Mopedia

This documentary has been talked about for well over a year now. Threads for it occasionally pop up on the gen forum. I didn't really think much of it at first. Most of the time when someone discusses doing a moped film, nothing ever comes of it. That, or it looks really amateurish, or not very interesting, or they just plain miss the mark in trying to capture why we waste our time with these antiquated, little bikes.

These guys from Baltard territory seem to actually be serious about this, and its starting to look really good. I, for one, hope that they finish the film and their 7,000 mile trip.



I don't plan on donating money to the project, but if you'd like to a kickstarter has been set up for the effort.

Good luck on the project, guys.

Cuddle Puddle Birthday Ride

This past weekend was the 5th annual Puddle Cutter Anniversary Ride. I've been to four out of the five anniversary rides (including the first Puddle Cutter ride five years ago), and this one was fun as usual.

Since selling the bus, getting mopeds from one city to another has been problematic. It's good to find out that with some disassembly the Ciao fits neatly in the trunk of my car.

We arrived in Portland Saturday morning, and after putting a moped back together, and eating a giant burrito, we headed to Powell park for the meet up.

The ride went along the Clackamas river with lots of water and back roads. As many rides as I've done in, and around, PDX this one was completely new to me. I'm slightly jealous of Portland and how much backwoods-y riding they have that's still only a short jog from the city.

The weather held up for the most part as we dodged the rain storm that loomed over us most of the day and knocked out about 60 miles of riding.

The party later that night was nothing short of classic dumb Cutter fun. Including muddy moped dirt bike jumps in the backyard, and far too much booze. I'm amazed the cops never showed up.

A short trip, about 24 hours in Portland, but that's fine. Hopefully, I'll be back in a few months for a race or two.

Speaking of moped racing, this showed up on the general forum last week. It looks like a terrible game, but I'd still play it.

Procrastination and the importance of deadlines

By habit, I'm a procrastinator. In fact, the only reason that this blog gets updated on Monday mornings is because if I didn't give myself a deadline, it wouldn't get done.

I've been pretty lazy lately when it comes to working on the race bike. Weather has been cold, the garage is drafty, and I've been in cocoon mode for a few months. Spurred on by the arrival of my MLM ST Ripper pipe, early last week I gave myself a requirement; get in the garage on Saturday and work for a solid five hours to see what I can get done.

I skipped on a Fleet fix-it day (which I heard was awesome) to toil away, cleaning parts and figuring out how a Hobbit fits together. I didn't get as far as I wanted to, but now, at least I can see the bike taking shape, and that's always exciting.

















I need to figure out when my next free weekend is and schedule myself a block of time to work on bikes because it felt super productive.

Cops and mopeds

Nope, it's not what you're thinking.

About six years ago, I was coming home late from Moped Monday. I lived in an apartment on the Ave, and was locking up to a bike rack in front of the Radio Shack. I was more than a little intoxicated, and ready to hit the sack.

From the corner of my eye I spot a cop car slowly roll up and stop. A warning goes off in my brain, but I ignore the car. I fumble with my keys, hoping that he moves on and doesn't try to give me a hard time about parking on the sidewalk. Regardless, no one wants to talk to a cop when you've got whiskey on your breath.

The window rolls down. I don't look up.

"Hey!" Okay, I finally look up. "Is that a Kinetic?"

Puzzled, I respond, "No, it's a Puch."

"Oh, I've got a Kinetic. I ride it all the time!" Turns out a fellow moped rider just wanted to chat.

Cops and mopeds rarely collide in a way that works well. Usually it's just a recipe for frustration on both parts.

It's like the joke goes: What do you call a moped rider in a suit? The defendant.

This is an oddball article from Moped Biking magazine, circa 1977. It's worth reading. It's pretty clear that, just like today, most cops hate mopeds. Officer Friendly, who's spotlighted in the photos, is obviously not a fan of these moped-things. I can only imagine how much he must have hated riding away from the precinct on the Puch. I can almost hear the ribbing Im sure he took. I'd love to see a conversation between this NYC moped cop and my Seattle cop-moped-enthusiast.

As if cops on mopeds in NYC isn't weird enough, the whole article has a renaissance fair as its backdrop.

Think about this one next time you're pulled over.

Mopeds are dangerous...so are zombies

I snapped this photo in one of the parking garages at work. I haven't thought about the Martha's Vineyard protests in a while. Thanks for reminding me, ultra-safety driver.















Here's one of the best game trailers I've seen in a long time. I think one thing that has been missing with most zombie games is a lack of emotion and humanity. Although, we don't see any actual game play here, they certainly capture a feeling that we've never seen in a game of this sort before.



Speaking of zombies, check out these amazing Walking Dead figures that Mcfarlane Toys will be releasing in September.




















One more zombie-related thing. The best $3 you will ever spend is for Plants vs Zombies for your space phone. Utterly addictive game play. Damn you PopCap games!



Spent your last $3 on beer? Download Zombie Dice for free instead.

Or maybe you just think zombies are played out at this point.

Moped Army, 1962

So I've got a bunch of old moped magazines, and I thought I'd occasionally reprint some of the articles here. Here's one from a 1962 issue of Cycling and Mopeds magazine, a British weekly.

This article discusses the lack of moped clubs and how that can be remedied. If you read it closely the author puts forth some ideas that seem very similar to how we do things today. It talks about forming local clubs that operate under a national organization, holding national rallies to get everyone together, and forming racing circuits. Nothing mind-blowing really, but it's interesting to see these ideas formed some 40 years before it finally took place (and on different continent, too).