Something that brought a smile to the mopedguy this week is Scooter.com and its apparent new home at “Spinlife”, a supplier of mobility scooters and electric wheel chairs. Scooter.com was for many years the home of the highly respected “Scoot Quarterly”, a mainstream magazine pitched squarely at the Motor Scooter market. But it seems while scooter enthusiasts everywhere continue to refer to their rides as scooters, a cultural term used for generations to describe any sort of Vespa type motor scooter, to most people these days, a scooter is something with 3 or 4 wheels that an old person uses to get around on. The irony is that it’s the same baby boomers who in their youth pushed motor scooters like the Vespa and Lambretta to the height of cool in the 1960’s, that have again chosen scooters as their vehicle of choice in retirement, this time however names like “Guardian”, “Phantom”, and “Buzz Around” are dominating the scooter scene. The moped community has no such worry given that the moped is now firmly entrenched as a legal class of vehicle in many countries including; The U.S., U.K, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Germany. The only problem for us is the continued bad press we’re getting when inexperienced riders of 49cc plastic scooters and mini choppers get injured or killed in traffic accidents. The press will report the court findings which usually use the legal description, “moped” which is what most scooters and mini bikes get registered as these days..........In my last blog I predicted that rumours of $75 a barrel oil would come true in July, at the time this prediction was based on lower U.S. gasoline inventories squeezing the U.S. summer driving season. Now as we approach mid July, the price of oil has already passed through the $75 all time high, with the next psychological barrier of $80 a barrel firmly in sight, and the inflation adjusted peak price of $90 per barrel creeping closer almost daily. This weekend, eight of the world's most powerful leaders will be meeting in St Petersburg, Russia for the G8 economic summit meeting, and the outcome of this meeting is in my opinion highly likely to cause further upward pressure on oil prices. The key point of discussion at this years meeting is not the usual US trade deficit or Chinas trade surplus, these will be mentioned, but by far the most important item for consideration is Iran, or more accurately whether Iran’s political and spiritual leaders will accept an offer to end Iran’s nuclear research program. This offer was submitted to Iran last month by the UN Security Council. Iran must respond by Wednesday July 12th, or risk sanctions from the West. Iran has so far vowed to ignore the deadline which leaves only two places the price of oil can go, up or up. If Iran chooses to ignore this deadline which has been set by the UN security councils five permanent members; The U.S., U.K., France, China and Russia, there are really only two possible outcomes. The first would see The U.S. and its allies retaliate against Iran with the result that oil market traders will try to buy up oil before Iran starts shutting off its oil exports, this is bad for oil prices because Iran is the second largest oil exporter in OPEC and the fourth largest in the world! The second outcome would see The U.S. and its allies allow today’s deadline to pass without action which will only serve to promote Iran’s strength in a world divided like never before from East to West. Upon this news oil market traders panicked by this new dynamic will attempt to secure oil supplies ahead of Iran’s inevitable power plays further pushing up the price of oil. Mopedguy
View All Moped Blog Entries
