Category: Rallies and Rides

Wisconsin’s Majesty

2SB reader Mark Neustadt shot and edited a series of road-trip videos on his Yamaha Majesty 400. You’d think nine-minute clips of a dude riding a scooter might get boring, but it’s shot pretty well and his Wisconsin roads sure look like a lot more fun than my Chicago commute. In fact, these might really help us all get through the winter.

Thanks Mark! Now stop fidgeting with the camera and mind the road, we don’t want to watch you lowside on YouTube!

Slaughterhouse XV

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Slaughterhouse XV is this weekend in Chicago, a fact so obvious to me that I didn’t bother posting it until now, which is sort of irresponsible of me, sorry. Who’d have known back when we joked about never making it to “Slaughterhouse 5” that the rally would endure and grow for 15 years. It’s changed hands a few times, but it’s always fantastic, and there’s always something for everyone. This year shuffles up the usual schedule a bit with Roller Derby on Saturday night and a bigger-than-ever party on Thursday, and still features a few great rides, one of the best gymkhanas around, and more. If you’re into the whole social networking thing, there’s a ning site.
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“The Vespa Experiment” results

Here’s a video recap of “The Vespa Experiment,” a Pacific-coast tour by three musicians on Vespa scooters. One of the musicans, Amber Rubarth sums it up:

I feel like this whole tour was all about getting to the core of life and purity and innocence. And, just getting back to the musical part and not in the business of it.

Sure, apart from the fact that it was PiaggioUSA marketing scheme, business didn’t enter into it at all, ha. The music’s not my thing (noodly earnest mellow acoustic pop) but they seem like nice kids. As far as PiaggioUSA marketing schemes go, it seemed pretty successful, and if nothing else, three musicians had a good time and a once-in-a-lifetime experience, so Vespa FTW!

’Tween Wolf

Phil Waters from POC Scooters had the chance to take a road trip on SYM’s Wolf 150, here’s his report:

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Ever since we first spotted the SYM Wolf 150 at DealerExpo in Indianapolis in February, we’ve been pretty well enamored with it. Some of us readily admit that our love of scooters goes hand in hand with our love of motorbikes so seeing the resurgence of the small displacement motorcycle is pretty important to us.
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Perseids tonight

Tonight’s the peak of the Perseid meteor shower, we saw a few last night from the front porch with Chicago light pollution, so if you can ride out somewhere dark and clear tonight, it should be amazing.

Darren has organized a group ride for Chicagoans. Meet at Dunkin’ Donuts, 5000 W Irving Park. The ride departs at 10pm.

Genuine’s new “cruiser” due in 2010

Everyone’s been talking about Genuine’s retro-styled touring scooter for months, but Genuine (amazingly) has kept images and details under wraps. So I was surprised as hell when, after an already-surprising Blur 220 ride, Genuine president Philip McCaleb and designer Eric Carl offered me a peek at a series of computer renderings last Monday.

Of course, I’m sworn to secrecy about the details, but I can reveal a few things:
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Motorsport 30% off sale, two Chicago rides

One of our favorite shops, Motorsport Scooters (aka Scooterwest) in San Diego, CA, has a spiffy new site and a big “NC-17” anniversary party scheduled for Saturday. If you’re not in town, take advantage of 30% off all items this weekend when you order from the new site.

And here in Chicago, don’t forget about Logan’s Run on Saturday and Scooterworks Chicago’s Sunday Ride.