Category: Lifestyle

Celebrities are just like us!

They sweet-talk their way out of scooter DUIs! So after you’re pulled over for weaving around Miami Beach at 4:11 AM, try telling the arresting officer “F**k you, I’m not drunk,” then later bragging “I’m friends with most cops in the city and they told me the guy who got me isn’t even liked by his colleagues. He’s a 400-pound f**k unfit for duty” Oh, wait, that only works for Mickey Rourke.

Oh, goody, more from fashion.ie:

Mickey had a passenger with him on the Vespa, but there’s no way anyone was getting a hold of her to testify. He doesn’t even know who the hell she was: Rourke said the mysterious blond riding on the back of the Vespa at the time of his arrest couldn’t have been used as a witness at a trial. “Don’t ask me her name,” Rourke says. “I have no idea who she was. I met her in a bar and never saw her again.”

And he’s looking good in the NY Post.

Can your bike’s “face” improve visibility?

Neat story on how some motorcycles are designed to resemble a human face:

[Honda’s tests] found that motorcycles that resemble a human face – especially an angry one evoked with diagonal headlights – are “significantly” more visible to other drivers. Measurements taken with functional magnetic resonance imaging confirm that a more lifelike front-end design “elicits a response similar to that when a human face is seen,”

So, in conclusion, The Blur rules, and Andretti’s “Happy Cyclops” just isn’t going to cut it. (Thanks for the great link, Chandler!)

Quad mod rods on display in UK

Gordon “Sting” “Ace Face” Sumner’s Vespa “GS” and Phil “Jimmy” “Parklife” Daniels’ Lambretta are the highlights of a Quadrophenia exhibition at Littledean Jail in near Gloucester, England. Quadrophenia director Franc Roddam is calling it: “This is the best collection of Quadrophenia memorabilia I have ever seen.” Book your flight now, and cue ten angry comments questioning the authenticity of the bikes and/or reminding us that there were six GSes made for the movie and none of them were GSes.

Goodbye, Vespa pioneer Andre Baldet

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Famous daredevil and, for a time, England’s greatest Vespa and microcar dealer Andre Baldet passed away last week. Baldet allegedly invented the “dealer special” when he launched his customized line of “Arc-en-Ciel” Vespas with a 150cc model in 1957. The line continued through 1961 with the Vespa GS160, and possibly even into the SS180 era. By Baldet’s estimation, he sold 600 such scooters, usually with a few upgrades and a two-tone paint job achieved by spraying a second color over certain sections of the stock paint. During the same period, he became world-known for racing, daring stunts, and endurance rides featuring Vespas and microcars. He continued to sell Vespas until the early 1980s when he sold his dealerships. A great Baldet biography by John Gerber appeared in American Scooterist issue 48/49 (The GS anniversary double issue). (Image from the collection of John Gerber)

2008 Riders Choice Awards Winners

Motorcycle Bloggers International has announced the 2008 Riders Choice Awards winners. Entries were nominated by motorcycle and scooter bloggers, then chosen by the public. We scooter bloggers (well, 2sb anyway) kind of dropped the ball during nominations this year and some of the scooter categories got cut, but the results are still interesting. I love that the KTM toaster won both first place for “Wish we’d thought of that” and third place for “What were they thinking?”. (Of course there was no way it was going to beat the BabeCage.)

Awareness Test

Britain’s “THINK” motorcycle safety campaign just keeps topping itself: “An Awareness Test.” Mindblowing. Even if this makes an impact on drivers, how many scooterists and motorcyclists push their luck (and luck is very often the only thing keeping us alive) by not wearing safe gear, riding drunk, disobeying traffic laws, and/or showing off?

210cc Buddy!?

After naysaying rumors of a 210cc upgrade for the Genuine Buddy on ModernBuddy, I found Nitro’s photos of a prototype of the 210cc kit (presumably) taken at Scooterworks, from six months ago. So the rumor is this upgrade will be available soon, I still say it’ll be prohibitively expensive and require upgrades to the frame, carb, supsension, exhaust, etc, but we’ll see. The thought of a Buddy with a 210cc engine is alternately thrilling and terrifying.

Josh Rogers Silent Auction

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Modern Vespa (just after I make fun of them) have had the great idea to hold a Silent Auction to benefit Scoot! Magazine publisher Josh Rogers. I’ve thrown in the very last 2strokebuzz/Merciless Tigers jersey (they’re no longer available after this one!), and other items include books, clothing, scooter parts, and my favorite; “Vintage Street Cred”. Get well soon, Josh!