Alix B. and her Genuine Buddy are a week and a half into their P.E.A.C.E. scooter tour, and blogging away with gusto rarely seen on epic scooter tours. We should probably interview her or something. In other scooter tour news, Josh and Peter the Scootstars have another dead 50cc Chinese scooter on their hands and are apparently stuck in Chicago weighing their options. We’ll hopefully hook up with them before they escape.
Category: Chicago
Stellaspeed ride, and a busy August for midwesterners.
Chicago Stellaspeed just announced a ride on Saturday (July 28, 2007), leaving from Kuma’s Corner (2900 W. Belmont) at noon. The ride will stay in the city and last a couple hours. All scooters and scooterists are invited, but expect some Stella tuning and maintenance talk.
Apologies for not posting Section 8’s Wisconsin Rally a couple weeks ago, I forgot to post it before I left for vacation. Both Motor City Shakedown and the Quad Cities rally are coming up next weekend, then Rockerbox in Milwaukee a week after that, followed by Rattle My Bones in Minneapolis, then the Hell’s Fairies ride to the Gay Rodeo, and then the mighty Slaughterhouse 13 rally in Chicago on Labor Day weekend. It’s been a busy summer for scooterists, and August seems to ramp it up yet another notch.
Chicago rides: Scooterworks and weiners
Isn’t today the first day of summer? That’s not stopping Scooterworks, whose Spring Ride starts at the shop at 9:30 on Saturday. Their new catalog is in the mail, and I’ve heard good and bad things, hopefully I’ll get it today.
Also on Saturday if you’re into cased meats, The Hell’s Fairies are hosting their June Weiner Ride. It starts at 4pm, not far from where the Scooterworks ride ends, so you could pretty easily do both. 2sb can’t make either ride, but if we had to choose one, I think we all know which we’d choose.
Mods vs. Rockers 2007 photos
As someone on scoot.net chat said the other day, “In the future, all rallies will be called ‘Mods vs. Rockers.'” Although there were six or eight similarly-named rallies in the last few weeks, we’re talking about the Chicago version, which is beginning to rival Milwaukee’s fantastic Rockerbox, in terms of quantity, variety, and quality. (Nary a Harley was to be seen!) Silent Ron’s 200-or-so photos (one is above) sum up the event much better than I could , and if those aren’t enough, here are a few dozen more from Jordan.
Mods vs. Rockers 2007
Saturday is Ton-Up Chicago’s annual Mods vs. Rockers rally/ride/showdown at Delilahs in Chicago. We can’t speak for the “bad guys,” but the Mods are meeting up at The Globe (1934 W. Irving Park at 11am to ride down en force. The rideout leaves the Globe no later than 11:45. (If you want breakfast, be there by 10:30.)
Midwest rallies abound
Chicago-area scooterists have no one but themselves to blame if they have a boring summer: (let me know if I’m forgetting any)
- June 16-18,2007 The Defilers (no site that we can find, though there are about six bands called the Defilers, and they’re all bitching about each other -ed.) present Beer Bong The Rally in Madison, Wisconsin. Friday night starts at Mickeys Tavern from 8 till 10. Saturday features lunch, then a ride then 7 bands and a BBQ, and Sunday there’s a breakfast if you haven’t been defiled enough. For info contact Andy at (608)446-4026
- July 13-15, 2007 Wisco’s Section 8 SC’s Barn Bash Scooter Rally in Van Dyne Wisconsin on . $15 preregistration (until July 4) covers camping, food, drinks, patch, seven bands (what’s with seven bands?), and more.
- August 3-5, 2007 Knuckledraggers SC is hosting “Barrel O’ Monkeys — Going Ape Shit.” in the Quad Cities (IL/IA border).
- August 16-19, 2007 In the Twin Cities, where No Direction Home has joined Scooter Du in the history books, M5 tells us a new crew “are taking over with a vengeance,” hosting Rattle My Bones 2007. I don’t think that’s a Dylan, ‘Mats, Prince, Huskers, Soul Asylum, or Trashmen reference, but it sounds good anyway.
- August 30-September 2 Labor Day Weekend is, of course, Slaughterhouse 13 in Chicago hosted by a thankfully-still-unnamed coalition of Chicago scooterists and clubs. The site still features last years’ info, but it’ll be updated soon. Can you believe it’s been 13 years? Well, twelve, technically, but 13 calendar years. Don’t make me explain that again.
Our Way of Thinking 6
6 already!? It sort of snuck up on us this year, but MODchicago’s sixth annual weekender is coming up in a couple days. If you’re not circling a great lake this weekend, check it out.
News bits, June 3, 2007
Some news from the last few weeks, See if you can spot the Bob Balaban reference!
