Photo by caribb, Flickr.

With the winter snows subsiding and many of us hitting the road again for the first time this year, it’s important to remember that we’re not the only recent additions to NYC roads.

Spring is pothole season in NYC.
The combined effects of the past three months of freezing temperatures, road salt, plowing, and thawing mean the city’s roads are in the worst shape of the year yet again. Growing out of the earth (or should we say falling from) like evil versions of the season’s crocuses and daffodil bulbs these menaces are every scooter’s sworn enemy.

The New York Times ran a story last week on Mayor Bloomberg’s public effort to put the city’s two millionth pothole out to pasture. And while we applaud Mr. Bloomberg taking his brand new shovel to every new hole over the coming months (good luck with that,) it’s also up to us to bring these bad boys to justice.

Here’s what you can do:

The New York City Department of Transportation categorizes these puppies as street defects. A category that includes a whole cast of characters – potholes, cave-ins, hummocks, ponding conditions (where water sits and stagnates), manhole covers, street hardware, failed street cuts, old utility cuts or the dreaded “open street cut.”

The DOT has a page detailing street defects, with guidance as to what to do to report one. Generally a call to 311 is suffice, but depending on the condition, completing a street construction complaint form may be necessary. The DOT also has an online pothole report you can use to report the offender and have it short-listed for pothole death row. The feared fill-in.

If your scooter is damaged by a street defect, you can file a claim with the city of New York by visiting the NYC Comptroller’s web site, or calling 212-669-3500. According to a New York Times article, if you yourself are damaged by the accident the city may be responsible but under the 1979 Prior Written Notice Law only if it can be demonstrated that the city was aware of the defect (as reported by a previous complaint) but has failed to address it.

But you’re not going to let that happen to you, are you? Ride safe and master the swerve, and for the next couple of weeks take it slow on your regular routes until you’ve had a chance to add new potholes to your mental list. I for one have ID’d two particularly nasty ones for 2010 on my morning commute that wouldn’t think twice of swallowing a Vespa’s 10” wheel whole.

Ride safe.

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Membership has its benefits, as Long Island’s newest club, the Absolute Scooter Club reminds us.

The Absolute Scooter Club is an informal club with no officers, dues, or meetings, just folks from LI and the surrounding NYC neighborhoods who want to get together and ride.

We’ve added the Absolute Scooter Club to our honor roll of local clubs. Visit www.absolutescooterclub.com to learn more and get involved.

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This is not what we mean by writing about scooters. Photo by Kukkorovaca, Flickr.

We’ve had a phenomenal first year of operation and next month marks our 12-month anniversary. As we enter the 2010-riding season, we’re looking to expand our team to provide regional riders valuable scooter-related news views and reviews on a daily basis.

If you’re a scooterist based in NYC, upstate, New Jersey or Long Island we want to hear from you. You don’t have to have a professional writing background but you do need to have a passion for our favorite form of transportation.

Specifically we’re looking to fill the following two positions:

Lambretta Contributor
At NYCS over the past year we’ve been guilty of not giving the Vespa’s most famous rival its fair time in the sun. Ideally you’re a Lambretta rider past or present that not only has a passion for the scoot but has also spent some time under the cowls getting your hands dirty.

The subjects you’ll write are entirely up to you as long as they are Lambo-related. Not every article need be a vintage look back. With the brand name Lambretta changing hands periodically, we’ll look to you to cover the future of the Lambretta name in all its form as much as Innocenti’s storied past.

As much as possible we want to cover the Lambretta’s remarkable heritage with an NYC perspective.

Asian Scooter Contributor
Scooters were invented for the purpose of cheaply and efficiently moving folks like you and me around. These days, owning a Vespa or a vintage Lambretta can be a luxury, not a convenience, when a contemporary Asian scooter can be had for several thousand dollars cheaper.

Asian born scooters move New Yorkers around the city daily in the spirit of the scooter’s original intent and in 2009 we didn’t give our friends in China, Taiwan and Japan fair coverage. That’s where you come in. SYM, Kymco, Yamaha, Honda, you name it; we want to hear about it.

