Shindig Happens This Weekend

The Scoot! crew will be in San Jose enjoying Josh Rogers' "September Shindig" rally. It is year 9 and Josh is only a week away from his wedding. Madcap fun will ensue! Josh is also one of us three publishers of Scoot!, but long before we took the helm, he single-handedly put on this rally. It is lots of fun and is unique to the big "stand around and chat about scooters" rallies. It is smaller and more intimate with irreverent games, a bit of off-color humor and some long rides. If you are in the Bay Area this weekend, make an effort to catch it.

James Cornell Comes Home

You may have seen my previous posts about local scooterist/motorcyclist James Cornell who was seriously injured in the Isle of Man race. This week he came back to the states and is continuing his recuperation in San Francisco. Two local news organizations have covered his return:

NBC11 TV

SF Chronicle Newspaper.

If you are interested in finding out more information or donating towards the mountain of medical bills that James will face
Visit the James Cornell Fund website.

Suzuki Burgman Test cont.

Stop on our ride.

Almost to the end of our test ride. We stopped at a wine tasting place to buy but not taste wine. I'm not really a wine drinker so I chatted outside while some bought wine inside. Incidentally, that night at dinner I did have a glass of red wine which the waiter secretly kept filling up while I was looking the other way.I must have had 3 glasses that night inadvertantly! On the bus ride home I was starting to doze, so I was glad to crash into bed. After a 7-hour scooter tour of the beautiful area north of San Francisco I was pleasantly exhausted. A full review of the Burgman will run in our Winter issue.

Suzuki Burgmann Test snap

Suzuki Burgman launch

Our tour started at Fisherman's Wharf and we stopped for some pics at the famous area under the Golden Gate Bridge. I've always been reticent to ride over the Golden Gate because it is so windy and I think some drivers are looking at the views instead of paying attention to the road. Not sure my 61 Vespa 150 would be up for it. :) But the Burgman was a great ride. Lots of power- it didn't even notice the wind. I wish I had some pics of us riding over it- nearly 2 dozen Suzuki Burgmans. Some people asked, "Are you some scooter gang or something?"

Indoors at SF Classic Day Show

Live from SF Classic!

I mostly manned the Scoot! booth, so I snapped a pic of my view of the show. I didn't win the fancy scooter. Matter of fact I haven't won anything at a rally for over 2 years. I guess I used up all my luck the time I won a scooter at Vespa Club Los Gatos' rally.

Wha'appen?

I got to meet & hang out with Dave Wakeling's reformed English Beat when they played in San Jose last week. Bosco and I chatted with Dave and Lynval Golding of the Specials who has joined them for the tour. The band played English Beat and Specials tunes and had the crowd bouncing. Read more about our interview in the Winter issue.

For now the Fall issue just arrived from the printers. You can get an advance copy at this weekend's San Francisco Classic rally. Subscriber issues will be shipped early next week. Shops should also begin to see them next week.

Bratz know what is cool...

Bratz Kidz scoot $3O

Found it at at Target. Installed the battteries and got it to chase the cats around the house a bit.

Scoot! to Review Suzuki Burgman 400

Suzuki is making the Burgman 400 available to a pool of journalists in August. I'll be traveling to San Francisco and riding to Napa with a group to give the Burgman a spin. I'm looking forward to the long ride. As you may recall, Scoot! did an ambitious review of maxi-scooters in our Winter 2004 issue.

In that issue we rode from The Los Angeles area to our homes in San Jose/San Francsico and back and then back again and then back again! We rode over 8,000 miles on 11 different bikes. At that time, only the Burgman 650 was available. Now, I'll get a chance to review the 400. It's a big bike, but I think I can handle it! :) The review should run in the Winter isssue which comes out in November. As for the Fall issue, it is at the printers and should be ready to ship next week.

Join us on MySpace!

I know I posted this earlier, but just wanted to remind everyone that they can find Scoot! Magazine at
Scoot!'s MySpace Profile.

We'll be using the bulletin area to make announcements, and we hope to keep in touch with those we meet on the road. So, add us as your friend!

New Merch Sneak Peek...

We received our new shirts from Modified Printing in Portland, OR. The artwork is from Mark Atmos Pilon who created a cute little couple scootin' along. The back has the Scoot! logo so you can represent! It's not yet available, since Josh & Miike are selling them at Amerivespa this weekend in Denver. When they get back, we'll post the shirts to the Scoot! webstore and you can order them. We have both men & women's sizes. As with all new-fangled women's T's the girlie shirts are form-fittting.

MTV Italy Pimps Some Rides

I wish that MTV USA would "Pimp" some scooters! The Italians have and you can download small video snippets from iTunes. Like all "Pimp.." vehicles, they are over the top, but who doesn't want one scooter which blows everyone away?

Download free videos from iTunes.

"Das Freakout"

WWI German Surf Band, Beach Kreig performs at Scoot to the Moon rally in Half Moon Bay, CA. July 22. And no, the picture isn't fuzzy because of my drinking, it's just my little picture phone.

Ride to Work on Wednesday

Don't forget, this Wednesday is Ride to Work Day. Drop me a line and let me know if you are a first-time participant and how it went. I'll be putting through the streets of San Jose that day spreading the word with my cool Scoot! License Plate Frame:

Cick the picture to see how you can get one for yourself and friends.

Delia's Get's MOD-ernized

The new Delia's catalog features a vintage Lambretta in keeping with their mod theme. See their splash photo of teens & the scooter. The catalog has a few photos of the scooter,but this one is best. They also use a Mini Cooper. Some of the clothes may fit in with the mod lifestyle. I'm just hoping that the bad 80's clothing will soon go away. And what about all these flared & bell-bottom style pants. Ugh! "Where have all the straight-legs gone? Long time pa-assing..."

Racing fun

Fuzzy phone pic of mini-motorcycle races at DeAnza college. While these races aren't for scooters exclusively, it's a great place for those who own vehicles that aren't street-legal to get out an tear it up. Jason from Battlescooter.com was able to race a 50cc scooter in some of the races. There were also go-peds, go-carts, mini-bikes and such.

Jason of Battlescooter.com and friend at the mini-motorcycle races. They raced against mopeds on stock 50cc scooters that were totally stripped. They didn't even have seats! The day also had gokart, go-ped and other bikes racing.

New Polly Pocket scoots

Found at Target for less than $10. The scooters are similar to the previous Polly Pocket ice cream scooter but I think they are a slightly different design.

"Are we in trouble...?"

Outside Rev. Horton Heat show

Lori & I parked in a red zone between 2 cars which is a dead space of sorts. When we came out we thought we'd have some explaining to do, but it turned out that the police merely pulled over to arrest a lady who was drunk in public. You might be able to make out some frisking going on in the back of the pic. We rode away with no hassles. Hooray! As an aside, The Reverend was great and Jimbo (his stand-up bass player) was on fire that night. J-I-M-B-O!

Say Kanichewah to a Japanese scooter shirt

OK, so my phonetic spelling is likely wrong, but I took four years of French instead of Japanese. I found this cool shirt on the Internet and haven't actually ordered one, so I can't say anything about the actual product or the website, but it was too cool to pass up. It is supposed to have the Japanese word for "Scooter" on it. A good way to combine the vintage scooter with a Japanese sensibility. I've emailed the site to get more info before I put it in my printed column, but you get the scoop first. Find any cool items that are worthy of a mention in the blog or column? Email me below.

Aggrolites

L.A.'s "dirty reggae" band the Aggrolites perform in San Jose. A good show. Rolling Stone gave their new album a great review. Catch them if they come to your area. Visit their website.