Vespaway

New Yorker discovers the true pizza of Naples

Check out this New Yorker's adventure in Italy! Vespas and pizza in Naples... perfect together :)

Pizza as we know it was invented at Lombardi's—then a bakery—around 1895, inspired by flatbreads fabricated in Naples since Roman times. Heck, Pompeii boasted a pizzeria. Earlier this year I made a Neapolitan pilgrimage to trace the origins of America's favorite pie. That charming city, where laundry hangs from every window in trash-strewn streets, is as enamored of pizza as we are. In fact, Naples reminded me of Brooklyn; both places you can hardly walk a block without passing a pizzeria. The pizzas are strikingly different, however. Naples's are a foot in diameter, calculated to satisfy only one person. Delivered uncut, the pies must be eaten with silverware, and it's comical to see an Italian boho clad in jeans and torn sweatshirt hop off a Vespa, run into a pizzeria, then daintily scarf her pie with a knife and fork. (read the rest)

"Vespas are funny" writes Wonkette

I am not sure what wonkette was trying to get at when she wrote that Vespas are funny? Is it funny that I save on gas? Is it funny that my commute is shorter? Is it funny that my quality of life is greatly improved? Is it funny that owning a Vespa in a major metropolitan area means mobility unsurpassed by any other means?

I guess she was trying to get a shot in on Harold Ickes, who is a Democratic political gun for hire who rides a Vespa & had an accident. But then, she must not realize that Vespas are independents and cannot be tied to any one political ideology. I know plenty of Republicans that drive Vespas. I guess she missed my blog entry on Republican lobbyist Erick Gustafson who rides a Vespa around DC. I bet Erick Gustafson gets twice the lobbying in a day than any other lobbyist.

And this isn't a rant on saving gas or the environment either. Is it great that a Vespa gets 60-80MPG? Yes! Do I care that it is saving the environment? NO! I am a utilitarian. I want the most efficient way to get from point A to point B. To be efficient it has to be cheap, fast & easy. The Vespa covers all of those bases in an urban environment AND it is stylish to boot.

In fact, I challenge anyone to a race. My Vespa versus their car or train or bus. In short & medium distances in urban environments my Vespa will beat you hands down. Won't that be funny?

Yeah it would :)

 

The Vespa Sound System

I got a ton of emails on this, and I know that I am late in posting it. For the record this is not the first time I have seen this concept. It isn't even the second or third time I have seen it. There are a bunch of home made systems on Vespas out there. I will dig around for some pics of them. Until then, here is the article from engadget:

We're pretty sure that this won't work with the Engadget Harley, and it's certainly not as cool as the Vespa Puter, but for our more refined European audience we present the mobile Stereo System with iPod dock by Scooterworks. The system is actually a do-it-yourself kit for Vespa Stella and P-series models that includes an amp, two 4-inch Alpine speakers, replacement glovebox door with pre-cut holes, and a cradle/connector for hooking up your 'pod or other DAP. We're pretty sure that you could piece together your own scooter-mounted stereo for less than the $300 that this costs, but if you're really trying to save some loot, the not-recommended-by-us, cruising-around-with-headphones-on method still can't be beat.

Scooter Taxis in Paris

My friend Ms aawaters on the NY Scooter Club Forum found this interesting tid bit in the Wall Street Journal today:

This morning's Wall Street Journal reports on the Parisian company Citybird, a taxi service that relies on select Piaggio and Suzuki scooters.

"A quick analysis also indicated that large motorcycles were too big to squeeze through traffic jams and too costly to operate. Instead, they selected top-of-the-line Piaggio and Suzuki motorscooters, which are cushier than the compact and classic Vespa. The models use about half the fuel of a large motorcycle and offer lots of storage space for bags. And the partners figured that for most trips, it wouldn't matter that scooters don't move as fast as motorcycles."

Citybird's target customers are an upscale crowd. The main appeal: guaranteed punctuality and significantly shorter trips. During rush hour, Citybird promises it can slash the travel time between central Paris and the airport from around 90 minutes to 30 minutes.

Conspicuous Thrift Is Cool

Chris Ayres, Los Angeles correspondent for the London Times provokes chuckles with a BoBos in Paradise sort of approach to the Vespa alternative. Driving a gas-guzzler had driven him to inwardly brooding over keeping up with the Joneses and their hybrid cars. Sensing what would make him happy, his wife gave him a Vespa for Christmas.

