Mud sticks over 'dummy run'

At scooterhite.co.nz we do not condone illegal activities, especially when it comes to the use of vehicles...but, we found the following story in today's newspaper amusing:

The Dominion Post

23 October 2008

Trying to outrun police on a pint-sized motor scooter was not the brightest move Glenn Dodd has made.

Getting stuck in a muddy ditch while trying to make a spectacular getaway was worse. But finding out he was not drunk and had no reason to run from police in the first place really capped off a bad night for the 43-year-old Napier father-of-three.

Dodd set off from home at 1am on Saturday to buy bread for breakfast when police spotted him cruising along Prebensen Drive on his Suzuki scooter. He drew their attention because he had covered his licence plate in case a speed camera clocked him speeding - he reckons he can squeeze 100kmh out of its 125cc engine at a push.

Police turned on their flashing lights, then their siren, but Dodd did not stop. "I was panicking so much I didn't know what to do. I think they call it the flight instinct. "To be honest I have no idea why I did what I did. It was completely stupid and quite out of character," Dodd, a mechanic, said.

He veered off the road into a shallow ditch with the intention of jumping out the other side and making "a spectacular getaway". But after splashing through a puddle, the wheels failed to gain traction leaving a frustrated Dodd struggling to stay upright.

He is still at a loss to explain why he behaved the way he did. "I thought there was a chance I'd be over the [breath alcohol] limit. It was the first night in ages that my partner and I had been out. "When we got home I found out we didn't have bread for bacon and eggs the next morning. We were looking forward to a nice breakfast ... so I went into town. It was a really dumb thing to do," he said.

He passed the breath test and his scooter was registered and warranted.

He appeared in Napier District Court yesterday and pleaded guilty to failing to stop and resisting arrest. He was fined $400 and ordered to pay $260 court costs.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/4736361a11.html

Thurman buys scooter to avoid congestion charge

London (ANI): American actress Uma Thurman, who recently moved to Britain, has got herself a scooter to beat London's heavy traffic. The 38-year-old actress, who recently moved to London with her fiance Arpad 'Arki' Busson, has bought a bright green Vespa to beat the city's traffic congestion - exempting her from paying the city centre's rising congestion toll.

"She can avoid the congestion charge and park easily with her new scooter. She drives Arki around on it all the time," the Daily Express quoted a source, as saying.

The Kill Bill star's neighbours have even given her a new name 'Vrooma Uma.' "The neighbours call her Vrooma Uma because she is always scooting around the area," the source added.

http://entertainment.oneindia.in/hollywood/top-stories/scoop/2008/uma-thurman-scooter-vespa-201008.html

The Motorcycle and Scooter Dilemma

Heads up to Stephen Fung that wrote the following insightful post. At scooterhire.co.nz we like your style!

Posted by Stephen Fung

October 6, 2008

www.stephenfung.net

Since testing and passing for my full learners motorcycle license, I’ve been presented with a bit of a problem. I’m torn between whether I should get a new motorcycle or buy a bigger scooter. Here’s how it played out based on my criteria…

Parking - One of the things that is awesome about a scooter is that I can pretty much put it wherever I want. It’s like RockStar parking wherever I go. The change to a motorcycle will not only get me noticed, but the parking cops and the mall security people start to notice too. Right now, with Happy Scooter, I can stick it beside a bike rack, go away for hours. I know I couldn’t do that with a motorcycle.  
Point for new scooter.

Storage - Happy Scooter has crazy amounts of storage. You can hold two bags of groceries in the cavernous trunk. Motorcycles have no trunks and if you need additional storage, you need to add hard cases and top cases, making the vehicle fatter, heavier, and even more difficult to maneuver in super tight spots. All scooters have varying degrees of underseat storage and some scooters have hooks on the front for your groceries. Since I often have stuff to pick up at the post office, or errands to do, the added bulk and cost of adding storage cases put the motorcycle in the dog house.  
Point for new scooter.

