English Beat Turns 30- Goes on Tour

The English Beat are on tour again to celebrate their 30th anniversary. You may recall that Scoot! has interviewed Dave Wakeling twice in the past 11 years, most recently in 2007.

According to a news item on Pollstar, the band kicked off a tour in Cocoa Beach, FL. Are they coming to your town? Check out the Pollstar schedule here.

AmeriVespa 2009- San Jose, CA - Registration Open

Registration is now open for Amerivespa 2009 which will be held in the San Jose/Silicon valley area of California, the Scoot! home stompin' grounds!
Sign up now so that you can be sure to get all the cool swag!

We'll see you there!

Penguin Sale

Thrillist just posted a 20% discount on Penguin clothing. According to their email newsletter:
Drop in the code OPG20THRILL to get 20% off the entire Spring line, through Sunday.

Order to you heart's content at The Original Penguin Store.

Pepsi Commercial with Fishbone

Blink and you might miss it, but Fishbone makes a quick appearance in the new "My Generation" commercial from Pepsi Cola. The commercial (embedded below) is a stylized trip through history with Pepsi, culminating with a crowd getting down-- Angelo's unmistakable visage closing it out.

According to FishboneLive.org, "Pepsi has managed to bring back the largest OG reunion on stage with besides Angelo and Wood, Dirty Walt and a totally unexpected Christopher Dowd!"

Glad to know that Fishbone still has some cachet!

Paper Replika Does it Again

Just when you finished the dozens of hours needed to print, cut-out and assemble the Paper-Replika Vespa 150, now they release a girl rider for the scoot! Prepare for more nights or whittling away in your dark workroom. Send photos of your handiwork when you're done (if your fingers can work a camera after all that detail work!)

Blog entry soundtrack: "Glory Box" by Portishead

Cold Weather Challenge

I actually feel embarrassed to post about this challenge as it celebrates the tenacity of some scooterists who will defy popular opinion, and sometimes common sense, and ride in unthinkably cold weather. Why embarrassed? Because my weather has been sunny with temps hovering around 70-degrees this past week. I guess it's not my fault. Blame it on global warming, coal-fired power plants, and too many cars. ;-)

Some scooterists in the ultra-cold areas of the country (isn't that everywhere other than California right now?!?)have the stamina to brave cold-weather riding. These brave folks can participate in the Cold Weather Challenge. I cant recall how long this has been going on. But each year it is cool to see the photos that folks submit with them bundled up in front of a bank clock/temp gauge.

The rules are simple. I paraphrase: 2-wheeled scooters; 10-mile minimum ride; ambient temp, no wind-chill considered; goes 11/27/08 to 2/28/09. If you want to find out more and see the amazing results, go to The Cold Weather Challenge.

Big whoop to Colin Doyle who rode 14+ miles in -10°F in Collegeville, MN, on a Honda Ruckus 50. He posted video. I wonder if Honda designed those for such cold weather?

Scoot! Magazine Flikr Pool

Here is a photo that was uploaded to the Scoot! Flikr pool. Add your won scooter rally pics, images of you + our scoot, dogs on scooters, vintage ads and picture, etc...

And, if you are interested in submitting one of the pics for our Show Us Your Scoots section, let us know.

Upcoming Event: Mods Mayday Weekender

Paper Model Vespa 150

I just heard about this and just downloaded the PDF of it, so I haven't had a chance to assemble it. You'll need a sharp exact-o knife, a good printer, a lot of patience and a few hours to kill, but if this model looks as good as the images here, then you'll be one pleased-as-punch scooter collector.

Send me a photo of your completed version if you put it together!
Download the Vespa 150 Scooter papercraft at Paper Replika

SHAG art for your iPhone

When I previously posted about SHAG's art for laptops, the iPhone version of it was not yet posted. I'm glad to see it now available via Infectious. I just ordered it today and will let you know how I like it once I try it out.

Blog entry soundtrack: "Demon Days" by Gorillaz

Show Us Your Scoot: Blog-style!

Another older submission that wasn't high enough res to make the magazine:

"My name is Jeff Cleaveley and I am the editor of the quarterly newsletter of the Zundapp Bella Enthusiasts Club here in the UK. We have 85 members, mainly in the UK, but also from around the world, including the USA. Our website is www.bellascooters.co.uk"

Thanks for sending!

File under: "Ewwww!"

Saw this article online about two scooterists who used their scooter to dispose of a body. Either they are super ballsy or people just don't pay that close attention to the sacks on the backs of scooters:

HYDERABAD: Two scooterists carrying the body of a murdered man managed to give the police a slip, and later, dumped the body in an isolated place in Borabanda locality on Saturday afternoon.

