An awesome night out

Saw an awesome show Friday night. My current favorite band, The Cat Empire, played at Rams Head Live in Baltimore. Their 2006 album, Two Shoes, is what I put in when I need to get my some serious Polly Scoots work done. After I'm done dancing around the living room to Sly, I have the energy/motivation to create along to the rhythm of their ska, jazz, Latin, reggae beat.

The six band members, with an occasional second trumpeter, seemed to really be enjoying themselves on stage. Each song included lengthy jams and solos, with different members taking the lead as the night progressed. I played trumpet as a kid and was blown away by both horn blowers' abilities. At one point, the two trumpeters played a bit of a duel with DJ Jumps egging on the new guy.

I was well-pleased at the end of the two-hour show and, of course, it left hungry for more. Thankfully, the band just finished recording a new album, so relief is in sight.

I'll definitely pick up tickets when this band makes its next trip from Melbourne to a stage near me.

10,000 miles

I must admit, it was pretty darn cool to see all the numbers roll over this morning. Appropriately enough, it happened on the morning commute.

A second job and a second dog happened this spring--which left little time for pleasure riding on the weekends. That means the bulk of my riding, at least since the winter, has been done on the daily commute--about 13 miles each way.

While I didn't make it to 10,000 in time for my scoot's second birthday (memorial day weekend), it was exciting to finally make it there today. Just 306 days until her third birthday--think we can make it to 15,000?

Charmed I'm sure

Okay, that was a cornball title, but what the hey, it's Wednesday.

I enjoy making little (and sometimes not so little) charms with scooters on them.

For your viewing pleasure, here's a not so little one made from polymer clay, one with a scooter hand drawn on shrinkable plastic and a mini mod:

How fast does that thing go?

Right up there with the, "is that a Vespa" question is the one I got this morning: "how fast does that thing go." This one came from the driver in the next lane over as we waited for the light to turn green.

My reply, "60 mph," impressed him momentarily. I'm gonna guess he's a motorcycle rider, because he then asked how stable it was at that speed. I gave a hand motion to say "so, so" and commented that my bike has 10 inch wheels.

Since we were idling at a light and I was communicating through a full face helmet, I pretty much kept it at that. In case you're interested in a little more detail about how fast these things we call scooters go, read on.

My daily rider, a Stella by Genuine Scooter Company, can indeed reach an indicated (by my speedometer) speed of 60 mph or a tad higher. This bike has a 150 cc engine and a Sito Plus exhaust, which gives me a little more umph up hills. Very generally speaking, the size of the engine in cubic centimeters (cc) has the most to do with how fast a scooter goes.

For comparison, my fist scooter, a Yamaha Vino, has a 50 cc engine (no performance upgrades) and can go 40 mph or so if you're headed downhill and have a head start--which means you can expect to top out on a flat road closer to 35 mph. Expect to decelerate on steep hills.

Engine sizes for modern scooters commonly range from 50 to 250 cc--so expect top speeds of 30 to 70 mph respectively on a stock (unmodified) bike. I won't get into the host of performance options that give you more power in this post.

Maxi-scooters, the big boys, range in engine size from 250 to 650 cc--just in case you wanted to go 100 mph on a scooter!

Shout Out to the Mad Toto Scooter Club

I first learned about Kansas City's Mad Toto Scooter Club this spring when they asked Polly Scoots to be a sponsor for Tornado R'Alley III. While a trip to their rally in May wasn't in the cards, I figured I'd drop them a line when I realized I'd be in town this summer--very glad that I did!

Their warm welcome included a trip to Kansas City's Westport neighbor for dinner and drinks with about 10 club members and an after-hours drive out to Overland Park, Kansas, for a visit to Scooter World. If you're not exploring a new town via scoot, the next best thing has to be meeting fellow scooterists and visiting local scooter shops to view rows of shiny new scoots, great riding accessories and, that all important, scooter swag.

If we're lucky, we'll make it to a Mad Toto rally one day. In the meantime, if you're in Kansas City, be sure to check out Scooter World and the cool kids with Mad Toto. Thanks for making us feel welcome!

Postcard from Kansas City

"Hi" from Kansas City, Missouri! I have just a few more hours to enjoy the city, but thought I'd sneak in a few pics from the trip so far. The sign above graces the entrance (driveway) at a tasty BBQ joint, Gates.

Below left is a view of downtown Kansas City from the top of the WWI memorial.

Below right is a view of the Nelson-Atkins Museum--I loved the giant sculptures all around the grounds. More later....

The Mod Collection

I have a love/hate relationship with circles. I love working with them, but have to really concentrate to make them look good. Of course, no collection of mod scooter swag would be complete without them--and that good old Royal Air Force target.

Here's a look at a few of things from the Mod Collection on Polly Scoots:

Random Wednesdays

Sometimes it's fun to make something pretty to eat on a random Wednesday night. Last night I took a page out of Ryan's book and skewered and grilled some meat. Since we've finally (and unexpectedly) reached the end of our bag of 100 skewers, things were a little crowded, but still tasted yummy. This turned out to be a rather messy meal to eat as the goal was to make roll ups using the lettuce with all the fun things rolled inside, but it started out kind of pretty.

