I’m a Proud Owner of a 2007 Yamaha C3 Scooter!

Over the last week, I’ve been tweeting my intentions to buy a scooter. Today, you’re looking at a proud owner of a 2007 Yamaha C3 Scooter. The C3 is also known as the VOX in Asia and the Giggle in Europe. With a massive 49cc’s of displacement, it’s probably weaker than a John Deere ride on mower.

Why a Scooter?

The motivation to buy one didn’t come from seeing scooters in Taipei. Far from it. Those people are crazy. It came from me realizing that I refilled my tank for $65.00 in my Subaru Impreza after coming back from Taipei. Gas was around $1.20/L when I left…then shot up to $1.49/L when I came back. The news the other night was also talking about the impact of a $3.00/L gas price with similar stories coming up from the US. As I filled my tank up, I remembered that I used to fill it for less than $50 less than a year ago. What a difference!

Because I work from home, I rarely have to drive anywhere to be honest. My only daily commute is to the depot to pick up parcels. Because of all the stop and go traffic I have to endure, I end up filling up once a week, or at least topping up every Monday for around $30 - 40 on average. Add to that I have to climb out of a hilly area, and my gas mileage is utter shit. To be honest, my only real need for a car is to come out to Richmond for Dot Com Pho because of the distance.

The Short List…

Because I didn’t have a Class 6 Motorcycle License, I was limited to the growing 50cc and under range of Scooters. In British Columbia, if you have a full blown Class 5 drivers license, you can buy a scooter and drive it without passing the Motorcycle test. Basically, you’re limited to regular road speeds which is about 50-60 km/h.

In this range, there are a number of Scooters available from names like VESPA, Yamaha and Honda, as well as Korean and Chinese brands. I decided to stick with either Honda or Yamaha and ditched VESPA because they tend to be extremely overpriced for the features that you get. However, try to tell that to a VESPA owner. Not to mention, I wanted somewhere to pull my Scooter to locally in case I had any issues and both Yamaha and Honda had service centers very close to where I live.

I narrowed my search to three scooters: Honda Ruckus, Yamaha BWS and Yamaha C3.

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The World Premiere of Seasons - A Film By The Collective

As some of you know, one of my passions is bikes and every Summer, I get to take The Beast out to some great trails, or bring out the Hardtail to work on my jumping skills. During the Telus World Ski and Snowboard Festival in Whistler, I had a chance to check out the latest work of The Collective; a creative group dedicated to freeride filmmaking and pushing the art to the limits.

Since their last film, “ROAM”, The Collective had been hard at work on their latest film “Seasons”, a film that follows seven riders through Winter, Spring, Summer and Fall. The film stars freerding legends, Thomas Vanderham, Matt Hunter, Cam McCaul, Andrew Shandro, Steve Smith, Steve Peat, and Darren Berrecloth.

The premiere of the film was absolutely packed to capacity leaving standing room only for many attendees. Seasons was definitely highly anticipated as it would also help kick off the coming riding season just like how Warren Miller kicks off each Ski and Snowboard season with his movies.

Attending the premiere with me was avid rider, Brice Wong, but we also managed to snag Ed Lau, Leo Chiang and Michael Kwan to the event. Seeing as they don’t ride at all, it will be interesting to see how the film holds up to the scrutiny of the general Dot Com Public.

Most of the crowd, expecting the film start immediately, went into a frenzy when Latch Key Kid gave a live performance of Coming Home Soon, which was part of the soundtrack of ROAM. This quickly made up the $15 ticket price that was charged for this event, though gouging $10 for a canned beer or tiny glass of wine wasn’t forgiveable. After the musical performance, the crew from the movie and a few of the stars of the film showed up to give thanks to the crowd that came out to support them and then we fade to black for the movie.

The film used many of the film tricks that were developed in ROAM like the zip line camera, which allows the viewer to really follow along and take in both the beauty of the scenery and the lines that the riders are carving. Along with generous 16mm shots, The Collective managed to weave together a lush tapestry of visuals, taking us through the seasons with some of freeriding’s greatest icons. With a driving sound track and impactful cinematic sequences, Seasons is definitely a must see for any freerider looking to bring excitement back into their riding.

Surprisingly, Ed, Leo, and Michael all enjoyed the movie and agreed that it was one beautiful movie that truly conveyed the speed and excitement of the sport. With that, as a rider myself, I have definitely been bit by the riding bug again after seeing this film and can’t wait to get back out there at the dirt jumps and on the trails.

A Generation of Rudeness?

