the LA Times has a piece on the Latebirds

...Pedestrians stop and smile as the riders cruise along Hyperion Avenue toward Hugo's, a taco stand in Atwater Village where they'll load up on horchatas and burritos before swarming up the hills of Griffith Park. Unlike some more fearsome biker gangs, this friendly two-wheeled tribe seems to elicit nothing but warmth from the general public, especially older folk who remember riding the bikes in the '70s.

Even tough-guy bikers seems to have a soft spot for them, based on their mutual obsession with mechanical problem-solving and the unending quest for speed. And there's a natural bond between the moped gangs and such vintage bike gangs as the Cretins (who ride vintage Café Racers) and South Bay skater/bikers the Cycle Zombies.

"We're pretty much the same type of people -- most of those guys get super stoked on us riding mopeds," rider Nik Jung says.

Among this band of brothers is a handful of girls, who plan to start a Girls-Only Moped League. One of them, Jennifer Anderson, was hobbling around Choke on crutches after breaking her femur at a Polini-sponsored moped race in Atwater, in the San Joaquin Valley, a few months ago. She's putting on a brave face, and joins her friends at Hugo's despite her injury. A founding member of the Latebirds, she says the scene has grown to be "bigger than I ever thought it would be."

via the LA Times

From Zine to Magazine

I'm pulling a complete overhaul of the magazine for the upcoming November issue. It's going to be published on Full color gloss paper, you know the kind of nice smooth and shiny paper that normal everyday magazines are printed with. We’ll be accepting your submissions until October 24th next week, so send us your stuff now in all of it's full color glory.

Anyone who donates $5 or more dollars towards the printing costs will recieve a free copy of the upcoming issue and a 1/8 of a page (buisness card size) shout out in the magazine.

Also Subscriptions are now available to the right, $25 for a year (6 issues)

For those who wish to purchase advertising, full-page full-color ads are $50, with negotiable discounts. Email for more info at getoutandride.zine@gmail.com

We Got mentioned on Keith and the Girl

you can listen to the episode here
skip to 34:29 for the mention of Get Out & Ride and Moped Culture

Wired Covers the Orphans

...Almost every major city in the U.S. boasts at least one moped gang, and the names straddle being badass and ironic: Creatures of the Loin (San Francisco), Puddle Cutters (Portland, Oregon), the Tom Cruisers (Tempe, Arizona), Latebirds (Los Angeles), Landsquids (Sacramento, California), Decepticons (Kalamazoo, Michican), Hells Satans (Richmond, Virginia) and more.

The Orphans are Brooklyn’s fearsome two-stroke contigent (pictured above), and they’re obsessed with the abandoned pedal-start bikes.

Mopeds reached the height of their popularity in the late 1970s during the oil crisis. Now they litter backyards and clutter garages with their rusted frames and rotted tires. A growing subculture, to which the Orphans belong, is eager to breathe life back into these motorized gems and turn them loose in the streets...

via Wired

Thoughts on Moped Culture

...In the land of big houses with big yards and big cars, the thought that a two-stroke peddle start engine fastened to a glorified bicycle as a means of serious transportation was something best left to Europeans. My first thought of a moped enthusiast (before I rode one myself), was a slender man with a pencil thin mustache, a tight-fitting white and black striped shirt and a red beret. But through the grace of 1970s creative advertising and the economic implications of the time, mopeds, which easily boast up to 100 miles to the gallon, sparked the imagination of mainstream America. Gliding through traffic, avoiding vehicle registration and insurance and the convenience of side walk parking, made mopeds ideal for many commuting relatively short distances. In large cities and in rural towns, the mid to late 1970s saw the true arrival of a pass time that had been steadily progressing since the 1950s.

The success of the craze was short lived however, and by the early 1980s Americans were finding new ways of identifying themselves (like making tons of money in the stock market and blowing white powder up their nose). The trend of mainstream moped recognition had been reduced to a fad that by 1983 was very much out of style. The 1980s ushered in an era of in which America regained a defined sense of self, and with it came drastically different habits in consumerism. But it was this fall from grace that has largely affected those individuals who today are responsible for resurrecting moped interest. Mopeds of the 1970s were so fully integrated into the basic fabric of the time that a culture derived specifically from the vehicle was almost non-existent. Today, the underground moped movement, powered largely through advances in technology (i.e. the Internet), has blossomed into what can easily be described as a “scene.” The scene or sub-culture is defined by jargon, fashion, and shared pop-culture references. Like all sub-cultures, modern mopeders embrace the general ethos of the dominant society, but actively differentiate themselves by rebelling from popular norms...

via The Tripwire

Kevin Rose is into Mopeds

moped talk starts at 3:47

Harvard Recognizes the Moped

...the five-year Harvard staffer has bought and registered more than 600 mopeds since 1972, and has run up half a million moped miles, including a trip from New York City to Key West, Fla.

Though not a member, he identifies with a loosely confederated national group called Moped Army, and on most Wednesdays he meets local riders for a collective run. “We know we are different,” said Seley, who dons a snowmobiling suit for winter rides, “and we celebrate that.”

