Vespaway

What'd You Call Me?

For calling long distance friends and associates via PC, or via regular mobile phone for that matter, lots of people have been happily using something called Skype. Now, you would think that being called Gizmo --already a fairly common word in English-- would give Skype's new competitor an unfair advantage in a Google Fight but, check it out, Skype dominates. We'll see how long this holds out. Among many rave reviews of Gizmo, this one is typical...

Better, oh much better, than Skype! [QuantumBlog.com]

Who Will Hold The Bag?

Did I mention Timbuktu? Well, do you know about Timbuk2? I found out about them for real when they offered to sponsor VespaOnline for last year's expedition through the deserts of the Southwestern US.

I have not one but two of these excellent pieces of equipment in constant use. Yet, I was only reminded of the Vespa connection when, flipping through flickr, I came across this piece. Vespaway Trivia: Where else has this particular bag appeared on a link from Vespaway?

Scooting in Rome with GPS

What a fantastic read this article in the NY Times is about a reporter who decides to go to Rome and see it the way Romans do:  on a scooter.  Of course he wanted to add an American twist: GPS. This article is well worth a full read beyond what I quote here.

TO mark my 40th birthday, I did something I am told has never been done in the history of Italy: I bought a Global Positioning System navigator and mounted it on my scooter, with the intention of actually finding my way around the streets of Rome.

This is exactly the ridiculous sort of thing Italians expect foreigners to get up to. We seem to think there are sure answers in life, especially electronic ones. We have the idea that Rome is supposed to be navigated efficiently. Our sense of form and function is tragically off.

"It's like putting a seatbelt on a motorino!" Gianluca Nicoletti, a popular radio personality, told me, using the common word here for scooter. "It's like having a spare tire on a motorino!"

"The motorino is a vehicle outside the rules," he added. "You can go up sidewalks, in pedestrian zones, down one-way streets. What do you need G.P.S. for?"

I had tried to explain this very need to the scooter repairman, who had to fix everything I broke on my scooter trying to install G.P.S. - which locks onto navigational satellite signals, plots a route and even tells you in a little robotic voice where to go - in the first place.

"I know it looks stupid to you," I said. "But for a stranger, it is really useful." I don't know if it was my bad Italian, or the thing itself, but he made no vocal acknowledgment, which in my experience is rare here. His face was blank, too.

Over The River And Through The Woods

To Grandmother's house we went. A lovely drive it was, too, as usual. I have suggested before that Maine has no shortage of exquisitely curvacious, majestically scenic, well maintained, luxuriously deserted highways and byways. For the shortage it does have of Vespas on those roads, I offer a second solution to add to the previous one of getting some Mainers to open a Vespa shop. The second solution is for non-Mainers to participate in the next Cannonball, supplement the trip with an eighth-day leg-up to Portland, and just stay there. I mean you should move to Maine. On your Vespa. This second semi-perennial cross-country scooter adventure was originally pencilled in as a Portland-to-Portland thing (Oregon to Maine). It is currently scheduled (to be fleshed out further at High Rollers 2006) as starting September 10th near Portland, Oregon and ending September 17th in Bloomfield, New Jersey. What say we meet September 18th in Bayonne and complete the port-to-port concept?

Have you ever gift wrapped a Vespa?

No? Me neither. I would just slap a bow on it and call it a day. But not these people. They wrap anything. Although they haven't wrapped a Vespa yet, they are in a gift wrapping contest with a Vespa as the top prize. The contest is known for it's unusually difficult items to wrap, and it would be no surprise if the Vespa prize was required wrapping to win.

Happy Thanksgiving and welcome to the Christmas season.

Gas Gas Gas

More reporting on big numbers at the pump, this time from Wired...

For anyone with a fresh idea, expensive oil is as good as a subsidy - with no political strings attached. Indeed, every extra penny you pay at the pump is an incentive for some aspiring energy mogul to find another fuel.

...or how about a way to get more than sixty miles per gallon? Does that make Piaggio's Paolo Timoni an energy mogul? Meanwhile, Spencer Reiss goes on to suggest that the best way for Americans to build interest in research for alternatives to fossil fuels is to drive those SUV's more often.

Crude hit $70 a barrel last August, but oil companies have learned the hard way how quickly prices can crash. They adjust their expectations accordingly - downward. [full story]

And from a consumer's perspective, I don't pretend to have any expectations that people will start driving big cars less often any time soon. Ride safe, kids, and Happy Thanksgiving!

