Scooter Racing This Weekend
From the Scootersmith:

Houston scooter racing will take place on Sunday the 28th out in Katy. For those wanting to race, you must complete a racer school on Saturday the 27th to compete on Sunday. I think it costs 10 buck to watch as a spectator. Check out the Texas Mini GP site and look at next event for the schedule. I hope our club can come out and support this new event! If you have any questions at all just call me at 713.869.4885. See you at the races!
Thanks, Stephen

If you go - be sure to take pictures and send them to us!

Scooter Approval Ratings Set to Top Bush's
In another great example of the Vespa PR machine at work, Piaggio released the results of an early May survey that indicated 30% of Americans would consider moving to a scooter for their 'everyday transportation needs.' Interestingly enough, the survey found that almost as many people (33%) cited reduction of environmental effects as gas savings (35%) in reasons why they would make the move to two wheels and no doors. The press release does not contain or indicate where the survey questions or raw data might be found. I would be curious to know if they asked why people would not consider riding a scooter.

In other Piaggio news, the company is reportedly to sell 40% of its share capital in an upcoming IPO.

Rally this weekend, Dammit
Talk about not being on top of things. Turns out that, this perfectly lovely weekend, the North Texas Scooter Club is having their (annual?) Lakes Rally, starting in... a few hours (dammit). Considering how few rallys there are for us to reasonably attend, it's a shame that I haven't heard of this till now (and I haven't heard of anyone who's going. If you do go - let us know). Onsite registration is just $30, so if you don't have anything going on this weekend and were looking for a road trip and a ride - you just hit paydirt. Have a good weekend.

Forbes on Scooters
Forbes.com has a feature about the Ten Great Warm-Weather Rides, and they’ve all got two wheels. After starting with the gas-price boilerplate it discusses sales figures overall and then lists their picks in ten categories. Included in their results is a winner for Best Scooter, the Aprilia Scarabeo 500 ABS. Block-quote!:

A good compromise for adventurers who don’t want the bulk of a motorcycle or the dink of a Vespa. The mileage is superb; we’d barely used half a tank at the 100-mile mark. It’s great at what it’s designed for--zipping here and there, buying groceries and parking in tight spots. Our fun started when we stopped expecting it to behave like a motorcycle, though at speeds up to 70 mph, we held our own on the highway.

Eximport Cycles and Apollo Motorsports are both Aprilla Dealerships (but Apollo also has some pretty sweet 70s Vespas most of the time. Just sayin').

PS - My Vespa is not a 'dink;' is yours?

TAGGED!
Do the math. As many of us as there are, I usually see atleast ten scooters I've never seen before in the time between running into two familiar faces. Scootering is on the rise in Houston, and there are hundreds of folks out there who might like to meetup for a ride.

So, along with anyone else that feels like participating, I am making some business-card sized 'tags', complete with a rubber band, that I am going to start placing on the grips of as many mystery scoots as I can find. The goal is to get more people at the rides and to let them know there is a diverse group of fellow scooternerds out there.

The front (left) has the classic 'Uncle Sam Wants You!' poster (we are the Battalion, afterall) and on the rear is just a screen of the website logo and the URL. Simple, and hopefully curiosity inspiring.

I hope to begin printing, cutting and assembling the tags over the next week (most of which I will be out of town) and then to start placing them on scoots the following weekend. It'll be interesting to see if it works.

If you want to get your hands on some tags to do your own guerilla operations, email me: ryan at scooterbattalion dot com.

Scootin to the Stubbs Cycles Party

Rad Rich is puttin together yet another ride, this one to Saturday's (May 20th) Stubbs Cycles Customer Appreciation Party. Rad tells us that they are cool with scooters, so why not go take in the fun. Their website states thats that the party includes free food and drinks, stunt driving, local radio djs, prizes and, um, 'bikini babe bike washes.'

Meetup is at Christy's Donuts on Montrose at West Gray at 11:30ish.

