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SHOWNOTES: I spoke with Steve Williams again this week. It sounds like the weather is turning cold up in Pennsylvania. I don't know what the weather has been like in your area. but up until the past few days it has been great riding weather here in Virginia, but then again, the fall is almost always nice here, with warm days and mild nights. It go me thinking about what it might be like in other parts of the northern untied States and Canada, so I decided to call our blogging friend Steve Williams. You may remember him from a number of months ago when we talked on this show about his blog, Scooter in the Sticks. Steve lives in western Pennsylvania a part of the USA that has beautiful rolling hills, rural expanses and a host of scooter fanatics. Listen to the podcast to find out more about his winter riding tips. I have been working in Facebook, in an effort to become more social and make connections with other scooterist around the world. If you coming here from there or are new to the podcast and don't have itunes, click here for a wikipedia link that shows you where to find a feed reader so you can use to automatically download the podcast. Or click on one of the feed reader links over to the right of the webpage. Scooter blog posts Continuing with the theme...why don't we have more choice of scooter here in America, the modvespa website has posted an article about the new Piaggio fly and zip. If you have never seen these, they are staples of scooter commuting in Italy and would be nice additions to the lineup here in the USA. Piaggio USA says we will get the Fly 50 and 150, but you'll have to go somewhere else for the rest of the lineup. Take a look at the full article over at ModVespa.com As usual 2strokebuzz is on top of the business end of scooting, reporting that Piaggio is planning to expand it's dealer network. Now at first glance this may seem like a good idea for consumers, i.e. more competition, but it has allot of people upset and saying that Piaggio is going to dilute the market. Go over to 2strokebuzz to catch the link to read more about how this could affect dealer inventory, parts supply, and service. Bryan has also posted a note about the administrator of the international scooter bbs. His own post notes that he was to have cancer surgery, this past week. The site is the holy grail of scooter information and we wish him all the best in his recovery. You can find the link to the bbs site at 2strokebuzz. Last, it is only right to suggest you go over to Steve William's blog Scooter in the Sticks. He has a very poignant post about his friend Paul along with a few of his thought about Paul's amazing eclectic taste.

SHOWNOTES: This weekend I have spent most of my time at the East Coast Modern Vespa Workshop here in Richmond. I have made a few new scooter friends and developed a whole new perspective on the modern Vespa scooters. Have you ever heard of Curt, Lucky, Greasy or Vickie? Maybe not, but you probably have heard about the Modern Vespa Website, especially if you own one of the new Vespasian. I have been an occasional lurker on the site for the past few months, but have to admit that being a classic Vespa owner; I had a hard time finding many posts that I was interested in. I have to admit, that I was probably a bit of a classic Vespa snob, thinking that the fondness for these new bikes must be a reflection on the neophytes who rode these scoots. Before all you Modern Vespa Riders send me emails and leave me x-rated phone messages let me say that I am here to ask you for forgiveness. I am even willing to share a little secret, that I have been bitten by the Modern Vespa bug. Just to illustrate, I even started wondering what I could get for one of my classics, as a way to jump start my way towards a Modern Vespa, OH MY GOD! That is blasphemy! The East Coast version of the San Francisco Modern Vespa Workshop was held at Scoot Richmond this weekend and I decided a few weeks ago, that maybe I needed to get a little more education. Like any group meeting, it started off awkwardly enough with hand shakes and name tags, but then I heard something that always takes me by surprise, hey are you Dave from the SCTRCST Podcast? I don't know why, but despite all the emails, voice mails, website stats and download reports, I have a hard time anyone is really out there listening to me prattle on about my musings. But I have learned over many years to override saying what I first think, which in this case was "you listen, why?" and instead I said "thank you" and come to find out it was Shawn, the fellow who's voice mail I played last week in anticipation of workshop. It just got better from there as I watched a group of scooter enthusiast from all over the east coast and the south reveled in their common love for their bikes and the excitement that they had been sharing on the Modern Vespa website forum. Modern Vespa owners from all over the east and south came to Richmond. This included members from Pennsylvania, New York, Washington DC, North and South Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee and even New Orleans. So what am I saying about all this? First, a big thanks to all the Modern Vespa members. They even let me ride by P200 on the Saturday city ride. But really, thank you for including an outsider like myself and be proud that you really have a great Vespa community going there. As frequent listeners know, I am always amazed by how scooters bring all kinds of people together and even in my case, you may have gained another believer, especially now that I understand that I don't have to give up my old ways to be a part of the new scooter scene.