Performance - Although most motorcycles are much more powerful than scooters, their size and weight make them hard to maneuver in tight traffic. Motorcycles also have additional controls for the clutch and a foot brake. A scooter is comparatively simple, only requiring you to twist the throttle and the CVT transmission takes care of the rest. Front and rear brakes are both on the bars, making them easy to reach in a panic. This puts less distractions in front of you when jockeying for position in the city traffic. Outside the city however, the added weight and power of a motorcycle gives way to highway stability and headroom for passing slow moving cars and staying out of the way of large trucks. Since I’ll be mainly traversing urban highways and battling traffic in the city, the scooter makes more sense in my case.  
Draw: A scooter is better in the city but the motorcycle is better outside the city.

Gas Mileage - A motorcycle, displacement for displacement, gets lower gas mileage than any scooter. The CVT transmission always shifts at the optimum RPM and as a result, the engine is more efficent. We know that blipping the throttle, taking off in a lower gear and what not is a lot of fun, but it doesn’t make for the best gas mileage. Since one of my major reasons for getting into two wheeled transport in the first place was to stick it to the oil companies, it’s clear that scooter wins.  
Point for scooter.

Cool Factor - Of course, scooters are dorky as hell in North America. However, in the rest of the world, they are the mode of transportation of choice for the masses. When I selected my Yamaha C3 scooter, I knew that it wasn’t the looker. Some thought it was ugly, and no one called it pretty. However, it was definitely functional. Since I’m all about utility these days, the scooter works for me, but cool factor definitely belongs to a bad ass cruiser anyday of the week.  
Point for Motorcycle.

At the end of the day though, I turned to two wheeled transport for the practical aspects. I save nearly enough money in gas each month to purchase an Xbox 360 (Arcade) and I get to park wherever the hell I want. Most of the time I don’t even have to pay even though everyone else does. Although I can’t rule out getting a motorcycle in the future, for now, scooter FTW.

http://www.stephenfung.net/the-motorcycle-and-scooter-dilemma

EagleRider Expands Rental Line-Up With Scooters

Hey, us folk at scootehire.co.nz are pleased to have another company join us by offering scooters to the masses:

 

LOS ANGELES, CA

Oct 06, 2008 

(MARKET WIRE via COMTEX) 

 

EagleRider, the world's largest motorcycle rental company, is proud to announce the addition of the Piaggio and Vespa Scooter line to their existing line-up of Harley-Davidson(R), Honda, and BMW motorcycles available for rent.

 

"Strong Vespa Scooters sales growth in 2008 coupled with increasing gas prices makes the addition of the Vespa line-up a necessary choice," said Chris McIntyre, EagleRider President. "Vespa is a world famous lifestyle brand that will be a great complement to our prestigious rental fleet of Harley-Davidson(R), Honda and BMW motorcycles."

 

EagleRider will begin renting Piaggio and Vespa Scooters starting Saturday, October 11th, 2008 out of the EagleRider Los Angeles, Las Vegas and San Francisco locations. The EagleRider Orlando location will begin renting the Vespa product line on October 15, 2008. 

 

Requirements to rent a scooter are: twenty-one years of age, major credit card and possess a valid motorcycle license. To book your Piaggio or Vespa scooter rental log-on to www.eaglerider.com or call (888) 817-7660 to speak with an EagleRider Rental Specialist.

 

About EagleRider:

EagleRider pioneered the motorcycle rental concept in 1992 and today operates the world's largest motorcycle rental and powersport rental fleet from premier manufacturers such as Harley-Davidson(R), Honda(R), BMW(R), Vespa and Polaris(R). EagleRider's expansion of its franchise rental facilities targets global tourist destinations and currently offers adventure tours and motorcycle travel enthusiasts the opportunity to experience their dream vacation from rental facilities in the USA, United Kingdom, Austria, Australia, Spain, France, Ireland, Mexico, Costa Rica, and New Zealand.

