When scooter news breaks, we put it under a tarp in the garage.
I can never remember exactly when or why I started coveting Vespas, but it might have something to do with Dave Gahan’s Isetta breakdown in the Italian countryside. Luckily, Anton Corbijn happened to be there to catch it all on film. I forgot how much I used to like this song before the “Route 66” remix ruined it for me.
Don’t forget this Sunday, December 3th [sic] is the Chicagoland Toys for Tots Motorcycle Parade. The parade starts in Dan Ryan Woods, but despite the best intentions of the organizers, it’s entirely impossible to cope with the freezing mess of twenty thousand or more Harley riders at the starting point, so local scooterists have decided to meet at the cozy Water Hole Lounge at 1400 S. Western Ave, and join the ride around 9:30am. Bring a new, boxed toy (no stuffed animals). The weather doesn’t look too promising, but it’s not a long ride… especially since we’re blowing off about half the distance and the cold wait in the park.
Blogger Crystal Waters retired from Vespaway today, pretty much bringing an end to the “official” Vespa blog project that started in May 2005. Waters left Vespaquest, her original official Vespa blog, to join Neil Barton at Vespaway in March, after their blogging partners lost interest. Barton has posted only seven entries since April, (vs. 500+ posts on 2strokebuzz, brag brag), so Waters’ departure — and her frank admission that Vespa and their marketing firm, CooperKatz have lost interest in the blogs — seems to spell the end of Vespaway. Like many Piaggio marketing initiatives, the blogs seemed woefully ignored by Piaggio after a bright start, and the bloggers’ frustration even snuck to the surface a few times. Luckily, Waters’ better personal blog will continue, and I would link it up, if she hadn’t snubbed the world’s first and best scooter blog (that would be us) in her list of other resources. OK, I won’t be petty, ha, it’s girlbike.com. Best of luck, Crystal, ride on.
More talk from Kinetic, as reported in the Business Standard:
The city of Rome will begin enforcement of a ban on “Euro 0”-rated scooters and motorcycles within a large area of the city on January 1, 2007. Most pre-1999 scooters, likely 120,000 vehicles, will not be permitted within the “anello ferrovario” area of Rome. Residents of the area may continue to ride Euro 0 bikes in the zone until November, 2007. Roman officials cite research that finds one Euro 0 vehicle can emit the same quantity of pollutants into the atmosphere as 63 uncatalyzed cars. Collectors can register vintage machines for an exemption from the ban. Reimbursements and rebates are also available to encourage riders to upgrade or scrap their older vehicles.
Along the lines of the recent Yamaha/Yamoto “copycat� suit, Bajaj has blocked a Sri Lankan company from importing Chinese Bajaj Pulsar copies. Gulsar? Come on, you could at least try, China. A few hundred more small victories like this, and Chinese manufacturers might give up on knockoffs. Not likely a coincidence: on November 21, Bajaj announced plans to locate an assembly plant in China. While Bajaj already has plants in Nigeria and Indonesia that serve those markets exclusively, the Chinese plant would manufacture bikes for China as well as the international market.
Powersports Business reports that Piaggio has selected a new product development system designed by Product Development Company of Needham, Mass. The system is currently used by 1400 vehicle and parts manufacturers. Piaggio will implement the PDS for all its brands (Piaggio, Vespa, Moto Guzzi, Aprilia, and Derbi) at all facilities in Italy, Spain, India, and China. The system is expected to promote the use of components across product lines and facilitate collaboration among Piaggio’s 700 engineers worldwide, thus reducing development costs and bringing new products to market more quickly.
After a reported 20% increase in U.S. scooter sales in the first half of 2006 (compared to the first half of 2005), the Motorcycle Industry Council now reports a 1.5% decline in sales in the first three quarters of 2006 (compared to the same period in 2005). September 2006 scooter sales (vs. September 2005) fell an astounding 60.1%, although last September was unusually sucessful and the drop was somewhat expected. Market saturation, EPA/DOT regulation, and decreasing gas prices have destroyed the cyclical U.S. scooter market several times in the past, hopefully the current players have a good long-term plan.
From India’s Financial Express: a brief piece on how the Hero-Honda collaboration transformed the Indian scooter market into a motorcycle market. Bajaj and Hero Honda have been battling it out ever since, with Bajaj insisting that motorcycles are their top priority even as they backpeddle into the scooter market they abandoned this spring..
“Green” bikes and scooters have been showing up more than usualy in the news, probably with Vectrix making a splash in Milan, everyone else thought they better get their PR in motion. Here are a few we noticed:
Electric vehicles, while technically emissions-free, generally use power generated by fossil fuels, but until better technology become affordable, the Vectrix seems to be rising above most alternate-fuel vehicles, at least in media attention. Whether that’s the result of a good PR team or a good product will be clear when they go on sale, allegedly soon. Other manufacturers’ experiments with fuel cell, electric, CNG, biodiesel, and hybrid vehicles are a good sign there’s a market and a future for green bikes, but Vectrix looks to be the first large-scale test of their commercial viability.
Ryetronic’s Cold Weather Challenge is back! The full rules are here, but to summarize, it’s a contest for scooters (no motorcycles, sidecars, or three-wheelers) to determine who can ride 10 miles or more (distance is used only as a tiebreaker) in the coldest weather before February 28, 2007. Last years’ winner was Kent Messer of Ithaca, NY, who rode in -6.5° on December 14 2005. If you live in a sunnier climate, fear not, runners-up are grouped by state. The Cold Weather Challenge is sponsored by Crafty Planet, who reminds you to knit responsibly this holiday season.
Here’s a moddy pop masterpiece from Camera Obscura with a great video to match. It’s the Smiths, Belle and Sebastian, Style Council, and Kirsty MacColl all wrapped into one and dropped into a world of IKEA lamps and Repro Depot fabrics (Not a terriblly manly song, no). “Don’t You Dare Cheer Up Tracyanne” (from the comments) should be their next single.
South African doctor Chris Leatt, working with KTM and BMW, has designed a neck brace system designed to reduce neck, spine, and collarbone injuries in a motorcycle crash. The brace will be sold by BMW Motorrad.
PM Tuning (Lambretta Innovation) has a series of photos of the L-series “new Lambretta,” showing various stages of assembly, and more photos from the EICMA show (Thanks, Stephen and Chad) The engine is, in fact, the Piaggio QUASAR 250ie motor found in the Vespa GTS, Piaggio MP3, and several other Piaggio Group scooters. The bike is being evaluated by Piaggio for engine approval and another Italian company is preparing drawings and production plans. Several years in the making, the new Lambretta is getting tantalizingly closer, but there are still a few hurdles ahead.
Steve at The Scooter Scoop reports that CMSI (parent company of TNG scooters) had a prototype “Lambretta” on display in Milan. Not big news if it was the same Lambretta prototype they’ve been showing off for years, but it looks to be a new prototype (comments appreciated). You may remember that CMSI, losing a major investor and finding themselves unable to use the Lambretta name, but teaming up with PM Tuning and looking at a more global market, abandoned the name Lambretta USA and were marketing the scooter as “Scomadi” for a while, but the Scomadi site now features an “L-Series” logo and “coming soon.” Hope springs eternal…
Follow-up: Looking at the photos from the 2005 debut of the Lambretta prototype, the scooter in Milan is pretty vastly different. It appears to be more orange than red, (or poorly color-balanced) and the speedometer, rear turn signals, and glovebox, among other details, would indicate that this is either an entirely new prototype, or the old one was heavily modified. Any engine nerds want to take a stab at what’s inside?