When scooter news breaks, we put it under a tarp in the garage.
After 16 years of scootering and 2strokebuzz, it’s easy to forget what attracted me to the machines and people that make up this dumb subbacultcha. If the first third of this video doesn’t make you want to stay up all night prepping your bike for a 5am, 250-mile rideout with some friends, there’s something wrong with you.
To our newish friend Bo and our oldish friend Bart, who shared the link on the facebooks, thanks for the reminder!
It’s that time of year again. Time to figure out why your scooter doesn’t start. Time to start harassing scooter shops for being out of parts you knew you needed for the last six months. And it’s time to start cutting fingers, smashing knuckles and otherwise breaking the wonderful barrier between your insides and the outside world.
Modern or vintage, metal or plastic covered, your scooter probably has a rusty screw somewhere, ready to strike. There is a small risk of great consequence related to these sorts of events. Check with your personal physician to see if you are up to date on your Tetanus vaccination. (Who has a personal physician?!) If you are one of the millions of people in this wealthy land of ours without health care coverage, it may be a wise investment to pop on down to your local CVS and get protected.
Because you don’t want lock-jaw and night vision.
The Pacific North West is an interesting place. I hated it when I lived in Seattle. Someone could have easily walked up to me and said, “You’re doing it wrong!”. Regardless of my misery I wouldn’t trade the experience, good friends and some good times. One weekend I visited Portland for Spring Scoot made me think that if I had maybe picked the smaller city to the south I would have enjoyed my time in the region more. They were living the dream. The unwashed and not-pumping-your-own-gas dream, but a dream nonetheless.
P-Town Scooters just posted on Facebook some sweet artwork for this years Spring Scoot rally, held March 30th through April 1st. A poster or shirt with this art would be worth the trip if my social calendar was clear, not to mention the likely destination for breakfast on Sunday morning. Good times…good times.
Not wanting blend in with the crowd? Looking for something that makes a Heinkel look pedestrian? Well check out this scoot.net ad for the rarest of the rare in the scooter world – a Bastert Einspurauto. Compared to the utilitarian offerings from Vespa and Lambretta in 1952, the outrageous German Bastert looks like it came from another world with an amazing attention to detail and unheard of luxury for a two wheeled vehicle. We would love to know who ends up this!
Good design is timeless. Even though some talentless hacks think that the creator of the Fido electric scooter is a bit ‘hung up on vintage scooters’, I think this electric conversion kit for Vespa Smallframe scooters is the best choice for someone wanting an scooter that doesn’t have a carbon footprint (at least not anywhere near your back yard!).
Jeb has put together a kit that has all the speed with less of the range. Now it’s not cost effective in terms of being all inclusive or as cheap as a competitive performing scooter. But there isn’t design on the market that can rival a PK in terms of ergonomics or a Primavera in terms of aesthetic. None.
Wanting a retro design isn’t something that’s dated in itself. The drive for anything NEW is what fuels our disposable society. There is no shame in saying someone got it right 40 years ago and no one has done better since. You’re likely not in that contest so don’t worry about looking bad.
If you’re like me, you hate the idea of the city of Las Vegas on principle, but it’s worth the trip every few years to remind yourself, “anywhere is incredibly fun, with enough scooterists.” I skipped the rally this year, but our pal Jordan from the Mayday SC was there with the mob of British and U.S. scooterists, and brought back a bunch of great photos. Thanks, Jordan!
Continue reading “Vegas High Rollers Gallery 2012”
My pal Jamie just came across an epic poem about a 1984 Honda Elite for sale. No idea what the backstory is, and I can’t backtrack on the site to learn more about author Paul Ruby, but I’d like to think it started life as a Craigslist ad. “Max’s Scooter Page” of Scooter Quotations & Poetry dates it to 2005, and features lots more scooter poems and humorous quotes, some from a few familiar names of the Usenet days, and the early ScooterBBS. Crazy!
