Category: Lifestyle

World Cup Semis!

Well, a few upsets later, our brackets got a serious shakeup but “tnpsc1” stays in first for now. Argentina and Brazil’s losses bombed most of us, and all the Holland fans I made fun of when this started are looking good now. I’m no math wizard, and the scoring of this contest frankly makes little sense to me, but I *think* as it stands now, if Spain wins the tournament, “tnpsc” (whom we suspect is Patrick from P-Town) wins it. If the Netherlands beats Spain in the final, Kevin “Brazil Sucks” Slater wins. If the Netherlands beat Germany in the final, Matt “m5matty1” DeVries wins, and if Germany wins, it’ll be “Mythdraug,” who’s been posting comments for years on 2SB and lives in Chicago, so it’s about time that I admit I’m not really sure who “Mythdraug” is. But don’t quote me on any of that (the winners or the players). Note that I haven’t bothered to say what happens if Uruguay wins. If they actually beat Holland in a couple hours here, I’ll try to figure it out. Note that I fell to “second to last.” so I’m way out of the running. The only World Cup match I’ve ever seen in person was Germany/Spain in Chicago 1994 (a 1-1 draw), so there’s that. I guess I’d pick Germany over Spain, they’re on a roll and I like the team better. On the other side, I’d love to see L’orange win a Cup finally, but it’s also be neat to see underdogs Uruguay pull it off. In any case, I’m cheering for the NED-URU side of the bracket in the final.

EPA Retracts Certifications
from Four Chinese Manufacturers

The EPA has withdrawn certification for off-road vehicles from four US importers, Hensim USA, Loncin USA, Peace Industry Group, and Seaseng, affecting 200,000 vehicles. All four companies used broker MotorScience Enterprise to handle their emissions testing. Three of the four companies also import scooters, but it appears no scooters were included in the action. The EPA alleges MotorScience provided “tailpipe emissions information was either incomplete or falsified.”
Continue reading “EPA Retracts Certifications
from Four Chinese Manufacturers”

Merge: Dance ‘n’ Ride

Starting a couple weeks ago, and into the foreseeable future, Chicago has a weekly Mod allnighter at LateBar called The Merge. It seems to be run by a rotating coalition of mod groups and scooter clubs (and it’s so nice to see teamwork in Chicago lately). You all know how 2SB feels about dressing nice and dancing, so we haven’t been yet, but the next two weeks look promising for folks more into the scooter thing than the preening thing. This Friday (July 2, 2010), there’s a long midnight ride out to Skokie Lagoons leaving at 11:30 from Late Bar. Next Friday (July 9, 2010) the whole shebang’s being run by The Secret Society SC and Mayday SC (flyer above), with another ride and more scooter-related stuff than usual.

UPDATE: From Jordan:

Every 2nd friday of each month till November will be scooter night with us, SSSC & MDSC together with friends. Officially the scooter night starts next friday (7/9) and hopefully we can pull all the local scooterist to join the fun. The plan is to meet somewhere for dinner, ride etc. and head to LateBar for night of dancing :-)

ANOTHER UPDATE: From Jordan, on this weeks’ events with new flyer:
RIDE TO EVENT AT 9:45 PM START AT NEW WAVE COFFEE (CORNER OF MILWAUKEE AND LOGAN).

Casey S. (Secret Society SC) will spearhead the ride starts from New Wave Coffee: http://www.newwavecoffee.com/

Chicagoans: New Tags Today

A reminder to Chicago scooterists: New city tags start today. There’s usually a grace period through mid-July, so if you don’t have ’em yet, move fast. All motorcycles and scooters registered in the city need tags, even if you never park on the street. (They’re commonly called “parking tags” but they’re technically for “road use”). Also, remember that a city tag allows you to park in residential parking zones without a specific zone permit, which is pretty handy (though baseball and special event restrictions still apply, which isn’t always made clear).

2SB World Cup Brackets Heat Up

Two exciting weeks of football are behind us, and the group stage of the World Cup is almost over. How are the 18 contenders in our 2SB World Cup Bracket doing?

France and Italy’s early exits really hurt just about everyone. In fact, with all the upsets so far, not one of the million-or-so entrants in ESPN’s Bracket Predictor has full points. We had a lot of Serbia fans that are dissapointed, too. Right now, first place is a three-way-tie with Jason Rossi, Matt Langenberg, and my 8-month-old son Pudge in a three-way tie for first. Of those three, only Langenberg has all four predicted Semifinalists left in the tournament, so he’s looking very good right now.

