I’m not sure where the extra five girls ended up (Smarch?), but The Debutantes Scooter Club calendar is back for its second year of 11×17″ cheesecake, featuring our favorite Deb, POC Michelle, as Miss November. They’re available now, $15 online or $12 in person, with 10% going to ScooterRelief.org, which (crap!) reminds me I still have a big chunk of Slaughterhouse money I keep forgetting to send to ScooterRelief.
Author: illnoise
Lake Erie Loop IV
POC Phil: “Like it or not…we’re turning the Lake Erie Loop into a rally. The campsite is too good for it to be anything but a rally. Run what you brung and be ready for a 680 mile ride-out.”
Patricia Piccinini’s “Nest”
Australian artist Patricia Piccinini has created a family of mutated fiberglass scooters for her 2006 “Nest” exhibition. 2SB pal Christine describes it best as “Surreal, oddly endearing, and sentimental like Bambi” and we can’t top that. If your taste for art extends beyond the scooter-related, see more at Patricia Piccinini’s site. Her first U.S. exhibition opens tomorrow at the Des Moines Art Center, with a later stop in Seattle. (Thanks, Chandler.)
St. Louis Motomuseum/Motofest
St. Louis’ new Moto Museum is hosting a “History of the Motorcycle” exhibit featuring 100 bikes from 100 years, concurrent with the first St. Louis International Motorcycle Festival, April 26-29, 2007. It appears that the show will be the only public display of the collection, so it’s not a “museum” so much a “Jay Leno’s garage.” (You’d think Lu$ would keep us abreast of StL news, but no, this one came from Matthew, thanks!)
Thailand by scooter
A Belfast Telegraph writer tours Thailand by scooter, and a Telegraph intern horks the title of Peter Moore’s book.
Scooter Diva’s Buyer’s Guide
Some of the photos are stretched funny, some of the lineups will probably change in February, and a few brands I might have included are omitted, but all in all, Scooter Diva’s 2007 Scooter Buyer’s Guide is a lot better than most of those fancy magazine buyer’s guides. And if nothing else, they weren’t pressured by advertisers into listing the 2004 Bajaj Chetak as a current model.
Wired on the Indian Autorickshaw Challenge
Wired‘s report on the Indian Autorickshaw Challenge. If anyone’d like to sponsor a 2strokebuzz team next year, you know where to find us. (Thanks again, Dave.)
Walking Scooter
Also from Ryan: A clip of a presumably home-made scooter with feet instead of wheels. From the look and sound of it, it’s from the Japanese version of Max-X
Vespa Gringo
In the late 1990s, Ryan Bastianelli visited a Vespa/Bajaj dealer in Costa Rica and saw the four-stroke Chetak. The historic moment was captured in the film Vespa Gringo. It’s the Citizen Kane of Central American Scooter dealer videos. Be sure to check out Ryan’s other films, including Deer Feeding in Chicago (2006) and I am hot on Oprah (1993).
UPDATE 2011: Vespa Gringo is back online!
VW bus graphics bonanza
Speaking of VWs (see below), here’s an amazing gallery of VW Bus graphics. Not directly scooter-related, but there are some amazing Vespa paint scheme ideas in there. (Via my employer and Draplin.)
Beckham to L.A., Burgman on CNN
Amazing, David Beckham signed to the L.A. Galaxy. Good news because it will raise the profile of U.S. Soccer and give me more reason to hate the Galaxy. But that’s not the amazing part, the amazing part is that Suzuki is buying Burgman banner ads on CNN.com. (Thanks, Alex)
“The Wasp and the Beetle”
John Rana explores the shared traits of the Volkswagen and the Vespa, and their unholy union on the streets of Indonesia. He’s also designed the logo for the new Vespa Club of the Philippines, making me wonder if he’s not intent on becoming the Filipino version of me. I wouldn’t wish that on anyone.
DiamoUSA: More about new Italjets
After discovering late last night that Diamo USA was bringing Italjet scooters and motorcycles to America, we were stupefied, excited, and to be honest, a bit skeptical. Diamo has a fairly good reputation among scooter dealers and riders, but were they the right company to re-introduce the legendary Dragster to the U.S.? Where were these bikes coming from, and how did Italjet rise from the dead seemingly overnight? We contacted DiamoUSA early this morning, and we heard back this afternoon from Mathu Solo, who very candidly answered our questions:
Continue reading “DiamoUSA: More about new Italjets”
AMA “Fuels the Fund”
The only scientific study of motorcycle accidents ever performed in the United States was the famous Hurt Report (download PDF), published in 1981 using statistics and reports collected in California in 1979 and 1980. 25 years later, The Hurt Report’s findings remain the gospel of safe motorcyclists, but even Dr. Harry Hurt, interviewed in 2000 for David L. Hough’s fantatsic and essential book “Proficient Motorcycling,” seemed amazed that a more comprehensive study has never come along to replace it. Finally, in 2005, Congress approved a new motorcycle crash study, budgeting $2.8 million, with the stipulation that manufacturers, organizations, and motorcyclists would need to raise an additional $2.8 million. With a marked increase in both riders and accidents over the past couple years, the American Motorcycle Association has committed $100,000 of club funds to the study, and is asking members and all riders to do their part as well. Their Fuel the Fund initiative makes it easy to donate any amount, funding a study that could make an even bigger impact than the Hurt Report, and save lives for years to come. In the meantime, it’s a always a good idea to re-read Hurt’s study, and Hough’s books.
Italjet Dragster to return to US in February
In a surprise announcement today, Diamo USA announced they’ll import the Italjet Dragster and Torpedo, and other Italjet bikes including the Griffon 650 motorcycle, starting in February. We’ll have more details and analysis tomorrow. (Note: these will be Italjet-branded Dragsters, not the “Italiano” models that were once expected to be built under license by Kinetic in India)