Modern Buddy

Posted: **Fri Dec 16, 2011 8:56 pm**

Beautiful Lake Geneva, Wisconsin will be the site of Amerivespa 2012. VCOA will be celebrating its 20th Amerivespa. Club Scoot Jockeys and Midwest Action Cycles will be co-hosting some great rides and entertainment.

It's a scooting old school retro theme this year. Let's bring out some of your best scoots! Amerivespa is, as always, an all scooter rally, be it vintage or modern, Vespa or Honda, you're all welcome!

We're going to attempt the world's largest scooter parade! We're going to need a whole lot of scooters! So come on out! We'll have more details on this attempt in a bit.

We've got both camping and hotel options. Make your reservations early.

Camping at Big Foot State Park: http://wisconsinstateparks.reserveameri ... kCode=bigf

Lodging at Harbor Shores: Mention Amerivespa to get discounted rate.
http://www.harborshoreslg.com/

Lodging at Bella Vista Suites: Mention Amerivespa. (May be sold out already)
http://www.bellavistasuites.com/

Amerivespa on the web: Early bird registration is now open!
http://amerivespa.org/
Mike "Jefe" Bobadilla
President - Vespa Club of America
Ex Pres - Vespa Club Los Gatos

Early bird Amerivespa registration at http:www.amerivespa.org

Posted: **Wed Apr 04, 2012 7:19 pm**

There will be about 8 of us from Kansas City going. At the moment we have one guy who is riding the entire way. The rest of us are trailering our scoots.

Posted: **Tue Apr 17, 2012 3:18 pm**

I am in the process of reaching out to my Chi-Tow pals. They will come up to me just north of the city limits, and we'll head out together.

Not sure how long we're staying, but at the moment, it looks like we're comin' up early for the world record attempt day! Gotta at least try it, right?

Go scoots!

SBJ

Posted: **Fri May 25, 2012 2:18 pm**

We will all be there from Flat squirrel hope to see everyone! It's always a great time.

Posted: **Tue Jun 05, 2012 12:52 am**

MB Amerivespa Roll Call: Post/follow this thread: topic22283.html

Posted: **Tue Jun 05, 2012 1:49 am**

How do we get a copy of that poster?

Posted: **Tue Jun 05, 2012 1:55 am**

They may have them for sale at registration. I'll ask Mike.

Posted: **Tue Jun 05, 2012 4:33 am**

I LOVE that poster!

Posted: **Tue Jun 05, 2012 5:11 am**

It will be on sale at AV. There are usually extras after, too, for those who might want one.

Posted: **Mon Jun 11, 2012 2:31 pm**

Any way I can bribe someone to buy a poster for me or will they be available online?

Posted: **Mon Jun 11, 2012 6:52 pm**

You may be able to get them afterwards. Attendees get first pick, so it'll come down to how many they move there. I may try to get one set aside for me and shipped so I don't have to get it back to LA without getting crushed.

Posted: **Tue Jun 12, 2012 4:01 am**

Lake Geneva is getting ready for us!

Posted: **Tue Jun 12, 2012 4:57 am**

And, also they appear to be the first municipality to post to post on Modern Buddy, and also the first municipality to get excited about a scooter rally. It's like Chicago preparing for the NATO summit, but backwards.

Posted: **Tue Jun 12, 2012 5:12 am**

They posted on MB? I must have missed it!

EDIT: Found it.

Posted: **Tue Jun 12, 2012 11:44 am**

Yea, I was in Lake Geneva last Wednesday and was surprised to see the banners were up.
They are gearing up for quite an event.
Stopped by the hosting dealer, located on Host Drive no less.
They said they had over 500 pre-registrations so far......thats a LOT-O-SCOOTERS!

They are anticipating well over a thousand......we'll see.
I'll be heading up again on the Thursday A.M. of the event.

Rob

Posted: **Wed Jun 20, 2012 1:24 am**

If you are heading to Amerivespa here is a google map of the event locations
http://tinyurl.com/amerivespamap

See you there

Posted: **Wed Jun 20, 2012 4:45 am**

Really tried to make it. Not this time

Take lots of pics guys!...I really wanted to be in the record attempt!

