Mar
30
2008
SHOWNOTES: ScootRichmond did a fantastic job on the installation of the LML 150 engine in my Vespa Sprint. I have had time to take a closer look at it and the workmanship that including rewiring to a 12 volt system makes a big difference in the lights. Hopefully it will prove to be more reliable. I guess that’s another free plug for ScootRichmond, but I mean it as a plug for building a relationship with your local scooter shop. When you have an established relationship, they are more likely to go above and beyond to give you good scooter information and make sure you are happy with their work.
Before I prattle on too much about the usual scoot stuff, I want to tell you about a unique conversation with Alix from Peace Scooter on this week’s Scootercast. Alix is a person who speaks with amazing clarity and purpose. During our conversation she talked about her upcoming 20,000 mile ride for PEACE. Most people might ask the obvious, “are you some kind of fanatic?” But for Alix it is much more personal and the ride is a natural extension of her view of life. Since completing the first half of her PEACE ride last year (here is link to the CNN coverage), she has been planning and blogging about this years ride with the kind of enthusiasm a child has in anticipating a birthday. The ride will start in Washington D.C. On May 2nd and the route will circle the USA ending back in D.C. Along the way she plans to blog, post video, volunteer, mingle and generally commune with all kinds of people asking only one question, “how do you define PEACE in your life?” Over the course of the next few months I’ll try to check-in with her and get an update on the ride. Go over to the website and throw some support her way.
This is a very good interview, not because of me, but because of what Alix has to say. Although a little longer than most shows, it is worth taking the time to listen too.
Music for this show
Mar
25
2008
SHOWNOTES: I am planning some changes on the website and want to know what you think about the idea. Last week when I put up the link to Vespadition, I noticed that several of the posts that included links to Peter Moore and Christian Bauer’s websites had fallen off the front page of the website. One way of fixing this is to increase the number of posts that appear here, but then the page gets to be very long and who wants to have to scroll and scroll just to find a link. So I have been considering changing up the format of the site and plan to keep a picture link to my most recent guests right at the top of the page.
Another website issue that plagues podcasters is the question of monetization. For the common folk, this mean “how do you make money to defray the cost of bandwidth.” But before I head off in this or any other direction, I want to know what you think. Are you interested in this kind of this stuff, you know sctrcst t-shirts, buttons and other good SCTRCST crap. I would hate to do anything to make you, my audience, feel like I was just pimping for pennies.
On a completely different subject, I picked up my 1966 Vespa Sprint at ScootRichmond. It has a clean, shinny, new LML 150cc engine and I got my break-in instructions from Dave the mechanic, which synthesize down to “don’t ride it like you usually ride it”. This translated into keeping it under 60 kph, that’s 37.28 mph for those of you keeping track. Coming home I could feel the difference in power and responsiveness and can’t wait until it is broken in, should be about 300 k according to Dave. Apparently he installs a larger main jet to keep people like me from over doing it in the beginning and after break in, changes the oil and swaps out the jet so it will accelerate as it suppose to. This is probably a good safety measure for me to have, I do like to go fast.
Maybe like you, I listen to lots of podcasts, especially those that have to do with tech. One of those is called net@nite, hosted by Leo Laporte and Amber MacArthur. Leo is a longtime tech broadcaster who teams up with all kinds of people to produce podcasts and in this case he is working with an entertaining fresh face from Toronto. This past week, they talked about a website named Animoto. It is an on-line application that automatically generates a professionally produced video. There are really only three steps to the process. 1) Select your images and download them to the site, 2) choose your music, and 3) finalize some details as to how you want your video to look. You can produce the 30 sec clips for free, but I recommend signing up for $30 per year which gives you unlimited access to longer produce videos. If you want to see what a short clip looks like, checkout the one below.
