This is my first post since attending Wordcamp Denver, where I was encouraged to write more about what I believe. Over and over, speakers talked about how “influence is not created by how many people you know, but by how freely you share your ideas and connect with people.” I have known for a long time that “knowledge is power” and when I was traveling a few weeks ago, this proved to be very true. It has been a day of bad weather on the east coast and my original early morning flight out of Denver on Delta was canceled. According to the ticket agent I wasn’t going to get home until midnight the next day, if I was lucky, so I should give up and come back the next day. I stood looking at hundreds of people standing in line, some yelling, others crying, most resigned to having sleep in the floor, eat crappy airport food and have their lives be miserable for the next two days.
You might say, “so what” this is air travel these days and even if it is uneventful, it sucks. But with millions of air-miles under my belt I have learned that there are a lot of secrets to traveling. First, I never believe what the ticket agent says and second I aways smile and say “yes sir/miss”. In this case I backed away and jumped on my wireless laptop and pulled out my Iphone to call Delta. The search was on for an alternative flight. Within 15 minutes I had purchased an affordable flight through Dallas/Ft Worth and began dreaming of sleeping in my own bed.
Another truth I have learned is that in many cases “those who know don’t say and those who say, don’t know”. Realizing this has made me rather intolerant of people withholding information. Although it may be revered in business as “a competitive advantage”, I think that in everyday life it becomes a way to demean others and neglect another truth I believe in, that we are all responsible for “the greatest good”.
Sitting in the airport last week, I calmly clicked to confirmed my ticket on line thinking “knowledge is power”. The Delta airline employees herd hundreds of people around, yelling, “stay in line. This is the only way to get re-booked”. As I walked away, I pulled a mother with two kids aside and said, “use you cellphone, call the Delta desk while you stand here, rebook over the  phone. You have to take care of yourself, they aren’t going to take care of you.”

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 EPISODE 89 - SCOOTERCAST Scooter Internet Radio [19:12m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Spring is fast approaching here in the capital city of the south. This has meant working hard to get all my scooters running. My favorite scoot is the 1965 Ferrari red Vespa 180ss, but for most of the winter it has had suffered from the sniffles and congestion along with a loss of power when ever I leaned into the throttle. The other problem was it wouldn’t run without being choked into unconsciousness. What do you think? bad petrol, clogged jets, bad points, an air leak…the possibilities just get worse from there. I took it to ScootRichmond and Dave asked about my tinkering history with the little beauty. I had removed the carburetor, cleaner the fuel screen, replaced the carb/case gasket, pulled and cleaned the jets, flushed the air cleaner and adjusted the air/fuel mixture. But what I hadn’t done is completely disassemble the carburetor. When I pick up my scoot, Dave showed me the float and bowl which was still covered with grime and rust, a remnant from the old rusted gas tank. Once again, a great example of a job halve done.

I am headed out west this weekend to attend the WordCamp Denver. The conference is created for enthusiasts, users, developers, designers, and fans of WordPress, an open source software platform that functions as the backbone of many websites like SCTRCST.  WordCamp will cover a lot of technical stuff, but also offers a track on blogging and content development. Hopefully a full day of geeking out with other bloggers will inspire and teach me a few things about writing and communicating with readers.

Thanks to Erik, Steve and all the other Denver fans who have been emailing invitations to get together. The members of the Misfit Toys Scooter Club even offered to hound Sportique Scooters into put me on a scooter for their Sunday ride. Unfortunately, I get to Denver mid-day Friday, I’m in Camp all day Saturday and then up early Sunday to catch a 7 o’clock flight back to the east coast. If you are not already doing so, follow me on twitter we might be able to do an impromptu tweet-up. If it doesn’t happen, I am planning to be back a month or two in time for the spring thaw.

Music for this show features Ben Hammond and is from the Pod safe Music Network.

 

 EPISODE 88 - SCOOTERCAST Scooter Internet Radio: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

If you follow me on Twitter you know that I made a quick trip to Denver. I had plenty of time to explore the depths of my ipod and found two podcast you must know about. The first is “Digital Flotsam”, a nice break from a monotone life, with PW Fenton a creative writer who reminisces and remarks on himself and the world. The other is irreverent and will likely offend anyone who has even a speck of moral or ethical standards. “You Look Nice Today” seems like three frat boys in conversation, looking for any opportunity to exaggerate the truth or perpetuate an obvious lie. Wait and listen for those moments of brilliant humor.

I am compelled to seek out scooter shops. On this trip to Denver I wanted to visit Sportique Scooters in Englewood. The original store is an old gas station on the west-side in Denver. I don’t know the whole growth story surrounding Sportique, except to say that some of their success has to be credited to Colin, one of the original owners. If that name sounds familiar, it probably because he has been around forever and is an author. Colin is now calling the Englewood store home, where most of Sportique’s vintage bikes are being sold. The shop had plenty of vintage and new Vespas, Lambrettas and a surprising Honda Ruckus with a stretched chrome frame and performance exhaust.

Colin talked about how he is going to keep the next Big Ruckus that gets traded in, referencing it as a good scoot for old guys. Here is one of Denver’s early scooterist, who has his own sorted scooter past like all of us talking about slowing down and getting old. I guess no matter who you are, eventually you start to recognize that things never stay the same. Colin has done a lot for the scooter community over the years and with a fourth shop planning to open in northern Colorado he definitely qualifies as a successful businessman, even though he likes to throwout around the f-bomb a lot. Thanks to Sportique Scooters for the welcome and friendly conversation.

Music for this show features The Mourning After and Chris Trapper of The Push Stars from the Podsafe Music Network.

 

 EPISODE 87 - SCOOTERCAST Scooter Internet Radio [19:09m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Welcome to all of you coming over after hearing about SCTRCST on TWIT (This Week In Tech). John C Dvorák mentioned the pod cast and the blog after I sent him a University of Richmond Spiders hooded sweatshirt. I know a marketing opportunity when I see it.

Those of you who read the blog know I am a big fan of the scooter videos. If you look in the blog and pod cast archives, you will find links to a number of rally videos, restorations and scoot lifestyle events. this is all aleadin to say that I have finally gotten around to using my digital video recorder. My first shots were of  last week’s Richmond 7 Hills Scooter Club ride out. So as if customary on Scootercast, I am going to share with you both my successes and screw-ups. My weapon of choice is a modestly priced Aiptek HD video camera. The plan was to attach it to my helmet using heavy duty Velcro. You would be wise to use as much Velcro as will fit on the camera and the helmet. When I reviewed my test video, I had taken 6 minutes of crisp, clear video, featuring the pavement. I had calebrated the angle of the camera, without putting the helment on, so after a few Velcro adjustments I had a helmet cam which provided an interesting rendition of the ride, albeit focused a little bit right of center. The video includes clips from the meet up at Crossroad Coffee and clips from the ride I am always talking about here in Richmond, the Riverside Drive ride. What I won’t go into how much work it is to edit a video, but it’s a lot. Hope you enjoy the results.

7 Hills Scooter Club Ride 2-1-09 from Dave Mangano on Vimeo.

Music for this show comes from the Podsafe music netork and features George Thorogood, a long time purveyor of blues music and specialist on the slide guitar. He did  the scooter classic, “One bourbon, one scotch one beer”.