Getting paid to do what you love
At NYCS we pay our writers on a per-post basis, its not going to make you rich, but it’s our way of saying thank you. We require our contributors to post 8-10 posts per calendar month to qualify for monthly payment via PayPal.

Posts under 500 words are paid at the rate of $10 per post. Posts over 500 words are paid at the rate of $20 per post.

Getting in touch
To learn more about joining our team, please contact me at paul@nycscootering.com.

Paul Chambers
Editor-in-Chief, NYC Scootering

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Here’s the original post, let us know what you find out:

Hello…I am selling a Vespa 200 P The Scooter from the 70’s and is complete..only missing one cown side…The engine was on this summer for 2 or 3 minutes, I don’t have any papel I paid 500 dols to restore but I don’t have time to do it now..in those old scooters is easy to get the registration from DMV,,so’ for this little money you can get a really classic scooter…I am asking 350 Dols AS IS..

Photos available if you contact the original seller from the post, here.

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The Specials at a recent gig on their 30th anniversary tour.

We’ll keep this short. Their April 21st show sold out in a matter of minutes. They’ve added Tuesday April 20th as a second date at the same venue, Terminal 5. Tickets went on sale at 12 noon today.

Run, don’t walk, to the Ticketmaster page now and book your chance to see the legends on their 30th anniversary tour.

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Local scooter legends, “Scooters O” are having a swap-meet at their Orange, NJ location on Saturday March 20th.

From the folks at Originali:

Scooters Originali Swap Meet - Saturday March 20 2010.

Bring your stuff to sell or swap.

Scooters Originali is hosting a scooter swap meet on Saturday March 20th 2010 at
our shop at 50 South Center Street, Unit 6, Orange NJ 07050, from 11am till
whenever.

Bring all those parts you”ve had hanging around in your garage for ever, and
swap them with other people, or sell them to get the money you need for new
parts. Nothing to sell or swap? No problem. Just come and browse what other
people have to sell.

There”ll be rare vintage Vespa and Lambretta parts, clothing, accessories and
even a few modern Vespa bits and pieces, all being sold at unbelievably low
prices. We need space and we need to clear the shelves off!

If you”re bringing parts to sell, just bring a blanket to throw all your parts
on, as tables will be in short supply.

You own another shop and you want to attend and sell that excess inventory
you”ve had on the shelves for a while? No problem. Drop us a line, paypal us
$10, bring your own table and you”re ready to go.

Rain/snow date will be April 17th.

Need more detail? Call us on 973 672 6600 or e-mail sales@scootersoriginali.com

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UK outfitter Armadillo Scooter Wear have found a US partner after a rocky couple of years of intermittent distribution stateside.

Miami, Florida dealer/distributor Martin Racing Performance have effectively become Armadillo Scooter Wear US. MRP are acting as a distributor for the British clothing line in the US. Unfortunately as a member of Joe Public, you can’t order from them directly, but the new deal (and MRP’s presence at this month’s Indianapolis Dealer Expo) should mean that Armadillo’s wear should start showing up in local scooter stores this spring.

Armadillo’s unique range of scooter clothing uses d30 elastic technology to add flexible lightweight body armor that hardens on high-speed impact, a technology currently in use by the US military.

Armadillo produces armored but fashionable clothing for both men and women in the form of jackets, hoodies, pants and gloves. Their best selling products include their take of the classic Parka (shown above,) the City Rider waist-length jacket, and woman’s classic silhouette Scarlett Mac.

Learn more at Armadillo’s website, or take a look at MRP’s dealer store. As soon as we have news on local store inventory we’ll share it here.

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Spend $50.00 and get 15% off – Coupon Code: 15%

Spend $120.00 and get 20% off – Coupon Code: 20%

Spend $220.00 and get 25% off – Coupon Code: 25%

No word on how long the deals will last so head on over to Scooter Mercato for additional details and start shopping.