 

Website http://www.eaglerider.com

The furthest thing from a motorcycle gang

By PHIL LUCIANO

Journal Star

Oct 01, 2008

 

BARTONVILLE. On any given weekend, when the spirit of adventure and danger call, the mean streets of Bartonville quake with the menacing rumble of two-wheeled mayhem.

OK, maybe that's overstating the case a tad. It's not so much a menacing rumble as an annoying whine. And as for the mayhem, it's really more of a silliness than anything else.

But yes, there are two wheels involved, along with a gang, leathers, nicknames and other trappings of the biker culture. The thing is, these riders don't sit on hogs, but scooters.

Meet the Ghost Riderz, the baddest - and goofiest - scooter gang ever to hit the Peoria area.
"We're the furthest thing you can get from a motorcycle gang," says a chuckling Mike "Snake" Bredernitz, founder of the scooter squad. "A few people have asked, 'Why didn't you just buy a cheap motorcycle?' Well buying a motorcycle isn't funny. But buying a scooter, that's funny."

Bredernitz, 45, doesn't exactly live a life of lawlessness. Married with three kids, he works as a risk-management consultant for an insurance company. Months ago, he saw a kid putzing through his neighborhood on a scooter. Bredernitz thought the modest vehicle might be a cheap way to get around town. So he bought a 150-cc scooter.

He caught the eye - and derision - of buddy Bret Henry, 39. The sales manager would chide Bredernitz for his milquetoast mode of transportation. Eventually, though, Henry saw humor in the notion."One scooter is dorky," Henry told Bredernitz. "But two is a gang."

Soon, Henry bought a scooter and took on the moniker of Bulldog. Soon, three others joined the scooter lifestyle: Jason "Spider" Walker, Loren "Blaze" Peacock and Steve "Iceman" Christiansen. They adopted a decidedly unintimidating logo: the name Ghost Riderz surrounding the image of Casper the Friendly Ghost. They put the logo on black T-shirts, plus black flags jutting from their scooters.

The pack soon took to the streets, leaving local residents recoiling - not in abject fear, but in head-scratching wonder about the curious quintet of nerds. "About 90 percent (of observers) get it," Bredernitz says. "The others think it's a mid-life crisis."

Mostly, though, it's a reason for the fivesome to hang out. Often, they pop into Hammer's pub, which has become the scooter clubhouse - so much so that a banner on the wall proclaims, "Official Home of the Ghost Riderz."

As Bredernitz promised the owner, almost seriously, "If there's trouble in here, we'll take care of it."
When they're feeling crazy, they'll mess with real bikers. Recently, they arrived to see a lone, top-line Harley out front. As a gag, they hemmed in the hog with their scooters. Later, when the biker left the saloon, the Ghost Riderz hoped he'd get the joke. "He came back in, bent over laughing," Bredernitz says.

The gang has taken on a public profile. At Limestone Community High School's Homecoming variety show, the Ghost Riderz brought down the house with a tongue-in-cheek skit about the scooter crew.

Next, they plan to help civic groups by appearing at fundraisers. They also hope to launch a charity golf outing. But it'd be not just for scooter riders; civilians would be welcome as well. "It'd be a small crowd if it were only scooters," Bredernitz says, laughing.

PHIL LUCIANO is a columnist with the Journal Star. He can be reached at pluciano@pjstar.com, 686-3155 or (800) 225-5757, Ext. 3155.

Movember 2008!

It's October! That means one more month until Movember (the month formerly known as November). This is a great cause tackling men's health issues and being proactive in the fight against men's depression and prostate cancer.

At scooterhire.co.nz, we will be again joining a few select men that will be cultivating the upper lip region. We urge all men to become a Mo Bro and support this worthy cause.

Celebrate being a man for Movember and enjoy the fellowship of like-minded men. To donate to my Mo click here www.movember.com and donate online using your credit card.