Posted: **Sat Jun 23, 2012 2:53 pm**

Time to head to the line up for the world record Scooter ride

Posted: **Sat Jun 23, 2012 4:46 pm**

Let us know if they make it!. THAT is what I really wanted to be there for!

Posted: **Sat Jun 23, 2012 4:47 pm**

I am trying to find the official count but the word is we did it

Posted: **Sat Jun 23, 2012 7:02 pm**

Hope everyone is having a blast at amerivespa. Stay hydrated and take lots of pictures.

Posted: **Sat Jun 23, 2012 10:46 pm**

ScootLemont wrote:I am trying to find the official count but the word is we did it

Hopefully they'll announce it tonight, but most signs were that we were going to hit. There was some confusion about sign in and registration for the record attempt. Hoping that doesn't torpedo it.

Either way, it was actually a lot more fun than I'd been anticipating. I figured it would be two miles of creeping along at a snail's pace but it was a nice route around town to the edge of the lake and the pace was snappy. The townspeople were (for the most part) thrilled. Over the past couple days, I've had strangers who live here just approach and ask about the world record attempt. It was kind of exciting being about 1/4 of the way back in a group that big, then seeing the rest of the scoots come in over several minutes!

I also heard that Philip McCaleb was the on last scooter in the parade!

The Genuine turnout for the parade, and in general, is enormous. Would not surprise me if there were as many Genuines as Vespas here.

Posted: **Sat Jun 23, 2012 11:05 pm**

ericalm wrote:
ScootLemont wrote:
I also heard that Philip McCaleb was the on last scooter in the parade!

The Genuine turnout for the parade, and in general, is enormous. Would not surprise me if there were as many Genuines as Vespas here.
THAT is Cool...way to go Phil!

Posted: **Sat Jun 23, 2012 11:54 pm**

Without pictures, it didn't happen.

Posted: **Sun Jun 24, 2012 1:22 am**

Here are my Amerivespa photos & a video

topic22518.html

Posted: **Sun Jun 24, 2012 1:25 am**

I assume videos from the world record ride will start showing up on youtube soon (there were lots of people taking video)

If anyone comes across any, please post up a link here (yes, I want to see myself, but mostly I want to see the entire parade - I only got to see the 50 or so in front of me & the 50 or so behind me during the ride, so I missed the other 800ish scooters)

Posted: **Sun Jun 24, 2012 2:40 am**

I'm so ridiculously stoked about Amerivespa 2013 San Diego that I'm using words like "stoked."

Posted: **Sun Jun 24, 2012 4:21 pm**

From the Amerivespa twitter feed

"Amerivespa - ‎660 scooters. Not a world record, but we're claiming a North American record."

Posted: **Mon Jun 25, 2012 4:45 am**

Dayuum...well jut gotta try again. That is still way impressive!

Does anyone know where and when the old record was set?

Posted: **Mon Jun 25, 2012 10:13 pm**

From http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/rec ... -scooters/

The largest parade of scooters featured 860 participants and was achieved by Yorkshire Scooter Alliance on the Humber Bridge, Hull, UK, on 14 August 2010.
864 scooters crossed the bridge, but the last 4 had to be discounted because they drove behind the back up vehicle at the end of the parade.

Posted: **Tue Jun 26, 2012 3:16 pm**

Here is video a bystander took of the world record attempt
topic22543.html

Posted: **Wed Jun 27, 2012 3:16 am**

ScootLemont wrote:From the Amerivespa twitter feed

"Amerivespa - ‎660 scooters. Not a world record, but we're claiming a North American record."

I think the count was off. Someone told me they went down the line, pre-parade, and counted 283 scooters in the near line. They had us lined up in three lines (three deep) so the total should have been around 850. But there's not much we can do about that. It was a ton-o-fun to be part of!

Posted: **Wed Jun 27, 2012 4:28 am**

pugbuddy wrote:
ScootLemont wrote:From the Amerivespa twitter feed

"Amerivespa - ‎660 scooters. Not a world record, but we're claiming a North American record."
I think the count was off. Someone told me they went down the line, pre-parade, and counted 283 scooters in the near line. They had us lined up in three lines (three deep) so the total should have been around 850. But there's not much we can do about that. It was a ton-o-fun to be part of!