“Don’t worry,” she cooed. “You’ll look cute on it.” Now, as any man knows, there is a whole universe of difference between cool and cute.

Don't worry, I say too, Chris. Once you've logged more than 50 miles and have gotten past the wobbles, you'll be cool. [Thanks to Pete Selkowe, Vespaway reader and PX200 rider from Racine, Wisconsin for this story]

The NYC Motorcycle Show

The show this year was a bit of a let down as compared to years past. I just felt like there wasn’t much of a wow factor at the show. Admittedly it was fantastic to see a nice big Piaggio presence. The GTS was on display in prime position and it looked great. I am just mesmerized by the digital display on the bike. On top of that the improved shocks, extra 50ccs and fuel injection are all major improvements. I am hoping to test drive one in the next month or two (as I did with the GT). When I get my hands on one, I will certainly be writing about it here.

Aprilia is now part of Piaggio so there more scooters than just the LX, GT & GTS on display in the booth. Check out the pic of the 500cc Scarabeo that was one display. Now that is A LOT of scooter.

Aside from Piaggio & company, even though other vendors had scooters on display they were usually pushed towards the back and sales folks just did not have any interest in answering questions about them. I think that’s a pretty sad state of affairs when scootering seems to be taking off in urban America.

But some vendors were making an attempt to reach the scooter community. The folks at Yourbikeyourshirt.com were very quick to point out that amongst the many designs they embroider on their shirts, Vespas were included.

The people from the Motorcycle Safety Foundation course given at Farleigh Dickenson University were there as well. I have spoken about the MSF before, and FDU happens to be where I took my course. I think the safety course is a must for all new riders. When I took the course I learned on a motorcycle. However the guys at the booth were very eager to mention to me that they are trying to reach the scooter community and will be running a once a month course customized for scooterists! So please contact them or your local MSF folks and enroll in a course soon. It will save your life! Keep up the good work MSF!

Airfield Traffic Pattern

This happens to be the picture of the day on Wikipedia today, the anniversary of the first commercial flights of the Concorde. How does this relate to Vespa you ask?

Piaggio was, and is today with Piaggio Aero, an aircraft factory. After World War II, recognizing the need for conversion to civil market, it approached this idea using internal skill, expertise and spare parts: in the first exemplar one can recognize the typical aircraft technology of molded steel sheets riveted at the edges, the front wheel with lamp was actually a landing gear, the engine was derived from a starter of an airplane engine, attention to aerodynamics is evident in all the design, in particular on the tail.

If you have to ask, ask Wikipedia.

Happy Talk

Mobile phone use does not lead to a greater risk of brain tumour, the largest study on the issue has said.

This news from the BBC prompted me to go a-hunting for a fitting geurrilla image pasted up at several strategic intersections in the Bay Area. What I found, to my delight, was this:

Its source is Yellow Pages Commando. How had I not found this hilarious blog before? I think the site is supposed to be about advertising and marketing but this guy Dick Larkin goes so far afield he makes my allusions to comic books and jazz footnotes seem like direct quotations from a Piaggio factory manual. Makes for a good read, though, don't it? His, I mean -- me, I'm just getting started still. Anyway, the pic here is from a 2003 archive and, in a momentary deficit of commentary the only context he has is This sign is popular everywhere except New York. Now it is this week's brain teaser for me. I don't get it. Maybe Mr. Larkin thought New Yorkers were upset a whole two years from being the first State to mandate hands-free phoning while driving (that is to say, you can't be holding a phone in your hands -- you're not required to use a phone at all if you don't want to). Trust me, Dick, New Yorkers moved on. Since then, only one other State and the District of Columbia have enacted similar laws. Many cities have done it, and more are working on it [2004 reference: Seattle Post-Intelligencer]. Man, though, California, I gotta say, of all places, I mean, I've been known to espouse the wonders of modern telecommunications on this site because, yeah, it's great but, geez, California, WAKE UP, HANG UP AND DRIVE. The image I was originally looking for is of a skull with a cell-phone in its skeleton hand. Make no mistake. Mobile technology can kill people in quicker ways than with cancer.

The NYC Motorcycle Show

I will be covering the NYC Motorcycle show tomorrow night. I was at the show last year and the scooter presence was minimal. This year I expect a big difference as scooters have risen in popularity rapidly this past year!

