Episode 22 - Scooter Blog Updates and Scooter News

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.