Blogs Posts
Music for this show is from the Podsafe Music Network
Mar
16
2008
SHOWNOTES: I took time yesterday to get out and ride my new Vespa GTS. It was the longest ride I have taken in months. I guess that means that my life has settled down a bit, work has become more manageable and I even have more time to spend with Marcel at home, although I have been in the garage a lot, not her usual hangout.
On the podcast I am always saying “email me, give me ideas, tell me what you think?” Well, apparently some of you really do think I mean what I say. As a result I got a recent email from Roy from the Greater Vancouver Vespa Riders. He wrote to tell me about their rally coming up in June 27-29 happening at Golden Ears Provincial Park something I considered trying to make, but later I found out that we are going to be there early in June. In addition to the rally, Roy pointed out that a fellow named Peter was planning a 30,000 mile scooter trip across the US and Canada and suggested I talk with him.
There are a lot of people on the web posing and proposing to do all kinds of things. If you’re like me, you probably get all kinds of emails suggesting donating to one cause or another, or even more blatantly, just asking you to send money. I have talked about several good causes in the past, like Alix’s PEACE Scooter ride and Scooter Relief, but have been reluctant to tout others for fear of suggesting support for something that really was a scam. With Vespadition I did what any good blogger would do, I Googled the hell out of it and looked at everything that was written in the forums. Some might say “why is a guy who blindly bought a scooter off Craig’s list, from a stranger so questioning?” I thought maybe that maybe my luck was going to run out, but then I remembered something Peter Moore said to me several weeks ago, “I think the default is that most people are good” and after my speaking with Matua, I think he is right. Make sure you listen to this week’s show and interview.
On another note, for those of you who have asked, I am still waiting on my new Icon Armor to arrive. I reorder, because the first supplier put everything on backorder. Yesterday I got a FedEx notice that it was shipped and scheduled for delivery this week. In the mean time, several emails suggested other products such as a ReVit Jacket which Carlos says doesn’t have the same sag in the armor that my Firstgear does. The brand looks very good, although a bit pricey and they have a whole line of riding gear including rain wear and mesh.
I want to note that the blogger from Heinz and Frenchie in SoFlo the congratulated me on my new GTS. In a comment he said “We agree with you that one falls in love with the beauty of the Vespa. There is nothing like it. We shopped for many months and anguished over buying another brand to save money as we were buying two scooters. But every time we saw a Vespa we drooled over it. So we decided that if we purchased anything else we would always wish we had a Vespa. We are very happy with ours.” It got me thinking that maybe I need to be considering an appropriate name for her.
A caller from England told me he is making a pilgrimage to the Italy hoping for a vintage find. Many of you may know that Italy has been trying to get most vintage Vespas off the road for a number of years. They have been offering owners money for taking them out of service. This means you don’t see many older Vespas. I know from my own hunting over there, that the desirable scoots, like the GS and 180ss, are hard to come by and are more expensive than the smaller daily riders. When I return in the fall, I plan on visiting Peter Moore’s friend Marco Quaretta, who has a shop in Livorno. Marco’s email use to be waspmaster@libero.it
Music for this show is from the Podsafe Music Network
Mar
10
2008
SHOWNOTES: Like most of you, I have developed my scooter interests over a long period of time and have been influenced by the things I have read, people I have met and the unexplainable. There are many scooterist who are utilitarian. They ride for lots of reasons, but mostly because of the efficiency or the ease of commuting. Where I am going with all of this, is to talking about what motivates each of us to take up an activity that sometimes is dirty, sometimes dangerous and other times just an outlet for never having really grown up. In my case it is definitely the last thing I mentioned.
