Dec
27
2007
SHOWNOTES: For those of you who have been watching you can probably tell, I have been tinkering around with the format of the website this past week. That should explain why it has been changing, sometimes, minute to minute. I guess there is a way to do all this off line then update the site, but I haven’t figured out how to do it that way yet. When I first built the site I set it up to work best in a Firefox browser, the one that I migrated to several years ago. The site seemed to display fine in the Mac Safari browser, but did funny things in Internet Explorer, like throw the sidebar lists to the bottom of the page. Hopefully those of you using Explorer will find this has been fixed and I must say if you have never seen the Firefox browser take a look at it. It is free and seems to run the site beautifully. Continue Reading »
Dec
17
2007
SHOWNOTES: It’s been another long work week which took me to Baltimore and Washington DC, but as usual, the best part was coming home and settling back into my routine. Marcel is away in Denver this weekend, so I have spent some extra time putting together a special show. I have another interview for you, this time with a legend of the long distance ride and a active member of the Modern Vespa forum. I want to say thank you for all the email you have been sending and if I haven’t gotten back to you yet, please be patient, I will answer you. I have been getting email suggestions for show topics and this show is a direct result of one asking for some discussion about long distance riding. The suggestions was a natural, in that I have been emailing probably one of the best traveled scooterist here in the Untied states, after having met him here in Richmond at the Modern Vespa Workshop. Any of you who belong to the Modern Vespa Forum know him as Bobo. Continue Reading »
Dec
09
2007
SHOWNOTES: On the last show I talked allot about the scooter groups and forums on the web. As a source of information they are fantastic and if you follow them with any regularity you start to get to know the people posting. I mentioned that they operate much like a social community and as a result, you hear about all kinds of things. This past week some of the posts referred to past scooter accidents and injuries and I began to think back to a post by Steve Williams that I had breezed over. Steve had made a reference to how pilots dont talk about crashes and I thought about how I have never really talked about scooters and risk and what I think about every time I take off out of the garage. Continue Reading »
Dec
05
2007
I got a nice email from Harvey in Ottawa, Canada with a picture of his Vespa, titled “Waiting for Spring”. It has been snowing lightly here in Richmond and I expect that compared to the two feet of snow that Ottawa got in November, everyone might ask, “why aren’t you out riding?” Instead of riding, I am standing at the window, remembering those not so long ago 80 degree days and looking forward to the spring too, just like Harvey’s Vespa.
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Weather for Ottawa, ON, Canada
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17°F
Mostly Cloudy
Wind: W at 12 mph |
Dec
02
2007
SHOWNOTES: I have been very busy at work, but more to the point, I have had one of those weeks where I ask myself, do these people really think I am that smart? You know what I mean, that little nagging voice that you have in the back of your head that says, “if everyone knew how really stupid I was I would be fired on the spot.” I do know that this is my own little nagging insecurities, but indulge me for a minute. After much heartache I have learned that this is a useful little quirk to have, because it keeps me honest, both with myself and with others and also has helped me from getting to far out on a limb numerous times. What the hell does this have to do with scooters? It is related to the idea of making more scooter connections so you don’t get out there and on the web it means getting into groups and forums. Most of groups I know about are through Yahoo Groups. This has got to be one of the easiest ways to communicate with like minded fans and to establish a place where people can ask questions, share information and exchange ideas. Some that I still follow are about disabilities rights, politics and other things more material like McIntosh Stereo equipment, Mini Coopers, Ducati, Harley Davidson Sprint motorcycles and of course Scooters. Some groups are large (thousands of members), but most are small to medium sized (hundreds of members).and each has what I would term its own distinct personality. In addition to the Yahoo Groups, the other place to connect is through the online forums. In my view, the forums provide an avenue to both connect with other scooterist and in most cases, get some of the best free advise in all the scooter community. Many of the scooter forums, like the Internationalist BBS, which has been around for ten years, have more resources on riding, mechanics, clubs and rallies than you are going to find if you do something like google search. And most times, the information is more current accurate and reliable. As one example, the modern Vespa forum includes a section with all the modern Vespa parts and workshop manuals, with a separate section for repairs and technical tips. Now that is a resource!
Scooter Groups and Forums
2StrokeSmoke Group
Bajaj Scooter Group
Chinese Scooter Group
Cushman Group
Genuine Buddy Group
Honda Metropolitian Scooter Forum
Honda Reflex Owners Group
Honda Silverwings Group/
Intenational Scooterist BBS Forum
Maxi-scooters Group
Modern Vespa Forum
Scooter Forum in England
Scooter Forum in Germany
Stella Scooter Group
Suzuki Burgman Group
TwistnGoScoot Group
Two Stroke Smoke (a kinder gentler group than the other)
Vespa Smallframes Group
Vespinoy Forum in the Philipines
Yamaha Vino 125 Group
Yamaha Zuma Group
Music for this show is from the Podsafe Music Network
The Clintons with Fan of the Bean
Lesismore with Sweetest Heart
The Aggrolites with Funky Fire