I have a feeling the count will be debated for some time to come.

Posted: **Wed Jun 27, 2012 6:16 am**

It just sounded like the official count varied quite a bit from the real count. Several people told me they were counting rows of 3 as the group left, or counted on video, and there were plenty more than enough. It sounds like a lot of people were under the impression that if they were registered for the rally, they needn't sign in (that was the impression I got from reading the site earlier) but apparently they needed everyone to sign in.

I laughed when I originally saw they were trying to break the record, but as it got nearer I thought "well, they might actually pull it off!" It's a shame that a lack of communication probably wrecked it, but as far as I'm concerned, it was amazing and the organizers did a great job with everything all weekend, they should be proud.

Posted: **Wed Jun 27, 2012 3:21 pm**

We were confused about what was to happen, we got to our tent area and found out that the ride started from Midwest Action Cycle. Do we set up our tent and sell or ride? The hell with the tent, we raced towards the cycle shop only to find that the ride was departing.

There was a group of about 6 Rovers SC members in front of us, and some other stragglers, maybe a few dozen, and we all just merged in without being counted....

It was so much fun, and the townies were waving and cheering. The weather and location were gorgeous!

Posted: **Wed Jun 27, 2012 4:16 pm**

illnoise wrote:It just sounded like the official count varied quite a bit from the real count. Several people told me they were counting rows of 3 as the group left, or counted on video, and there were plenty more than enough. It sounds like a lot of people were under the impression that if they were registered for the rally, they needn't sign in (that was the impression I got from reading the site earlier) but apparently they needed everyone to sign in.

I laughed when I originally saw they were trying to break the record, but as it got nearer I thought "well, they might actually pull it off!" It's a shame that a lack of communication probably wrecked it, but as far as I'm concerned, it was amazing and the organizers did a great job with everything all weekend, they should be proud.

I asked that exact question as we lined up (we were there a good 40 minutes early)... they told me as long as we were signed up for the really we were good.

Posted: **Wed Jun 27, 2012 4:24 pm**

Well we'll know better for AV San Diego when we'll break the record.

Posted: **Thu Jun 28, 2012 3:15 am**

illnoise wrote:It just sounded like the official count varied quite a bit from the real count. Several people told me they were counting rows of 3 as the group left, or counted on video, and there were plenty more than enough. It sounds like a lot of people were under the impression that if they were registered for the rally, they needn't sign in (that was the impression I got from reading the site earlier) but apparently they needed everyone to sign in.

I laughed when I originally saw they were trying to break the record, but as it got nearer I thought "well, they might actually pull it off!" It's a shame that a lack of communication probably wrecked it, but as far as I'm concerned, it was amazing and the organizers did a great job with everything all weekend, they should be proud.

I'm not sure what happened. I was asked to fill out a form despite being registered for AV and wearing my badge. The form was the standard event waiver. Most other people were waved through on their scoots as they came in.

I did hear they had someone with a clicker doing a head (or row) count.

Sure we can get 870 scooters in SD is we start publicizing it early enough.

Posted: **Thu Jun 28, 2012 5:38 pm**

ericalm wrote:
illnoise wrote:It just sounded like the official count varied quite a bit from the real count. Several people told me they were counting rows of 3 as the group left, or counted on video, and there were plenty more than enough. It sounds like a lot of people were under the impression that if they were registered for the rally, they needn't sign in (that was the impression I got from reading the site earlier) but apparently they needed everyone to sign in.

I laughed when I originally saw they were trying to break the record, but as it got nearer I thought "well, they might actually pull it off!" It's a shame that a lack of communication probably wrecked it, but as far as I'm concerned, it was amazing and the organizers did a great job with everything all weekend, they should be proud.
I'm not sure what happened. I was asked to fill out a form despite being registered for AV and wearing my badge. The form was the standard event waiver. Most other people were waved through on their scoots as they came in.

I did hear they had someone with a clicker doing a head (or row) count.

Sure we can get 870 scooters in SD is we start publicizing it early enough.

Can't really go on number of AV registrants because we had a lot of folks riding 2-up. It all came down to a head count once we were lined up.