Expect lots of pics and comments on cool stuff!

Seattle Even Especially

If the rain comes they run and hide their heads.
sdaeh rieht edih dna nur yeht semoc niar eht fI.
(Rain) Lennon-McCartney

I was listening to the radio again, listening to WNYC again, this time this NPR piece about record rainfall in Seattle. No cause to recant the song and dance about unrelenting winter riding, it was, on the contrary (even though I got soaked today), only a reminder of what I might have mentioned in the first place. Everyone knows Seattle gets tremendous amounts of rain but what you might not know is that it also plays host to many hundreds of happy Vespisti, among them stalwart members of such organizations as the Belladonnas, the venerable Emerald City Flying Monkeys, nottomention the well established Vespa Club of Seattle. Maybe that even makes you want to pay the great scooter city a visit so don't forget about the deal at the Hotel Monaco -- Vespa rental rolled into the bill for a lovely suite. If the excellent offer hasn't been extended or if you plan to stay with family anyway (hi Mom!), you can go directly to ScootAbout for hourly, daily, and weekly rentals.

I can show you. I can show you.

Screen Actors Guild Awards Presenters get Vespa Treat!

I have heard that Hollywood party bags can be pretty good when attending events, but imagine getting a Vespa! Granted it appears to only be a 3 months loaner.. but still it's sweet, way to go marketing folks at Vespa :)

Presenters at the upcoming Screen Actors Guild Awards will get the chance to speed off on a trendy Vespa motorcycle as part of the backstage gift bag.

Vespa bosses are giving the stars a free three-month lease option on the scooters in the hope that SAG Awards guests will enjoy the ride so much, they'll buy a bike.

Story

Roamin' holiday: the 79 year old scooterist

I always say that scooters are for all ages, but this story definately breaks the mold!

Fifteen months and 1,800 miles ago, Iva Jewel Tucker, a copy editor at The Alabama Baptist, drew laughs from colleagues when she told them she was buying a scooter.

The funny part was, Tucker, now 79, wasn't kidding.

"Iva Jewel is an outgoing person who has always been interested in doing new things," said Johnie Sentell, then associate editor of The Alabama Baptist newspaper. "She is a delight."

Sentell's language skills notwithstanding, his initial reaction was, "Good grief. Surely not."

Friends tried to talk her out of the notion. Some fretted over her safety. Others questioned her sanity. Relatives were appalled, including a cleric who bluntly inquired: What's next? Tattoos?

"I already have one across my chest," Tucker countered. "`Do not resuscitate.'"

Giving new meaning to "Easy Rider," Tucker navigates the streets of greater Birmingham atop a 2003 Honda Metropolitan motorcycle. The seasoned wordsmith foregoes that "unappealing" term in favor of "scooter."

Once she bought it in July 2004, Tucker used a black Sharpie to letter 'Scooter' on the shiny yellow finish of the vehicle she christened Buttercup.

The Forest Park resident traces her fascination with scooter-riding to the 1953 movie "Roman Holiday."

"I admired Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck as they tooled around Rome on a Vespa," Tucker said. "I tucked the scenes away until early 2004."

Go here for the rest!

All The More Reason

'Tis the season to be swallowed up by a giant puddle -- supposedly. San Francisco just celebrated another Big Wet One scooter rally that this time really was a big wet one. My pal in Los Angeles reported a record rainy season for LA but that was December. Recent weather checks reveal relatively mild climes for the times. As testament to the record high temperatures New York has been having, the Vespa that never moves from its parking place down the block was away today. My theory is that my Brooklyn Heights neighbor was away during the transit strike and the holidays -- away in some warm place where one can rent a Vespa, like Bermuda or Costa Rica -- and the very day they got back they hopped on the ol' ET4 for a leisurely January spin.

Yesterday I heard a spot on WNYC featuring an expert horticulturalist taking telephone questions from a few of New York City's innumerable home gardeners. The focus of the show was what to do in the way of plant maintenance during the winter months, whether indoors or out. The point was that, just because it's January, that doesn't mean the flora are dead. Tips were given for soaking up light at the bottom of a light well and mulching for soil that is heavy with alkaline from all the concrete. Nothing was said about gardening in the city being unusual. As I see it, city life cries out for growing things.