CNN Money says LX makes a great xmas gift

CNN money listed the LX150 as suggested Christmas gift #2 here at this link. While it is true, the LX is an awesome bike, buying someone a Vespa for Christmas is like buying them a puppy. Please make sure they are ready for such an edeavor before purchasing. For instance, perhaps you might like to purchase a motorcycle safety foundation course with the bike, so that the new owner can be properly trained.

Who's Next?

(See link) Jon,

I also go by the name Jon on occasion. More confusing, I share this blog with my compatriot Neil, who in turn shares a watch over the New York Scooter Club with another Jonathan. That's my name too. I gave Neil a jingle to shout congratulations over the new club but I'll say it again publicly here that it delights me to see the thing come into being after sitting at a table over pizza and listening to Jonathan and him and others saying "wouldn't it be a good idea if..."  I'm still headquartered in San Francisco, though. If you, Jonathan Perkel and I avoid being in the same city at the same time we can keep people guessing about whether we are the same guy. A couple years ago it seemed like every third ocassion you met some joker on a Vespa his name was Dave. Can it be that Jon is the new Dave?

What Next?

Dry cleaning goes to a whole new level.

A waterless washing machine that removes stains from garments in a few minutes has been developed at the National University of Singapore, the facility said on Wednesday. The appliance uses negative ions, compressed air and deodorants to clean clothes. [Via The Gadget Blog and Engadget]

To last week's theme, as well as to this new bit, I should add the old news that a long ride through lush countryside is downright wonderful for aerating not only your motor and your lungs but also, of course, the clothes  you wear.

Then What?

I went on a long ride. With an old two-stroke motor, it's always a good idea to get out and open it up so as to blow out the carbon buildup in there but the main idea is getting fresh air into your human engine and four-stroke moto riders know all about that too. I know I've been promising a mountain road analysis of the LX for some time. Yet it is on account of getting hooked on the 2006 LX that I have severely neglected my 1977 VSD and so I pulled the sweet thing out of the garage to put in some quality time.

But first, before I could go have fun, I had to deal with the EDD. California has a great program for compensating workers who miss work for family reasons. However, getting the actual checks to come takes work. I took paternity leave in August and am still working on convincing them (with proper forms in triplicate) that I did not get paid for six weeks (nottomention that I am family-related to my son, as the documents provided by the hospital indicate). I had half a mind to ride a hundred miles straight to Sacramento and march into their office brandishing a photo album but that wasn't necessary. I think we've worked everything out. My long ride remained purely recreational.

Then what? Then I slept. Then ate. Then I went back to work.

My Way

I dragged myself away from long hours in the office yesterday only to discover it had been an unseasonably beautiful day in the Bay Area. Early this morning I purposefully checked to see if today promises more of the same. Sure enough, it should be in the mild 70's any minute. I have plotted a hundred-mile course. I mentioned Yesterday I came away from Wayfarer with all waypoints and no routes. Today it's just the opposite. In any case, now that I have managed to save my work, I can go back and add waypoints if I happen to observe any sites of interest along the journey today. Until then it's just me and the road. Ciao regazzi!

Way Far Along

Way back in June we all got access to the Google Maps API and since then a few people have been doing something with it. Take a look at this from the blog at Wayfaring.com...

After several months of late, late, late nights, we finally have a site that we’re ready for people to look at. As you’ve heard over and over from the 37Signals guys, it is better to get something out and work on it live than to stew on it forever adding features in the basement.

...Now take a look at Wayfaring.com itself. At the time of this writing, it is a but fledgling thing. As member number seven, I have been having some considerable trouble creating the maps the way I want to. After several hours creating waypoints and manually tracing twisty routes, I still haven't a single map saved. Why? As noted in their blog, many updates are being made right now and I have been kicked off, having to reset my login and start from scratch several times. Is that going to stop me from whacking a virtual machete around the backroads of the hinterland? Not likely. I look forward to new features from these guys, such as being able to undo a leg of a route instead of having to cancel and begin again. Then you can look forward to too many routes to choose from from me.

Buying a house/condo? Get a scooter free! PART 2

Just as I have already mentioned, it seems this whole buy a home get a scooter free idea is catching on, especially in Urban areas. This time it has spread to Scotland:

THEY are synonymous with Italian style and more commonly seen whizzing around the congested streets of Rome.

But a fleet of Vespas could soon be hitting the road in Edinburgh after a property developer offered a free scooter with every home.

Edinburgh-based Bett and Bryant says Jamie Oliver's transport of choice is the perfect answer to beating the Capital's rush-hour traffic.

Every new resident of the upmarket Strada development in Pilton Drive will be given a Vespa if they buy one of the £230,000 flats before December 16.

Buying a house/condo? Get a scooter free!

