TheScooterScoop » Life

KYMCO “rounds up the posse” for AmeriVespa 2010

Steve Guzman — Thu, 06 May 2010 01:02:39 +0000

When the Vespa Club of America (VCOA) throws a scooter rally, they don’t mess around. With the help and hard work of the host city’s scooter players and tons of sponsors, you can expect to see 600+ AmeriVespa attendees riding scooters and mopeds of all shapes and sizes. Heck, you’ll probably see motorcycles and cars there too! (You did know Vespa made cars, right?).

Well, speaking of “not messing around”, KYMCO has planned a 1381 mile scooter journey from their HQ in Spartanburg South Carolina to the event in San Antonio over the course of four days. The ride will begin in Spartanburg on May 23rd and end in the basement of the Alamo in San Antonio, TX, just in time for Amerivespa, May 27 – 31, 2010. Maybe while you’re there you can help Peewee find his bike.

If you’ve been keeping up with AmeriVespa, you know KYMCO has been a big supporter of for the better part of the decade and they want to support YOUR journey to the event by paying for your gas along the way! That’s right, if you join the KYMCO posse at any point in the journey, they will pay for each day’s fill up. If you join them from the HQ, they’ll even cover your $75 registration fee! Nice, eh?

ANNND, speaking of registration, if you’re planning to pay for your own you’ll need to git to it! Only 10 days left before registration closes!

For details, see the Facebook Event information on the KYMCO Scooter page: www.facebook.com/KYMCO.Scooters. RSVP to Scoot2TX@kymcousa.com and tell us which day(s) you can join them, make your own hotel reservations, and we’ll see you on the road!

I’ll catch up with the action when the Posse arrives in Austin, TX. We all go out for Torchy’s and a Shiner when you get here on Wednesday, May 26th!

HERE’S the trip schedule:
DAY 1, Sunday, May 23

- Depart 5 Stan Perkins Rd, Spartanburg, SC 29307 on Stan Perkins Rd, KYMCO USA Headquarters
- Arrive Courtyard By Marriott [3501 Courtyard Way, Columbus, GA 31909, (706) 323-2323]

DAY 2, Monday, May 24
- Depart Courtyard By Marriott [3501 Courtyard Way, Columbus, GA 31909, (706) 323-2323]
- Arrive Best Western Seaway Inn [9475 Highway 49, Gulfport, MS 39501, (228) 864-0050]

DAY 3, Tuesday, May 25
- Depart Best Western Seaway Inn [9475 Highway 49, Gulfport, MS 39501, (228) 864-0050]
- Arrive Marriott Courtyard Beaumont [2275 I-10 South, Beaumont, TX 77701, (409) 840-5750]

DAY 4, Wednesday, May 26
- Depart Marriott Courtyard Beaumont [2275 I-10 South, Beaumont, TX 77701, (409) 840-5750]
- Arrive Courtyard By Marriott-Austin-South [4415 South IH-35 Austin TX 78744, (512) 441-7900]

DAY 5, Thursday, May 27
- Depart Courtyard By Marriott-Austin-South [4415 South IH-35 Austin TX 78744, (512) 441-7900]
- Arrive Alamo [300 Alamo Plaza, San Antonio, TX 78205, (210) 225-1391]

Maybe we’ll get a chance to take the new Downtown 300i for a spin!

How to make a Hummer more efficient than a scooter

Steve Guzman — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 04:26:05 +0000

On Sunday March 8th 2010 Jeremy Dean took his totally pimped out Hummer, entitled Futurama, out for a spin. Dean has pimped it out with silver chrome, working LED lights and a booming audio and video system. Even though the modded Hummer only gains 2 HP of forward momentum, it’s still tons better than the civilian mall-runner, tax right-offs usually driven by CEO wives. I like to see how it runs with the 8 HP upgrade! The Hummer is DEAD! LONG LIVE THE HUMMER!

Shouts to our homeboys in Korea, Furange, for the scoop!

Amerivespa 2010 T-90 days and counting

Steve Guzman — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 21:56:42 +0000

What happens when you get 600 – 800 scooterists to converge on a US city? Increased smog levels? An overextended emergency services department? A bunch of confused gawkers? Besides all of that… YOU GET AMERIVESPA! That’s right! It’s time again for the Vespa Club of America’s annual scooter rally; the biggest of it’s kind (in the USA). This year, if you haven’t already heard, the host city will be San Antonio, Texas and you know us Texans are mighty excited about it. They will be packing more scooter fun into four days than you’ve had all year!

Here’s the deal though, you want to get registered NOW. ”Why now”, you ask? Because if you register before the end of day Saturday you will not only get a goody bag full of super-awesome schwag and a drop-dead gorgeous t-shirt and patch but you’ll ALSO get THIRTEEN free raffle tickets! That’s $13 LUCKY dollars worth of prize winning chances FREE!

So, go to their site, make sure you’ve got $75 bucks in your account and register HERE>
In the interim, here’s a slice from last year’s Concours d’Elegance:

Scooterists, be on the lookout for the one-armed scooter jacker

Steve Guzman — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 22:11:00 +0000

Really! I nearly had this happen to me once. Luckily there was about two feet of clearance at the end of the arm, so I just swerved around it. Don’t let this happen to you!