For the past three months I have perused the scooter magazines like I use to do with the Sears Christmas Catalog, marking all the pages, circling the things I wanted, weighing the pros and cons of this scoot over that scoot. Two weeks ago I ended up on Craig’s list. Did I mention that I and a chronic window shopper? When ever I get questions about looking for used scoots, I suggest, “first go to Craig’s list”, because you get a good idea what is available in your area and as long as you steer away from all the Chinese junk, you’ll be fine. Well, in my case, a dream machine appeared. It was a 2006 Vespa GTS. I knew that I couldn’t afford a new GTS, so this seemed almost too good to be true. It was fairly priced and had only 1300 miles on it. After an email and talking with the owner, who had the interesting name of Fox, I rented an Enterprise cargo van and headed up to Maryland. Of course, on the way there I got lost, that is to be expected, but when I arrived Fox proved to be a fascinating character who is a bit of a celebrity in his community. Fox has quite a history, although I didn’t hear all of it. He appears to be an adventurous type who walks with a slight limp from his motorcycle racing days. He apparently has owned just about every brand of motorcycle or scooter around. So why dump this beautiful scoot? “I am tired of it and I’m on to other things.” I considered Fox’s ADD, my good fortune and with the help of his friend Mike, loaded the scooter up for the trip back to Richmond. All I could think about when I left Fox was getting back and eating, but every time I looked in the review mirror, the headlight of that elegant bike stared right back at me. It was then that I realized that after all the dreaming and talking and even your suggestions, I had come back to the Vespa for one specific reason, it is beautiful. I have aways been a sucker for the Italian sense of style and this new scoot has it. How do these things happen? In my world things happen for a reason, and although I don’t know why this has happened, I plan on enjoying it. I’m not giving up on my old classics, but at least I will have a scooter that feels like a part of the family and will fit in with all the rest.
Blog Posts
- The new 2008 Amerivespa site up and running. The site has a beautiful art deco picture for this year’s event.
- Jon, who runs the Yamaha Zuma Forum sent me an email several weeks ago to reminded me that there are other scooterist out there. Take a look at their forum and join their Friday or Saturday evening Chat.
Music for this show is from the Podsafe Music Network
Mar
05
2008
SHOWNOTES: I hope you got a chance to listen to last week’s episode. Vespa travel author Peter Moore and I spoke about traveling, scooters and the process of writing, If you missed it I highly recommend that you go back and listen. Once again, this week I have some old friends back. I spoke with both Bimbo Isidro and John Rana, Vespa bloggers from the Philippines. The conference type call was a fun opportunity to catch up with both Bimbo and John and talk about what has been happening on a totally different front in the scooting world.
I can tell from the traffic reports that we have more and more fans joining us from Europe and even south America. It seems that my recent reports and mechanical problems with my little Vietnamese resto has plucked a few heart strings. As you might expect, I have gotten the expected, “southeast Asian resto imports are crap” emails, but most of you have been quite nice about all of it.
Like many of you, I have a rather extensive web of Internet friends from around the world. I have connected with most of these people since having started my blog and podcast. The Internet makes it easy to keep in touch and I must admit, I like the idea that I can instant message or chat, without having to plan Two of the most unlikely friends I have made are half way around the world in Manila. Both are very involved in the Vespa Club of the Philippines. Many thanks to my Pinoy friends who spent time talking about their scooter scene. Get over to see their websites, Who Rides a Vespa and Vespinoy. I should also remind you that Bimbo also runs Motorcycle Philippines forum with more than 64 thousand registered members. Now those are some big numbers.
Harvey in Ottawa wrote me to suggest that I send the SCTRCST t-shirt he had won to Paula in Denver Colorado. Now that name might not mean anything to you, but those of you who live in Colorado or follow the blog world might have heard that Paula was riding her Buddy scooter when she was hit and seriously injured, just a few weeks ago. Harvey was hoping to win the Ipod and was planning on sending it to her. He had been reading about her on the Scooter Relief website. The group has raised thousands of dollars to with the help of the national scooter community, clubs, individuals and shops and have distributed these funds to all Katrina survivors and victims of scooter accidents and some facing serious illness. You can find out more about Paula and others by going over to the website.
Music from the Podsafe Music Network
Trouser Load of Love The Mod-est Lads
Music from Ariel’s Cyber PR
Started Out Right The Ugly Stick
