Nov
25
2007
SHOWNOTES: What a great week. Here in the US it is thanksgiving weekend. That means Marcel has been here in Richmond and I have had four days off from work. There has been plenty of time for hanging out, visiting friends and puttering around in the garage and I want to tell you about what I have been doing with my Vespa Sprint. Those of you who have been following my blog, know that I have been trying to become more social, not always one of my personal strengths. So I have joined Facebook and Myspace and have been shooting out invitations left and right to anyone who posts themselves with their scooter in their profile. In doing this I happen to stumble upon Christian Bauer at scooterfilm.com. He responded almost immediately by sending an email, inviting me to take a look at his latest film Scooterist, a way of life. It is an hour and a half packed full of rallies, racing, wrenching and the scooter lifestyle in England and Germany, and is just fantastic.
I am always amazed at the way people become inspired and how they build those things that they have passion for into their lives. Christian Bauer is one of those remarkable individuals who has taken his passion for scootering and turned it into art, in this case a film about scooting life in England and Germany called “Scooterists, a way of life”. He now lives and works in London, which is where I caught up with him for this interview.
Through December 10th you can get a copy of Scooterists for 20% off, just click here.
I mentioned earlier I have been working on my Vespa Sprint. This is a bike I got about ten years ago from Randall over at ScootRS. I was one of those people who took a chance with Randall very earlier on in his Vespa restoration business and I must say that for the most part I have been pleased. After watching Christian’s DVD I was inspired to pull the carb, something I have been meaning to do for a long time. It has been sticking and hasn’t been easy to set the idle. I am lucky to have ScootRichmond in my backyard and picked up a new Spaco reproduction carb to mount back on the bike. Boy what a difference. I can already feel how much more responsive it is and hopefully will be less prone to get out of whack
Music for this show is from the Podsafe Music Network
The Kind with Whats your Deal
The Gangsters with Dance til you Drop
Dan Elson with Terrifying Lee
Nov
18
2007
SHOWNOTES: I have to say that it was sad to leave Denver last week, but some what of a relief to get back to Richmond. The weather has turned cold here, well for those of you who live up north I should say it has gotten cooler here. Despite this, I was so excited with the White Roof Radio plug I ran outside, pulled out my my scooter and snaps a boat load of pictures of my Vespa and Mini-cooper. When I looked at them later in preparation to posting them on the blog I was impressed with what a natural pair they make. Both are small, efficient modes of transportation, with a built-in fun factor that is out of this world. Just to draw a clearer comparison, the mini gives you that wild adolescent feeling of driving your friend’s go cart around the neighborhood at top speed, hoping your parents never found out that you were in the street. It is unnerving how in a Cooper S, which is the supercharged mini, you can go from 35 to seventy before you know it. I have the same experience riding my scooters. Although they top out well below seventy, when I am riding the winding roads around the James river, 35 feels like seventy and with every turn the smile on my face gets bigger and bigger. If you haven’t already, go over to the website and check out the mini post and the show notes. For those of you who are also fans of all things small and quick I will put a link to mini’s latest creation. It is called the Mini Clubman, a longer, wagon type mini with the same built in fun factor. It’s not due out until next year, but the web has lots of leaked and “official” Here is a link to the Mini Cooper Clubman info.
Scooter news and blog posts
Music for this show is from the Podsafe Music Network
The Clintons with Freeride in a Cop Car
The Verticals with Stop that Building
Geoff Smith with Set the Music Free (a podsafe music anthem)
Nov
12
2007
Imagine my surprise as I am winging it back to Richmond and in the middle of one of my favorite podcasts DB says “If you are interested in Scooting and some great music, you should totally check it out.” Quick…rewind…did he say SCTRCST? Holy crap, he did and he said he liked it!
Some of you may know that my introduction to podcast consumption came shortly after we bought a 2006 Mini Cooper-S that came with an Ipod. As I searched Itunes I thought “what about mini-coopers” and there they were, Todd, DB and Gabe, “doing what they like to do” talking about the new Mini Coopers. As I listened I asked myself, “why isn’t there something like this for scooters” and so begins the life history of SCTRCST.
Please take a moment and go over to Motoringfile and White Roof Radio and listen to these giants (although I think Todd is a little shorter that the others) of the podcasting interweb.
Thanks again guys, free pimping of the show is always appreciated.
