Another reason to move to England: The British Department for Transport’s THINK! safety campaign features a chilling TV spot and an extensive print campaign to remind motorists to keep an eye out for motorcycles. (Thanks, Girlbike)
Month: February 2006
American Scooterist 48/49
The Las Vegas rally is underway, which can mean only one thing: the new American Scooterist is out! #48/49 is very special, it’s a 52-page double issue celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Vespa GS. It features an in-depth look at the various GS models from around the world, personal memories from original GS owners, and even complete rebuild directions. As part of the hard-working American Scooterist team, I really strongly suggest you join VCOA today, or at the very least, order it from the VCOA club store.
Snow ride
I actually rode around Galewood in the snow the other day. Goodtimes, for a few minutes. Check out The Baron in Winter for some cold-weather riding inspiration, and remember, the Cold Weather Challenge ends on the 28th.
Peg Perego Vespa GT
Peg Perego unveiled a new rechargeable-battery-powered Vespa Granturismo at the American International Toy Fair in NYC this week. We’ll keep an eye out and let you know when we see them for sale. Last night Milena backed her Chicco Vespa into a door and busted out the rear right turn signal, so she’s going to have to learn to ride more responsibly if she wants a GT. Thanks for the link, Vespaquest (See, I’m stealing links already!)
Huckin’ big air, or whatever the kids call it
At the motorcycle show, Toyota Trucks had a big green wall with an upside-down motorcross bike bolted to it. I walked up, hung from the bars, and gave them my email address, and today I got this.
50 million Super Cubs
Honda announced last week that worldwide production of Super Cubs topped 50 million in December. They won’t notice if just one is missing, right?
Paper Lambretta
I’ve been waiting ages to post this, even though I can’t remember who sent it to me, and probably everyone’s already seen it. Here’s an NSU Lambretta LD paper model you can print out and assemble. I assume it’s from an old German magazine. If you assemble it, send us a photo!
Exhaustive Vespa PX200 exhausts
To end all those “it feels like…” arguments once and for all, here’s an english translation of Scooter Center Köln‘s test of fourteen exhausts, complete with dyno results, tested on a Malossi-kitted PX200 in 1999.
Go-time
We’re back live, with little fanfare. There’s still a lot of work to do, but we decided it’s better to get the posts rolling, and finish up the sloppy bits as we go along. We’re still moving things around, and we might be down for a day or less in the near future as we move the domain name to the new host. Also note that you need to register to post comments now. Registering is painless and easy, it’s necessary to prevent the overwhelming comment spam that destroyed the old site.
Coming soon: new mersh, and category-specific RSS feeds. Thanks for nagging me and checking the site every day for the past year, please spread the word that we’re back in business.
Vespaway and Vespaquest
While 2sb was gone, many scooterblogs have sprung up, notably VespaUSA’s two officially-sanctioned blogs; Vespaway and Vespaquest. Both are lovely, and I look forward to stealing links from them in retribution for the pain of 2strokebuzz not being asked to the dance. Just keep in mind that even if other sites have stolen your hearts, you can always come here to bitch about Azzurro Grande behind its back.
Illinois SB2439
A proposed law that would legalize lane splitting and enact a helmet law in Illinois, State Bill 2439, has been postponed three times this month by the Illinois Senate Transportation Committee, most recently on February 14. The official synopsis:
Amends the Illinois Vehicle Code. Provides that, during periods of traffic congestion, a person may, in a safe and prudent manner, operate a motorcycle between lanes of traffic or between adjacent lines or rows of vehicles. Requires every operator and passenger on a motorcycle, motor driven vehicle, or motorized pedalcycle to wear a helmet.
As you might have guessed, 2sb’s official position, regardless of the law, is that you should wear a helmet and not split lanes.
We’d sing your praises, but with that muffler you couldn’t hear us
Chad sent this Bud Light “Real Men of Genius, Hawaiian Style” radio ad: We salute you, Mr. Moped Souper-Upper.
Lambretta LI series Scooters
Veloce Publishing was kind enough to send a review copy of Andrea and David Sparrow’s Lambretta LI Series Scooters (order from Amazon)
More M/C Show photos
Silent Ron’s photos from the 2006 Chicago International Motorcycle Show. You know, in case you want to see pictures of me taking pictures of Ron taking pictures.
Bike Show 06
Notes from the Chicago International Cycle Show:
I couldn’t get obsessed with anything because Truimph wasn’t there. Ryan wants a Husqvarna, and reminded us all of this fact pretty much every 30 seconds. Quinton wants a BMW Dakar. Ron wants a dirt bike. Deanna wants us all to shut up.
The new 250cc Yamaha Morphous scooter looks like a big dildo. (POC Phil, who saw the show in Cleveland last month, has christened it the “Morephallus.”
The Honda Metropolitan has new, uglier, patterns. The Helix and Elite rival the PX150 for the on display. Come on, Honda! I finally saw the “Big Ruckus” in person, and I still prefer the regular Ruckus.
Vespa of Chicago has a new sales manager who is friendlier and infinitely more knowledgable than his predecessor. He clarified for us that the Piaggio group now includes Piaggio, Vespa, Aprilia, Moto Guzzi, Gilera, and Derbi. Vespa of Chicago (part of Suburban Auto Group) is working on changing their name to something less specific, and plan to sell Piaggios, Vespas, Guzzis, and Aprilias in their Maywood dealership and their downtown boutique. Derbi is sitting out until the U.S. standards change, and no word on Gilera. Our guess is that Piaggio’s not selling enough non-Vespas to warrant bringing in any more of their own brands, and that’s understandable, but we’d sure rather see Gilera Runners here, even Piaggio-branded Runners, than the Typhoon or the utterly boring Fly150 on display at the show. Aprilia had the same old overpriced SR50 on display, along with the Scarabeo line which continues to baffle me. Didn’t notice the Atlantic or Mojito on display, but I didn’t look for them either.
Ural Motorcycles are back, and way more expensive than before. Not sure why anyone would pay that much for a knockoff retro BMW sidecar rig of dubious construction, but to each his own. At least Royal Enfields and Stellas are reasonably priced compared to their competitors.
Valentino Rossi could have walked through the place and no one would have recognized him, but a hundred people were standing in line to meet Billy Lane.
Despite missing the show last year, there was very little sense of excitement, and not much that was truly new. The trend towards sportbikes and cruisers/choppers continues, and scooters seem to have topped off. The only interesting new trend is the increase in supermotard and enduro models, which seem to be gaining popularity as urban commuters.