UrbanNerd.com

Having solved all of our problems, ended the war in Iraq, defeated terrorism, balanced the budget, fixed education, and gotten rid of pork barrel funding… the House gave itself a pay raise of $3,100 bringing their annual salary up to $165,200.

Rep. Jim Matheson of Utah was the only congressman to speak out against the pay raise. Technically this is a “cost of living” raise. Lord knows I don’t know how they lived on ONLY $162,100 as it is.

click here for story to be disgusted

Boy has it been quiet on here, or what? Yeah yeah I know. Anyhoo there are “big things” afoot. Of those big things: I have been chosen to be one of the official bloggers for Vespablogs.com. What does that mean? Well it meansmost of my scooter news postings will be shifted to Vespablogs.com. Specifically there are 2 blogs, one about urban mobility (the one I will be writing for) and one about.. err whatever else there is (the one I won’t be writing for). I will still post about scoot news, but more often than not I will be directing you to Vespablogs for the majority of what I write. Thats the first thing. the second thing is that I will ALSO be working on a new website: urbanscoot.net. So eventually this site will just be my boring personal website with all my personal blathering on it, while much of my scooter news type stuff will be on vespablogs.com and hopefully urbanscoot.net will be developed into a portal for scooter resources within various urban areas of the US.

Of course my accident has really slowed me down, but as of today I have regained the use of my thumb, the pins that were sticking out of it were taken out yesterday. This means that thetwo projects I have listen above will finally get soem attention. Actually it was just luck that the vespablogs didnt start any sooner, otherwise I would have not been very much fun to read. But I have big ideas for urbanscoot.net. Maybe they will go no where, or maybe just maybe they will work. Who knows?

PS: I am walking unaided as well post knee surgery, but I still have some staples that need to be taken out of my left leg. I hope be riding my scooter again withint the month… but then I am the optimistic type.

Frankly when I went in for my knee surgery I was feelin pretty good. I though the surgery would be a breeze and I would bounce right back. Well one new ACL in my left knee later (from a donar cadaver, done on the 17th) I am just now coming out of my drug an pain induced haze. It’s been a tough week, and although I am not 100% yet I am at least not in constant pain/asleep all day due to high doses of pain killers. The staples come out of my leg next week om thursday, and the pins come out of my right hand on monday. Things are sl0oooowly begining to look up.

I do not know if I could have said the following better myself:

Vintage Vespa fanatics spend a lot of time with their scooters–a lot of time fixing them. Not that old scoots are all poorly designed (though technological improvements make it seem that way); often the problem is simply one of age. Like people, a 40-year-old machine is bound to have some technical difficulties.

Now don’t get me wrong, I love all scoots, old and new. But I happen to be a new scoot driver, with over 7000 miles of daily riding in the past 2 years. I cannot imagine having a vintage bike to do this with. This is why I get so irked when a vintage bike fanatic starts bashing twist and go’s. But then these are the same people who don’t want anyone new into their introverted freaky little community. Not that I am bitter, but I am glad my existence irks them. My personal rant aside, enjoy the article on TnG’s.
click here for story

The Lake Erie Loop will be run by motorcycles with engines of 50 to 200cc - power plants more commonly associated with short-trip urban biking or lawn mowing.
So among the challenges for the 20 or so riders who will spend some 15-plus hours in the little saddle will be keeping their mounts from burning out or vibrating to pieces
The Loop would probably be a leisurely cruise for kitchen-size road-hawg-choppers that easily chew up miles and fuel in throaty blaaaaats of exhaust.
But try it on a perky little Vespa scooter, a vintage Allstate once ordered from a Sears catalog, or the feisty old Honda 50 that ran like a two-wheeled leaf-blower.
All guts and little glory. But for a good cause

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Scooters also fall into the Sport category. New for 2006 is a behemoth called the Morphous (left). At 93.3 inches long, this is one scooter that’s going to take up a bit of garage space.
Typical for scooters, the Morphous is driven by a fully automatic V-belt transmission. It’s powered by a 249cc, liquid-cooled, fuel-injected single. That long wheelbase means there’s voluminous storage under the seat and in a trunk behind the seat.
MSRP: $5,199 (available in September)

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Piaggio continues its march back into the US market, this time selecting a firm to support dealer network advertising, marketing and promotions. From the press release:

NEW YORK, June 9 /PRNewswire/ — Piaggio USA, Inc., manufacturers of the world-famous Vespa® Italian motor scooter, announced today that it has selected KraftWorks to lead a targeted advertising program for the Vespa brand in the U.S.
The campaign, supporting Vespa’s fast-growing U.S. dealership network, will include traditional media, and viral marketing promotions. This program will complement the Vespa branding campaign led by Piaggio’s global agency of record, TBWA.

click here for full press release

Just to bring everyone up to date on my injuries post accident, I have surgery on my knee on this Friday the 17th to repair the torn ACL, but because of some intensive physical therapy I am told by my surgeon I will be throwing away the crutches 4 days post surgery. My thumb cast comes off by first week in July. So I should be scooting again very soon!

Check out Scooterweek.com and read all about the events scheduled for this action packed week of scooting in Philadelphia.

All events are held at The Mills at East Falls, 3502 Scotts Lane, in the
East Falls section of Philadelphia. Scooterists who attend at least one event
each of the 4 days are eligible to win a new Vespa LX150 scooter from Vespa
Philadelphia. For further info contact us at info@scooterweek.com

I guess doing it yourself is the only way you would get a stereo into a scooter.

Brian Ducharme has a great piece on integrating a stereo into your scooter so that you can share your passion for ABBA with passersby as you see fit. He includes rather detailed instructions for ripping apart your scooter and installing PCWorks speaker system into whatever nooks and crannies its design will allow. Or, you know—headphones and an iPod. Brian tells us it can be done for less than $100, though, so if you have an electric scooter you use with some frequency, this might be of some interest to you

click here for story with pic