Is this a new trend? Two articles, one on buying a condo in NYC and the other about buying a house in India both offering scooters as incentives. The condo in NYC is offering shiney new LXs.

Check out the NYC condo article

Check out the India house article

I’m that “300-pound linebacker on the seat.”

I came across an article in which a large framed football player talks about his prefered method of transportation (the scooter) and how he has taken some flak for it:

You see, my alternative campus transportation of choice is one of those cute little motorized scooters they speak of — I’m that “300-pound linebacker on the seat.”

Anyway, I’ll admit that I might look like a “grand spectacle” to those I pass on my scooter. And while they may be smiling and laughing, they aren’t laughing at me, they’re laughing with me, because it’s just plain fun to have the wind in your face while you’re jetting around campus at roughly the same speed or slower than the average biker without going through the chore of pedaling.

So why do I ride a scooter? Do I think I’m a badass football player because I have something others don’t? No. Do I feel like Harry and Lloyd in “Dumb and Dumber” on their way to Aspen? Sometimes. Am I just too plain lazy to bike? Probably. But after waking up at 5:15 a.m. in the dead of winter every day of the week and going through three hours of running and lifting weights only to finish and realize that most of campus hasn’t even thought of waking up yet, it’s kind of nice to not have to use any more than steering muscles.

Read the rest here

Optiwear

I wear my wartime coat in the wind and sleet

The traditional US Army issue "fishtail" parka came to serve the purpose of shielding a white sport jacket from grease and bugs, but wind and sleet? On a speeding scooter? Okay, maybe sleet comes in chunks of water big enough to not get into the fabric where raindrop shaped water has no trouble penetrating. Riding home totally soaked in one of those things always made me feel extra sorry for the soldiers. These days we have Gore-Tex. It's more than space-age textiles that turn outerwear into opti-wear, though. It's pockets designed to distribute every tricky accoutrement at the ready. For example, the Sanyo Multi-Function Pocket System has a special pocket for Palm devices lined with static shielded material as well as a cell phone pocket lined with anti-magnetic material. Last year Land's End put out a Gore-Tex trenchcoat with similar features but I can't find it anymore. Their city wear tends to get buried. Their lightweight raincoat that stores away in its own pocket is still a standby, suitable for keeping under your seat.

Helmet Hair

I ride a GS scooter with my hair cut neat                                                                                        

Back again to "back in the day," when we went without head protection in the California sun, I fretted about how scootering blew my hair dry in a style I did not want. The girl I had my eyes on, when she momentarily turned her eyes to me called me Eraserhead. I later discovered that, not only do girls like guys who have enough sense to wear protection, but donning a helmet every day is what has given me the do I did want. Duh, it's good to wear a helmet, but what are some other advantages it brings with it? I have been known, while fumbling with my keys or lacing my boots, to tuck my StarTac into my half-shell for hands-free gabbing. I have since discovered the wonders of plug-in headsets that fit inside a full-face. That's nothing, though, compared to the baby giant step for mankind Motorola made with Momo, and the shuffle-ball-change Scala followed with, I no longer have to remove my helmet at all, so type of haircut is moot. Whether you need to raise Starfleet or call in sick (no need to mention diagnosis: Vespa Obsession), you just be sure to wear some kind of helmet or you may really need to miss work. Live long and prosper.

Internationalism

Maybe a touch of seersucker with an open neck                                 

Approaching winter puts me in mind of stripey scarves. Whenever summer is coming I think back to my Grandfather on the back porch of a New England cottage with oilpaints from his retirement pastime pallette accidentally getting on his seersucker shorts and him swearing. In this context it's a seersucker shirt. This is part of the British kids' image of an American playboy with the top button undone. It's funny, in the 'eighties, when my friends and I were first trying to define ourselves as mods in America, we would invite ridicule from the squares at school by closing the top button of our shirts. We didn't realize this was less of a style than it was a habit betraying Brits trying otherwise to cultivate the look of a circa 1961 Ivy Leaguer. Of course the look was additionally supposed to be mixed with that of the original Vespiste, the smart Italian. French fashions also were a big influence during that first flush. The thing is, riding a Vespa is as much a statement of cosmopolitanism as it ever was, even as much as the interperetation may be different. In recent times we've seen East End kids imitating the Vespisti of cities such as Athens and Seoul, in shorts and sandals. Nervertheless, navigating gotham on two little wheels is still somehow a sign of sophistication, especially when the get-up is appropriate for working at a restaurant, travel agency, or publishing firm.