Shownotes What a week. I have been back and forth across Virginia, Up late, helping Marcel pack the car to leave for Denver and Sunday I hopped out of bed at 4 in the morning to catch an early flight to Colorado to meet Marcel and get our town home setup so she can work either from Denver or Richmond. This may all sound like a strange way to live but our lives and our work have been this way for quite a few years now. We have found ourselves reflecting on what an unconventional life we have had, living in Colorado Texas Virginia and Ohio. If not for this strange lifestyle I probably would have never started into scooting, which I picked up as a convenient transport when we were in San Antonio and we would never have had the opportunity to travel and meet so many of our relatives in Italy. On this show I would like to invite you to travel with me to southeast Asia and listen to another scooter enthusiast from around the world. This past week I had the privileged to speak to Bimbo Isidro of Manila. You may not know him by name, but you probably have heard for his website Vespinoy. We spent some time talking last week about scootering in his area his other websites and how he is helping to bring together the scooter community in that part of the world.

SHOWNOTES: If you have been following the shows you know that Marcel has moved back to Richmond from Cincinnati. My first crisis is figuring out how to make from for her Mini Cooper in the garage. Of course I still need to be able to get to my scooters, so I have decided to mothball one of the cars in the back of the garage and keep all the scoot paraphernalia out front. We have a couple of scooter events coming up in Richmond, one of them being the fall ride sponsored by Seven Hills Scooter club, so I dont want to start putting things away for the winter yet. Scoot Richmond is also sponsoring a mechanics workshop in November, so there is allot to look forward to in the next few months. Thanks to Jeff Cutler of the Bowl of Cheese Podcast for the voice mail and question about buying your first scooter. I am embarrassed to say that my first scooter was a rather impulsive buy, which probably breaks the first rule of buying anything. So heres the one truth about buying a scooter, everyone you talk to has an opinion. What is most important is figuring out what is right for you. Start right out by visiting the scooter groups to get more information about riding and scooters. There are plenty on Yahoo groups. One of the best ways to start is to get to know your Local scooter shop. A good scooter shop will be able to really lead you into the right direction. Some one who’s going to understand your needs is the key. If you’re looking to purchase a specific brand and there is no shop in your area to service the machine consider whether you want to go 100 miles for every service. Stay away from flea markets, cell phone shops, and auto parts stores. This may all seem like allot, but keep in mind that most everyone you see on a scooter seems to have a smile behind that face shield. This should tell you something. It is worth it.

SHOWNOTES: We have been making plans for Marcel starting her new consulting job. this has meant getting ready to move everything back from Cincinnati to Richmond and figuring out how to cram two homes into one. For all of you geekaholics out there, I have gone from running everything through my old keyboard preamp to a Mackie Onyx firewire setup. Hopefully it will mean cleaner sound. Drop me a note and let me know if you think it makes a difference. We are both looking forward to this new adventure in her work, especially getting the opportunity to be in Denver more. I think Cincinnati has been a good layover for her, on her career track. Like one of my friends said, it's good to know what your good at, but better to know what your not good at. It has made me think more about how it feels to be "on your game". I think you know what I mean...that feeling that you know what you are doing, that the timing is right and you are doing something that really makes a difference. Occasionally, like this week I find a new blog called skutegruven. His post is about wandering around on his scooter and being taken back in time, then coming to understand that we each, in our own way are looking for that feeling of family. It's a long post, but well worth reading. I've continued to get email saying, talk about Maxi scooters. First you need to understand is what little I do know is about classic scooters. I am starting to understand that Maxi scooters are of great interest to allot of people and I need to learn about them before interviewing someone else. I'll admit it, there is a personal agenda here, I don't want to sound like a complete idiot on my own show. So this week I started my research by going down to the local Honda dealer and asking to see the scooters they had in stock.

