RIP, Reg Dunlop

A sad farewell to hockey player/coach, pool hustler, old-west outlaw, parking-meter scofflaw, philanthropist, motorsports fan and team owner, and scooterist, Paul Newman. On top of all that, he made the best damn pretzel sticks known to mankind, and I’m not being glib. He was a great actor, and a great human being.

With all his superlative accomplishments in film, “Slap Shot” might not have been his most critically acclaimed movie, but what other film is so crass, funny, and ridiculous while being so well-acted, gritty and poignant? Hard times demand comedy, do yourself a favor and watch it soon.

Fisichella named as Vectrix ambassador

Italy’s usually-decent F1 driver Giancarlo Fisichella is having a not-so-great season with Force India, which will give him plenty of time to serve as an “Electric Ambassador” for Vectrix scooters.

More MotoGP photos

More photos from the Indianapolis MotoGP.
Read more

MotoGP photos, and a stolen Blur

Here’s the first batch of photos from the Indianapolis MotoGP race. You might have heard my Blur was stolen from the campground Sunday, please keep an eye out for it. I’ll write more about the races soon.
Read more

Speaking of jumps…

Let me walk you through my run [Thanks to the Hell's Fairies for the video]:

• Ramp: It’s a testament to the Blur’s awesomeness that a 255-lb idiot can jump that high without breaking anything.
• Flag Joust: I knew I’d never pull that off, so I didn’t even try, in the interest of time.
• Beercan Slalom: I practiced this seven hundred times when no one was around and had it down. Under pressure, not so good.
• The Gauntlet: The plan: having screwed up royally, I decided to ignore the boards and ride directly into the crowd, as fast as possible, in the hope of scaring everyone so much they forgot to throw their sponges. The reality: I was closer to them, so they were able to hit me head-on, with more force.
• Follow-up: So it turns out the Blur has a lot of sponge-friendly nooks and crannies, so I was able to loop around and throw all the sponges back at everybody. Later, I took the Eisenhower expressway home and flipped my visor down at 65mph and it was so spotted up with soap spots that I couldn’t see. That was fun.

BTW, Jordan and Rawc are more or less OK, thankfully. Aside from that, it was a great rally, more photos and commentary soon. Thanks, everyone.

1/32 mile in Taiwan

How fast can your scooter cover 165 feet? Here’s a showdown in Taiwan. In the comments, Brooke will identify every scooter shown, in order. BTW, I’ll take Amanda, Kim, and Jen in costume at a MASS race over those line-dancing skanks anyday. [Via "sambrgr" on Modern Buddy]

Righteous Rotenburg Rally

This is the kind of race/rally weekend I can get behind: a DSSC meet in Rotenburg, Germany. Ryan, who sent the video, points out that all scooter rally raffles should be immediately replaced with “throwing shit.” Oh, and DEBASER. (Keep an eye out for some exciting sorta-Pixies/2strokebuzz related news coming Monday.)

Race a Blur!

The PGO G-Max game. I can’t figure out the controls, and it doesn’t work in my Safari browser, but if you can figure it out, you can live the 2sb life and feel the excitement of riding the PGO G-Max aka Genuine Blur.

Yamaha Capitalizes On Racing Efforts With Scooters

As in years past, Yamaha is the official supplier of scooters to the MotoGP paddock.  The scooter that will be transporting MotoGP staff and VIPs around the pits is the Yamaha Jog RR MotoGP edition. The Fiat Yamaha Racing team also has made the Yamaha Giggle, known in the US as the C3 and in Japan as the Vox, as their official team scooter.  Not to waste an opportunity for branding, Valentino Rossi has a Yamaha Aerox replica for the ultimate fan to show off who he or she pulls for on race day.  Not to be outdone, MotoGP rookie sensation Jorge Lorenzo has a Jog RR race replica of his own.  The only thing that outnumbers the Yamaha MotoGP-scooter tie-ins in this post is the number of hyperlinks I’ve inserted.

Genuine mythbusting

Genuine Blur 150 and Buddy 125 owners have had a healthy argument going on since both models were introduced: Which is quicker?. Nathaniel over at Modern Buddy did some tests and confirmed they’re pretty much even in the 100m dash. There’s still debate over which is faster, I’d argue that despite the displacement difference, they have a very similar top speed, but the Blur handles and brakes much better, with this video (the part after the G-Max commercial) as my evidence. Now for the next question, how much faster/better is the new Buddy 150?

Another (positive) Honda-inspired rant

Bob sent this great Honda ad from 1967. The ad’s a perfect illustration of everything Honda got right back then, and explains how they came to dominate the U.S. motorcycle industry at that time. There are a lot of ideas here for aspiring foreign scooter and motorcycle importers (in no particular order):
Read more

Stoner replica Malaguti

Malaguti (back from the dead in Europe) has unveiled their newest Ducati race replica Phantom F12R, featuring Casey Stoner’s #27.

The NASCAR Elite

2SB reader Jon Madorsky of Chicago was in Florida for the 2008 Daytona 500 last Saturday and sent these cool photos of police patrolling the track perimeter on white Honda Elites. Thanks, Jon!
Read more

“Andretti” scooters

The latest in scooter badge engineering: PSF’s Andretti Scooters.

Yes, that Andretti.Purchase Point Media Corporation, who recently bought Power Sports Factory, (who sells Chinese-made “Yamati” and “Strada” scooters) has licensed auto-racing legend Mario Andretti’s name for a line of scooters. Read more

Las Vegas 2008

The new Las Vegas High Rollers Rally info has been posted for 2008, including pre-registration and merchandise from Modified. There’s a new twist this year: a series of competitions including racing, bowling, poker karaoke, and the usual scooter judging and gymkhana-type stuff. The club that racks up the most points will take home $1000, which will only offset 1/100th of their travel expenses, but I imagine the gloating will be unbearable. You could call it a “Scooter Olympics,” I suppose, but if you did the tightwad jags at the IOC would come after you like a greek drycleaner. It’s safe to say that the usual dancing, riding, drinking, gambling, and respiratory infections will remain intact alongside the competition.

Next Page »