Vespaway

More Year End Riding Stats

www.theducatikid.blogspot.com - Joe G writes:

Months ridden : 12
Miles ridden :    on scooters only, probably around 3,000, 1K on the ET2 and 2K on the X9 (since Sep-2005).
$ saved on parking alone: $4500 based on a parking a car in a $375/mo. space... fairly typical for my neighborhood.
Tickets: 3.
Drops : None.
Maintaince : $120.00 of shop maintenance, about $50 of self-installed parts.
Price for New Piaggio X9: $... not cheap. But I didn't pay list either, by a long shot.
Cost per week to fill up $8.00 plus or minus for the X9, $4.00/wk for the ET2.

And Arthur B, PhD writes:

I bought the Vespa GT in September, 2005 I have 1600 miles on it.
I ride to work and back mostly.
This month in KC has not been a good riding month.
It costs about $2.50 to fill per week.
It is a great machine and a great way to move from A to B.

What Are Your Year End Riding Stats?

What are your year end Vespa riding stats?  Allen C. in Washington DC wrote me his:

Months ridden : 7
Miles ridden :    2700
$ saved on parking alone: $1000.00
Ticketts: one near miss
Drops : 2 (one while parked!)
Maintaince : $300.00
Price for piaggo  150 with 2200 miles :$ 2000.00
Cost per week to fill up $3.50 plus or minus

Let me know your stats - neil@urbannerd.com

NYCTransit Strike Day 3: An End in Sight

According to a press conference held today, it looks as if the strike may be coming to an end. As early as this evening trains may be running again. Amidst all of this, the press missed out on the obvious story: Scooters. The most I could find written about scooters was this press release on the autochannel entitled - www.theautochannel.com/news/2005/12/21/186150.html"Motor Scooters Help New Yorkers Get Around Transit Strike". Nothing else was written scooters, which just astounds me. Perhaps scooterists are not a big enough population yet for the news to take notice of? I know the city of New York does not treat scooterists and other 2 wheeled motor vehicles very well. But this will change over time, the scooter movement is only just getting started. Everyone should think of scooters as I do: their own personal political agenda. Not a political agenda of environmentalism, because that is not why I ride. A political agenda of practicality. Scooters truly are the superior urban vehicle. There is no other form of transportation that is cheaper and quicker in any urban environment.

The MTA did not win this strike, and neither did the transit workers. The scooterists won this strike. And we will keep on winning whenever New York City is paralyzed with strikes, or blackouts, or gridlock, or other major events that disrupt the ability of people to move about.

NYC Transit Strike Day 2

I caught this photo on the news wires yesterday. Scooterists fighting with cabs is a normal occurrence in NYC every day, but I guess when they are the ONLY two types of vehicles allowed on the road in Manhattan (except for cars with at least 4 people) it becomes a newsworthy pic to snap. A lot of scooterists on the various discussion boards out there have made note of the lack of news coverage on scooterists making it in. Yet we have all seen and continue to see scooterists riding around Manhattan unfettered! One comment on the news was overheard yesterday by a fellow scooterist:
"I saw someone on one of those scooters coming across the Brooklyn Bridge." - NBC4 News at 9:25

Scooters & The Transit Strike in NYC

Well the transit strike hit New York City today. I will spare you my political opinion on the matter here (www.urbannerd.com/2005/12/20/the-nyc-mta-strike - find it on my personal site). However, this is a fantastic opportunity for the Scooter to shine. And shine they are! I have gotten a number of emails and read a number of messages already from various Scooterists in the NYC area telling me what a GREAT day it is to ride. There is practically no traffic on the streets because of the HOV restrictions at the bridges and tunnels. Is there any doubt today that the Scooter is the perfect urban vehicle? In a way, I hope the strike continues for my own selfish reasons. More people will notice how easily scooterists are getting around and perhaps there will be an unusual pick up in winter sales for the scooter dealerships in the area!