Modernism

My jacket's gonna be cut slim and checked                                    

I can't tell you what a thrill it was for me to see three-button suits with thin lapels and tapered trousers coming into fashion around the Turn of the Millenium, and kickpleat skirts for the ladies, too. It's not just that the clean lines echo those of the bike, it's that you can be calmly sitting there midflight, zipping around town without the wind blowing where it's not supposed to (up your pantlegs; under your collar). Dig the current ubiquity of early 'sixties fashion motifs for fun all you want but I love it for its sheer practicality. Look at modern architecture, not the disposable kind but the enduring kind, the kind that is majestic and poetic without having curlicues to collect grime and soot. That's what flat-fronted trousers are about. It's fiscally practical at that, now that it's been around in the mainstream long enough to start coming available in thrift stores everywhere. My minimum wage teenage budget would have been all over it. Today I can tell you I'm just plain thrilled that this stuff is available brand new.

Nothing Is Planned

By the sea and the sand...

     My jacket's gonna be cut slim and checked,
     Maybe a touch of seersucker with an open neck.
     I ride a GS scooter with my hair cut neat,
     I wear my wartime coat in the wind and sleet.

There's a fellow at the San Francisco Motorcycle Club who used to belt this Pete Townsend refrain whenever he'd see me coming. Maybe it was his way of trying to make a suited scooter rider feel welcome among a bunch of leatherclad motorcyclists, but those guys are friendly enough without the song and dance and I think, without my saying anything, he soon realized the Quadrophenia reference was the only thing making me uncomfortable. This isn't to say I don't still hold a place in my heart for the movie that inspired me to get a scooter in the first place. What can I say? I was fourteen years old. I'm happy that it did lead to getting myself on a Vespa the next year (I couldn't wait until I was legal), and I'm happy that a whole new way of living came with it. I am also happy, however, that the lifestyle evolved beyond the inspiration to the point of making Quadrophenia references seem to me, erm, perhaps a little trite.   

Yet, no matter how cool scooters are, part of the equation is a subtle reminder not to take oneself too seriously. To wit, this is practically the message Quadrophenia provides. Besides, I cite the Sea and Sand chorus above because it provides a snappy format for four aspects of style I'd like to explore this week, starting today with the next post, Modernism. 

Wild World

On the subject of false advertising, I am sad to see my fellow Americans are still falling for offers on eBay of Vietnamese "restorations" which are actually prettily painted Frankenstein monsters made from one part scrapped Vespa Sprint, one part scrapped Vespa Super Sport, two parts salvaged Bajaj Chetak, and ten parts Bondo. They may make impressive lawn ornaments but better leave the gnomes to work that job because the gnomes are not going to work on that travesty of a motor for you, and neither will self-respecting US certified mechanics. Do yourself a favor and leave those vehicles in Vietnam where the "art" of keeping such machines alive is practised. At the same time, I am happy to see the LX125 is now in healthy rotation over there. 

Vespaworld

Vespa, Vespa, Vespa, everywhere you look, and it makes many an exciting photograph. But not everywhere you look on Flickr that has the tag 'Vespa' is it the Tyner I mean the real McCoy. I've talked about this before. My little plan of making a game called "Non è un Vespa" has not yet been fully realized. Meanwhile, an alternative diversion emerges. Finding one or two choice portraits of Vespas within wide-ranging travelogues tends to satisfy the eyes quite a sight better than finding a scary snap of someone's butt among a hundred scenes of scooters at a scooter rally, much as we love scooter rallies and, um, yeah. Coming across that pussycat peering through the backrack of a PX in Cinqueterre served to remind me of another meme we have yet to see manifest. You guessed it, it's the Vespaworld tag. Vespaworld --one word-- will one day soon be the tag to search for unique images of Vespas around the world from Timbuktu to Tierra del Fuego. If you want to put yourself in frame to say I was there, great! Only make sure 1. there is a Vespa in picture, and 2. it is a Vespa, not some cheap imitation.

My Journey to See Bill Clinton

Did I mention I shook Bill Clinton’s hand on Wednesday? It was quite an event but the journey there makes for a great scooter story! Here it is:

It’s 3pm on a Wednesday. You are sitting in a downtown Manhattan office and a friend of yours calls to say that he has gotten you 2 tickets to see Bill Clinton speak tonight in Jersey City. The event starts at 7:30 but you must be there by 5:30/6PM to go through security checks. To complicate matters more, you must pick up the tickets in Bayonne and get changed before going. To complicate matters even more, you want to take your friend with you who also works in downtown Manhattan and also must get home (to Jersey City) to change before going. What do you do?

