Wednesday, April 26, 2006

Scootin' around high gas prices

I know I shouldn't. I know I should be more dignified and understanding of other people's pain. I know all of this, but I still can't help feeling more than a little smug when I pull up to the pump with Vinnie.

Take this morning for example, despite the needle persistently pointing to "E" for the past couple of days, I had put off getting gas. Since I had been pushing my luck for two days, I figured I better pull into the station. So I hang a louie into the gas station.

Beside me there is a guy with a big SUV. He has this look that I imagine as being somewhere between horror and resignation. I lifted the seat, insert the credit card and in less than two minutes and about $5, I'm ready to hit the road. As I get back on the bike, I glance over my shoulder and notice the SUV guy watching me rather than the dollars going into his tank. Still, I know I shouldn't (karma will get me), but I can't help feeling a little smug as I pull out of the station.

There is no doubt that soaring gas prices are sparking more interest in all things two wheels, especially scooters and mopeds.

Four years later, Mr. Biek is still hooked. "Once you ride one, you have to have one," he says. "It's consumed my entire life, and I have no real explanation for it."

The moped and its bigger, flashier cousin, the scooter, are swarming out of Jimmy Carter's America and into George W. Bush's republic - a movement propelled by soaring gasoline prices surpassing those of the late 1970s and by legions of Americans who take seriously the call for oil independence. If the serious intent is mixed with a little fun from "moped gangs" who call themselves the Heck's Angels [The Angry Bees] or the Hardly Davidsons, so much the merrier.

Ok, so maybe the original quote from the Christian Science Monitor didn't mention The Angry Bees, still the story about how high gas prices 'propel moped madness is an interesting read.

All smugness aside, saving money while reducing pollution and congestion are great things that factored into our decision to shift from cars to scooters as our primary transportation. The most compelling reason is feeling you get when zipping around town or down a country road.

If you have a scooter, moped or motorcycle do you feel a bit smug when pulling away from the gas station? If you don't have a bike, does the rising price of gas push you closer to getting one? Tell us about your experience by clicking the comments link below.

Monday, April 24, 2006

The Vesparados




A funny scooter cartoon from the New Yorker (of all places). Click the link in the punchline below to see it. “The Vesparados” (Mexican outlaws riding motor scooters through the desert.).

Thursday, April 20, 2006

Just do as you're told

Hot on the heals of our post about the GPS on a Vespa installation, comes a story that is, well, frankly hard to believe.

In the most recent case, drivers passing through the village of Luckington have found themselves landing in the River Avon, by following a GPS-recommended route that pointed to a bridge that has been closed for a week. Despite warning signs on both sides of the road, and nothing but water straight ahead, local villagers have found themselves pulling an average of two cars a day out of the river for the past week. "When you ask what happened, they say, ‘My sat-nav told me it was this way,'" one resident told The Times.


It seems drivers (car drivers) in merry 'ole England are putting more trust in their onboard GPS than what they see out the windshield. Take a look at this engadget.com article.

Lest you think that this is only a problem in one area, be sure to read about the same issue in the village of...wait for it... Crackpot. A local truck driver in Crackpot says:
"It's only a matter of time before something happens - and it's a 100ft drop over the edge."


It should come as no surprise that only those driving 4 wheels are affected by this insanity.

Links:
From the BBC about the problem in Crackpot (still giggling about the irony.)
From the London Times Online about the Luckington situation.


David

Monday, April 17, 2006

Don't stop for directions

Looking around the web you will see a fair number of discussions and pictures about attaching a GPS to your Vespa (and occasionally other scooter). Most people have done it to check the accuracy of the speedo. With many of these the installations range from those that make use of copious amounts of duct tape to nicer versions with only a little duct tape.

Here is a really cool custom installation of a Magellan RoadMate 760 on a spanking new fire-engine red 150cc Vespa. I am not sure if the RoadMate comes naturally in that color but the color match is great. - Navigadget.com
Then I ran across this nifty install while browsing a gadget site. I'd love to have a similar install on Vinny. I'm not sure how useful it would be but it sure looks cool.

David

Mile high BBQ - a bit closer to heaven

On my last day in Denver, I had a couple of hours to kill, so I took at "stroll" to Erico Motor Sports, which is Denver's Vespa dealer.

Stroll isn't a word I use for a nearly 3-mile (rt) hike, but it was sunny so off I went. Erico is down an industrial road on the outskirts of downtown Denver and after passing a couple of art galleries and wholesale meat places, I found myself surrounded by Vespas (and Ducatis, at al). The dealership was nice and the people knowledgeable and helpful. I browsed around a bit looking for a present for my wife. We chatted a bit and I came away with a black messenger bag with half a dozen patches on it and a friendly reminder to give them a call should I want anything I can't find locally. Before leaving, they also reminded me that they rent scooters and it makes an easy way to see the town or to join a local club for a ride. Sounds like a good plan to me.

On my way back to the hotel, I passed a this hole-in-the-wall BBQ (see picture) place called Yazoo that had a line wrapped around inside and out the door. I'm always on the looking for good BBQ and if the line is any indication, I was in for a treat. When you finally make it up to the counter you have a dizzying array of choices, but when push came to shove, I went with the old standby, a half rack of pork ribs. I was a good choice and as I was sitting there chomping on the ribs, I couldn't help feeling that being in the Mile High city that I was a little closer to heaven.