People write in asking about scootering in the city. Interestingly, they have not been asking about riding in the rain for quite a while. On the contrary, more people than ever have been saying they are thinking about getting a Vespa very soon, regardless of what time of year it is. I guess the masses are catching on to a proven practice, thanks indeed to a manufacturer which continues to delight but also to all the happy customers who can't shut up about it (it's not just me). The ones still shopping keep asking us, however, about the dangers of contending with downtown traffic, and they keep asking about best methods for beginning from scratch; what the learning curve is. As to just starting out, the new automatics make it a cinch. Furthermore, blogmate Barton has mentioned many times what a boon we have in the Motorcycle Safety Foundation. The courses they offer not only provide a smooth transition from pedestrian to fully licenced scooterist, they are recommended for seasoned riders as well. Speaking of blogmates, our sister site Vespaquest is doing much to enlighten the first-timers especially. As to living in the city, I say all the more reason. [insert famous photo of Gene Kelly on a Vespa here]

Orlando Museum of Art: 120 years of motorcycles

What's the subject of Florida's hottest art exhibition? Manets? Monets? Mummies?

Try motorcycles. A fleet of more than 70 streamlined, sensuous, and seductive motorcycles rolling into the Orlando Museum of Art Jan. 22 through July 23 in an exhibit that explores the motorcycle as both cultural icon and design achievement.

If the exhibition sounds familiar, think back to 1998 when Art of the Motorcycle was one of most popular presentations ever displayed at New York's Guggenheim Museum. The exhibit later set attendance records in Las Vegas and Memphis.

Now, in its exclusive Florida showing, the most expertly designed motorcycles, scooters, and mopeds will challenge conventional assumptions about art and popular culture.

And it'll look darned cool while doing it.

Read the rest here 

I'm Not Dead Yet

(singing) I feel happy...I feel happy...

My brother and I convened in New York City yesterday for holiday cheer. We could not get tickets to Spamalot but we did succeed in entertaining each other with Monty Python references and other such boyish, hallowed, embarassingly silly esoterica.

And now for something completely different,

a man with three scooters... One is the 1977 Vespa Rally I will never sell (it is priceless). I sold the Lambretta Silver Special and the Bajaj Chetak in order to get more Vespas: an LX150 and a GT250 -- I couldn't make up my mind. I do a lot of city dashing and a lot of distance hauling. One or the other would be perfect for a little of both but, like I say, I do a lot of both. It's not like I'm going to go driving around in a car, either. One new car would cost twice as much as two new Vespas together. I'm not even talking about a real luxury car, either, and luxury is what I do get with a Vespa (or three).

We could use the £5,000 to buy a spoon...

Speaking of which, did you catch that CNN scoop last month about the new rules for ice cream? It got me going through the holidays looking for reindeer ice cream. I didn't find any. Not even at eCreamery. I did find this, though, not ice cream, but a chocolate bar from Lake Champlain thanks to Steve Almond in Utne Reader.  The Utne article about how chocolate helps your heart and mind also talks about the serious importance of fair labor policies, and mentions the fact that the dark chocolate is the healthy kind, not the milk chocolate. Well, for me, a bite of a Dagoba Eclipse bar with (got Milk?) a swig of organically farmed cow juice and luxury is what I get every time.

Note: no child labor was used to create the Vespa scooters or the chocolate bars mentioned in this post -- only the post itself (Natty Bumpo helped but we both did it for love and no money).

Shout Out: Vespa Club Los Gatos!

Hello Vespa Club Los Gatos! Scooter rides on the first Sunday of the month. Meet: 10 a.m. in front of Los Gatos Coffee Roasting Co., 101 W Main St., Los Gatos. Leave: 11 a.m. Ride determined at meet. Visit them online.

If you know of other scooter clubs or events around the country, send me an email.

Year End Riding Stats Part 3

Here are some more year end stats to inspire you all for the coming year. Tricia B writes:

Months ridden : 12
Miles ridden : Probably 2000. For the first 4 months I didn't ride often. Practicing and waiting to get into the MSF class. Now my primary mode of transportation. (An ET4 and a Yamaha Riva)   
$ saved on parking alone:  None because I didn't park a car before, but I have probably saved $2000 in cab fare.
Tickets: 2.
Drops : None.
Maintaince : $500 (for 2 scooters both bought used needing new tires etc.)
Price for used ET4 $3100. Price for used Riva $650
Cost per week to fill up $4.00 plus or minus