Just wanted to remind you that scootsafely.com continues to kick ass, posting long, well-researched, must-read posts, far more frequently than our scattershot sentence or two of blather here. If you’re not RSSing it and watching for new posts, get on it. We’ve been around the block and seen a lot of scooter sites come and go, and if history is any indication, the sites that burn the brightest burn the quickest, so here’s hoping Alan doesn’t burn out and keeps his great site going.
Just updated our Scooter Rally Calendar (down to the right there, see it?) with a few emails and facebook invites we’d recently received. If you have a scooter-related event you’d like to add, just drop us a line (if you did already, we missed it, try again!) or link it up to our facebook page. Thanks!
The 2012 Lambretta Jamboree put on by the Lambretta Club USA will be held in lovely Colorado Springs, Colorado this summer, just one week after Amerivespa. While Amerivespa is open to any type of scooter and has even been sponsored by the likes of Kymco in the past, the Lambretta Jamboree is 100% vintage – 100% Lambretta. You have an all original 1963 Vespa GS160? Well that’s cute but you aren’t getting in the LamJam with it. 2SB will be reporting at both rallies.
One of the most super-helpful pages on the internet, SCOMO’s table of vintage scooter cable lengths.. Most cables you buy these days aren’t the right length, Confirming and adjusting the lengths can save big headaches and make your scooter work more smoothly.
I’m not posting this drunk Zamboni driver story because it’s funny, nor because 2/3 of our staff are from Minnesota, but because of a paragraph tucked away at the bottom of the story:
…just because Bruss was driving a Zamboni on an empty ice rink and not a car on a busy road doesn’t lessen his coming punishment. [Minnesota] State law allows a DWI to be given for any sort of motorized vehicle, including a lawn mower or forklift.
I might be dense, but I was unaware it’s possible to be arrested for drunk driving at a private event on private property. Many of us, self surely included, have been guilty of some pretty stupid hi-jinks at scooter rallies over the years, and we’ve always hopefully taken our/others’ safety and property into account, but I suspect most of us have been unaware we could get a life-crushing felony DUI in Fresno for riding 500 feet across a farm or campground to visit the bathroom. Rules vary from state to state, but a little Googling shows that this law is pretty widespread. Scooterists have, in general, become far more responsible in recent years, but there are still a few rallies where anything goes, so it’s worth keeping this in mind.
Source: https://smithjonessolicitors.co.uk/road-traffic-accidents/.
We generally dig Veloce Publishing, they have several great scooter and microcar books. They’re a bit more expensive than we’d like, but March 1 is World Book Day and Veloce is offering 50% off any book.
We’ve reviewed their Lambretta LI, A-Z Scooters and Microcars, and Vespa Buyer’s Guide, and we’re currently reading their Caring for you Scooter, look for a review soon.
As our unusual winter winds down here in N. America, it’s getting to be that time of year where thoughts turn to the upcoming prime riding season as well as this summers Amerivespa. There have been shows and build-offs in the US. But I’d like to see some more customs in the class of what SIP Scooter shop has most recently shared on their Flickr and Facebook galleries. Check out the custom show photos and be inspired!
This is as much as a ‘note to self’ as a call to action of Western Atlantic/Eastern Pacific scooterists and scooter shops. Stickers on Stellas and Baskets on Buddies are all fine and good, but I’m talking about top to bottom uniqueness. Who has some plans in the works for something special like those seen at this Ried Custom show? What are the latest jaw-dropping custom or preservation jobs you’ve seen?
Update: That bike won Best Smallframe. Here is a report of the show via SIP.
17 years ago, when 2strokebuzz was a ‘zine and the Internet was new, I ran across Norman, who publishes the great biker zine, Motorcycho. He’d send regular (far more regular than 2sb) packets with his new zine, always with a stack of stickers and postcards and other ephemera, and it always made my week to get a new issue. The other day, Norman came across 2sb on Facebook and dropped us a note, and I’m thrilled to tell you he’s still at it. Not only does he blog pretty regularly, he’s also still getting a new issue of the magazine out once in a while. He’s also got some patches, shirts, and records available, I have a couple of the old 7″ers and they’re great. Now please excus me while I catch up on several years of blog posts…
Interesting note: Norman hails from Port Roberts, Washington, which is a Wikipedia page worth checking out.
