New look – same Zip

If you’re a frequent visitor to the site, you’ll notice a new look today.

We did some research and apparently this site receives visitors from Canada, Germany, the United Kingdom, Singapore and Hong Kong. Domestically we’ve had visitors from California, New Mexico, Texas and New Hampshire.

With all that traffic, we figured it was probably a good idea to spruce the place up. We’re not done, but it’s a start.

We are always looking for new things to post. If you have scooter stories or scooter pictures, let us know. You can send them to zipeditor@gmail.com

Thanks.
-Vince

BWHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

So, last week I was sound asleep when all the sudden, through the dead silence of night, I heard this BWHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA sound. I woke up and thought, “Is that somebody just holding down their car horn in front of my house?”

Seriously, it was like in the movies when someone dies behind the wheel of their car and their head falls forward, landing on the horn. I looked at the clock – 12:28 a.m. Sure, to most people that isn’t too late, but I’m a loser who wakes up at 5:30 so I had already been asleep for a while. I also thought the mysterious horn was kinda creepy.

I looked out my window and didn’t see anything. Unfortunately, the BWHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA sound had continued without stop. I opened my front door and the horn got about three times louder. Apparently that extra insulation I installed in my house really works. Just as I started walking toward my neighbor’s house, the horn stopped. I looked around and didn’t see anyone anywhere up or down the street so I decided to go back to bed.

About an hour later the horn came back, but only for about 20 seconds and then stopped again. I went back to bed.

About an hour later, the horn came back once more – for 10 straight minutes. This time my neighbor came out. Apparently it was his van. I watched from my window as he kept clicking his car alarm. It didn’t work. Then he tried starting his engine about six times. That didn’t work. Then he tried opening and slamming his hood for some reason. That didn’t work either. Finally, he decided to unhook his battery. That’s when he figured out that it wasn’t his van after all -- it was his truck making the noise. I guess it was so loud and he was so out of it that he didn’t notice.

Anyway, he unhooked that battery too and everyone went back to sleep.

So, you are probably wondering what makes this a scooter-related story. Well, if my neighbor had owned a scooter and not a truck, the piercing sound in the middle of the night would have been a MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE, not a BWHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA. And, I think there’s a good chance I could have slept through a MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE.

The end.

-Vince

A call to scooterists

When I entered this strange world of two wheeled driving I was unaware of the small cult that I was joining. For years I've seen big bearded men driving around wearing entire black-dyed cow carcasses on every inch of their body and loudly revving their engines in underpasses. When I first mounted my scooter somehow I was indoctrinated into this elite society.

Now when I drive along the road I am constantly receiving the secret motorcycle handshake that I never knew existed. For those of you outside “the know,” this happens when you pass a fellow motorcyclist. They see you cruising down the street and decided that since you are driving on two wheels they must give the greeting. This greeting comes in the form of a wave. It isn’t a high-flying, over-the-head “how-do-you-do?” Instead, it’s a cool, subtle release of the left handle bar to give an upside peace sign with arm extended.

I mostly ignore this of course. I see you motorcyclist, but I am not one of you. I am not that "cool" guy on a crotch rocket feverishly trying to hide homosexuality by straddling a tiny Japanese device that matches my jacket and helmet, or the kick-your-ass-sea-bass type who bought a motorcycle because it's the only thing that fits in my garage since it's filled to the brim with hippie corpses.

I am just a guy who loved riding bicycles and now doesn't want to pay more than $5 a month in gas. Us scooterists are a whole new type of person, but we need to unite. We need to fight against the fat asses who laugh at me from their sluggish SUVs, the motorcyclist who start to wave at me from afar until they get close enough to realize I'm on a baby scooter. We must make a new land of Scootopolis where we can scoot without scorn or isolation. We also could probably use some kind of new greeting, like honking our wussy horns or something.

-Seth

The journey home and the mysterious honking

Several months ago I purchased my first scooter. It was a beautiful day. The sun was shining, there wasn't a cloud in the sky and I had just moved into my new, spacious house. Things could not be better, that is until I received a phone call from the local motorcycle shop. My 2009 Ruckus had arrived.