Well, if you own a car and drive in, you are screwed. Traffic leaving the Holland Tunnel starts at 3pm, and peaks between 4-6PM. You can’t even leave until 4pm otherwise your boss will have a fit.

If you took a train in your are screwed. Even though both you and your friend can take the same line to get to your houses, it will still take about an hour to get there, and then you will have to switch off to a car to make the trip back into Jersey City and there is sure to be lots of traffic even locally that time of day.

So how is it possible to leave Soho at 4PM, pick up your friend in the West Village, drop him off in Jersey City, get to downtown Bayonne, pick up tickets, go to uptown Bayonne, get changed, go back to Jersey City to pick up your friend and then get across town to where the event is being held and make it by 6PM? To be sure, the distance is not great, only about 16 miles in total; but we are talking about the busiest time of day in one of the heaviest trafficked regions in America. IT could take a car 2 hours just to get through the Holland Tunnel at 4pm on a weekday. There is only one way to do all of this in 2 hours or less my friends and it is called a scooter. (click on the map to see destination points)

Here is my timeline:

4PM leave work and go hop on scooter, which is parked on the corner of Thompson & Broome. I make an illegal right on red as I am in a hurry (in NJ it is legal, in NY is illegal). Just as I am doing so an undercover cop hits his horn. Before I can even turn around I see THIS GUY

from Law and Order to my left. Then I turn around behind me to see the undercover cop in the sedan get on the mic and say “you gotta wait like everyone else does”. It’s all too surreal for me, are they cops or are they actors? Light changes I go, after all I am a man on a mission.

4:05PM arrive at W. Houston & Washington and pick up Andrew.

4:10PM hit the Holland Tunnel traffic which is heavy. I skip past the long line on Varick and duck right in to the tunnel traffic at Broome.

4:25PM drop Andrew off at his place at Communipaw & Monitor in Jersey City

4:45PM get tickets at 18^th & Broadway in Bayonne

5PM get to my house at 53^rd & Kennedy Blvd in Bayonne, get changed into suit and get back on bike

5:25PM leave my house

5:45PM arrive at Andrews place at Communipaw & Monitor in Jersey City I wait about 5 minutes for him to come down, he hops on and we go.

6PM we arrive at Lincoln Park in Jersey City at the South West Gate. The place we are going is called Casino-in-the-Park and is in the middle of the park. The cop directs us to the North East Gate. The cop THERE tells us to go back where we came, which I am not having any part of, instead he says to try the East Gate at West Side Avenue & Belmont.

6:10PM We arrive at the East gate, which is obviously where the main entrance was. Security is HEAVY and parking is nonexistent. A good amount of people got there early and filled the event parking lot. Cops are directing everyone in front of us towards the park perimeter and side streets for parking unless they are a VIP. We pull us and the cop just looks at me and say “You can fit that thing anywhere, just go on through”. We get stopped at 3 or 4 more check points as we approach the restaurant. At one check point a JCPD Sergeant is just in love with the bike and stops us to chit chat before sending us through right to the front door. We parked right next to the place, walked in and got a primo position in front of the stage. Check out the pics here.

Pimp Your Ride?

There are so many ways to pimp your scooter... but it just always seemed like there was one thing missing... until now. Check this out. That's right, you can now buy spinners for your Vespa! No way? WAY!

If you aren't sick of getting stares of envy already, this is the ultimate product for your Vespa.

Imagine the reaction when you pull up to a light and you stop, but your chrome spinning wheels just keep on spinnin'

Show up the fools in the tricked out SUV's with the spinning rims (who, by the way, are getting around 12mpg) that you can pimp it just as hard and still save a penny or two on gas. 

The ladies are sure to come a runnin' when they see that not only do you have sick style, but you're quite the economical guru as well (If you're a girl the last claim may not apply; but lets face it, if you're a girl on a Vespa, that alone is enough for the guys to come a runnin' {Spinners couldn't hurt though})

Why Max?

With Apple announcing one million Vpods sold and Sony announcing ten million PSPs sold, we are seeing a spreading of a trend. That trend is video consumption. If we trace the trend from the beginning of broadcast television up to now, we could describe this new development as a flowering for which everything else -- cable, MTV, TiVo -- has only been one long sunflower stalk. I'll stick with the word spreading anyway, since it connotes kudzu. In either case, it is natural. It is natural that we humans, with two eyes facing forward, continue to grow our cathode ray, plasma screen, and LCD viewing capabilities. Given the introduction of Cadillac dashboard DVD players and such truck, I get a little nervous. However, given the proliferation of GPS applications, Motorola's announcement today to support WiMax is a boon to our lovely world of personal transportation.