David

Monday, April 10, 2006

Denver is very scooter friendly- updated

<--- poor quality phone pic of free scooter parking in downtown Denver. I'm in Denver this week to present at a computer security conference. I had some expectations about scooters and Denver. After all, I had read the articles about Denver's Vespa riding mayor. I had heard some rumors about easy parking and other scooter niceties.

Despite having read about it, I was still surprised when I walked out onto the street and saw scooters everywhere. Downtown there are plenty of the U-shaped bike locking thingies (you can see them next to the scoots in the pic). Scooters are parked at several of these per block. It was so refreshing to look down the street and see people actually giving up their cars, riding their scooters and getting good support from the city. Denver is definitely a leader here.

[UPDATED - It seems that sidewalk parking is limited to scooters 50cc and below, although it seems that this is enforced unevenly. I suspect that if you have a smaller bike it shouldn't be a problem. For example the Vespa LX 50 and LX 150 are the same size. I'd be very surprised to learn that police are looking making a distinction between the two models.]

Contrast this with the current situation in Seattle (which has lead the nation in other ways). To legally park your scooter in Seattle, you must park on the street, go to one of the new pay parking machines, put the sticker on your scoot and hope no one steals it (the sticker).

Like Denver, in most cases there is plenty of sidewalk space to park bikes and scoots without getting in the way. This is true downtown as well in an most neighborhoods. Anyone who lives in Seattle knows how hard it is to find parking in places like Ballard and Queen Anne. You can watch the cars go round, and round and round as they try to find a parking space.

I'll write more about Seattle and some of the things they are doing to try to reduce city car miles and how they might be able to make some small changes to make a big difference by making it a more scooter friendly city.

But now, I would like to hear from you. Do you know of other scooter friendly cities? Leave a comment or drop me an email.

David

Friday, April 07, 2006

How much do scooters pollute?


Studies have shown that some motorcycles spew large amounts of air pollution ( a swiss study pegged the number at 16x hydrocarbons). While there are a number of questions about this study, I've been wondering about how well "modern" scooters fare.

Recently Paolo Timoni, President and CEO of Piaggo USA (Piaggo owns brands such as Vespa, Aprilia and others) published an open letter to US mayors. The letter was published as a full paged ad in the New York times.

Does anyone have any information about scooter pollution?


Thursday, April 06, 2006

Vespa 4, Dogs 0

Steve over at Scooter in the Sticks posts an interesting article about his experience out smarting and out running a seemingly endless supply of dogs.

I've had to use this technique a few times and it works like a charm.

From Scooter in the Sticks:
"As I rounded a curve I caught a flash in the corner of my eye and looked to see a brown dog racing towards me on a collision course. After the initial primal dog attack reaction my training took over and I twisted the throttle just a bit up to about 30MPH as the dog closed on my I rolled off the throttle to throw off his intercept timing for a moment. As he hit the brakes to adjust I rolled on the throttle and sped right by him. He was a barking running beast growing smaller in my rear view mirror. Vespa 1, Dog 0."

Read the whole post: http://vespalx150.blogspot.com/

David

Wednesday, April 05, 2006

Welcome to The Angry Bees Blog


Let me welcome you to The Angry Bees blog. My wife Nancy and I got our first scooter (a new Vespa LX150, pictured on the left) a little over seven months ago. We spent a long time looking for the right scooter and visited most every scooter store in the Seattle area (more about our search in an upcoming post).

Ultimately, we chose a purple, aka Daring Plum in Vespaspeak, that was promptly named Vinny. Working at the University of Washington, I could hardly have chosen anything other than purple. When I added my yellow armored jacket, it was the closest I could come to the Husky’s purple and gold. but I digress.

The original plan called for Nancy and I to share the scooter. I would ride it some days, and she would ride it others. That plan lasted exactly two weeks, when it was back down to Seattle Vespa to purchase Guido, a baby blue LX 150 for my wife.

We had both taken the written motorcycle test at the DMV, we both had our learner permits and were free to scoot around the neighborhood.

Safety is a very important aspect to scooting. Having the proper equipment and training and is a must. Before taking the scoots out, we made our way to Seattle Cycle to stock up on helmets, gloves and armored jackets. I started with a full face helmet, but Nancy felt claustrophobic and chose an open face. I’ll let her post on her experience and why she switched to a full face, but let’s just say winter is a bit chilly in an open face design. Nancy also has a story about the importance of the right gear.

While on the subject of safety, we highly recommend and encourage everyone to take one of the Motorcycle Safety Foundation’s classes. In Washington State there are many subsidized classes that run for $100 per class. I took the experienced rider class from Motorcycle Safety Company (http://www.motorcyclesafetycompany.com/) while Nancy took the beginner class from Evergreen Safety (www.esc.org). Nancy’s class was dedicated to scooters (they were supplied), while mine was a byob (bring you own bike). We’ll each post our experiences, but we both learned a lot and highly recommend them to anyone who is riding a scooter.

That’s it for now. If you leave in the Northwest and are interested in scooters, we welcome you to learn more about The Angry Bees SC.

If you aren’t in the area, but would like to join, guest post or just read along, welcome.

Feel free to drop me a line at david@theangrybees.com.

David