which happens to conflict with the Wildfire Chicken ride that Patrick posted to the ChiScootEvents list a few days ago.

([Blockquote within a blockquote! Drink! -ed] From Patrick: Woodfire Chicken Halloween cruise night is October the 23rd. We can all meet at BVS and leave from here at 5:30 or 6:00.)

But I think the Stella thing was planned first and doesn’t happen as often (monthly? weekly?). You could probably do both and put 100 or more miles on your bike in a day, but that’s asking a lot of most people. (Insert Cha-Cha long distance/cold weather/against all odds bravado riding story here)

From Mike “any day now” Durso: A british designer has built a prototype helmet that incorporates GPS and heads-up display technology to allow the rider to see his speed, gear, and signal alerts without taking his eyes off the road. “Tucker says the technology is a lot more accurate than the speedometers currently fitted in most standard vehicles.” More accurate than a Vespa speedo? is that even possible? A great idea, but there are a lot of ways to improve rider safety that DON’T involve a $1000+ piece of technology that needs to be replaced every time it falls off a barstool.

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As if I need another bottom-of-the-table soccer club to follow, Columbia is my new favorite Ivy-league women’s team, mainly because of their second-string freshman goalkeeper Allison Vespa. Do they sell replica jerseys? And before you accuse me of liking her because she’s hot, let me make it clear I haven’t found a photo yet. Geoff, get on it.

South Bend’s Hospice-Walkers were fully supplied with popcorn thanks to Tracie’s dad. If you’ve got some extra cash or time, donate to South Bend Hospice or your local Hospice.

Another Vespa PR backrub,, this time from Philly. I don’t fault Vespa dealers for trying to get exposure, I really don’t, I just wish papers would write something other than the two variations of “Scooter stories”, one being “‘Vespas are cool,’ says local Vespa dealer,” and the other being “Cute little scooters actually take you from point A to point B and can be ridden by girls!” I guess those are better than the recently dominant “Boy hit by truck on $300 scooter from Pep Boys.”

HCPU was a rock-a-silly blast. Beautiful ride out, great cars, free beer (well, I had one free PBR before they ran out), fried meat, and an Adventure Ride back.

Chad, Quinton, Ron, Matt Siegel, “mystery small frame guy,” and myself left Krispy Kreme around noon-ish. MSFG was on a stock 1974 Vespa 125 that Quinton very nicely babysat for the whole ride out. I kept the GL between 60-65 mph and at one point everyone on P200s zipped off and I watched them turn into itty bitty dots on the horizon. *Perfect* riding weather, open roads, fall colors, no major mishaps, just a great, great ride. A few wrong turns and a closed bridge later, we were at the Grundy County Speedway. Tom Mulvenna told his clubmates to let any scooter that wasn’t a P200 in the show, and since Chad and Ron’s bikes are nearly unrecognizeable as P’s, they were able to join my GL and Quinton’s lammy on the “concourse”.

Here are pics of the best car in the show ( 123 ). It’s the Holey [Grace’s, uh, perforated Vespa VBA —ed.] of cars, except instead of having 322 little holes, it has one big one on the top. It had tons of cool little details, like the pop bottle overflow (as indicated by Quinton’s turkey leg). The bottle looks like it’s full of chicken fat, no? Just perfect. When I took this pic, Quinton was walking around with a big turkey leg in one hand, a free PBR in other, saying “the only way this day could get any better would involve something I can’t talk about in mixed company.” I even ran into one of my old Harley buddies from Champaign! I was telling a story just that morning about a Harley guy I know that killed a deer, skinned and tanned its hide, and then made his seat cover from it. Now *that* is hardcore. The only thing that would have made that story better is if he killed the deer with his bare hands, like if he walked up to it and punched it in the face. Anyway I was talking about him, and then there he was! Bolt (that’s his nickname, I swear) was walking by the scooters and did a great double-take when he saw mine.

I rode back with Quinton and Ron. Ron’s bike started bogging shortly after we got on 171, but luckily it was just a fouled plug. My pilot bulb, tail and brakelight burned out AGAIN (but my horn started working?!?) and Quinton’s taillight as well as speedo were non-functional. Then MY speedo crapped out, and my 6v headlight was useless on the unlit roads after the sun set. So Ron “taillight for three” stayed in the back to keep us from getting run over, and I stayed in the middle most of the time, navigating by the guys’ headlights. Kinda scary. Just kinda. I was cold, deaf, and shaking by the time I got home but more beer and warm jammies made it all better. I love my GL, have I mentioned that lately?

Grace

Big congrats to Scooter World Magazine on their first anniversary. Be sure to make a big deal about it every year, guys, so I don’t forget Milena’s birthday.

Now we know why the MalagutiUSA site hasn’t been updated in more than a year: Our man Joel is trying to make them go faster.