Wheels 2008

Wheels weekend grows a little each year. This year was helped by better-than-forecast weather. If anything it was too hot. Or maybe that was because the addition of scooters to the event! This line of Italian-styled goodness was courtesy of the SPB Scooter Club of Lancaster. Mostly made up of vintage Vespas, there was one modern GTS and a couple Stellas thrown in for good measure.

The SPB Scooter Club is an informal club dedicated to vintage and/or metal scooters, with the purpose of keeping them on the road in running condition. If you own one these beauties and it's not so beautiful, they'll help you bring it back to life. You do the work, they provide the expertise. Just drop by most any Wednesday night, in the alley between the 500 blocks of State and Race.

Tom of SPB was at Wheels, acting as the Skooru, answering questions. That is if you could hear him over the Elvis(es?) providing the afternoon's soundtrack. The Lancaster Parking Authority also had a table set up, signing up people for the free scooter parking around the spiral ramp of the Prince Street Garage. I heard somebody refer to the ramp as "the Guggenheim", which gave me a chuckle.

A Harley Davidson Topper showed up to prove that metal and vintage doesn't have to mean Vespa. It caused quite a stir because you don't see a lot of these, let alone being ridden.

7th Annual Carlisle Bike Fest

This weekend was the 7th Annual Bike Fest in Carlisle. It was the first one I attended, and it was the best show I've been to so far. The things that set it apart were the stunt demos, more than ample food vendors, actual test rides from Star Motorcycles, and the sheer size of it. Oh, and the fairly organized parking coordination.

There were demos by FMX and the StarBoryz. The StarBoyz are a street bike stunt group. They did all the usual stunts you see on Super Bikes and plenty of burnouts. The finale was that they let a Buell burnout until it blew the tire like a gunshot and threw rubber up into the air.

There were some scooters in the crowd. Yes, Harley used to make a scooter. Here's a Harley Topper that hasn't seen any love for a long time. It's funny... there were a couple old, small Harley products there. But now that scooters and small bikes are flying out of showrooms, Harley Davidson doesn't make anything smaller than the 883 Sportster. And they are laying people off. Go figure.

Steve Horst of Country Road Cycles was there, promoting his scooter and motorcycle rental business. It's a great way to tour Lancaster. Also representing Lancaster County was 929 Customs.

This Honda Metro was covered with stickers and accessories, including cane and cup holders.

But what if you like the Continuously Variable Transmission (CVT) of a scooter, but want the look of a cruiser or chopper? Then you need a Ridley. Yes, this is an automatic.