Posts Tagged ‘scooter’

A Salute to the the Mini-Skirted, High-Heeled Scooter Riders of San Francisco

Monday, March 25th, 2013

For those about to scoot, we salute you:

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Trixie, Speed Racer’s Girlfriend, Spotted on Fulton Street

Monday, October 1st, 2012
She also flies helicopters:

Trixie (志村美智 Shimura Michi) Voiced by: Yoshiko Matsuo (later Michiko Nomura) (Japanese), Corinne Orr (English)
Originally Michi Shimura (志村美智 Shimura Michi), Trixie is Speed’s chaste girlfriend. The “M” adorning Trixie’s blouse stands for Michi. Michi would often fly around in a helicopter during a race, advising Speed Racer via a radio link to the Mach 5, in effect acting as his spotter, a function she also serves in the live-action film during the Casa Cristo 5000. In the manga it is mentioned that her father is the president of Shimura Aviation, which explains why she owns her own helicopter. Further implying that she is a “rich girl”, she can also be seen driving a Mercedes (in the anime; in the manga, it is a generic symbol not representing any car company). A recurring event, used to add comic relief in the anime, is when Trixie becomes jealous and arrogant if Speed is appalled or enthralled by another beautiful girl or when she is ignored or left alone. In the 2008 live action film, she is portrayed by actress Christina Ricci. She had a reddish brown bob cut with bangs; in the anime, her hair was dark brown.
Unlike most female characters in cartoons at that time, Trixie is not portrayed as a helpless perpetual victim in need of saving. Trixie often proves herself the equal of Speed when forced into physical altercations. While Trixie has been captured on occasion by the villains, she refuses to cower or plead for her release, more often giving the bad guy a serious tongue-lashing until she is either rescued or escapes on her own. On some occasions, Trixie has even been the one to rescue Speed or other male characters from their predicaments.”

Digg This: Here’s Your Chance to Buy a Cherried-Out 1977 Puch Maxi Moped Recenty Owned by Kevin Rose

Monday, September 10th, 2012

$1700 on the craigslist. See?

“Kevin Rose’s moped is back up for sale. 2nd@1977mopeds build I’ve seen on SF craigslist this week. Very nice bike.”

Anyway, it runs, or at least it was running about town last week.

Here’s the history on YouTube - start at around 4:00.

Deets on Jalopnik

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Ever more deets:

Fully Loaded 1977 Puch Maxi Moped – $1700 (mission district)

I am selling the 1977 Puch Maxi moped featured in this blog post: http://jalopnik.com/5481416/dont-bury-kevin-roses-custom-moped

It has been fully restored. It hasn’t been driven much, but the pedals were swapped out for pegs. I still have them if you’re interested in them instead.

Asking $1700 OBO.

Thanks!

Chris”

 

Tiny Customized Scooter is Street Legal, Bike Trail Legal, Golden Gate Park Legal, AND Crosswalk Legal – Amazing!

Friday, September 7th, 2012

Or not.

Not all all.

I’ve never seen this:

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I don’t know, if I were on a tiny motorcycle and I wanted to go from Panhandle North to Panhandle South or vice versa and I didn’t want use Stanyan or Masonic or Baker and it were late at night, I still wouldn’t drive though GGP as a shortcut because the concept simply wouldn’t occur to me. But the idea would probably work OK.

Anyway.

Know Your Three-Wheeled, Electric-Powered, Stand-Up Tricycles of the Streets of San Francisco

Monday, October 31st, 2011

First I’ve seen this:

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Don’t know what it’s called…

Three-Wheeled Scooter Totally Pwns Two-Wheeled Scooter on the Streets of San Francisco

Monday, September 12th, 2011

See?

Pwned:

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Totally.

The Wide, Wide Sidewalks of Market Street Invaded by an Army of Scooter-Riding Youth

Thursday, August 18th, 2011

Is this kind of thing illegal?

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I don’t know.

Probably, if bikes and Segway scooters are illegal on most sidewalks in the 415, as they are.

And what’s a scooter these days?

I don’t know.

I think of something like this:

 

Gee, could this scene be any more Italiano?

Or this, of course:

As seen in Twin Peaks.

Anyway, the fold-up scooter fad (you know, the one that lasted a year or two in the 1990′s) is back, baby.

Segway Tour Supply Exceeds Segway Tour Demand, So Far, in Golden Gate Park, It Would Seem

Tuesday, June 21st, 2011

But if you can pony up the dough, you can experience a 4 MPH thrill ride through Golden Gate Park some time.

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If you want.

NB: The mandatory training course takes 45 minutes.

That Horrible Ultra Motor Ltd Company is Still Around, Still Selling Their Crummy A2B Electric Scooters

Thursday, June 9th, 2011

Now don’t get me wrong, I think test-driving an A2B electric scooter in Golden Gate Park can be fun, but the problem is that these rigs don’t really make sense for the vast majority of people, that’s the problem.

Anyway, this is the past weekend in GGP here…

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…and this below is from the past.

Sometimes you spend money on an idea and it doesn’t work out.

Oh well.

Well well, has it really been a half-year since an example of the ridiculous, overweight and overpriced A2B electric bike / moped thing has been spotted on the Streets of San Francisco? Yes.

Here’s the one sighted yesterday. It’s a rental of course, but actually, that’s not a bad thing. Assuming you don’t run out of juice, renting an A2B for 69 bones doesn’t appear to be a bad way to spend a day exploring the 415 . You could easily haul on over to Sausalito (remembering to pretend to pedal – the Golden Gate Bridge people actually require this) and back without breaking a sweat.

See?

(Take care it doesn’t get stolen, though, else they’ll charge your credit card an arm and a leg.)

O.K. then.

Now I’ll tell you, most of the people who comment about the posts made about the A2B on this website actually work (or worked) for Ultra Motor.

For example, here’s a bit from Ultra Motor Co-Founder and President Jon Bowman from earlier this year:

“Wow. You really have nothing better to do than attack what appears to be a good idea and an innovative product.”

Does that make sense? He’s berating me for criticising one of his P.O.S. products from the standpoint of someone who doesn’t work for Ultra Motor, yet he works for Ultra Motor. (Reminds me of when people at the San Francisco Chronicle Newspaper would make comments on SFist claiming to work full-time for MUNI or something. They weren’t really fooling anybody…)

Anyway, a newer product Ultra Motor has is called the Excel and it’s being marketed as a $5000 electric scooter. O.K., if it makes you happy.

The big problem with all these bikes is that they don’t sell. The fact that you have to fork over $2200 plus tax, minimum, to buy one (unless you get a deal through Craigslist ) is merely the first problem. It’s not the only problem, not at all. (Now, they have this newer model, the Velocity (Velociti?) but I ain’t never seen one of those – maybe it’s closer to being an actual electric bike…)

Oh well. Even the people who like these things don’t really like these things.

If you want an electric bike, get a Trek or something else.

This is Why You Wear a Helmet on a Scooter: Rider Collides with the Back of a Volvo Station Wagon on 9th Street

Friday, May 13th, 2011

The rear window of the black Volvo on the left was broken by the red scooter rider yesterday everning, it would seem.

Let’s hope for a speedy recovery.

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