You’re probably thinking that I’m getting crotchety in my old age, but apparently, it’s not me, or rather it is me…Generation ME.

According to this article, kids today “seem rude, disrespectful and generally clueless about established social mores”. It goes on further to blame this on technology: iPods, Cell Phones, Instant Messaging and Bulletin Boards are all things that seem to isolate kids, and make them oblivious to the social graces around them. The article goes on to point out other examples of how kids are just missing the point and pissing off their elders.

Just recently, I was on the NSMB bulletin boards: A forum devoted to Freeride Mountain Biking. Average age of this forum was around 18 - 22, but I’ve seen ages as young as 16, and quite a few more under 20’s. This is probably due to the fact that there are many older members that seem to skew the average.

Generally I’ve found the board to be a wealth of information on the sport that I enjoy. However, one incident totally caught me off guard. I replied to a post and was totally dumbfounded by the rudeness of the poster asking for help. Granted, my response wasn’t that helpful, but the response to it was just poor. As social graces go, the one asking for help doesn’t blow off the people trying to give it. It’s like having a neighbour come over to ask you to borrow the lawn mower that you happen to be using, and they tell you to screw yourself when you tell them you’ll be done with it in a little bit, and they can grab it later.

The posting goes on with me trying to treat them like adults, and trying to make a point with reason, but it seems that because this generation derives their identities from the brand names they associate themselves with, and my stab at the “iPod Altar” clearly put me on the hit list for an “Apple Holy War”. The conversation spirals downwards until finally one of the other “iPod Youngsters” jumps in with a personal attack from left field. Totally uncalled for, especially since I have never had any disagreements in the past with this user. Instead of posting further, calling him out, I decided to take this to private messaging. There has been no response to my sincere request for an explanation.

Reading an article from National Review Online kind of put things into perspective. It seems young atheletes these days, like the ones I have encountered, have become “spoiled, narcissistic, shallow” as the article subtitle puts it. This is really sad.

The ramifications for such behaviour of our young atheletes include reduced funding, fewer sponsorships, and less interest in grassroots efforts for youth. No corporation wants their spokespeople of the future to be foul mouthed brats that cry when they don’t get their way, or can’t negotiate their way out of a paper bag without throwing an “Eat Shit” in there. Since mountain biking relies on community support and private funding and volunteers for the maintenance of trails, you could see a reduction of said funds and support with just a bad attitude or two.

After my experience, I clearly couldn’t see myself pointing a client to support the sport, especially if it could mean giving my client’s company a bad reputation. As much as I love the sport, I don’t like what the attitudes of some of our young riders have become, and it makes me ask what would make them see the light of day? Would full scale closures of our favourite jump parks, skate bowls, or trails be the only way to force an attitude adjustment? I sure hope it doesn’t come to that because that would mean everyone would suffer.

Speaking of sponsorship, Norco’s Sponsorship Guide has a paragraph that the kids looking to get sponsored should really take to heart:

Most important every step of the way though, is professionalism. Sponsors don’t only look at your results. They look at you as another ambassador for their products. If you act like a jerk in public, mouthing off or kicking puppies, you will not get sponsored. This especially applies to your conduct if you’ve crashed out of a race, and even when you’re not suited up. People need to respect you, and being a jerk in a chat room or out on the trails somewhere will likely not bode well. Sponsors would rather support the nice guy who finished third than the idiot who won.

If you can’t be a role model un-sponsored, how can you become one when you are sponsored?

Having said all this, hope is not all lost as there are some exceptional young people in every generation. My interaction with kids at the jump parks and trails have been mainly positive, and I hope they continue to shine in their examples to other youth. However, I am worried that in the future, if things keep continuing the way they do, we will be dealing with an entire “Generation of Rudeness”.

High Speed Police…Bicycle Chase??!!

Man, if Mario Cipollini was still racing, he’d still lose. Heck, even Robbie McEwen would be too slow to be this guys lead out man.

bike cahse

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Dirt Jumping Clinic = SUCCESS!

I had such a great time this past Saturday learning the finer points of Dirt Jumping. Both myself and my “Veteran” colleagues didn’t let age, injuries, or death (kidding) get in the way of learning this skill that them there young kids are having such fun at these days. Under the expert tutellage of Darren Butler of Endless Biking, we managed to learn what some of us have never comprehended in years of riding, in less than three hours. Darren…you da man…

In honour of my new found knowledge…the skill comes later…I’ve made a video to share with you my joy…so enjoy!

With some practicing, I’m hoping that part two will be even cooler