- Despite a high-profile drunk-scootering case involving a local radio personality, Sydney, Australia’s Lord Mayor Clover Moore has vowed to turn the city into “the Rome of the Pacific.” Scooter and motorcycle-specific spaces have doubled to 700 in the last two years, with hundreds more slated to be added soon. (Aside from designated parking, similarities to Chicago abound, including meter confusion and strongly-established support for bicycles.) Perhaps part of Moore’s plan to Rome-ize Sydney will involve particulate cocaine in the atmosphere?
- Budapest, Hungary’s government has teamed up with local scooter dealers to promote scootering in the Józsefváros district. The area hopes to reduce overcrowding and pollution with discounts and free accessories for scooter buyers.
- The Observer reviews the Piaggio MP3: “That’s a big iPod! Where are your headphones mate?”
- In another UK review, Metro.co.uk calls the MP3 “the transsexual of scooters”. (Note: The MP3 prefers to be called the “executive transvestite” of scooters.)
- Davison, Michigan Rite-Aid manager Don Dunklee has covered more than 1,100 miles commuting on an EVT4000 electric scooter that he converted to solar power. Two wing-like solar panels fold out to charge the scooter when parked, and fold in when riding.
- Resort-area cable TV network Plum recommends a Vespa to get around Aspen, where gas prices are expected to reach $6 over the summer and scooter parking is free citywide.
- Scooters are neat-o, and growing in popularity, and save money on gas, and Audrey Hepburn and latte and so on. Boilerplate stories from South Bend, IN, Columbus OH, Austin TX, Salt Lake City, UT, Seattle, WA, and Des Moines, IA
- Vespa Milwaukee cites gas prices as the impetus for a recent 25-percent increase in sales, though their Chicago-area pickup and delivery service probably hasn’t hurt sales from Chicago riders fed up with the local dealers.
- Sales in Miami are also up, to a fault: Scooter backlash is underway, and the scooter market has gone downscale (”I had a woman in here last week; she wanted to finance a $600 used bike”), Lane-splitting, slow, helmet-less scooterists are frustrating Hummer and Escalade drivers on Biscayne Boulevard.
- Any High Rollers Rally-goer will tell you that a scooter is a great way to get around Las Vegas, but renting mobility scooters from hotels is pretty lazy.
Hell’s Fairies in Time Out
2sb pals Alex and Dawson’s Hell’s Fairies scooter club was featured in this week’s Time Out Chicago. The Fairies’ May Cicada Ride is Saturday at Noon.
Chicago Scooterist Roundtable TOMORROW
Here’s the final info for the Scooterist Roundtable tomorrow, sorry to post it so late. Please come if at all possible, we may not have as big a group as we hoped, but we have a good variety of quality people representing scooterdom, and we’re hoping this meeting will be the starting point for a great relationship with the city.
Pre-meeting
Meet at The Twisted Spoke (Ogden location) at noon to compare notes. If you plan to eat, come a bit earlier, we need to leave at 12:30 sharp to arrive at the meeting at ten to one (Dan Epstein is recording our arrival for his radio piece). This pre-meeting is optional, you’re welcome to proceed directly to the meeting, please for once, don’t run on “scooter time,” (he says, knowing he’ll be the late one).
The Roundtable
Meet a little before 1:00PM at the Chicago Center for Green Technology (45 North Sacramento). Dress respectfully, and try to bring a clean scooter, meeting participants will be welcomed to come out and have a look. There’s a parking lot, we’ll try to park together (orderly!) and lock up appropriately.
We’ll be meeting with our CDOT contact who arranged the meeting, Charles Roesner, and CDOT Deputy Commissioner of Project Development Luann Hamilton. Other CDOT representatives will also be present, as well as people from the Departments of the Environment (the “green” issue) and Revenue (who handle parking enforcement). The meeting will last about two hours. We’ll let the organizers direct the pace and content of the meeting, and there’s not a lot of time, but for reference, I’ve made a “wish list” of topics that we hope to discuss. See you tomorrow!
Spring Hazards
Crystal’s handy guide to spring riding hazards. Chicago-wise, the potholes, especially on Lake Street, are killing me. Luckily, they’ve already started fixing them. I’ve noticed that either the roads are a lot slicker than they were in the fall, or I’m getting more comfortable pushing the Blur closer to its limits. My least favorite thing about Spring and Fall is the sun always seems to be right on the horizon during commutes. I’m thinking about moving to a city with an east side.