But even in the lower ranks, there’s hope. Three of the bottom six have all four semifinalist choices still active. Tomorrow is the last day of group play, and Brazil and Portugal are virtually locked in unless Ivory Coast beats Dear Leader by 8, but Spain could tank and pull an Italy tomorrow, and shake everything up again. We’ll see.

In any case, we’re certainly proud of the U.S.A.’s performance so far, and can’t wait for the Ghana match on Saturday. Ghana beat us 2-1 in group play in 2006, and has cooler jerseys than us, can we pull it off this time? What do our bracket-makers think?

  • 17/18 picked the U.S. to succeed in the group stage (boooo, Becky!)
  • 11/18 thought the U.S. would win their second-round match (most of the naysayers expected to meet Germany there)
  • 5/18 were optimistic to see the Yanks through to the Semifinals
  • 1/18 (Matt Langenberg) had the U.S. in the Final, losing to Holland.

I hope they prove us all wrong!

49ccScoot.com

49ccScoot.com is a newish site focused on GY6 and Minarelli engine tuning and maintenance, with forums, videos, and more. If you’re looking for tips to hop up or fix your Chinese bike, this looks like a good place to visit to get an honest, reasonable answer without the snooty attitude you get from sites like, um, say, 2strokebuzz.

Via Jason Davis on Modern Buddy

PVSC Band Camp 2010 (+ gallery)

To tell you the truth, I’ve become a bit disillusioned with rallies. I’ve only been hitting a couple a year, and they’re always pretty great, but modern-scooter city rallies just aren’t the same as the drunken rural camping rallies that got me hooked on scootering. I’d been finding excuses to skip Pittsburgh Vintage Scooter Club’s Band Camp rally in eastern Ohio for ten years, but after a great trip to Niagara last month, I finally decided it was time to see what I was missing.
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Stella 4T Delivery Delayed by EPA

The first batch of 4-stroke Genuine Stellas is being held up by the EPA to validate the production model’s compliance with earlier testing (which, obviously, was done on prototypes). In typical transparent and honest fashion, Genuine explains it all clearly, and apologizes for the delay, here. I know the delay must be frustrating for would-be four-stroke Stella riders, but whining about it on the internet isn’t going to get you a bike any faster, and just think, further government confirmation about how green your bike is will just give you hippy 2-stroke killers more to be smug about, amirite?

Farewell, John Gerber

I’ve just heard that John Gerber has passed away. As an active participant in the U.S. scooter scene since “the old days,” John was the preeminent historian of American scootering history, collecting his own memories, first-person accounts, and laboriously-researched stories for American Scooterist. He was frankly the heart and soul of the Vespa Club of America. Aside from that, I have no details at all, but I’ll share the information when I get it, and a proper tribute when I’m less speechless.

Chinese traffic accidents

Via Gome, via Jalopnik:

Yes, that’s dozens of low-speed collisions from Chinese security cameras. Car-on-car. Car-on-scooter. Scooter-on-scooter. Scooter-on bicycyle. All of the above-on-pedestrian, and my favorite, Tuk-tuk-in-reverse-on-multiple-pedestrians.

It’s very tragic, yet a little bit funny (just like Gome) At least everyone seems to be moving pretty slowly and no one is hurt, at least not visibly gored. Try not to picture any of those collisions on American streets with SUVs going twice as fast.

MODchicago Weekender (and Fridays!)

OMG we can’t keep up. Apparently ModChicago is back THIS WEEKEND with Our Way of Thinking: A Simple Headphone Mind and a regular night The Merge at Late Bar (Fridays) starting June 18. I’ll never figure out Mod politics so I probably just pissed off someone there, maybe they’re not related. Facebook is confusing, so I’m not even going to link to it. Karrie will straighten us out. Karrie, please straighten us out.

Mods and Rockers 10 Chicago

Jordan reminds us Ton Up Chicago’s Mods and Rockers Street Clash is next weekend (Friday June 18-Saturday June 19 2010). This year it looks like they’re moving it from Delilahs to the new(ish) Bottom Lounge on Lake Street. As great as Delilah’s is, it’s been way too crowded in years past I’ve gone (was it at Bottom Lounge last year?) so the new venue (and the less busy street/area) should be a big improvement. Not that an improvement was needed, the event, venue, and artwork have always been top-notch. This year promises an even fuller two days of events, including Quadrophenia at the Music Box, bands (Irving Parkas!), rides, and the centerpiece bike show. Sadly, I’ll miss it again this year, but Jordan will surely give us a report.

Update: We hear the Discovery Channel is shooting the whole thing, so you’ll definitely want to shine up and show off!