Photos Added

Emily sent some pictures over from the Art Car Parade and the Poker Ride - they have been added to the gallery. Hope to have more pictures from the Poker Ride soon.

Scooter Battalion on The News!


Huge thanks to Jay for recording this and getting it up on the web for us!

The Poker Ride
As I didn't even make it to the ride until the second to last stop, I am nowhere near the best qualified person to talk about the highlights of today's run. I'll relay what was relayed to me and hopefully someone who was there would be so kind as to leave their thoughts in the comments or start a thread in the forum.

Sounds like a fair-for-Mother's-Day-and-the-weather-outlook sized group met-up at Beer Island and and were joined by a news crew from WB39 (more on the story, below). They did some filming and then the group headed on out on the ride. Shortly thereafter they got caught in the same rain that many of us did today and waited out the wet for about an hour at The Petrol Station. Back on track, a somewhat smaller group completed the ride, returning to Beer Island to draw their final card and compare hands.

In the end, battalion member Emily came up with the winning hand (2 pair) for the $40 prize, Ben came is second for $25 and wouldn't you know it Stephen the Scootersmith came in third for $15. Burgers, beer and good times all around.

One of the riders, Morgan, took some great pictures and should have those available to see soon. Expect to see a link!

The news story itself aired during their 9pm broadcast, and was the fourth (?) story. At this point, I am going to tap into my time working at a local tv news station to offer some commentary on the story. First, as far as placement goes, I was suprised that they had it in the first 'local block.' All newscasts, especially local ones, have a pretty standard structure that they follow: local news and weather first look, commercial break, national and world news; commercial break; weather; commercial break; sports and entertainment; commercial; kicker.

I had expected our story to be 'the kicker,' which is always a feel good short story on a topic that sends you out into the night feeling warm and fuzzy. A new Panda Bear being born at a zoo is a good example. In fact, mostly these are about animals. I thought this because I expected the story to only be pegged on 'Scooters are Fun!' (which, in part, it was). What I didn't expect (but should have based on the number of other places this is being reported on) is the 'scooters are a low-cost alternative form of transportation in a time of high fuel-costs' angle (Two Stroke Buzz recently did an excellent post on the Scooter Boom and the numbers behind it).

That it pushed the story into the 'local news' category is significant, editorially. Consider: a television station (owned by AOL TimeWarner, no less) endorsed scooters as a legitimate form of transportation in our notoriously car-centric city. News outlets by default endorse narratives or points of view by covering a story (views or ideas they consider insignificant or too fringe simply aren't covered; or, they end up as the kicker.)

Granted, that's not exactly the equvelant of Walter Chronkite or a New York Times editorial - but it's a pretty cool endorsement. The package even included a simple cost analysis, and didn't have any discussion of the 'drawbacks of riding' such as saftey or foul weather (remember - this story aired on a day with terrible scooter weather).

I am told that someone voluteered to TiVo the program and get it onto the internet for us.

Poker Ride Information and Weather Outlook
The Poker Ride is still on for today, get all the details here. The weather forecast includes a 40% chance of scattered thunderstorms, so be sure and bring your helmet, eyewear and something to ride in the rain (just in case). Also remember the Poker Ride is not a race. It doesn't matter if you are the first person or the last to complete your hand - it's the best hand that wins, not the fastest.

PS - It's Mother's Day - don't' forget to call.

Art Car Parade Debrief
All told, eleven of us met up to ride in the 2006 Houston Art Car Parade - a small but sturdy group that endured quite a bit of waiting around and much driving in first gear. I would have to say, though, that everyone who participated had a pretty good time. Check out some pictures from the afternoon in the photo gallery. The Battalion (which was listed in the program as 'Vespa 2-Stroke Power - though there were only three two-stroke Vespas among us) brought up the rear of the parade, though there was quite a bit of running up the side of the other groups and circling back.