Show notes: It’s been another busy week, along with my regular job and all the meetings I go to, I have been spend most of my time at home setting up a myspace page. After a number of inquiries about "do you have a myspace page?" I caved and sat down to do some work on it. Look for it here. I guess I had this idea that myspace was about all these single (or maybe married acting single) people trying to hit on each other. But now I understand. In the few short days that my page has been up, I have gotten dozens of contacts from people asking about the show and maybe more important to me, I have had the biggest week of downloads ever. As a podcasters, I guess like a musician, you want others to hear what you produce, so like Orin said to me, this could really expand the audience who listens to SCTRCST. Marcel and I continue to plan her move from Cincinnati back to Richmond, Virginia. She is going to make this her home base for a new consulting company she will be working with. Since the company is based in Denver, it means her and hopefully I, will be getting back there more often.Having lived there for many years we still have many friends there and of course there is always Sportique Scooters, the place I were I would go when I got an itch for a new scooter in my early scooter days of scooting. It is also the home of some scooter legends like, Colin Shadduck who wrote Scooters Red Eyes, Whitewalls & Blue Smoke Scooters Lawrence who I met at Amerivespa, emailed me to reminded me that the big Texas rally called Third Coast Rally in San Antonio is coming up October 5-7. Check out the rally site here. Also look at myspace page for the Scooter Club in Lawrence's Brownsville Texas area. It is call the Scooter Club Golden Triangle.

SHOWNOTES: This show is chock full of information and news. I was fortunate to spend time yesterday speaking with Dave Dixon, in Vancouver, British Columbia about his blog Big Guy Small Scooter (he rides a Vespa LX50). In an email Errol from Toronto sent a link to the latest update on Hayden Neale of Jacksoul. After his scooter crash he is still in critical condition, but starting to respond to doctors and treatment, which sounds like good news. Most of this show is the interview I did yesterday with Dave Dixon from Big Guy Small Scooter another talented blogger.

SHOWNOTES: Call the voice mail line at 206-888-6174 and tell me what you think of the show or let me know what kind of scooting activities are going on in your area. I have been looking to try to find out how Canadian Hayden Neale from Jacksoul is doing, but there hasn't been much in the news about him and his website has not been updated. Anybody out there heard anything? Give me a call. It has seemed that many of the scooter bloggers are slowing down a bit on posting. For me it means searching for more supplemental material and wondering each week what I will be talking about. So this morning, as a jump-start, I took off on my P200 sidecar rig for a ride into the country and some good old fashion open throttle riding. What that really means is pounding out 50 mph on a long downhill stretch. I realized that I haven't said much lately about what is going on here at home, so in addition to this weeks news and blog reviews, we'll do a little catching up. Other scooter blog post that are up have very personal touches, like Honky Tonk Dragon and Ben's plans to move from Oregon to Connecticut, with no job. How "in the moment" is that! Look at the following posts from and his starting over with his family or Little Billys Scooter Tales where Bill talks about his new responsibilities for helping guide their employee run business. An then there is the ever evolving and surprisingly transparent Combat Commuter, who bravely has opened up about his family and talking about what is important to him. These are people living and experiencing life as it is today and what pushes people to be better than we are or better that we were. Marcel, my wife has been out west in Montana that past few days. Some of you may remember that she has been working in the land of ScooterDave in Cincinnati for the past few years and commuting back and forth on the weekend from here in Richmond Virginia. I think this trip has been a soul search for both of us, trying to regroup and get back to creating more of a life together. I must say that over the time we have been together, which is many years, she also has been much more the risk taker when it comes to employment, than I have ever been. But she has also helped me understand that with risk taking come the potential for great rewards and that is what I am talking about. So best of luck to Ben and Bill and the Combat Commuter and oh, yeah I guess I should say good luck to Marcel and me as it looks like she is coming home and we are embarking on a new adventure with each other and with her work.

