In case you haven’t heard *updated*
Photo: KING
Seattle has experienced a rash of shooting incidents this year, but today one such incident hit very close to home: four people were killed and one seriously wounded by a gunman at Café Racer in Seattle’s Roosevelt neighborhood. Yes, that Café Racer. The place you’ll see mentioned in many previous posts.
Owner Kurt was thankfully NOT one of the victims, though as I write this those names have not been released.
Café Racer is a gathering spot for Seattle’s scooter community, and is also a favorite haunt for artists and musicians. Kurt is a longtime Seattle scooterist.
The suspected shooter, identified as Ian Stawicki, 40, of Seattle fatally shot himself in the head when confronted by police in West Seattle. The Seattle Times quoted a relative: “We could see this coming.” The Stranger’s SLOG news blog has in-depth coverage of the indident and its aftermath. 
Where the scootin’ is old-skool
The only constant in the blogosphere is change, for sure. Especially in the scooter realm. In the five-and-change years this here blog has been around, many scooter journals have come and gone, and new ones take their place.
One new one worth your bookmark is The Scooterist, written by Đá Nguyễn of HCMC.
There are lots and lots of great pix, not all of which are from Vietnam. The blogroll is a revelation as well, with a whole bunch of scooter blogs that are new to me. You can also find The Scooterist on Facebook.
They meant to
LGG’s Meant to Offend kicked off Friday at Taqueria Tequila (Orin O’Neill photos)
Memorial Day weekend has not usually been a rally weekend in my neck of the woods, but this year Los Gatos Gordos’ Meant to Offend has a full slate of activities on tap.
As a matter of fact, it does
Valmobile scooter folds into a suitcase. Really, it does. (Found on Facebook)
Have you ever seen the opening titles of the 1960s animated TV series The Jetsons? You know, the part where George Jetson arrives at work and his flying car folds up into a briefcase?
It wouldn’t surprise me if the Valmobile Suitcase Scooter, above, is what put that idea in Hanna-Barbera’s head.
Let’s go to Victoria
At the Anacortes ferry dock (Dorcie Wellman photos)
Victoria Day weekend is Canada’s answer to Memorial Day weekend in the U.S., the unofficial kickoff of summer. In British Columbia’s captial, Victoria, it is also a weekend that sees the streets teeming with scooters.
They promised us this, too
Found this on Facebook, where you can also find Scootin’ Old Skool
I am of an age that allows me to recall that such things as the flying scooter pictured above were predicted to be part of life in the year 2012.
2013 Euro Vespa LX to debut in June
Vespa LX 125 (Piaggio photo)
Word comes of the introduction of a revised Vespa LX 125/150 in Europe in early June. According to a story on French Web site Scooter-infos.com (In the original French, cliquez ici; in English, click here.), Piaggio will unveil the new scooter, which features a catalyzed and fuel-injected version of their new 3-valve engine, at a media event in Rome.
This engine debuted in the Vespa 946 concept shown at EICMA in 2011; its first application in a production scooter was the newly-introduced Indian-market Vespa LX. Piaggio touts significant reductions in fuel consumption, emissions and noise.
This engine is also expected to appear in Piaggio’s Fly 125/150, and other Piaggio Group scooters.
