Here comes the Vespa-puter

Get your motor running and your loafers polished. Twenty Vespa enthusiasts from Italy will ride 3,500 miles across the American southwest this month led by Luca Barzelogna, the president of the Italian Vespaonline Association. Barzelogna will be riding a Vespa-puter, a 1974 Vespa Rally 200 that's been retrofitted with an integrated PC and global positioning unit. Outfitted with a Web cam, an 8-inch touch screen, two hard drives and a processor/motherboard from Taiwan's Via Technologies, Barzelogna and the gang can pinpoint their location in the desert or surf the Web from the seat of the bike. It also comes with a satellite phone. (Via and bag maker Timbuk2 Designs are sponsors).

Via's motherboards and chips have become a favorite among hobbyists for sticking computers in unusual spots. Some fans have built computers into lunch pails and humidifiers. One group used Via chips to run a robot car in the DARPA Challenge.

The group will leave La Honda, Calif., the former home of author Ken Kesey, on Oct. 1, and pass through Joshua Tree, the Grand Canyon and Las Vegas before returning to San Francisco on Oct. 15. What are they rebelling against? Little coffee cups!