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The right tools for the job
I’d had a failed attempt at getting the back hub open a couple of weeks ago. The nut was held on with the strength of a thousand Gorillas and wouldn’t come loose with my torque wrench, even with my girlfriend sitting on the bike and lending some additional, erm, weight and me hitting the end of the torque wrench with a hammer.

As with all things mechanical, this was a situation of not having the right tools for the job. A trip to the recently opened AutoZone in Gowanus, Brooklyn gave me an opportunity to pick up a two-foot long breaker bar. I bought one with a 1/2″ fitting for sockets, but you can just as easily use a steel tube from somewhere like Home Depot and slip it over the end of your existing torque wrench. The bar cost me $25 but hey I would have paid at least that in labor costs for a local scooter shop to do the brakes for me and now I have another tool sitting around to feel like a real dude.

To get at the back hub you need to remove the spare tire from under the cowl to give you more clearance. You also want to loosen the nut before you remove the rim and tire from the bike so you can gain the extra stability of having the bike grounded when you tug at the nut. Once I had the hub nut cover removed, and the split pin and castle nut removed, I placed my left foot on the rear brake pedal while pulling up on the breaker bar and 24mm socket on the 1/2” shaft. Man you have to admire the power of physics. With the extra leverage the bar gave me the nut came loose in one relatively painless move. A far cry from my cursing on the previous failed attempt.

Spring is on its way
Another tip I wished I’d known when working on the front brakes? It’s damn easier to pull the old brake shoes out by removing the spring first. Most folks I’ve spoken to suggest that you should wiggle the old shoes off still attached by spring and they would eventually collapse. I was able to do this on the front hub but only after some serious leverage with a claw hammer, and chipping the back-plate of the front hub in the first place.

This time, I pulled the retaining spring that holds the two shoes together off first, and after that the shoes fell limp and were easily removed by hand. I did this with a series of tugs on a pair of needle-nose pliers. I do recommend a good pair of goggles however; yanking at a high-tension spring that’s been in place a few years is a rush and had me on my guard.

Inside the hub
The back drum was at least braking somewhat last season, which is more than I can say for the front brakes. With the hub off I could see that the brake shoes themselves still had a fair amount of material left on them, the brake actuator cam was nice and square and the inside of the drum was fairly clean and not glazed with braking material. These are all of the things you’re looking for in a set of drum brakes, but given I had the hub off and a spare set of shoes sitting by; there was no harm in swapping them out. Hopefully it will at least address the squealing I’ve been getting out of the back drum on occasion. I also used this opportunity to wipe out the interior of the hub to clear the brake dust. Of course, I did this using a dust mask, and in lieu of brake cleaner used mineral spirits to wipe away the dust without leaving residue.

I’d loosened the back brake cable to allow me to change the shoes, but frankly it probably wasn’t necessary. Once the new shoes, retaining clips and new spring were back on, the hub was quickly closed back up.

Ready for the snow to end
I’m hoping to fire the PX back up again in a week or so after I get back from a trip and this infernal snow has cleared. With two new sets of brakes ready for the season I should be in good stopping shape. I’ll make a point of going cautiously on them at first though until they “bed in” and also keep an eye on making sure the hub nuts are tight with no wheel wobble during the first week or two of riding.

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Photograph courtesy of the current owner.

We’re extending our reach today beyond the city limits of NYC and out to our neighboring states. For a little extra effort in coordinating a rental van you can more than cover the cost of additional transportation when you realize that there are gems like this to be found at sub-NYC prices if you’re prepared to put in a few extra miles:

For sale in the Valley Forge neighborhood of Philadelphia is this beautiful scoot, lovingly restored by the current owner. A 1968 Vespa 125 Super with clean title, and a clean mechanical bill of health for $2300. Better yet, to make the trip an easier pill to swallow, the owner has put together a nice YouTube video of the bike during restoration and footage of it currently up and running. A great provenance that allows you to set your Vietnam worries aside.

Check out the video below, and click here for the original posting.

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