Category: Lifestyle

François Hollande, Scooterist No More

Scooter-Infos reports new French President François Hollande (who is incidentally about a mile and a half away from me at the moment) has been forced to leave his scooter behind for the sake of security. We all know the only thing more dangerous than BMW-riding assassins in black leather is moms in minivans pulling out of the Starbucks drive-thru on their way to soccer practice.

Amerivespa 2012 Schedule

The Amerivespa team has recently updated the schedule. I don’t know if I’ve ever been so excited about a rally, I am really, REALLY, looking forward to seeing y’all there. Also, looks like we’ll be sharing a mersh table with Piston Ported. (Thanks, Peter!) Remember: it’s just about mandatory to pre-register, to be sure you get all the swag and a seat for the dinner.

Scooterists Wanted at AMA Vintage Days

POC Phil has extolled the virtue of the AMA’s Vintage Motorcycle Days in Lexington, OH, as long as I can remember, he always comes back with some great bikes and great stories. This year, he asked us to let everyone know that the AMA is basically begging scooter shops and scooterists to participate this year, with a new Mods vs. Rockers event, and even free admission/vending for selected scooter shops. Here’s Phil’s spiel:

It’s not your average Mods Vs. Rockers – Here’s why:

  • The largest vintage motorcycle swap meet in the country. Last year I bought a Lambretta Li150 Special for $250…It’s not uncommon to find $400 Honda CB350’s with Titles!
  • Vintage Motorcycle Racing all weekend long. Watch guys on 1920’s Harleys and Indians slug it out on machines none of us are qualified to ride.
  • Infield Events like the Wall Of Death http://www.facebook.com/Wall.of.Death.ThrillShow If you haven’t seen it, you should…’nuff said.
  • Vintage Motorcross and Trials
  • They’re giving us a 40′ x 120′ tent for Vendors (FREE VENDING!!! Get in touch with Phil for more details)
  • Friday night Punk Rock Karaoke and DJ, Live Bands on Saturday.
  • Did I mention the LARGEST vintage motorcycle swap meet in the country?
  • This is a camping rally, there are proper toilets and showers. If you don’t want to bring your own food there are plenty of Vendors on location.
  • Downtown Lexington is a beautiful 10 minute ride from the racetrack/campground.
  • Oh, and did I mention they’re giving us a LAP OF THE TRACK!?!?!?!?
  • Bonfire, Camping, Riding Scoots around checking out cool old bikes and scrounging for that diamond in the rough, it’s a MUST DO!

How to Register: Don’t call me, don’t email me (unless you want to be a vendor) simply go here. As you can see they’ve set the pricing structure up so there’s a definite advantage to being an AMA Member.

Lastly – if you are an expert on Mod and you’re thinking about attending (I use the term “expert” loosely) get in touch with me – AMA is asking for a 40 minute seminar on “what is Mod?”.

“What Goes Through A Biker’s Head”

Everyone and his mom is linking to a pretty dumb Jalopnik “story” about a confrontation between a motorcyclist and a car. I hate to even link it again, I generally enjoy Jalopnik, and this story has its funny moments, but it’s totally off the mark and irresponsible as a commentary on safe riding, and I hate to think any of my riding friends actually emphasize with this wound-up, entitled jagbag.
Continue reading ““What Goes Through A Biker’s Head””

Coast to Coast and Anything Goes!

Well probably not anything, since each rider has to start and finish each day at a designated location and I have a feeling that neither Dom Deluise or Sammy Davis Jr. are participating this year. The 2012 Cannonball kicked off on Sunday at Vespa Savannah and will take 50 riders from the East to the West Coast in 7 days. This year a new handicap system was implemented that was intended to even the playing field between vintage and modern scoots, but in turn created a loophole for someone with a 1946 Salsbury body and Ninja 250 motorcycle engine to blow away the competition. Also new this year is a neat way to follow the riders through the Follow Ride website that shows each riders approximate location throughout the day. The race will end at Motorsport Scooters in San Diego on Sunday. Good luck to all, especially to the guy on a 1983 Honda Passport.

Stoked About Scooter Stoke

Speaking of great scooter images, as we were a couple days ago, if you’re Facebook-inclined, definitely check out Scooter Stoke, they’ve been posting a couple simply amazing scooter pictures or scans every day. I don’t know who they are or where they come from, or where they’re finding this great stuff, but I hope they don’t stop. If they’re reading this and would like a 2strokebuzz contributor login, it’s all theirs.

Vintage Scooter Racing Photos Flickr On Blogs

Often blogs will just be a cyclical affair of reposting items and it seems a bit tired. But that’s really the nature of a weblog isn’t it? Sometimes there’s a real news scoop, an interesting editorial or just some eye candy. This is an example of the later to check out. Flickr user Panoramicpete has a very nice collection of scooter racing photos from days gone by. Da Nguyen from The Scooterist, a site that I’ll have to be sure to revisit, shared a few photos and one was in turn posted by the Ride The Machine blog. I expect that another page may now share the image set after seeing this. Or should we just stop wasting keystrokes and take up Tumblr?

That Petrol Emotion

We often have to make a big decision on whether or not to go with the ethanol gas offered at the pumps. Most of us aren’t too keen on the idea after hearing many warnings about how the ethanol will eat through your seals and gaskets on our vintage bikes and in many parts of the country you really don’t have much of a choice what fuels are offered to you. It’s a good thing that there is a website like Pure-Gas to help you find a station near you that serves up some ethanol free gas.

Scooter Art From Britton

The main shop-keep of this blogeteria is a self-denied master of many media. Another good pal of mine, John Britton, is also an artist and craftsman and has made a few cool works he has available. The one that caught my eye was the spark plug and scooter print. In the past he has done several fantasttic pieces as rally artwork and branding support for Brookespeed Scooter Disposal Service.

You couldn’t throw a rock into gaggle of scooterists and not hit a few people who are professional artists, designers or generally crafty by trade. Some take it to the highest levels of commerce and others may rely on Etsy or booths at scooter rallies to turn their creative product into bread on the table or spare cables in the glovebox. So if you are a 2StrokeBuzz reader and want to share your scooter shaped potholders that you knit yourself and sell on Etsy or anything else you are proud of drop a line via email to me at brooke at 2strokebuzz (and you fill in the rest).

DO NOT POST A LINK TO YOUR STUFF IN THE COMMENTS SECTION. YOU WILL END UP WITH A LUMP OF COAL IN YOUR STOCKING! (But feel free to comment on anything else!)

Squabblers Rights

It seems that most of the vintage photographs of scootering tend to be from the UK or elsewhere in Europe, rarely do you find classic photos of large groups of scooterists from here in the states. These spectacular photos are from some sort of protest taking place in San Francisco in the early 60’s. It’s also interesting to note how some things never change – there is always the broke down guy, the dorky guy, the cool guy, the lost guy, and broken leg guy. Nice work digging these up Voices of Anglia.

Go! Go! Shark Tank

The women behind Go Go Gear will be appearing Friday night (March 23, 2012) on ABC’s Shark Tank. ScooterGirls, Inc. out in L.A. make safe AND fashionable (at the same time!) women’s (and men’s) riding gear and we can’t imagine the investors on the show won’t jump at the chance to get involved in their plans for world domination.

I generally run screaming from “reality TV,” but Shark Tank is a fun, well-done show, and I’ve been hooked on it since friend-of-a-friend Steve Gadlin talked Mark Cuban into investing $25,000 towards his internet-based cat-drawing business. Things are looking great for Steve, and we hope Arlene and her cohorts can score an equally attractive deal. The 2SB HQ Tivo is set and fingers are crossed, ladies!