Category: Lifestyle

Baby sidecar!

With the recent spate of scooter babies out there (Cheers Archer, Calvin, Lillian and a Bastianelli and a Spurck to be named later) and a multitude of alleged “new Lambrettas” on the market, let’s bring back the Lambretta baby-stroller sidecar. Awesome. I don’t check Scooterswag nearly enough. Be sure your child is facing backwards, you know, in case the airbag goes off.

Chicago Tiki ride Sunday

Darren’s taking advantage of Sunday’s expected 40° heat wave and clear skies:

The weather forecast calls for slightly warmer temps and little to no precipitation until early next week, so let’s take advantage of it! The streets should be clear, and you know your scooter is asking to be ridden.

Meet at Orbit Room (Wellington/California) at 1:30pm Sunday 1/17, ride leaves at 2pm. Get there earlier if you want to eat. We will head up to Paradise Pup (1724 S River Rd, Des Plaines; #24 in Chicago Magazine’s 30 Best Burgers), planning to get there around 3pm. from Paradise Pup we will head down to Hala Kahiki (2834 River Rd, River Grove), planning to get there at 4-4:30pm.

Please join us for any or all of it. All bikes welcome! Or just meet us for food and/or drinks; you know January is the best time for tiki drinks, anyway. Hope to see you there!

I’ll try to make it, Hala Kahiki’s near my ‘hood and I haven’t been there in ages.

VVV: Wyclef Jean:
“Another One Bites the Dust”

It’s been a while, but Vespa Vthursday VIdeo is back. Today we appropriately honor one of Haiti’s greatest exports, Wyclef Jean, with an entirely inappropriate song, given the circumstances. In 1998, Jean covered Queen’s “Another One Bites the Dust,” with help from Fugees bandmate Pras, Free and Canibus. The song was produced for the Small Soldiers soundtrack, but thankfully they ignored the film and brought in uberdirector Michel Gondry. It goes a little something like this…

Artist: Wyclef Jean feat. Pras Michel, Canibus, and Free
Song: “Another One Bites the Dust”
Album: Small Soldiers film soundtrack (1998)
Scooter(s): Vespa P-series
Scooter content: 5 seconds
Jump to the good parts: 1:33 to 1:38

The original Queen 45 was in constant rotation on my Fisher-Price record player and at #1 on the Q102 top ten for weeks, until “I Love Rock and Roll” came out and changed everything, forever. I’m sticking to that story even though I just checked Wikipedia and the songs came out 20 months apart. It was Cincinnati, time means nothing there, as the XYLs will tell you.

This version, like many cover versions, seems entirely unnecessary, but it’s not bad. The song’s not Wyclef’s best work, but it’s allright. The video’s not Gondry’s best work, and certainly not his most original concept, but it’s suitably weird, fun, and full of Gondry-style camera tricks, gimmicks, and visual puns. And best of all, it’s got nothing to do with the film it’s promoting, preventing the typical “Who’s Johnny”-type debacle.

As far as scooter content, not too great, but they can’t all be, right? After the remote-control olive-green Vespa P-series is introduced for a few seconds at 1:33, I expected it to come back and save the day later, but oh well, it’s still a pretty good video, and the vintage Mini makes up for it.

So yeah, Haiti. This is what passes for a tribute on 2strokebuzz. I’ll go donate some money now.

Swedish Army Huskies

We try to only talk about motorcycles when it’s absolutely necessary, but with Cold Weather Challenge fever heating up and a few threads going about the snowmobilification of scooters, Mad Man Maddox posits an alternate scheme based on Sweden’s late-seventies military Husqvarna. Even motorcycle-haters can love a 250 automatic, but it’s the ‘winter package’ that will send gonzo CWC would-bes on an errand to the welding supply shop. These Huskies feature spring-mounted outrigger skis! On roads, they pop up out of the way and you put your feet on the pegs. On snow, you rest your feet on the skis, which automatically adjust themselves for cornering and snow height. Brilliant! If that doesn’t sound like fun, check out this video:

Yesterday I demanded Brooke procure some video of Bob and Colin racing ski-scooters across Lake Minnetonka with “Take Me With U” playing in the background. But scratch that, now I demand footage of you psychotic Minnesotans tearing up Michele Bachmann’s front yard on dual-ski outriggers. Get on it!

