This is the most perfect BBS thread of all time, featuring rants, groundless accusations, real-world experience, hilarious jokes, Stafford-baiting, personal attacks, and best of all, good insight from various perspectives– you can live the entire ScooterBBS experience in one thread.
Category: On The Web
My Burgman
Juventus and Italy football star Alessandro del Piero stars as “Mr. Burgman” in Suzuki’s rather nifty “My Burgman” site for the Italian market. We marvel at the lengths Suzuki will take (del Piero is arguably Italy’s biggest sports star) to make a dent in the Italian scooter market, compared to the complete lack of a US marketing campaign for the Burgman. (From Motoblog)
Lunabase
Proof that the Lambretta Luna is the next big thing for scooter collectors: Lunabase is a well-designed, up-to-date, comprehensive British site celebrating the underappreciated Lambretta Luna range–Lui, Vega, and Cometa–designed by Bertone in the seventies. The site features technical info, brochures, a mailing list, and even an owners club. You’ll be coveting a Luna in no time.
RetroThing Hybrid Vespa GTS prank
2sb may not be the brightest or most knowlegeable scooter blog out there, but we like to think that with our Google News subscriptions and unhealthy amount of scooter site surfing, we more or less have our finger on the pulse of scootering. So imagine my surprise when i noticed out of the corner of my eye a tiny blurb in the corner of Finkbuilt (of all places) that Vespa had announced a hybrid Diesel/Electric GTS for 2007. The link took me to the Vespa GTS site in italian, on which I couldn’t make out anything about a hybrid model. I excitedly drooled all over my keyboard looking for info, but sadly eventually figured out it was a cruel April Fools’ joke from RetroThing that many other blogs had picked up. Reading the actual story, it’s clear it’s a joke (3-stroke!?) but that link sure had me going for a while.
Scoot 2 Go Podcast
Podcasts, for all their hype, are generally pretty dissapointing, but Scoot 2 Go has a lot in common with 2strokebuzz: Rob, the Australian host, doesn’t have the world’s best speaking voice, his two-year-old regularly distracts him, and what he lacks in scooter-specific knowlege is balanced by, well, the fact that he was bright enough to be the first person to do it. After 7 quality episodes (well, the first is a bit shaky, ha) Rob has become the self-effacing champion of scooter podcasting, and good for him. He covers the same broad range of scooterdom you’ll find here. Newish scooterists will find the show informative and valuable, and oldtimer know-it-alls will just be happy to know that no one expects them to make a podcast now (whew). In any case, the show’s a must for long drives to rallies. Note that the show can be downloaded directly from the Scoot 2 Go site (where Rob helpfully posts links to everything he mentions on the show), from Apple Music Store (it’s free), or many other podcast directories.
TAG’s “What Scooter?”
TAG (formerly Twist and Go) magazine has a What Scooter? Database that appears to be carefully updated with all available UK-spec models. A great reference if you’re looking for a new scooter, but don’t get your hopes up if you live in the US, many aren’t available here. Thanks, Dave, for the link.
The Baron in Spring
Believe it or not, Gary Charpentier’s Baron 150SX ran like a top all winter. I think Gary was even a bit surprised, what with naming his blog “The Baron in Winter.” So he ran a contest to re-name the blog. I won’t spoil the results, you can read about the name change here.
Owners vs. Riders
Steve at Scooter in the Sticks posted a great observation yesterday about Scooter owners vs. Scooter Riders. I am definitely guilty of being an “owner,” and his use of photography as a metaphor hit home, as i’ve grown more interested in photography, I’ve grown to dislike “photographers,” instead favoring “people who take pictures.” If you’re a “rider,” you’ll love Scooter in the Sticks, it’s very much in the same vein as The Baron in Winter, with mostly personal anecdotes about riding, something you’ll rarely find on 2strokebuzz, ha.
Vespaquest-Vespaway scooter blogs merge
Vespaquest and Vespaway, the two official Vespa blogs, announced today that they’ll join forces effective immediately. Crystal Waters, of Vespaquest, Girlbike, and Scooter Seat Covers fame, will join Neil Barton at Vespaway. Vespaquest’s Justene “Andrew Ridgley” Ademec and Vespaway’s Jonathan “John Oates” Ogilvy apparently lost interest in blogging and/or scooters. Best of luck to Neil and Crystal, who clearly and rightly recognized 2sb as a huge threat and reacted accordingly.
Hey Crackhead
From (but not by) Christian: maybe the best Craiglist Rant of all time.
XYL Update
Casey of the Ten Year Lates (Cincinnati, OH) let us know their site has been updated and improved. It also now features the scoot.net rally calendar and our news feed, making it a one-stop daily read for Southwestern Ohioans. Feel free to add 2SB news to your site (with appropriate attribution) using this link.