SHOWNOTES: Just a quick reminder, I now have a voice mail number you can call from your phone 206-888-6174. It is listed at the top of the web page and should scroll in the podcast title for those of you using an ipod. The POR-15 product for reconditioning my 180ss tank came this week. Take my suggestion and just order it from the company website, it was here in three days. If you are planning this project, make sure you have time to complete the whole thing, that way there is less likelihood of any flash rusting, before you can get the tank coated. Just so you know, you will not find that everyone agrees with coating a tank. I think this comes from using inferior product and having the tank lining deteriorate over time. There is an interesting blog post over on Modvespa.com taking about the restoration of an NSU scooter. NSU is from Germany and this on has been on the scoot.net website before. It is a 1956 Prima D and I'll have links to both the ModVespa blog post and the original post at scoot.net. This is the kind of European scooter you don't see over in the US very often. Vespa has started pushing hard on their “Go Green? campaign The have put up another flashy website encouraging us all to make videos praising the Vespa as a tree hugger's dream. At the moment there are only a few short clips, but given that they are offering to give away a couple of scooters for the best ones, I'm sure they will start flooding in. There will be a link in the show notes to the Go Green Vespa Video Challenge.

Enjoy the music I have been playing on the first twenty-five podcasts without me talking over the great tunes. Here are some of my favorites from the Podsafe Music Network.

SHOWNOTES: There have been some website hiccups this week, this time not my fault. Libsyn hosting went down for several days last week and took with them all the mp3 files. Looks like all is OK today. Crystal Water's ride to Vermont. Was cut short last week about 150 mile past Scranton. The story is in the Times Argus newspaper from Montpelier, Vermont. Her boyfriend Dwayne McCullough drove from Maryland the other to pick her and her Vespa scooter up and get her to Randolph for the ride yesterday. I gave up on the website I ordered the POR-15 products for reconditioning my 180ss tank and went to the POR-15 website and reordered this past week. Every time I walk out to the garage I am reminded of the last tank I did, spilled a little coating on the floor and it's never coming off.

SHOWNOTES: New voice mail number you can call from your phone 206-888-6174. Scoot Richmond had it's grand reopening this weekend including a Friday night scoot-in movie Empire Records. and a Saturday open house. I took the opportunity to speak again with Chelsea and Dave Munn and found out that they are expanding and moving in the direction of becoming a full service scooter shop along with continuing their web-based mail order business. Follow up to last week's note about Hayden Neale from Jacksoul. Seems that everyone has been quiet about his condition, but the Toronto Star reports that he is in a coma, is in critical, but stable condition and has not regained consciousness. Our thoughts go out to he and his family, hoping that he will be fine. Two stroke buzz reminds us that the Chicago based Slaughterhouse 13 Rally is in just two weeks. The rally website has been updated and you can find all the details over at www.slaughterhousechicago.com Labor day weekend Aug 30-Sept 2, dinner, clubs, dancing, cruising, a gymkhana and of course a pig roast. Get there if you can, it should be a fantastic way to end the summer.

