Long time, no Vespa Video Vednesday. Not a Vespa in sight in this video, but it’s goodtimes in a scooter shop! Thanks for the link, Jeff! Speaking of, zip up your Agip coveralls and meet Vespa Club of Chicago at Scooterworks this Saturday (March 16) at noon, we’re doing a demo on basic spring maintenance for all scooters and scooterists! Be sure to follow Vespa Club of Chicago (wherever you follow things), we’ve got so much going on this spring/summer, and of course, while we’re here, remember that Slaughterhouse 30 is in the works for Labor Day Weekend… more on that soon ..read more

I’ve loved the song “Jet Fighter” by The Three O’Clock since I first heard it on college radio in the eighties, so it’s ridiculous that I’ve never come across this music video until today! The song is a masterpiece of catchy power-bubblegum-psych chord changes, with an organ part that has always reminded me of Cheap Trick for some reason. It defined the “Paisley Underground” sound, a term singer/bassist Michael Quercio coined to describe the short-lived scene that also included The Dream Syndicate, Rain Parade, Game Theory, and the Bangles. The video wasn’t shot on a Duran Duran budget, but i ..read more

Today I accidentally clicked on a folder of bookmarks containing my “daily feed” of scooter blogs, boards, and groups from about twelve years ago, when 2strokebuzz was going strong. Faced with 60 open tabs, I thought it’d be fun to tally how many of those sites were still live. The results: Half (mostly blogs, including some “official” Vespa blogs) are long gone. A few (mostly European shops and industry sites and groups like Modern Buddy and Modern Vespa) are still going strong. A bunch are frozen in time in the late 2010s (like the beloved scoot.net), or they maybe changed topics (usually ..read more

As you probably know if you’re still occasionally visiting/RSSing/subscribing to 2strokebuzz, The annual Slaughterhouse Rally is Chicago’s biggest and best rally and it’s been around for 28 years now! After a couple scaled-back years we’re going back to full throttle this Labor Day weekend, and I wanted to let you know that you’ve only got a few days left to register if you want to get a PERSONALIZED SLAUGHTERHOUSE 28 ILLINOIS LICENSE PLATE! You gotta register before SUNDAY (June 19) to personalize your plate (3 characters). We might have some random-number plates left after that, but if you ..read more

I’ve just found out someone’s trying to open/has opened multiple bank accounts using the business name “2strokebuzz,” this web address, and my home address. I’m Bryan Bedell, the creator of this site and brand and I have not applied for any such accounts. If you’re a bank employee or credit checker and come across this post, I’d really appreciate you contacting me, so I can put a stop to this fraud. Thanks ..read more

Smarter Every Day is a fantastic YouTube channel that really digs into explaining and simplifying how things work. The latest episode looks at carburetors, the device that mixes air and gas with the proper quantity and ratio to be compressed and detonated by the spark plug in the cylinder. Even if you’ve been fiddling with scooter carburetors for years, you still might have no idea how they actually work. Like many people, you might understand the basic theory of a carburetor, but still feel like there’s a little bit of magic going on in there. Destin explains the basic concept, then builds ..read more

It’s Vespa Video Vednesday again (it comes every few months at random intervals, it’s handed down by the archdiocese, the schedule doesn’t really make any sense) and this one is a winner. It comes by way of my very first scooter comrade, Alfredo. I don’t generally listen to whatever the kids are calling “Techno” these days, and can’t tell a Patrice Bäumel from a Stephan Bodzin to save my life. And it took me a while to figure out why he sent this to me with VVV in mind. But, oh, OH, it eventually clicked, and spoke to me. So, allow me to present to you, via Alfredo, the Adana Twins remix of ..read more

Alright, it’s not Wednesday. But tomorrow is, and it’s the Inauguration of our 46th president, and of all the bands in the world Joe Biden could have requested to close out the event, he asked Gregg Alexander to reform New Radicals and play their 1998 hit “You Only Get What You Give.” Your first thought, like mine, was probably “why?” They’re a one-hit-wonder, they only released one album and disbanded just before their second single was released. New Radicals was hardly even a “band,” for that matter, it seems to be basically Alexander plus whoever else was around at the moment (often Danie ..read more

For Vespa Video Vednesday, here’s a song NOT about Vespas, and without an actual video, but hey, it’s still Wednesday! It’s the feel-good single of the summer, a month too late, but whatever, the LP just came out this week… “My Lambretta” by North Cackalacka’s The Gallows Birds is just what you’d hope for, a surf-ish pop-punk love paean to the World’s Finest Scooter. I’m not the foremost scholar on Lambretta history, but I’m pretty sure the “TV Special” is not a model that ever shipped out of Milan, but it does have “a two-stroke engine and the body’s painted baby blue” so I’ll give them th ..read more

Today, we honor one of our favorite scooterists and dearest friends, Matt DeVries, on his 50th birthday with 2strokebuzz Issue 6, which finally concludes the subscription he paid for in 1995. Happy Birthday, Matty! Download issue 6 of 2strokebuzz Print it on one-side of 8.5×11″ paper. If it’s not obvious how to cut/fold it, watch this video ..read more