I cubed the thin cut pork tenderloins and marinated them in some low sodium teriyaki sauce for about an hour and a half. Then skewered and grilled the meat at about 500 degrees for a few minutes on each side. After the last flip, I poured some more teriyaki sauce on for the final few minutes of grilling.

I cheated on the noodles and used a packaged noodle bowl from Simply Asia (just two minutes in the microwave). One serving was plenty for both of us. Sliced cucumbers and carrots finished things off. Next time, I need to find a lettuce that's a little less rigid through the middle--it will make the rolling much easier!

"What's a Vespa?"

I so often hear the question when I’m out riding, “is that a Vespa,” that I was a little flummoxed to have someone ask, “what’s a Vespa,” the other day. I must confess that I was so surprised by the question that I couldn’t have given a good answer.

Alas, the world does not revolve around scooters, so this was a legitimate question. To do a little better a job responding next time, I figured I had better practice.

So, “what is a Vespa,” you might ask?

Simple answer: an Italian motor scooter

To delve a little deeper into it:

What’s a scooter? According to Wikipedia (the source of all knowledge), it’s a “two-wheeled motor vehicle with a step-through frame.”

A step-through frame (chassis)? For me, this means you don’t straddle it (the gas tank/frame of the bike) to ride like you would a motorcycle. Instead, it’s a little like sitting on a chair with your feet on the “floor” or rather floorboards in front of you (please forgive the over simplification).

To help illustrate, pictured are a classic motorcycle (left) and modern scooter (right).

The Vespa brand of scooter, manufactured by Piaggio, originated in Italy in 1946. While other scooter manufacturers have come and gone over the years, Vespa celebrated its 60th anniversary just last year and new models are for sale today.

In addition to online resources, a host of books have been written on the history of Vespa and motorscootering in general. If you're looking for something tasty to flip through, I'd recommend "Vespa: Style in Motion" and "The Scooter Bible."

When out on the road, the “is that a Vespa” question is usually followed by a host of others related to top speed, cost, licensing, etc. I’ll save answers to a few of those questions for another post.

p.s. my answer to the, “is that a Vespa,” question when I’m out riding is always, “no.”

Fun with color

Handcoloring black and white photographs is one of those things I've just wanted to know how to do. I signed up for a class a year or two ago, but it was cancelled due to low enrollment. Last fall, I cashed in a birthday gift certificate for a how-to book and the necessary supplies.

Then I broke out the old SLR (and some actual film) and got busy taking some new black and white photos. After getting the enlargements made, I had fun "coloring" my world. I experimented with pastels first, but found I really prefer using photo oils. The resources were right (duh) and coloring photographs is as much about taking away color as it is applying it. It's also about highlighting the details captured in the original photograph.

The photos that fit the theme of Polly Scoots will make their way to the website--two have already found their way there. The others will grace my walls for the time being.

Saturday at ID7

I'll keep this post short on words and big on pictures. Put about 130 miles on the scooter Saturday including the ride into South Philly and back to our temporary home for Philadelphia's ID7 Scooter Rally. Took part in an awesome group ride through some twisty and hilly streets, chatted with many a cool scooterist, had some tasty food at the BBQ and feasted my eyes on many a groovy bike. All in all, a great day--and the weather was pretty darn good for July too! Sweet.

Loads of pics to be had on the scoot.net page, but here are a few of my favorite bikes from the day.

The journey to ID7

So as fate would have it, this rally season I've only been able to take part in one day of each of the three rallies I've made it to--each has been a feast for the eye so I won't complain too much!

On Saturday hubby Ryan and I made it to our second Philadelphia Independence Day rally. Since I needed to be in Brooklyn Friday night and we didn't want to board the dogs, we decided to test out our new scooter hauling vehicle and, heaven help us, rent a U-Haul trailer. It was a harrowing experience.

The ride up Thursday night should have taken four hours (keeping to back roads so as not to exceed the trailer's speed limit)--it took six. The trailer had a grand total of four tie-down spots--each poorly placed--and was rated to carry a much heavier cargo than our two scoots. Long story short, it poured down rain for half the trip, the tail end of Ryan's scooter kept kissing mine, my handlebars/wheel kept slipping and my throttle side grip worked its way completely off twice.

Just FYI, it's not good when your scooters look like this in the trailer (left) or when your grip does this (right):

Ryan was a trooper and did all the driving on the way up. Aside from some realatively minor scratches on my bike, we made it there in one piece. He got everything ship shape on the scoots Friday while I made the drive into the big Apple.

For the return trip, we invested in two sets of Canyon Dancers and a couple of cheap pillows--much better!

Pilgrimage to Etsy

I was fortunate enough last Friday to make the trip into Brooklyn, N.Y., to check out Etsy/the Etsy Labs, meet some fellow Capitol Area Etsy Street Team (CREST) members in person and show off some wares from Polly Scoots during the CREST Trunk Show.

I had the hare-brained notion for the longest time that I was going to scoot there. Since I'd be making the journey from just north of Philadelphia instead of my home in Maryland, I figured it was doable. Then I actually looked at the map. Scooting there and back would have taken the better part of two days along a convoluted route to avoid super-fast highways, so I finally came to my senses and settled for a four-wheeled mode of transportation. As a reward, I got to partake in a day of Philadelphia's city rally (more on this later). In the meantime, here are some pics from the trip. If you're hungry for more, check out my Flickr page.