Category: Lifestyle

Heinkelfest 2011

Heinkelfest may not be the biggest rally of the year, even if all 350 of the Heinkel Tourists sold in the U.S. were still running. But any rally so carefully targeted deserves a shout, right? Organizer Michael McWilliams (who–you might have guessed–is also behind HeinkelTourist.com and the North American Heinkel Registry is a past-president of the Vespa Club of America and one of the nicest guys in scootering. Even if you find yourself Heinkel-less, or can’t make it to Colorado Springs later this month, you might want to print the handsome event poster for your garage.

Slaughterhouse 17… almost go-time


Sorry it’s been slow here lately, we’ve been feverishly preparing for Slaughterhouse 17, which starts next Thursday, September 1. Slaughterhouse is always a great rally, but this year we’ve stepped things up a notch with a University of Chicago “Scav”-inspired weekend-long scavenger hunt that will tie all the usual events together. We hope you can make it, I’ll be one of the judges, and I’ll be DJing some French biker fuzz rock that everyone will hate, early-ish Friday night at Late Bar.

UPDATE: Don’t forget to check out the Scavenger List, which will be posted at 5pm today!

Vivo Stella-to-“GS” Conversion Kit

Vivo Scooters in Edinburgh, Scotland is selling parts and kits to convert P-series Vespas and the LML Star (Genuine Stella, 4T or 2T) to a vintage-looking style. A chintzy-looking fiberglass kit was available from another manufacturer a few years ago, but this one features (mostly) metal parts and seems to be better-designed. Vespa purists may scoff that these kits could be used to fool inexperienced consumers, but considering the cost of a Stella plus $1500 for a painted kit, it doesn’t seem cost-effective as a ‘scam.’ I like the Stella the way it is, and I certainly don’t get the point of disguising a vehicle as something it’s not (especially when the real thing is readily available at a lower price) but I can accept Stella owners wanting prettier cowls and maybe ditching the ugly P-series-type horncast, and it’s always nice to see options like this available.

Check out Eric’s Modern Buddy thread for all the pros and cons arguments you’d expect.

Nopooh’s Motor X Tees

Oh, geez, I was wearing one of my favorite t-shirts over the weekend and it occurred to me that I promised them a plug here (MONTHS ago). Check out Motor X – Graphic Tees from nopooh. “Francorchamps” (left… that’s a model, not me, he looks better in it.) is my favorite but they have a few great ones. I like their subtle non-douchey designs and I hope someday they give a few rare old motorscooters the same graphic treatment.

Oasis Triumph On The Block. Or Is It?


Journallive.co.uk is reporting of a sale of the Triumph Tina scooter used in photos for the Oasis interview CD “Be Somewhere Else Now”. The photo included in the story shows something close, but not quite exactly like one in a photo retrieved from an online sale of the CD in question. There is different letter placement and a horn in the ‘O’ on the bike pictured for auction. Who cares? Maybe someone buying for the purposes of provenance. I was just disappointed to find it wasn’t a Velocifero (see page 18/19).

Update 7/7/11:

The winner of the auction, Mark Watson, contacted us to explain:

I bought the Oasis Triumph at the Boldon auction. It came with various documents, including the certificate of authenticity. The letters on the fairing where put on the cd case using a computer. The actual stickers on the bike were put on later while the bike was displayed as an exhibit.

Ah, that all makes sense (and digital color adjustment would explain the color. Mark also explains the horn in the comments below.

Larry Crowne Electric Scooter, Photo.

As you may have noticed around scooter blogs, it’s Larry Crowne mania. You may recall the 2SB post about the Lambretta outfitted by Route 66 Scooters with an electronic conversion kit from Soundspeed Scooters. The person behind that kit is also behind the Fido electric scooter concept also reported on earlier. Now we have photographic evidence of the machine in action. The photo shows the clearly un-two stroke drive train. For some continuity, they even throw in a kick start lever! While I haven’t seen the film yet, I’ll likely check it out while it’s in first run. In the mean time, can anyone chime in with a description of how this scooter plays a role in the film? Is it really passed off as a stink wheel with a sound effect? Or is it embraced for the Lithium Ion powered machine that it is?

(photo from Zimbio)

1947 Mohs Scooter

Referring to our post about the scooter show at L.A.’s Petersen Automotive Museum, Pete in Wisconsin sent us a related story about Bruce Baldwin Mohs’ 1947 13-foot-long motorscooter, which is featured at the Petersen show.

Mohs is an 87-year old Madison inventor/eccentric, he built the four-passenger scooter after hours at his school’s metal shop as a teenager. It’s not as elegant as the Vespa, introduced a year earlier, but the machine got some attention at the time, and Mohs rode it as far as Kentucky.