I drove down to the dealership and after hours of signing papers and waiting for the repair shop to screw the handle bars onto the body my scooter was mine to drive home. Of course by now a threatening storm cloud had moved over the dealership and began to spew forth rain like no one should ever have to experience while living in a desert. I was nervous to say the least.

I had ridden bikes before in snow, sun and rain, at 3 o’clock in the morning down a mountainside road, through Main Street going the wrong way at 5 o’clock in the morning, through a construction zone, over bonfire ashes, but at this moment I was frightened.

Rain made the roads slick and I was pushing 50cc's of raw power through these wheels. I was certain I would die, but I strapped on my helmet and drove on home. I merged into traffic and was immediately heading into fierce winds. I topped out at 25 mph on my first straightaway, soaking wet and wearing only shorts and a T-shirt.

At this point a car decided to start tailing me. Obviously, with their four-cylinder, Japanese-made engine, they could be going at least twice my speed with no worries. I couldn't worry about that now – I had to prep myself for my first turn. I reached my left thumb over and began to flip my turn signal successfully. It clicked over and my signal began to flash. Then, the car behind me honked. Why the hell would he honk at me? Is this someone I know? Do they think I'm going too slowly? Pass me then you piece of sh*t. Godd*mn motherf*ck*r, I'm driving here. Sure I'm driving slowly but leave me alone. I became increasingly annoyed. They honked again...I turned. They were no longer on my tail, no more honking from them. I continued to scoot away, slowly.

The rain let up a bit and the roads were a little drier now. I was starting to get the hang of this. I prepped myself for another turn and then another, "HONK!" What?! Nobody is behind me. Who just honked? I checked my mirrors. I looked side to side. Then, I looked down at my hands. There it was, the culprit. I realized it was me all along. I had been honking as I flipped my turn signal on.

This happened for the next couple weeks on and off until I got a feel for everything. Driving through neighborhoods honking randomly as I passed kids play basketball in the streets and fathers mowing lawns, I would honk for no reason.

-Seth

$2.37 gasoline. Oh great! Oh crap!

First, the good news. Prices at the gasoline pump will average $2.37 a gallon for regular unleaded in 2009. That’s the prediction released today from the U.S. Energy Information Administration – which is some government agency that no one has ever heard of inside the U.S. Department of Energy.

Oh, great. In the short run, it benefits everyone to have gas prices come down – especially after what we’ve seen over the last year and a half. That means people in general will have more money each month to buy other things. Increased spending on other things helps the economy – which, if you haven’t noticed, is currently going down in flames.

Oh, crap. In the long run, lower gas prices just put us back to where we were a couple a years ago. We are still addicted to a fuel source that 1) we are going to run out of; 2) pollutes the environment; 3) sends millions of dollars a year out of the country.

I’m worried people are going to forget that a few short months ago, gasoline cost $4.19. When gasoline is that expensive, people think seriously about changing their habits. They carpool. They make fewer unnecessary trips. They buy scooters instead of SUVs. When gas is cheap, people forget about all of that. When people go back to their old ways, we are just setting ourselves up for another crash.

-Vince

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween, everybody. I found this picture online and thought I would post it -- especially since I still lack many scooter pictures of my own. The description reads: Vintage Halloween Hard Plastic Witch on Scooter Cake Topper ------ Made in Hong Kong. Be safe and have a good weekend.

Want to save money? Buy a scooter.

I just filled up the gas tank in my car. I wanted to take advantage of the $2.79 gasoline I found this afternoon. Who would have ever thought $2.79 gasoline would be considered a deal? At the risk of sounding like an old man before the age of 30, I remember when it was impossible to fit $20 worth of gas in my tank. I actually tried once, and ended up overflowing the tank and spilling gas on the pavement. Who cared? It was only $1.10 a gallon.

This past summer, I was never quite sure how much it cost to fill my tank. I would always stop around $48, too scared to pay more than 50 bucks for a simple tank of gasoline. I could buy a lot of stuff with $50. I could also buy enough gas to get to work for the next two weeks. Tough call.

Not long ago I discovered something amazing. I could finance a scooter that gets nearly 100 miles per gallon for about $50 a month. That means one month’s scooter payment is half the price of a month of gasoline. Throw in some insurance, a helmet and a cool jacket, and you still save hundreds of dollars a year. It’s a no brainer.

See you online. I’ll be browsing for a new scooter.

-Vince