A horrified motorist riding alongside the scooter near Meter Factory in Sanathnagar, noticed legs sticking out of the sack on the scooter and alerted policemen manning a roadside check post. Even as the policemen jumped on their motorbike to chase, the scooterists drove into a maze of lanes and bylanes of Borabanda–Erragadda area.

Read the full, odd article at The Hindu.

Blog entry soundtrack: "The Volcano" by The Aggrolites.

Scooter Collector: NYT Crosswords Puzzle Book

Know a scooterist who likes crossword puzzles? Check out this new mini crossword book from the New York Times. They are supposed to be easy, but I only do well on the TV Guide puzzles, so that is relative, I think.
Available from bookstores or online at Barnes & Noble for under $8. I got mine as a Christmas gift.

Kid Robot Zoomies

Collectible store extraordinaire, Kid Robot has released a line of cute race-inspired characters called the Zoomies. One of the characters, Mo rides a scooter. Kid Roboto has made vinyl figures of the characters, some have cars hat go along with them. Unfortunately Mo's scooter isn't one of them.

You can buy a Stationery set that has a Mo sticker, and you can download free icon sets [PC & MAC] for your computer that have Mo on her scooter.

France Considering Scooter Driver Certification

I was surprised to hear that France currently does not require safety training for scooters under 125cc if the rider already has a car license. It seems that the government is changing its mind since the incidents of accidents are unusually high for the amount of scooters on the road. According to a report on autobloggreen, "Although scooters account for 1.1 percent of all the traffic in France, 10.1 percent of all traffic accidents and 18 percent of all traffic deaths are related to scooters."

A little education can go a long way. Hopefully, France will embrace this opportunity to keep its scooterists safe.

Blog entry soundtrack: "Someone Somewhere (In the Summertime) by Simple Minds.

Things I Hope Happen in 2009

As I mentioned earlier in the week, I want to post a list of things to look forward to in 2009. It's not a forecast, just a wish list of sorts. Feel free to leave comments with your scooter-related wishes for 2009.

1) Another scooter sales boom over the Spring/Summer
2) Continued awareness of a scooter as a smart, economical transportation choice
3) More women scooterists!
4) More experienced, qualified riders who take proper training
5) Less scooter accidents, injuries and fatalities (see above)
6) Less scooter club politics and polarization
7) More FUN rallies
8) More time for April to travel to those fun rallies (!)
9) More scooterists making custom scooters (let's see some cool murals!)
10) More celebrities and influential folks coming out of the "scooter closet" [Let's hear it for Carlos Alazraqui, our current cover story!]
11) More cool riding clothing for the ladies
12) More motorcycle/scooter parking
13) More people subscribing to Scoot! (I can be a little selfish, can't I?)

Blog entry soundtrack: "The Shadow of Love" by The Damned

Correction to Stella Performance Article

In our current issue (#48) there is an excellent article on how different performance upgrades can affect a Genuine Stella. Unfortunately, a graph was left out (it was too low to reproduce in the magazine), one chart was truncated and some of the markers on another graph were misidentified. So, I'm posting corrections here.

Not sure if you can read the chart that was missing, even in the web, so we'll see about re-creating i from scratch in the nest issue. It was referred to on page 46 in the final paragraph.


The chart at the bottom of page 50 & 51 had a mixed-up column & data and one of the pipes has since received a name & pricing. All are updated here:



Finally, we have a correction to the graph legend on graph bottom left of page 48, "4 cylinder kits using Polini exhaust" The legend should read, BLUE-stock, MAGENTA-Malossi, RED-Polini, GREEN-Malossi Ported.

Sorry for any confusion. It was a very technical article with graphs & charts that usually aren't high enough resolution to just drop into the magazine. We'll take better care in the future.

Top Gear Goes 2-Wheels

U.K motor-enthusiast show Top Gear which became avaiable on BBC America this year ran a special episode which had the three hosts trying to make a 1,000-mile trip from bottom to top of Vietnam. The hosts were given a meager amount of money-- just enough to get motorcycles or scooters and were off. This is a typical type of set-up for the show-- to have them select their own vehicles on a budget and then test them in a humorous and mildly silly way. BUT since these guys are car-nuts, the addition of motorcycles is a new (if not ego-testing) development.
Richard chose a Russian Minsk, James chose a Honda CB50, and Jeremy (the tallest of the lot) chose a Vietnamese "restored" Vespa.

Anyone who has heard about Vietnam's roads, traffic and the notoriously bad Vespa restorations may have an inkling on how it turns out. But Top Gear always has something up its sleeve....enjoy the show!

Top Gear airs on Mondays at 8pm (ET/PT) and 7pm (CT). Check it out!



Note: This episode is from the recent season, yet I believe that BBC America shows older seasons. Oh, and if you are an American with a big head, bring your own helmet to Vietnam!