Posted: **Thu Jun 28, 2012 6:19 pm**

I watched the video and saw a lot of maxi-scoots. Do those count? If so, I might think about riding out to AV SD to help break the record. I'm not much of a partier but any excuse to ride cross-country is a good excuse, you know?

Posted: **Thu Jun 28, 2012 6:50 pm**

When it was happening, I was thinking there had to be 900 scooters but....

The road we lined up on was about 1,584 feet (according to google maps)
Figure each scooter is an average of 70" long
+ 24" of space between each row of scooters
Thats 202 rows of scooters x 3 wide
That equals 606 scooters.
Add to that another 60 or scooters in the MAC parking lot & scattered around in other locations (like the driveway for the water tower) & we end up with pretty close to the 660 they counted.

Even if the scooters were wheel to wheel with no gap, that would be 814 scooters in the line up & we would have needed another 50 scooters in the parking lots to hit the record. But we were not wheel to wheel.

So as much as I hate to say it... I think we were under 700 scooters.
But hey... I was part of the North American record!

Posted: **Thu Jun 28, 2012 7:07 pm**

teacherquinn wrote:
ericalm wrote:
illnoise wrote:It just sounded like the official count varied quite a bit from the real count. Several people told me they were counting rows of 3 as the group left, or counted on video, and there were plenty more than enough. It sounds like a lot of people were under the impression that if they were registered for the rally, they needn't sign in (that was the impression I got from reading the site earlier) but apparently they needed everyone to sign in.

I laughed when I originally saw they were trying to break the record, but as it got nearer I thought "well, they might actually pull it off!" It's a shame that a lack of communication probably wrecked it, but as far as I'm concerned, it was amazing and the organizers did a great job with everything all weekend, they should be proud.
I'm not sure what happened. I was asked to fill out a form despite being registered for AV and wearing my badge. The form was the standard event waiver. Most other people were waved through on their scoots as they came in.

I did hear they had someone with a clicker doing a head (or row) count.

Sure we can get 870 scooters in SD is we start publicizing it early enough.
Can't really go on number of AV registrants because we had a lot of folks riding 2-up. It all came down to a head count once we were lined up.

Can we claim a Western Hemisphere Record? That's half the world instead just a fourth!

jrsjr wrote:I watched the video and saw a lot of maxi-scoots. Do those count? If so, I might think about riding out to AV SD to help break the record. I'm not much of a partier but any excuse to ride cross-country is a good excuse, you know?

We would love to have you out here!

Posted: **Thu Jun 28, 2012 7:54 pm**

I didn't sign in when I lined up, and none of my peeps did. We didn't see anybody signing anyone up. In fact, didn't it say (on the website?) that people already registered for Amerivespa didn't have to sign up?

Actually, that made no sense to me, from a head-counting perspective. But from a "hooray one less line to wait in" perspective I dug it.

Posted: **Thu Jun 28, 2012 10:08 pm**

chloefpuff wrote:I didn't sign in when I lined up, and none of my peeps did. We didn't see anybody signing anyone up. In fact, didn't it say (on the website?) that people already registered for Amerivespa didn't have to sign up?

Actually, that made no sense to me, from a head-counting perspective. But from a "hooray one less line to wait in" perspective I dug it.

For San Diego, how about a little high-tech razzle-de-dazzle like a RFID tag for each scooter that's signed up for the parade? That way, you just scan the scooters as they go by in the parade and you are done. RFID tags are dirt cheap. They could even be embedded in a day badge or a pin or something like that which folks would want to collect, kill two birds with one stone.

Posted: **Thu Jun 28, 2012 11:10 pm**

jrsjr wrote:
chloefpuff wrote:I didn't sign in when I lined up, and none of my peeps did. We didn't see anybody signing anyone up. In fact, didn't it say (on the website?) that people already registered for Amerivespa didn't have to sign up?

Actually, that made no sense to me, from a head-counting perspective. But from a "hooray one less line to wait in" perspective I dug it.
For San Diego, how about a little high-tech razzle-de-dazzle like a RFID tag for each scooter that's signed up for the parade? That way, you just scan the scooters as they go by in the parade and you are done. RFID tags are dirt cheap. They could even be embedded in a day badge or a pin or something like that which folks would want to collect, kill two birds with one stone.

