Jan 22 2008
Episode 45 - Stella is back and I am working too much
SHOWNOTES: Thanks to Ben over at Honky Tonk Dragon for his post acknowledging the mild stone, one year of podcasting and web posts. I won’t spend a lot of time this week talking about all that, but rather will save it for next week. Steve Guzman from the Scooter Scoop, sounds over the moon about his new job with Italjet. It also seems that the rush of preparing for an upcoming Indianapolis Dealer Expo next month, makes it tough to track him down for a full length interview. He has assured me that we will talk and at that point we’ll hear a whole lot more about what the LS Motorsports and Diamo. He reports that there are big plans for getting strong Diamo products out to the public and that he has been to the new warehouse to see for himself that this is not just another promise. Steve has always a wealth of information and is honest about what he considers to be good product and also things that are crap. Stay tuned.
It has been hard to keep up with all the news and emails this past week. It wouldn’t be nearly as tough if I didn’t have a job, but then again I like my job. The month of January is always a non-stop marathon for me. Here in Virginia, it the time the legislature is in session and does it’s work. You could say I am a community organizer, but what that really means is I help other people, usually the poor, the disabled, those without health care and the homeless, make themselves known to politicians and the powerful. Like most of you, I have my own escapes and one of those rejuvenating activities is scooting, but since bragging last week about our balmy weather, the weather gods have struck back with a vengeance. When ever I hear the word vengeance I can help but think of my favorite move, Pulp Fiction and Samuel L Jackson saying “and I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance” just before he kills someone.
I have done a little investigating into the problems I am having with my Vespa Sprint and will need to deliver it to Scoot Richmond for some serious repair. The kick start won’t engage and if I try to push start it, it freezes up. Of course I am not looking forward to the diagnosis, but it started me thinking about all the possible performance mods I might be able to make to it. So in the spirit of spring riding I have been careening through the on line catalogs for performance kits and dreaming of breaking the 45 mile an hour speed barrier of my little Asian girl. Yes, I did get this bike over the Internet a number of years ago, from Randal at Scootrs in Vietnam, but thats is a story for another time. (Please don’t ban me from the forums)
In an effort to dream a little spring into my life I decided to go out to the Richmond International Raceway to a motorcycle show, thinking, maybe they will have a few scooters, just for fun. The quick story is, of course there were no scoots, even at the booth that had a big vinyl sign saying Scooter Works (I wondered if that was trademark infringement). Despite some beautiful machines, most were over the top hard tail frames with ungodly amounts of horsepower stick in them. One of the most incredible ones was by Boss Hoss Cycles, a production bike the size of a large Harley with a 6 liter LS2 Corvette power plant.
I am looking forward to some under 250 cc scooting as soon as the weather warms up.
Scooter Blog Post and News
Skootin Old Skool’s post about the Stella Scooter in Seattle
Two Stroke Buzz also posts links to a dealer taking shipment of the new Stella
Highrollers Weekend rally in Vegas, another reminder it is coming up in February
Music for this show is from the Podsafe Music Network
Cadillac Woman by Freightrain Jones
Telling on Trixie with Dumb Boy
Peeper Radio with Holmes in 60 seconds
The Moots with Just Let me Know