Commuting on a little pedal-fitted bike used to earn him more incredulity than admiration. Then came $4-per-gallon gas. “Overnight,” said Seley, “I went from nutcase to visionary.”
...

via Harvard Gazette

Moped Madness - TIME (circa 1977)

Here's what Time magazine though about those new moped things back during the moped craze of the late 70s:

July 4th, 1977

Mopeds are the near-beer of the motorcycle world. They are more than bicycles but less—far less—than the roaring machines straddled by Marlon Brando in The Wild One and Peter Fonda in Easy Rider; no self-respecting Hell's Angel would be caught dead on one. Yet mopeds (from motorized-bicycle-plus-pedals) are coming on like Scotch after Repeal...

...Honda led an earlier attempt to put the U.S. on two wheels. In the mid-'60s it sold lightweight, brightly colored machines that helped strip motorcycling of its greasy, violent image. But sales fell off, largely because state laws turned ownership of the little bikes into a hassle. The current moped madness was touched off by new laws in 31 states that class the machines as bicycles or "motorized bicycles" instead of motorcycles. Result: moped owners in about half of those states do not have to register their bikes. In many states they do not even need drivers' licenses. In most states, the minimum age to drive a moped is 15 or 16; Indiana, Ohio and South Carolina impose no minimum at all. No state's moped law requires crash helmets, or calls for liability insurance —recognition that mopeds are only slightly more hazardous than ordinary bicycles. The biggest danger comes from the fact that American car drivers, unlike their counterparts in Europe, are not accustomed to sharing the road with mopeds...

via the TIME Magazine Archives

Some things change, while others stay the same.

Shame Week Aftermath

DSCN7901, originally uploaded by k.z.

Though I'm sure that various coverage of the NYC carnage can be found around the net, all I could find were these sweet pics:
khz Blog, kzPics, SheilaMonster, & others

Moped Limbo

Leave it to some crazy Norwegians to invent this new sport:

See the World Record in Moped Limbo
Sarpsborg, Norway

Totally unofficial but very funny...

Smoke hangs low over the landscape, where around 100 passionate moped owners gathered in Sarpsborg this weekend.

Where Norway got a new world record holder - the record itself. Moped Limbo is a small sport, but it's is very entertaining to watch (video)

via NRK News

Now Availible in Stores... In SF

For those of you in San Francisco you can now find the newest issue in a real moped shop.


Issue #003 just arrived in San Francisco at 1977 Mopeds SF and Treatland/Treats HQ so you can now buy the zine along with your new moped parts.

Also available at online stores:
Treatland.tv
1977 Mopeds Online

Order Issue #003

I pulled a late night and it's here, shipping on September 1st
a special thanks to Aaron for his last minute photo submissions

you can order it now on the right

update: available in stores San Francisco

the next issue is delayed yet again

so it looks like issue #003 will have to rest up for a bit as I have been in the process of moving and restarting college down here in orange county, although I've received enough articles I haven't even gotten started the design which I have to cut and paste by hand, so it won't be released by september 1st as I promised on Moped Army, however it should be out and ready to buy by september 14th,

so hopefully in the meantime I can distract you all with this lovely vintage moped video


also if there is anyone in orange county who wants to help me out please drop me an email

Burkina Faso knows how to race mopeds

Air Powered Moped

This University of Bristol aeronautics graduate fitted the Puch with high pressure carbon fibre air cylinders used by fire fighters as breathing apparatus in burning buildings.

The cylinders power two rotary air engines which in turn drive the chain to the rear wheel.

Unlike electric scooters, it takes just seconds to recharge from larger air tanks filled by a diving compressor.

With a top speed of 18mph and a range of just seven miles between air top-ups, Stansfield admits it’s never going to be good for trans-continental touring. But hesaid: “You could definitely run a fleet of delivery bikes on it.”

via Motorcycle News

A beautifully shot video...

...about moped legal issues

 

Advertise in our Zine

Hey are you looking for a great way to get you new gang, event, or moped buisness off the ground but you don't want to spend a lot of money

then buy some ad space in our zine

5 bucks will get you a buisness card size ad (3.5" wide and 2" tall), 10 bucks will get you a half page ad (7" wide and 4" tall ), and 15 bucks will get you a full page ad (7" wide and 8" tall)

don't have an ad to send us, no problem
for only 5 bucks extra we'll design the ad for you

You can email us at getoutandride.zine@gmail.com for more information.

all purchased ads will be placed in our next issue, which will be on sale September 1st

Tits, Grits, & Kits 2009

If you're anywhere near Richmond, Virginia the Hell's Satans are having a rally the weekend of June 26th to 28th you can sign up to register so you can get your rally packs

WHAT THE HELLS SATANS ??? from mark restivo on Vimeo

via Moped Army

So yeah, about those Bulk Orders...

Want to order Get Out and Ride at a discount, just make a bulk order by selecting how many you want below and clicking the button.

10 Copies $30.00 20 Copies $50.00 50 Copies $100.00 100 Copies $150.00

Issue #002 - Availible May 1st

Preorder it on the right, $5.00 through paypal
It will also be available at 1977 Mopeds SF and Treats HQ on May 1st


We've got a bunch of sweet articles for you in this new issue,
including but not limited to:

a review of the Latebirds' recent rally "Flock Yeah 2"
the story of founding of the sunset riders
a tale from way back during the time of the 1970s moped craze
more great food and drank instructions for the poor mopeder
plus more to tell you about our project magnum bike