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.