Nov
12
2007
SHOWNOTES: The biggest news of the week has been starting to look for another scooter. As you might expect I have gotten a lot of suggestions to look into maxi scooters as well as some of the new offerings by Genuine. I must say that I am trying to keep an open mind, although I am already drawn to the new Vespas and stopped in Charlottesville this past week to look at a used GTS. Several of you have suggested that I keep an eye out on Craig’s list, which around here means checking Richmond, C-ville and metro DC. So far there have been al lot of 50cc bikes. My guess is that this has to do with a phenomenon that is widely known, that many people get a scooter not realizing what is involved in riding, then decide to dump it 500 miles later, or they get something like a 50cc bike and realize it is too small and doesn’t fit their needs. Any way, I haven’t decided new or used yet, but will keep you updated on my search. I mentioned earlier that I am in Denver. Friday I took a late flight out from Richmond and got here about 2 a.m. During the trip I listened to Steve Guzman’s interview on Just gotta Scoot. Steve writes The Scooter Scoop. Last week I mentioned that David Harrington had interviewed Phil from Scooterworks and this was another enlightening discussion with one of the best scooter news bloggers on the web. It was interesting to hear that Steve is a relatively new convert to scooting and he has taken his passion and turned it into a very informative and fascinating pass time. I must say, I was particularly interested to hear him talk about how he has been able to monetize blog, although it hasn’t been so lucrative that he can quit his day job. Thanks again Steve, for all the great posts and we hope to see more of your video post in the near future. Look for a link to David’s interview with Steve here
Scooter blog posts
- The Honky Tonk Dragon has updated us on his move to New England here in the United States. For those of you who didn’t know, Ben lived in Oregon and he has written a few quirky posts on what it like to be swimming in a new pond. His posts include pictures of his award winning “steam punk” scoot named Quell in her new environment. He has also been posting videos. I had forgotten that he mentioned to me a few months ago that he like country music, I thought this was very curious, coming from someone who also pays homage to performers like the Cure, the Violent Femmes and the Slits. But his video posts include both the Slits and a Three on Trail a yodeling country quartet.
- On the other side of the world, John Ranna at Who rides a Vespahas been posting regularly putting out trivia challenge that has us identifying the Vespa sighting in a number of different movies. But what is more amazing is to see that he has outed himself by reporting on his own birthday party, held last month. In addition he reveals that he and Bennette just had an anniversary. The post includes a link to their audio invitation from 9 years ago. This wedding stuff is part of John’s day job. Oh yeah, for those of you wondering, this sage old scooterist is all of 35, wise beyond his years don’t you think? So a belated happy birthday to John and happy belated anniversary.
- One rather sad post this past week reveals that another scooter blogger is putting posting out to pasture. The site was called twstngogrl and vespajitsu. This is probably a rather obscure blog, but if you found it you realized it represented two people’s view of scooting and the love for the life/travel. The last post is rather sullen, but represents one of the things all of us in podcasting or blogging struggle with. When you create something and put it out there you want people to see it, to consume it and hopefully tell you what they think. What we never tell you about is how hard it is to master the technology, to get the word out, to make new connections and to plug what you are doing without seeming like a self promoting ass. I would like to say that I am sorry to see Cody leave our blogging community, truth be told, it is not an easy gig.
- Last week I got a little plug from the Peanut Butter Scooter Time blogger. His note reminded me that not everyone understands or has heard of podcasting. Sometimes when I am asked, I say, well it is radio on the internet. Most people say oh, yeah and walk away in a daze. I know many of you listen to the show on the your computer and I thank you for that, but what I find really liberating is when you figure out that you can download a podcast, take it with you and listen to it at your leisure. Think about how great it is to listen when you are out walking, or exercising or driving to work, like I do. Look here for help in downloading without an ipod.
Music for this show is from the Podsafe Music Network
Soccergirl by Brother Love shows one mans obsession with podcasters
One and only Love by Aaron sounds like a throwback to the 80s
She’s mine by Brett Dennon is soft ending to the show
Nov
04
2007
SHOWNOTES: I have been way over busy the past couple of weeks, but this also means that I have been traveling a bit and this translates into time in the car when I can catch up on listening to podcasts. I haven’t talked much about other podcasts I listen to, but I have gotten a few emails asking me about how I got into podcasting. My first podcast was an automotive podcast called Whiteroof Radio. It is a podcast where three guys talk about the new BMW Mini Coopers. I have tried a number of other automotive podcasts, but most don’t hold my interest, either because they are about things I am not interested in or to be honest, they are too technical for me. There aren’t many other scooter podcasts out there, but I want to suggest you check into one called Just Gotta Scoot. David Harrington is a scooterist up in Minnesota that has a number of scooters and probably as many different business interests. You can find out more about all this at his website Just Gotta Scoot,.David may not be everyone’s picture of the typical scooter fanatic, but his last show with Phil McCaleb from Genuine Scooters or you may know him as the owner of Scooter Works of Chicago was great! Regardless of what you think of Phil or Scooterworks, his story about creating the Genuine Scooter company and their network of dealers is really interesting.
This week I got an unsolicited suggestion from Marcel that I consider getting another scooter. Is she the perfect wife or what? But I think it really is more that over these many years we have developed a regard for each other that is unique. I use to worry about every penny we spent, you could even say, there was a time when I was the naysayer of doom. But then I started to realize that even if things didn’t follow the path I had marked out they always seemed to turn out OK. So as of today, I am officially researching my next scooter, and will share that experience with you over the next few episodes. Hopefully it will be a little less impulsive that some of my other automotive purchases and I will try to impart some of my success and failure as I go along.
Scooter news and blog posts
- Gotta start with my homeboy at Little Billy’s Scooter Tales talking about northwest scooting and a new helmet.
- Girlbikes’ post about fall riding hazards
- Peanut Butter Scooter Time blog from Columbus Ohio, they know about cold weather riding
- Riding technique at Musings of an Intrepid Commuter
- Milan Motorcycle convention and Piaggio multi-line new offerings
- Motorcycle news site has info on the Piaggio X7
- Always classy material from the Scooter Scoop, a test drive video of the Smart Car.
Music for this show is from the Podsafe Music Network
Beau Hall with Behind Bars
Secrets in Stereo with Quit and Go Home Adam Woodall Band with Coming Home Soon