This should be a fun annual event to raise awareness for the group (other folks like Kinky Friedman and the Houston Roller Derby were using it for the same thing), though next time we definitely want to bring cold water and sun screen. (Hey Myrna, is your side-car ready to carry its first cooler?) Again, a big thanks to Rad Rich who did the work to make this ride happen.

High Gas Prices vs. Wrecks Per Gallon
Granted, while there are a few members of the battalion who have been known to cause a bit of a ruckus when attempting to leave a locked-down Rice University campus, none of us have anything on this guy. According to police and eyewitness reports, the man wrecked his scooter three times in two hours, including one instance where he flew through the back window of a car and then proceeded to crawl out and get back on his scoot and drive away. Damn.

One MP3 You Won't Be Hearing Anytime Soon
Piaggio today officially announced their new 3-wheeled scooter, dubbed the Mp3 (insert 'goes for a song', 'lyrical design', iScoot or other pun here). While the name might be silly, the scooter itself isn't - pretty innovative approach to performance and handling. Piaggio touts that it can handle street conditions that wouldn't really be possible even for an experienced 2-wheel rider, stops on a dime (3 disc brakes) and that it can tilt 40 degrees.

I wanted to find this out for myself, so I called up Vespa of Houston to see when they might have some in to go test drive. Turns out, not for a while. Though nowhere in the release info does it say so, it's a pretty good bet that this thing will start out in the European market. Luis at Vespa Houston stated that, based on the experience of other Vespa/Piaggio product introductions, it will most likely be four months to a year before they are sold here. Start saving.

Scootin' in the Art Car Parade
Man-about-town Rad Rich (whose classic Vespa truely is a work of art in the dragged-behind-a -pickup-truck-authentic-and -rugged-beauty vein) has somehow fenagled the ability for a group of scooters to ride in this year's Houston Art Car Parade. The event is this Saturday, May 13th (that's right - TWO potential rides this weekend) and slowly winds itself down Allen Parkway towards downtown. According to Rich, the meetup is at 10am at Katz's Deli on Westheimer just east of Montrose (map). Everyone is welcome!

Kymco Giving Away Trips to Amerivespa Rally
Attention new or potential Kymco owners: your manufacturer is giving away ten free trips to the 2006 Amerivespa Rally, July 26-30 in Denver. The trip appears to include travel, room, board and use of a Kymco during the rally. Pretty nice. Of course, this means that you will be riding a non-Vespa at a Vespa rally, but if mixin it up isn't standard Battalion protocol, I dunno what is. Get all the details and register here.

WB39 to do a Story on the Scooter Battalion
Crazy shout-outs to Battalion member Joey, who contacted WB39 News about doing a story on us at the next ride. There is a thread discussing this in the forum. So, remember to clean up your scoot and make it shine for a potential network broadcast premiere. We'll try and get a link to the story up once it runs.

The Poker Ride: Details
Date: Sunday, May 14th
Starting Location: Beer Island (map)
Meetup Time: 2:oopm
Ride Starts: 3:00pm

The Poker Ride will be different then ones the Battalion has done in the past. Rather than rolling as a group on a set route, this ride is more a game than a parade. During the afternoon, each participant will need to visit five different locations (in whatever order they choose), and at each stop pick up a playing card. At the end of the afternoon, each rider will have a complete poker hand - the player with the best hand wins.

There is a$5 entry fee for this ride, to cover the cost of the (up to) $100 prize for the winner. Any amount collected in excess of $100 will be donated to charity.

Don't forget to study up on winning poker hands.

PS - No Cheating.

When you can't scoot, you code
I've been traveling quite a bit lately, and have found myself more in a hotel room than in the saddle. So, bored with not riding, I took to working on the site. So, somewhere between Wichita Falls, Boston, Brooklyn and Anchorage, I doodled out a logo, redid the layout and converted the site to a more news-centric format. I plan on writing pretty frequently about scooting in general, but especially how the Houston angle. Sound like something you'd be interested in contributing to? Shoot me an email whether you want to write, or just have a story idea: ryan at scooterbattalion dot com.