Oh, if 2SB only had Top Gear’s budget.

The Pacific Gears Up For 2010 Scooter Racing

Scooter racing efforts begin to churn for a second successive season in the land of Sasquatch, kind bud and perpetual rain. The organization formerly known as the Pacific North West Scooter Racing Association has begun anew as the Pacific Scooter Racing Association. The name change must be in deference to our Canadian brothers and sisters that are rightfully proud southerners. As a reminder to get going on preparing for post winter scootering, the PSRA has launched a new website to let the world know about their endeavors. So get that race bike prepped and find an old set of leathers. Visit the site and click on the photo in the ‘Forum’ tab (it may not be obvious) to get in touch with other racers in the area.

Cold Weather Challenge 2009-10

    CWC Leaderboard

  1. Colin Doyle: -13°F, 17.7 mi, 01/09/10, Collegeville, Minnesota, Honda Ruckus
    “…#6 x 3/4″ self-tapping screws in the treads of both front and rear tires..”
  2. Alan Van Tol: 0°F, 17.05 mi, 01/14/10
    Bridgton, ME, Yamaha Vino 125
  3. Luigi G.: 2.5° F, 10.1 mi, 01/30/10
    Dover, MA, 1970 Vespa GTr
  4. Ryan Bastianelli: 5°F, 10.2 mi, 12/16/09
    Chicago, IL, Piaggio BV250
  5. Jen Stich: 7°F, 10.3 mi, 1/30/10
    Westerly, RI/Pawcatuck, CT, 1963 Vespa 150 VBB

CWC09LEADERS:

  1. Colin Doyle: -13°F, 17.7 mi, 01/09/10, Collegeville, Minnesota, Honda Ruckus
    “…#6 x 3/4″ self-tapping screws in the treads of both front and rear tires..”
  2. Alan Van Tol: 0°F, 17.05 mi, 01/14/10
    Bridgton, ME, Yamaha Vino 125
  3. Luigi G.: 2.5° F, 10.1 mi, 01/30/10
    Dover, MA, 1970 Vespa GTr
  4. Ryan Bastianelli: 5°F, 10.2 mi, 12/16/09
    Chicago, IL, Piaggio BV250
  5. Jen Stich: 7°F, 10.3 mi, 1/30/10
    Westerly, RI/Pawcatuck, CT, 1963 Vespa 150 VBB

More details from each rider in the comments!

Continue reading “Cold Weather Challenge 2009-10”

Shocking Stuff For Vintage Vespa Pothole Pilots

Sent in from former CWC Champion Matt DeVries is news about a possible great improvement in holding up the front end of your classic Vespa. Anyone who has stopped suddenly on a Sprint or steered a 150 Super over a curb, through a pot hole or any other abrupt change in road structure knows how really, really bad the front suspension is on an old Vespa. Solutions of stiffer spring and just new dampeners can help. But it seems as though aftermarket part manufacturer, BGM has come up with a nice solution for stompers of the single sided swingarm. Jet200.com has them at prices that make ordering in the USA much more sensible. Jet200 states that these new dampeners will fit “…Rally, Sprint, GT, GTR, TS, GS 150, Super, GL and so on.”. Lets hope they live up to the looks. Any testimonials please post below. (Note: hopefully I’ll get some more posts up here soon regarding the old Vespa parts available. This could be a long winter and folks should get their wrenches in gear for being ready to roll in the Spring rather than just dusting off the numbers to your favorite scooter parts vendor sometime in mid-May.)

UPDATE: Mark from Jet200.com mentioned on the ISBBS that these will not work with 8″ wheels.

#18: Indoor winter scooter storage?

Today’s question for Dr. Buzz comes from From Phil T. from Chicago, IL:

I have a scooter that I plan to keep in storage for this winter. My plan is to keep it in the basement of our 9-unit building, but I want to be sure that I do everything necessary to both 1, avoid the scooter becoming a fire hazard and 2, ensure that the scooter operates well for the spring unveiling.
Continue reading “#18: Indoor winter scooter storage?”