ThatScooterThing was born in late 2016 out of the love for creating media content and the raging desire to continue wrenching on scooters and small displacement two strokes. In the following few pargraphes you get the chance to learn a little something about us, the brains and silliness behind TST.
Lee: I started messing with small displacement 2T back in 2003. I quickly got sucked into messing around with them. First bike was a Minarelli AM6 which is still, in its final form, sitting around at my buddy’s shop in Luxembourg. That same guy (shout out to Steve!) has taught me so much when it comes to wrenching, patience and theoretical 2T knowledge. Together we started ‘Diabolo Racing Crew’ which eventually took home 1st place over several years in the 2Race Belgian Scooter and MiniGP championships. After I moved to the USA I got sucked into the world of vintage scooters and the very tight knit community here. And I have been hooked ever since. Another interest of mine has been home made entertaining and instructional content. When I finally had the chance to combine both, by bringing my 2T knowledge from the 50cc world to the bigger engines, I really wanted to film it. And as such, in late 2016, ThatScooterThing on Youtube was born. Since then it has grown massively on all the social media platforms and I am excited to tell you that the future will bring a lot more.
Carrot: When your significant other is as passionate as Lee, I stood no chance in avoiding the scooter bug. When Lee and I built our first (award winning) scooter, a 2005 Piaggio Typhoon with a 12.000 rpm 70cc engine, to ride both around town and on the track, I was hooked. I guess not many people can say that their first ride ever on a two wheeled bike was in a parking on a bike that took every opportunity to scare you. When he surprised me with a 2003 Genuine Stella later that year, it was fully over. And since, I had a blast working and riding on the same bike in its stock 150cc, the later fun 187cc and the current 221cc iteration. As of my role in TST: I am the voice of reason. Sometimes, ideas are just a little too ridiculous and left on the drawing board.
Matt: I think, when it comes to scooters, I am best to be described as ‘a beer enthusiast with a scooter habit’. Or maybe it was the other way around? I have been part of the US Scooter scene since the late 90’s and have ridden and wrenched in many parts of the country. TST has been a passion project that Lee and I started with the OG TST Project, my 1982 Yamaha CA50, back in 2016. It gave me a great opportunity to take my professional skills, as Associate Professor of Educational Technology, and develop some of the many formats we have experimented with on the TST platform. ThatScooterThing, from the get go, has been about scooters and I am excited to see it continue that way.
