.| UrbanNerd |.

While riding last night with Adam, Kaj and a friend of Adam’s who’s name eludes me at the moment, I hit a patch of gravel on a turn and down went my Vespa ET4 with me on it. Amazingly enough, aside from being a bit sore here or there, I have almost no scartches at all, I stayed tucked in and on the bike as it went down. I twisted my left ankle, and my right ankle didt touch the pavement, which gave me a nice bruise and makes walking around a tad difficult. The other amazing thing is that those crash bars on the ET4′s really do work! I would have been in for a whole lot of body work if it wasn’t for them. Instead there is not a scratch on the body of my bike, the bars took all the damage! The only damage the bike did take was whacking the alignment pf the handlebars out of whack. Luckily we were by ScootersO as we had just concluded a visit there. Mike at ScootersO was awesome, he popoed the top off my bike, straightned out teh handle bars and made sure everything was A-OK in like 15 minutes! So a big thanks to ScootersO as well as Kaj and Adam for the moral support!. Here is a clickable pic of the bike so you can see why you should get crash bars, and why gravel is evil.

(AGI) – Rome, Apr. 19 – Atos Origin, a leading company in the Information Technology sector, has been chosen by motorcycle and moped manufacturer Piaggio as its partner in a five-year-long outsourcing agreement. This partnership, based on Atos Origin’s “design, build & operate” consolidated approach, comes at a time of important and rapid changes for Piaggio and is aimed at jointly identifying a series of innovative and reliable solutions maintaining, at the same time, high levels of efficiency and competitiveness.
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Okay this is rather excessive, I mean scooters already get insanely good gas milage, but some guy decided to make a scooter solar driven. Interesting you say? Not really. The guy basically attached a pair of solar wings to the bike, pretty much making it undrivable, just to get his bike powered by the sun. of course the guy is a green fanatic, so it is more important for everything in his life to fit into his fanatics than to be functional.
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I just love coming across stuff about scooters in new articles not directly about scooting. This particular article is about the new movie the Interpreter and some behind the scenes looks comparing it to the real life of the UN for interpreters. There is a scene in the movie involving Nicole Kidman riding to work on a scooter. When asked about this, the interpreter who works at the UN said she was puzzled that Kidman‘s character drove to work on a scooter. “No one comes to work on a Vespa in New York,” she said. “When I asked, I was told ‘It‘s fiction!”‘ Fiction? Hello, my name is Neil and I drive to work every day on my Vespa, thank you. Fictional myth dispelled.
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I came across this posting by Jonathan P. on the newyorkscooters yahoo list. A bunch of pictures of the Jpanaese fusion scooter. Lots of neon lights and modificatiosn galore. Enjoy the pics.
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So I came across an article about a shootout in Ohio: Authorities said the gunmen drove cars, trucks, a quadrunner and a scooter as they shot at each other. Investigators said the men wore bulletproof vests and left shell casings everywhere. So… obviously the guy MUST have been on a twist and go, because there is no way he could have been firing while on a two stoke. Has anyone out there ever practiced their firearms while on a scooter?
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This is an article at http://www.rubbermag.com/ about the new Piaggio Beverly 2005, complete with pictures of “babes” lounging all over the bikes. To quote:
Stylish and powerful, the Piaggio Beverly sets new standards for medium and large displacement scooters. Its high-wheel concept offers pioneering technical and ride features. The Beverly, available in 125, 250 and 500cc versions, comes close to the concept of an automatic motorcycle. It combines high wheels and a motorcycle-style ride set-up with the comfort and practicality of a scooter to ensure a safe, precise ride. Four years after it was first launched, the 2005 Beverly range gets a complete style and technical makeover to strengthen its market leadership, proved by exceptionally high sales of over 130,000 units.
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A new 38 story 278 unit condo project is being built in Las Vegas. “So what?” you say, well here is so what: Under the list of amenities: Designated scooter & moped parking. Admittedly, the building is supposed to be catering to LasVegas’s emerging Arts district, but still, I would like to think this is a trend that may continue in other urban areas as well. The link below is just to the press release by the developer.
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I would think that this would be a very bad idea, as most people who drive scooters & other 2 wheeled vehicles are basically alleviating traffic and consuming less gas. But someone in India came up with a two wheel tax. And now, officials there are wondering why 40% of two wheelers haven’t paid it, to quote: To our astonishment, we found out that a huge chunk of two-wheeler owners were not paying taxes . Very astonishing indeed.
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This story is about the Mayor of Denver, John Hickenlooper, who was recently picked as one of America’s top mayors. About midway in the story is this bit about him: It also cited his continued high approval ratings among voters both in the city and in the surrounding metro area. All this despite being “geeky and lanky,” sporting a “boyish haircut” and riding around town on an Aprilia motor scooter. I wonder what this has done for the scooter scene in Denver?
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