Here are a few comments from the http://nyscooterclub.comforum/viewtopic.php?t=167&start=0 - New York Scooter Forum:
" Quick & painless due to the lack of auto traffic. ... Lots of bikes out today despite the cold. " - TheDucatiKid
" My commute is about 15 miles. ... The only traffic I had was by the bk bridge. The cop didnt even bother talking to me. " - jaysbmx00
" I made sure that I kept my scoot out of storage anticipating a strike..." - syntax73

This from Bloomberg news:
"Richard Notar, the operations manager for Nobu, plans to scoot between his Tribeca and Midtown locations on his celadon- colored Vespa. "

Here 'Tis

It's the moment you've all been waiting for. This morning, at the http://show.motorcycleshows.com/IMSBrandManager/v42/index.cvn - Cycle World International Motorcycle Show in Long Beach, PiaggioUSA announces the GTS 250 i.e.  This is the bike that has been setting fresh benchmarks for maxi scooters as well as classic scooters since the Spring, when it rolled out in http://www.motorsport.it/html/pagina.php?id=2123 - Europe.  All through Summer and Fall everyone has been asking us, when will it come to the States? Now it has arrived. Expect, as we experienced recently with the LX150, to see demand outpace the supply for a while. In two words, waiting list. You may well get lucky and get one right away, depending on which of the Fifty is your state. The wait suits me personally at any rate; before I get ready to celebrate fifty years since http://www.bohemianbrewery.com/scooters/vespaGS.html - GS Rex with a whole new all-time great, I want to spend more time honoring sixty years of Vespa with the li'l ol' LX.

The New York Scooter Club Holiday Party

http://nyscooterclub.com - The New York Scooter Club threw one heck of a Holiday party last night. In a very short time we have seen a tremendous number of people join the community of New York City areas scooterists. We had over 70 people attend last night's event and I have a feeling that next year it will be much, much bigger. If you are in the New York City area and have not visited the club yet, you should definately do so! If you are visiting from out of town anytime also feel free to contact the club!

Here is a picture of the New York Scooter Club organizers. They are truly a great bunch of people who have all come together to create something special in NYC. Click to enlarge, from left to right they are: Joe, Herb, Theo, Allison, Me, David, Jonathan & Johnny

For MANY more pictures of the event, check out http://urbannerd.com/2005/12/08/the-new-york-scooter-club-holiday-party - the pics on my blog as well as the - http://nyscooterclub.com2005/12/08/holiday-party-pics-are-here/ - pics on the club blog.

Summer In Argentina

That's right, in the Southern Hemisphere, it's Summertime, and Vespaonline's second annual Desert Raid is underway. Bustling Buenos Aires is behind them. So far they have encountered fewer and fewer cars as they get deeper into the Pampas Desert but they still get the occasional tractor trailer blowing past them. The air displacement from the trucks gives them a bit of practice for the extreme crosswinds they will soon encounter on the unpaved Ruta 40. The parties of vultures stripping cow carcasses to bone are giving them a bit of solemnity for the extreme distance they have to make before they see Ushuaia. The spaghetti they brought is giving them plenty of comfort at night.

It's A Wrap!

As your recall, I wrote about this wrapping contest that involved an LX as it's grand prize. I suggested that perhaps the potential winner ought to wrap the Vespa itself to win it. That is, in fact, what happened! Check it out.

Doug Alves, a gift-wrapping guru from Fresno, Calif., was crowned "America's Most Gifted Wrapper" for 2005 in a national gift-wrapping contest sponsored by the maker of Scotch brand Tape.

Amid throngs of holiday revelers at Rockefeller Center today, Alves used breathtaking speed, flair and style to out-wrap seven other gift-wrapping experts in the ninth annual Scotch Brand Most Gifted Wrapper Contest, earning the ultimate holiday prize: $10,000 and the new Vespa LX Scooter he wrapped during the competition. With bows, ribbons and Scotch brand Tape in hand, Alves and his worthy competitors wrapped gifts of silver, gold and diamonds - a silver Sharp Aquos LCD TV, gold saxophone and brand new Vespa scooter accompanied by a diamond-encrusted helmet

Brreezing Along

Now the wintertime is coming,
The windows are filled with frost.
I went to tell everybody,
But I could not get across.

Bob Dylan, http://bobdylan.com/songs/lottolaugh.html - It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry

On the subject of bundling up, we have a couple of posts so far, one on gloves and one on coats. Who would have thought this would be a fitting context for http://scooterskirts.com - skirts? David Hunter of the SF Bay Area asks us, What do you do when it rains? Answer: 1) Use more caution and less throttle, 2) Breathe deeply the negative ions and smell the freshness, 3) Let the rain bounce off and try to avoid letting the rain puddle in the groin area. The invention many riders have imagined when set with this third challenge has been finally and marvelously executed by Ruben of ScooterSkirts.com and Oakland, California. That's your neighborhood, David. Incidentally, the kind of weather we're feeling even on days like today is really nothing to complain about compared to the many places where scooters spend whole snowy months indoors. And with that, I put on my Swiss Army coat of rubberized canvas and am off to traverse cablecar tracks, to defy the slickness, to enjoy the ride.