TVV: Roy Ellis “You Can’t Leave Now”

It’s a day late for a Vednesday Vespa Video, but it can’t wait until next week: Our old pal Laurel Parker, who many years ago directed (starring some 2SB familiar faces) has just released a new music video for “You Can’t Leave Now” by Roy Ellis (of Simaryp fame) with the Spanish ska band Transilvanians. Great tune, much more handsome extras than “Our Town,” and, yes, she snuck a few scooters in right at the last second. Bravo!

François Hollande, Scooterist No More

Scooter-Infos reports new French President François Hollande (who is incidentally about a mile and a half away from me at the moment) has been forced to leave his scooter behind for the sake of security. We all know the only thing more dangerous than BMW-riding assassins in black leather is moms in minivans pulling out of the Starbucks drive-thru on their way to soccer practice.

Bikini Buddies

You can’t buy publicity like this, but if you could, you’d be sure they cited the right brand of scooter in the caption. Between this photo, gas price paranoia, and the weather, I bet it’s been a busy coupl’a days at Genuine dealers nationwide.
Continue reading “Bikini Buddies”

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)

Larry Crowne, Scooterist


The motorscooter has appeared in countless films, whether as a star player or as a background prop, and many an internet thread or 2am campfire conversation has been dedicated to cataloging the history of scooters in movies. Only a handful of films, and even fewer major-release commercial ones, have given as much attention to our favorite mode of transportation as the new Tom Hanks film Larry Crowne. Seeing that the marketing team made an effort to target the movie to scooterists, through a marketing partnership with Genuine Scooters and outreach to scooter clubs and websites (including this one) around America, hopefully it’s worth reviewing Larry Crowne from the perspective of a longtime scooterist.
Continue readingLarry Crowne, Scooterist”

“Has This Ever Happened to You?”

Eric catches video of NoHo Scooters’ Mike Frankovich helping Tom Hanks start his Riva at the L.A. Larry Crowne premiere last night. Despite what the uptight publicist in the foreground is thinking, this fragment of cinéma vérité will almost surely be Larry Crowne’s most memorable contribution to scootering legend, and will endear Tom Hanks to all scooterists forever. And I’m not being snarky for once.

Tonight is the Chicago premiere, see you there! The movie opens Friday nationwide, our Larry Crowne contest runs through Saturday.

Win a Larry Crowne prize package
from 2strokebuzz!

Tom Hanks’ film Larry Crowne opens nationwide on July 1, with earlier premieres in some cities (contact your local Genuine dealer for info). What with Hanks being a scooterist, and scooters being prominently featured in the flick, Universal was kind enough to offer a prize package for one lucky 2strokebuzz reader, including a Larry Crowne notebook, a t-shirt and a $25 gasoline gift card. To enter, all you have to do is post a comment below answering the following question: Continue reading “Win a Larry Crowne prize package
from 2strokebuzz!”

Get To Know “Larry Crowne”

If you haven’t heard the name “Larry Crowne” thrown around yet, you will soon. The Tom Hanks film comes out released July 1 (how many times will we see “…scoots into theaters?”) and features motorscooters more prominently than just about any film since Quadrophenia. I know 2strokebuzz readers consider themselves pretty “avant garde” and this is a big-budget mainstream film, but I’m willing to bet a good number of hipster scoooterists will make an exception to their “Julia Roberts rule” for this one.
Continue reading “Get To Know “Larry Crowne””

Bieber SEO Scooter Can of Corn
UPDATE: OMG VIDEO!

I have never used the word “Bieber” on this site, so here’s my shot at tripling my Google ranking: Justin Bieber on a scooter in Israel. He appears to be wearing clamdiggers (are those actually hip again? I guess they are now) but actual shoes and socks and a full-face. Good kid. Thanks for the link, Bradford, who just happened to be surfing some hispanic preeteen girl’s Justin Bieber Blogspot.

UPDATE: VIDEO! OMG!