I don't envy Alex and the crew at Motorsport or the VCOA officers. In a scant few days, I've heard more suggestions and ideas (some good, some ehhhhh) for next year's Amerivespa than any year since I've been paying attention!

Posted: **Fri Jun 29, 2012 12:16 am**

ericalm wrote:In a scant few days, I've heard more suggestions and ideas (some good, some ehhhhh) for next year's Amerivespa than any year since I've been paying attention!

Hahaha! I hear you. I just wish they'd come up with a way to keep registered rally attendees from having to wait in a line even once. Also, I think riding through an RFID reader would be kinda cool. They could pick a random RFID number and give that person a prize at the awards. It'd add an incentive to actually show up for the ride. They could track RFID owners and automatically post a roll-call on their respective forums to give them some credit for making the ride. Maybe there's some other creative way to use the RFID data? Eehhhhh, well, y'know, it sounded like a good idea at the time...

Posted: **Fri Jun 29, 2012 1:28 am**

jrsjr wrote:
ericalm wrote:In a scant few days, I've heard more suggestions and ideas (some good, some ehhhhh) for next year's Amerivespa than any year since I've been paying attention!
Hahaha! I hear you. I just wish they'd come up with a way to keep registered rally attendees from having to wait in a line even once. Also, I think riding through an RFID reader would be kinda cool. They could pick a random RFID number and give that person a prize at the awards. It'd add an incentive to actually show up for the ride. They could track RFID owners and automatically post a roll-call on their respective forums to give them some credit for making the ride. Maybe there's some other creative way to use the RFID data? Eehhhhh, well, y'know, it sounded like a good idea at the time...

Although lines do tend to suck...they are sometimes necessary. Apparently we need to check rally badges more often as some folks who came just for the ride (free) decided to stay and eat at the banquet as well! We appreciate all the suggestions and will make next year's event amazing!

Posted: **Fri Jun 29, 2012 3:51 pm**

I've been involved with RFID for a while - my company was one of those 'chosen' to be early partners with WalMart's supply-chain enhancements. Lots of work.

Passive RFID is improving, and tag prices are falling. RFID tags are being used for scoring/timing at some of the big marathon footraces, with the tags embedded in a plastic holder that runners attach to their shoelaces. The gear in my lab is a little old, though, so I don't know how the more modern readers would work with all the metal in the scooters. I think it could be done, though, with reasonable reliability, if there were multiple read stations to pick up any tags the first reader missed.

However, for every innovative and beneficial use of RFID, such as tracking of perishables, locating tools going in/out of a jobsite, or tracking newborns in/out of the nursery, there are folks who will scream about Black Helicopters, military-grade sci-fi RFID, brains being microwaved, and their privacy being broadcast all over the Interwebs whenever they get scanned. Those of us who have been working with the technology for a decade or so laugh at some of this, but many folks have concerns, real or imagined.

Posted: **Mon Jul 02, 2012 8:02 pm**

ericalm wrote:I'm so ridiculously stoked about Amerivespa 2013 San Diego that I'm using words like "stoked."

Not having AV on the East Coast next year, Southern California is the next best thing. Julie is more "stoked" then I am. In fact, I think we'll try to allow an extra few days. Does NoHo have enough rentals? I'm debating if we should each rent one or get a larger maxi-scoot and I'll ride cupcake. Either way, it's another reason to spend time with our left coast friends when I'm not completely exhausted and back on Earth. Sorry, I was too exhausted after CBR to be very socialable. That's to be expected after a week of miserable motel beds, no exercise, minimal sleep, 3 day old underwear, and living off of coffee and snicker bars.

If not NoHo, there's always Sherman Oaks or 66 Mod Classics.

Posted: **Mon Jul 02, 2012 8:17 pm**

I'm talking to a lot of folks about the rental situation. Hope to have more info in the next few months.

There are some places further out that do rentals and I hope to convince them to trailer in a lot of scoots to SD for the weekend. We shall see.

Modern Buddy

Amerivespa 2012 - June 21-24, 2012

Amerivespa 2012 - June 21-24, 2012

Chicago & 'Burbs representin'!