SHOWNOTES: Scoot News, Here is the link to Haydain Neale article about his accident. Here is a link to Jacksoul's website and music. Crystal Water continues to plan for her Vermont ride, leaves August 25. Visit her website and throw some support her way. Positano Italy is a paridise, but expensive. Check here for news on making it more affordable and renting scooters to get around the Amalfi Coast. 2007 Scooter Rallys Videos Amerivespa 2007, Waiting for the Vashon Ferry Animals fae Naboombu Scooter Club, Rothesay Rally 2007 Australia National Scooter Rally 2007 Mt Gambier Chester Scooter Club Durham, Heifer Pub and Club Rally 2007 Detroit, Windsor and Cleveland Rovers Scooter Club, Motor City Shakedown in 3-D 2007 Diner City Scooter Club, Summer Scoot 2007 Hostile City Scooter Club, Lucky Number 7 Rally, Independence Day 2007 (ID7) Isle Of Man, Scooter Rally 2007 Lambretta Scooter Club of Scotland National Scooter Rally, Scotland 2007. Lambretta Scooter Club of Milan, Rally from Milan to Barcelona Las Vegas High Rollers 2007 Pioneer Saloon Ride and Hill Climb. Las Vegas Scooter Rally 2007, Vespas at the Gold Coast Lincoln Knights Scooter club, Ride in to the Charity Rideout New Forest Scooter Club, Rally 2007 New Forest Scooter Club, The 9th Camber Rally. New York Scooter Club, Hendon's Upper Westchester Scooter Ride New York Scooter Club, Scooter BlockParty NYC 2007 New York Scooter Club, The Scooter BlockParty/Death To Gotham/Lammy Jammy 3 New York Scooter Club, Wednesday Night Ride New Zealand, Nelson Scooter Rally 2007 Paradise Lost Scooter Club, Scooter Run to Hillary's Rotemate Scooter Club, Scooter Rally in Bergamo Italy Scooter Club of Madrid, Salida de la Scooter Run La Alcarria 2007 Scooter Club of Madrid, Segundo vídeo del Scooter Rally Madrid 2007 Scooter Club of the Golden Triangle, Crazy House Ride 2007 Scottish National Scooter Rally, Kelso 2007 Simply Scooter Club, Mods Mayday Singapore 07 Sydney City Scooter Club, Jamberoo 07 The Pals Scooter Club, Rideout April 2007 The San Diego Pharaohs Scooter Cult, King Tut Putt 2007 Treakle Town Scooter Club, Bourton on the Water Rideout Treakle Town Scooter Club, St Georges Day Charity Ride-out Treviso Scooter Club, Escape of the Group Ride, Slovenia Twisted Wheel Moto Scooter Club, TMSC Scooter Rally 2007 Vespa Club of Los Gatos, Vintage Ride from Los Gatos, to Rio del Mar Vespaclub Flachgau, Scooter Rally 2007 WestSide Scooter Club, Beach Invasion II Wrexham Scooter Club, Rideout 2007 York Inset Scooter Club, Mods Scooter Run, Scarbrough 2007 Yorkshire Scooter Alliance, Lepton Scooter Invasion 2007

SHOWNOTES: Welcome back to all of you who are subscribers or who are returning. If this is your first visit thanks for joining us. I have been spending a lot of time this past week working on updating the website with a new design and a few new features. I have gotten some feedback that it would be better if I could make it easier to listen to the Podcast on the website. What is interesting is that many of you listen to the show right on your computer. So there are many more choices now, I hope it makes it easier. Another enhancement is the site now also supports embedding video clips and full size pictures right into my log posts. With learning how to do all this and all the website editing I have been doing I have decided that this means I am not yet brain dead and can still some new tricks. All my scooters have been up on blocks in the garage this week. I am doing some repair on my P200e sidecar that will require taking the sidecar axle out for some welding. Luckily it came apart with very little effort and revealed an adjustment that I never knew it had and seems to be a camber for attachment to the scooter. Hopefully when it goes back together I will be able to decrease some of the wobble that comes through the headset. My other scooter are waiting for some carb work. I started on the '66 Vespa Sprint, and with Chelsea's suggestion I have removed the jets to clean them, hoping that this will correct the choking problem I have. She advised me that if this doesn't work it may mean removing the carb and checking for an air leak caused by warping or a gasket. That's not too bad, but her third suggesting was frightening, drain the gear oil, if it smells like gas...oh that's bad! Let's hope it's an easy fix. Steve Guzman has revamped The Scooter Scoop Blog. On the last show I mentioned Piaggio's plans to produce a hybrid scooter and the Scoop has a post with pictures of the engine and more details of technology behind the scoot. I don't think I have ever said anything about Rush Hour Rambling, but Gary Carpentier is a blogger that a number of us have admired, both for his creative posts and his persistent blogging over the years. His first posts started back in 2005 when he put together The Baron in Winter site. Gary lives in Minnesota and has posted several times on the tragic bridge failure in the twin cities. His post is both descriptive of the scene but goes beyond this to talk about the practical and emotional effects of trying to get around town. The Combat Commuter blog site is an interesting mix of scooting news and personal reminiscence. What I like about this blog is that John Timbes writes about his life in Florida, his wife, his son and his work. This can get personal, very different that the “news? oriented blogs, an approach that I admire. For more information on scooter bloggers checkout the Ride to Work Blogs website that includes many more scooter and motorcycle bloggers. Let's change focus for a minute. So where do you go to get your scooter news? I'm still fairly new at this so I use Google Newsreader and the Feeddemon built-in. With so many news stories coming down through just these two readers, I sometimes have trouble deciding what to pay attention too, but here are a few of the past weeks stories. There seem to be a lot of stories these days about how scooters are the ecological alternative to conventional vehicles. One example is a recent news story in print and on television in Greensboro, NC, although they probably would refer to them selves as small town. You can take a look at it on their local CBS affiliates website WFMY. And of course, the other scooter news that I like to see is the story that talks about all the good things scoot people are doing. Three stories this past week pointed to scooter rides for worthy causes, one in England with the Midlife Crisis Scooter Club for the Cystic Fibrosis Fund, another a cross county ride for peace by Alix Bryant and the other, of course if Crystal Water's ride to Vermont to benefit the Gifford Memorial Hospital.