DOT/Slaughterhouse Meeting
There’s a Slaughterhouse planning meeting tomorrow (Wednesday) night at The Globe Pub in Chicago at 8pm. All are welcome. If you’re coming to/interested in the Chicago Scooterist Roundtable, try to come to this meeting. I met with Charles Roesner from the Chicago DOT on Monday and got a lot of insight into what they’re hoping to accomplish, and I’d like to share the good news and talk about it in a group before the meeting on May 4. As I’ve said, this is the best opportunity we’ll ever get to have our voices heard by the city, they’ve asked us for our thoughts on ecology, traffic, parking, and other scooter-related issues, let’s make the most of it.
If you’re on the email list, sorry to not contact you directly, I seem to have misplaced the list. Please spread the word.)
ABATE “Dogkiller” ride April 29
Dave “Dogkiller” White (the founder of Chicago ABATE and cofounder of ABATE of Illinois, Inc.) passed away ten years ago this month. Each year ABATE organizes a “Dogkiller” memorial ride for motorcycle awareness, this year’s ride is April 29. (details). ABATE member Dan Kay tells us he suspects the ride is starting at Alderman “Billy” Banks office in order to present Banks with the “Dogkiller” Award–the Chicago chapter’s highest honor–for his motorcycle advocacy at City Hall, including his support of Motorcycle Awareness Month (May). Banks is Galewood’s alderman, so we should send a contingent of scooterists along to show support for ABATE and Ald. Banks, both important allies.
Chicago rides/events
- From Dan Epstein: “If the weather doesn’t suck and your luck holds out on Friday the 13th, let’s meet for a shortish ride this Saturday, 14 April. Meet at Atomix, 1957 West Chicago, near Damen, at 9:30 AM.” The weather doesn’t look too promising, but there’s hope.
- There will be a Slaughterhouse Rally planning meeting at The Globe on Irving Park Ave., this Wednesday (April 18, 2007) at 8pm. If you’re planning to attend the City of Chicago Scooterist Roundtable next month, try to come Wednesday, I’m meeting Charles Roesner earlier next week and I’ll hopefully have more information so we can prepare for the meeting.
- Hell’s Fairies’ “Spring Roll,” their first ride of ’07, is Sunday, April 29th at 11am. (more info).
- Scooterist and ChiTown Siren Michelle Booth is organizing a ride around the Siren’s May 6 match, “Quadrophilia.” Save the date and watch for more details, but the current plan is a mods v. rockers ride to the Cobra Lounge (Ashland and Grand) then a “party bus” to the bout (in Calumet City) and back. If you’re interested, email Kathy.
Parking in Chicago: Clear answers
We’ve been talking about scooter parking in Chicago for ages now, here and on the boards, and arguing over laws and interpretations, but Grace just found this (new?) page on the City of Chicago site that clearly spells out a few details in black and white (pixels).City of Chicago Since the URL is six hundred characters long and they’ve already changed the URL twice since I first linked it up, I’m going to post the entire contents here for reference, hopefully it’ll help when people are Googling “Chicago Scooter Parking”
Information About Parking Your Scooter In Chicago
Is My Motor Scooter Required To Display A City Sticker?
Yes. If you live in the city and own a motor bicycle, motor tricycle or moped, you are required by ordinance to purchase and display an annual motorbike tag on your vehicle. The price of a motorbike tag is $45.00 and can be obtained online at www.chicityclerk.com Motorbike tags are also sold in person at any Chicago City Clerk facility or at the Department of Revenue payment facilities. For location information see Payment Locations or call 312-744-PARK.Is My Scooter Required To Display A Residential Parking Sticker?
No. Only cars, trucks, and similar vehicles are required to purchase and display residential parking stickers.Is My Scooter Excused From Parking Restrictions In The City of Chicago?
No. Scooters are required to abide by the same parking laws as other vehicles [emphasis ours]. Some confusion has resulted from the reliance of some scooter owners on a provision in the Illinois Vehicle Code that likens the operation of a scooter to the operation of a bike. Because bikes can park on the sidewalk, some think that scooters should be able to park on the sidewalk. Unfortunately, the provision does not apply to parking (as parking a scooter does not equate to “operating” a scooter) or to other provisions of the Illinois Vehicle Code “which by their nature…have no application to [scooters].”
Whether or not you like these rules, there they are, clear as day, so hopefully that will put some arguments to rest. Ignorance of the law is no longer an excuse. Don’t forget the scooter roundtable coming up in May, where we’ll have our best chance ever to get involved and talk to the city.
UPDATE: The city link now links to PDFs of a City of Chicago motorcycle/scooter brochure AND a list of “motorcycle-friendly” parking facilities.
ANOTHER UPDATE: The city’s site architecture utterly blows, and they keep changing the (several-thousand-character-long) URLS, try these:
FAQ with Scooter PDF and Parking Garage PDF
Scooter PDF and “Share the Road” PDF links
Parking meter info