WIN A VESPA!!!

For those of you who don't have one to call your own just yet or just want another, VKC & Habitat Shoes have colluded to give away yet another Vespa. Up for grabs is a Vespa LX50. You may complete an entry form @ the shop or Habitat. The drawing for the LX will occur during the Habitat Parking Lot Concert @ The Crossroads on June 1st (First Friday). You must enter by 6pm on Friday, June 1st & be present during the drawing to win.

The ACB's are headlining &, as always, there will be a plethora of art & people to ogle. We hope to see you out!!

The VCKC will be riding out from Bella Napoli as well. Check their site.

Be seen! From invisible to visible!

Imagine this was YOU in traffic.. notice that nothing stands out in this picture except for the reflective materials on the helmet, vest and jacket; the bikes, REGARDLESS of color all blend into the background! Make yourself VISIBLE!

If you've had the fortune to buy a scooter from me personally, more likely than not, you've been perplexed at the statement that "the color of your scooter isn't going to save your life." I'm not sure why, but it seems that folks have it in their head that a brighter colored scoot is going to have more visibility than one of a darker tint. I've called foul on it before, but now there's a study that's been recently released that examines the correlation between rider conspicuity and crash related injuries.

It's a six page long study, but it's worth the time so if you're a current rider, or someone thinking of riding you should definitely read the results.. Here are a few of the highlights:

When looking at "crash related injuries occuring mainly in urban zones with a 50 km/h speed limit, during the day, and in fine weather":

• Wearing any reflective or fluorescent clothing had a 37% lower risk of injury


• Use of a white helmet was associated with a 24% lower risk than a over the use of a black helmet


• NO associated risk when operating a vehicle of a certain color

When looking at those stats, it may seem as if may not mean a lot considering how many scooters and motorcycles you see on the road, but if you figure in that, according to the study, 3000 people die and about 30,000 people are seriously injured on the world's roads DAILY, you may have second thoughts.

Check out the study here.

TONIGHT: WESTBOUND TRAIN @ RECORD BAR

I expect to see all of you old school rudies, mods, skins & scooterboys who came up back in the day to dust off those tonics & come out for this one.

Westbound Train @ Record Bar
1020 Westport Road
KC, MO 64111
816-753-5207

New Scoot & '07 Buyer's Guide Just In!

Scoot #40 just arrived @ our stoop with the 2007 Buyer's Guide.

This issue highlights some ace scooter art

(including a pullout poster),
a review of the Piaggio MP3, as well as the usual rally reviews,
product features & tech tips.

RALLY!!!

We're sponsoring the Mad Toto TORNADO RALLY III which starts today, and goes on through Saturday and Sunday. It's happening all over Kansas City this weekend and the details can be found at the Mad Toto Scooter Club site.

Looks like it'll be a lot of food, prizes, riding and outright fun!

Betta Getta Vespa!!

This was in San Fran last Wednesday.. Just a little foreshadowing of whats to come. Thank goodness your vehicle get 60+ MPG, right!?!

Click on the link for the story behind the pic.

More Commuters Turn To Motor Scooters as Gas Prices Rise

What? Again?

Owning a scoot, reading headlines like that make me giggle a bit. But working at a scoot shop, reading those same headlines brings out the guffaws, hoots AND hollars! However, this article, published today at www.prnewswire.com has some tasty tidbits of info from the CEO of Piaggio himself, Paolo Timoli.

You can check out the post here.

Stuff to do: Brookside art fair!

May 4th through the 6th, the Brookside community is having their annual art fair! If you're looking for something to do this weekend, besides Spider-Man 3, this could be it! Always a lot of fun and great scootering destination as well, check out the information here.

London loves scooters? Who knew?!

I'm assuming that there's not much available terrorist news stories at the London branch of Reuters for I've found a story regarding Vespas. Not that a story covering Vespa scoots isn't worthy of news, but the story itself isn't much of anything that hasn't been covered before. Regardless, it is a quick read, involves scoots, Vespa fanatics, and, well... Scoots!

Some interesting data from the article:

• "London scooter sales have risen 16-fold to 8,000 in 2005 from 500 in 1993, especially after the introduction of the congestion charge in 2003 from which two-wheelers are exempt."
• "In 2006, three of the Vespa models were listed among the top five favourites of the 133,077 scooters and mopeds registered, the British Motorcycle Industry Association (MCIA) said."
• "More than 16 million Vespa scooters have been sold worldwide and selling a scooter valued at 2,500 pounds has been easy, [London shop owner] says. Five to eight leave his shop every week."

Click here to check out the article.