SHOWNOTES – I have had allot going on this week and in this Podcast I talk about that and The Toronto Moto Scooter Clubs Twisted Wheel Scooter Rally. I have noticed that the Podcast pickle player on the site has not been working. I will watch this for a few days and if it doesn’t resolve, change players so you can get to the shows directly from the website. I added a few more blog sites and scooter clubs that I have talked about on the show and started to include links to a few shops and websites that I like either for repairs or for ordering part. Let me know what you think is missing and I will do my best to check them out. I have hoped since starting this Podcast, it would become more of a social network and a voice for a variety of scooter ideas. Some of last week’s interviews from Amerivespa were just that, but tonight I have the first listener submitted report from the field. Errol Forster sent a brief clip from the rally. My 1966 Vespa Sprint has been screaming for some attention, refusing to idle unless it is choked to death and my 180ss is cutting out and running intermittently. Such is the life of a vintage bike. An inspection of the 180 showed that the gas tank has accumulated some rust, not a terrible amount, but I have had this happen before on another bike and the remedy was to replace the tank and valve. Next weekend I am planning on pulling the tank and seeing if it requires this or maybe a tack cleaning. I have used the POR-15 products before with good results. Now I could use your help on the Sprint, what do you think are the possibilities? I have already replaced the spark plug, started from scratch to adjust the idle and lean-rich setting and have had no success. Is it sometime more complex? What are your suggestions? Leave me a message on the website or email me. Piaggio SpA plans to launch a hybrid scooter for congested cities in the second half of next year (2008), powered by a traditional petrol engine and alternative electric power, said chairman Roberto Colaninno. The hybrid will be based on the three-wheel Piaggio-branded MP3 scooter, launched last year, and will have a price tag of less than 10,000 euro, against the 7,000 euro the solely petrol-powered scooter currently sells for, you can read the full artical here. The Scooter Scoop has another article about the new VespaS (LXS) which I have been drooling over since his first scoop a few weeks back. As his article says the LXS is reminiscent of the Vespa Special and Vespa Primavera that were design inspirations for other scoots. But I have to say that I was a little disapointet that the design doesn’t include the trapezoid headligth. Rather it is a little bulkie looking square one. No doubt it will still turn heads. Make sure you go over to Dave Guzan’s site to check it out the full story. The Toronto Motor Scooter Club which has a meet-up site on the web sends me emails every few days talking about another ride that is taking place in the Toronto area. The Twisted Wheel Rally was their first big Rally and from the posts and video clips available appears to have been quite successful. Look at their website. The club already has a well produced rally video that includes music up on YouTube.