Greek Islands Scooter Rally – 7 Months away

Steve Guzman — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 16:55:00 +0000

I’m posting this now so you’ll have plenty of time to think about it (and book tickets). If the idea of scooting with a bunch of great people in the beautiful Greek Isles with fabulous architecture and wonderful food sounds at all alluring then you should make plans for May 24th, 2010.

Check out the ScoterGiro Cyclades website for rally, lodging and rental information.

Be sure to book your scooter early! You don’t wanna end up riding like the Greek god of wine do you? Sounds romantic, but it’s not.

Thanks for the invite Al! I hope I can make it some day! More images of last year’s even can be found on Scoot.net. Maria’s collages are especially enticing. Oh, you can also visit Modern Vespa for a great little write up on this year’s event.

Rally Announcement – Austin Texas – Go To Hell ]|[

Steve Guzman — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 16:16:00 +0000

We’re just 8 days away from the “Go to Hell 3″ rally here in Austin, TX. The event is organized by the oldest surviving scooter club in Austin, Piston Broke. So, if you’ve got a bike with a manual transmission bring it on down! Click on the title link for more info. If you want a t-shirt you’ve got ’til tomorrow to register.

A write up on last year’s event can be found on Lee’s Scooter Blog.
And here’s some pictures from the year before on Scoot.net.

My one piece of advice this year is the same advice I gave in 2007… New riders, use caution on the long ride. Make sure you’ve boned up on your steep hill riding skills. Practice your down shift… Keep good spacing… ride single file… Wear your gear. Enough nagging! Get to it.

(no word on whether or not H1N1 scare has canceled the kissin’ booth this year or not… more news as it comes in.)

MadAss makes the halfway mark

Steve Guzman — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 22:17:00 +0000

Just in case you haven’t been following along, here’s the update on the coast-to-coast MadAss journey. Phil & James have just past the halfway mark; that’s about 1600 miles since they started just 4 days ago. The Dr. MadAss crew have braved frosty temps and high altitudes to make it this far, they really deserve a round of applause.

I know they’ve got their sights set on a Chicago arrival tonight. Will they pull it off? Stay tuned to the DrMadAss site to find out!

Oh, here’s a pretty extreme little Madass mod I found in Thailand.

You must be MAD!

Steve Guzman — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 21:20:00 +0000

(That’s Phil in the rear view and James in the driver’s seat)

Well by “World” we mean the USA and by “Mad, Mad” we mean madmen taking the Sach Madass across the whole freaking thing. Phil “POC Phil” Waters is no stranger to the scene. He’s been riding scooters as long as I’ve been shaving (my back) and also owns one of the most successful scooter shops in the country… so, what would possess him to take Cobra Powersport’s latest 125cc import scooter (or is it a motorcycle?) from San Diego to Annapolis in 10 days (or less)?

Because he can.

While the MadAss 125 may be a newcomer in the USA, the MadAss design has been around a while. We first caught wind of the MadAss back in 2005 , when Sachs reentered the US market with their solidly built but sadly underpowered MadAss 50 (our first video scooter review). Now that they’ve brought us something with a little extra kick, Phil wanted to be the first to see how she stands up to 2800+ mile journey.

As of publishing this story, the POC team has completed day 2 of their journey. You can keep up with their progress by visiting the website of Dr. Madass. There you will find photos, satellite tracking of their journey and stories from the road.

(Dr. Madass says “Deez guys eez more kooky dan me, yah?”)

People are tricking them out all over the world!

Germany

Thailand

Japan

More to come as I dig ‘em up.

3CR celebrates a half decade of sweet rallies!

Steve Guzman — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 17:49:00 +0000

One of my favorite and most consistant rallies in the Central Texas area is the Third Coast Rally. Lots of riders show up, it’s always well organized and rarely breaks out into a bike torching, bare knuckle brawl… just be sure to zip tie the zipper on your tent when you retire for the night… I’m just sayin’.

I plan on being there (Granting our good friends at TheMotorcycleShop or Vespa SanAntonio will be able to hook us up with a loaner). I’d like to ride something unusual, anyone know where I can get on of these classics from the 60’s?

This will be a good warmup for another little rally coming soon to San Antonio the weekend of May 28th 2010 and also a visit from the riders of the 2010 Scooter Cannonball Run sometime late 2010.

Thanks to CoffeeDrink for the scoop!

How it’s Made – Vespa Edition

Steve Guzman — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 16:46:00 +0000

(Thanks to peterscooterlife for publishing this on YouTube.)

I’m sure you’ve seen one and you might have even repaired one, but you probably haven’t seen a modern Vespa built from the ground up. While over visiting the site of our phriend in the Philippines, John Rana, I saw some nice videos including this clip from Season 6, Episode 13 of How It’s Made, the “it” here being a Vespa GTS.

Shout out to the WhoRidesAVespa? blog for the scoop and a happy belated birthday to John who just turned 37. You should check out some really nice looking video of him and his scooter here. You can tell it was done by people who know more about their cameras than “Autofocus”. Artfully done!