Category: Legal & Safe

Scootcrash.com

Brad (aka “Orangeguy”) from the Quad Cities started a new grim but useful website a few weeks ago to catalog scooter injuries and fatalities found via Google News. I see these stories every day while I’m scouring for scooter news, and it’s disturbing how many you come across even after you filter out (as Brad does) duplicate reports and pushscooter/senior mobility scooter stories. It’s sad that many of the fatalities and critical injuries are suffered by unlicensed and untrained riders (often preteen children) and/or people riding on public roads on non DOT-EPA-appoved scooters, often with no helmet.

Depending on where you live, you are expected to comply with laws when you ride, and you’re also given choices about safety precautions beyond mere compliance with the law. How you decide to ride is up to you, and there are certainly enough stories on Scootcrash.com involving well-protected and experienced rider. But experience and education always lead to better decisions and reactions. There are a lot of more positive and proactive ways to collect experience and education, but anytime you’re feeling like you have all the experience and education you need, Scootcrash.com is a good place to prove that you’re wrong.

I can’t imagine Brad will continue to do this site for long, it’s a time-consuming and depressing (but worthwhile) task.

Worse than Worst

Binqi scooters
We always hear about low-quality Chinese scooters, and how the Chinese scooter industry has little regard for intellectual property. POCphil sent us this email from Binqi, and we’d actually received the same email recently, but ignored it. Dealers and anyone with a scooter website get emails like this several times a week. This one deserves a good look, though, because it’s the perfect storm of absurdity:
Continue reading “Worse than Worst”

Brains

No, this is not a S.P.A.Z. post. Japanese neuroscientist Ryuta Kawashima, who designed “Brain Training” for the Nintendo DS, has determined that riding a motorcycle can improve memory, space recognition and other prefrontal brain functions. That’s a way better excuse to buy a bike than fuel efficiency, right?

You know, our Brooke is a neuroscientist too, and he would say anything Yamaha wanted, if they’ll fill up his garage with Asian-market Zumas, but since Yamaha didn’t come to him first, I imagine he’ll have an interesting opinion on Kawashima’s findings.

(Thanks for the story, Victor!)

How to destroy a scooter?

Oh, the fun we’ll have: A Discovery Science game show is looking for suggestions to destroy a scooter for a gameshow. Flyscooter clearly subscribes to the theory that there’s no such thing as bad publicity, ha.

(If you’re not a Modern Buddy member, post your suggestions here, I’ll repost them over there and credit you with the idea.)

Life imitates 2sb t-shirts

When we made our “DOT Flip-Flop” t-shirts, we never thought anyone would be dumb enough to sell riding sandals, let alone buy them. Save yourself the experience of having your toes grinded off and stick to the t-shirt instead, we still have some L, XL, and 3XL “Chocolate Brown” shirts and a few “‘Safety Orange” smalls and mediums. We’ve got a few new items over at Scootmoto, too. (Thanks for the tip on the real sandals, Professor.)

Vespa versus Venti

Don’t say it was unexpected (1, 2) but 2sb has learned that Piaggio has taken some sort of legal action against Hammerhead, the importer of the Venti 150 vintage Vespa lookalike. Our source tells us “Piaggio sent Hammerhead a cease-and-desist order in regards to the Venti yesterday.” We suspect it was actually a C&D letter rather than an order“ (there’s a difference) or if it’s based on the design of the Venti or the marketing language used in their flyer, but either way, domestic legal action against importers is usually a safer bet than an international legal contest, especially when China is involved. The good news for Hammerhead is that they’re raking in publicity leading into Dealer Expo (just a couple weeks away), so we applaud their market savviness , if not their design and engineering.

Andretti test 1: 2sb crashes the Andretti

I’ve mentioned a few times that PowerSportsFactory has given us a Benelli/Andretti 150XT for a long-term test. I also bought a used Blur around the same time to replace the one stolen at the MotoGP race in Indianapolis, and thanks to a few minor snafus in both transactions, a busy schedule, and a little bad luck, I finally obtained plates and titles for both bikes yesterday. Yesterday it was 46°F and sunny, probably the last decent riding day we’ll see until Spring in Chicago, so it would have made sense to pick up the Andretti that’s been blocking a hallway inside my office for weeks now. But what fun is that? I decided to ride it home in the 34° sleet today instead.
Continue reading “Andretti test 1: 2sb crashes the Andretti”

Jeremy Clarkson on scooters

British journalist, Top Gear host, and well-known motorcycle-hater Jeremy Clarkson got a lot of stick last week when he was sighted riding a Vespa. The experience left him shaken, and his review of the bike is hilarious, insightful, and a must-read for anyone considering the jump from cars to scooters. (Thanks, Ben!)

An excerpt, that will hopefully convince you to read the whole thing:

However, many people are making the switch because they imagine that having a small motorcycle will be cheap. It isn’t. Sure, the 125cc Vespa I tried can be bought for £3,499, but then you will need a helmet (£300), a jacket (£500), some Freddie Mercury trousers (£100), shoes (£130), a pair of Kevlar gloves (£90), a coffin (£1,000), a headstone (£750), a cremation (£380) and flowers in the church (£200).

Scooter vs. Car

Scooter vs Car (might be disturbing for some viewers). No idea if it’s real or staged or what. The video quality is good and (fingers crossed) the scooterist looks like it may be a dummy, so I’m guessing it’s a commercial or safety training video or something, but it really gets the point across: No matter how careful you are, sometimes the other guy just isn’t following the rules. (Thanks for the link, Steve from Andretti/Benelli)