Nathaniel Salzman

Chicago area designer, writer, maker and journalist.

Scooters & Motorcycles

July 17, 2010

Ride log: Third Thursday at Bluecat Motors

July 15, 2010 — The two-wheel community in the Twin Cities is as varied as it is awesome. One of my favorite local shops is Bluecat Motors in St. Paul. It’s an unassuming little shop nestled in the shadow of an old water tower, in one end of an old warehouse, in the old industrial part – Read More –

May 10, 2010

Ride log: Branching out big time (part one)

April 29, 2010 —Back in 2008, I got really interested in the idea of a Cafe Racer motorcycle. As far back as 2006 I’d been watching a lot of American Chopper, and though I rarely got too excited about the kinds of bikes they build, the whole notion of a proper motorcycle was something that – Read More –

July 26, 2009

Ride Log: Bearded Lady 2009

July 25, 2009 — The motorcycle and scooter community here in the Twin Cities is just fabulous. Each season there are a handful of events that I really look forward to.

July 20, 2009

I want a collection

The contest for collecting cars and motorcycles is over. Jay Leno wins. Which yeah, if I had a bajillion dollars I’d have a two-warehouse collection of cars and bikes too. Jay does it classy though. His shop is a museum-quality display of so many rare and fantastic cars and motorcycles.

January 8, 2009

Wired misses the point on scooter trends

Frequent commenter RB pointed out this article on Wired.com about “scooter trends” which turned out to have almost nothing to do with scooters at all. What’s more it appears to be a fumbled rehash of this interview for Taiwan Economic News. I expect more from Wired and am annoyed at the consistent misconception Americans and American journalists – Read More –

January 7, 2009

Top Gear treks Vietnam on scooters

This is a repost of a story on 2strokebuzz, but I just enjoyed this so much I wanted to share it here. Jeremy Clarkson being the motorcycle curmudgeon that he is, even he’s won over by the end of it. Honestly I struggle to come up with many places that’d be more appropriate or adventurous to see by – Read More –

November 21, 2008

NS First Ride: ’08 Triumph Bonneville

I’ve been a certifiable scooter crazy person for over a year now. The scooters I like the least still enjoy preference over almost any motorcycle. That is, until I started looking at Triumph. It’s the british thing. I’m such an english petrol-head at heart. From dad’s ’69 MGb GT to my MINI Cooper S, I’m – Read More –

September 15, 2008

The motorcycle canundrum

I’m a scooterist at heart. I love the sheer economy, the rich and quirky history, the goofy subculture, and how easy it is to just chuck a scooter around town. I pull for the Mods when I watch Quadrophenia. My first scooter was a Vespa P200E, and one of the first things I did was – Read More –