Scooter Diva’s Buyer’s Guide

Some of the photos are stretched funny, some of the lineups will probably change in February, and a few brands I might have included are omitted, but all in all, Scooter Diva’s 2007 Scooter Buyer’s Guide is a lot better than most of those fancy magazine buyer’s guides. And if nothing else, they weren’t pressured by advertisers into listing the 2004 Bajaj Chetak as a current model.

DiamoUSA: More about new Italjets

After discovering late last night that Diamo USA was bringing Italjet scooters and motorcycles to America, we were stupefied, excited, and to be honest, a bit skeptical. Diamo has a fairly good reputation among scooter dealers and riders, but were they the right company to re-introduce the legendary Dragster to the U.S.? Where were these bikes coming from, and how did Italjet rise from the dead seemingly overnight? We contacted DiamoUSA early this morning, and we heard back this afternoon from Mathu Solo, who very candidly answered our questions:
Continue reading “DiamoUSA: More about new Italjets”

AMA “Fuels the Fund”

The only scientific study of motorcycle accidents ever performed in the United States was the famous Hurt Report (download PDF), published in 1981 using statistics and reports collected in California in 1979 and 1980. 25 years later, The Hurt Report’s findings remain the gospel of safe motorcyclists, but even Dr. Harry Hurt, interviewed in 2000 for David L. Hough’s fantatsic and essential book “Proficient Motorcycling,” seemed amazed that a more comprehensive study has never come along to replace it. Finally, in 2005, Congress approved a new motorcycle crash study, budgeting $2.8 million, with the stipulation that manufacturers, organizations, and motorcyclists would need to raise an additional $2.8 million. With a marked increase in both riders and accidents over the past couple years, the American Motorcycle Association has committed $100,000 of club funds to the study, and is asking members and all riders to do their part as well. Their Fuel the Fund initiative makes it easy to donate any amount, funding a study that could make an even bigger impact than the Hurt Report, and save lives for years to come. In the meantime, it’s a always a good idea to re-read Hurt’s study, and Hough’s books.

Italjet Dragster to return to US in February

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In a surprise announcement today, Diamo USA announced they’ll import the Italjet Dragster and Torpedo, and other Italjet bikes including the Griffon 650 motorcycle, starting in February. We’ll have more details and analysis tomorrow. (Note: these will be Italjet-branded Dragsters, not the “Italiano” models that were once expected to be built under license by Kinetic in India)

News Bits, Jan 8, 2007

We’re still catching up on news reports from our holiday break. This should bring us up to date:

  • Authorities have banned the Segway from public streets and sidewalks in the Netherlands, citing their lack of a mechanical brake as a safety hazard. It’s easy to make jokes, and we should, because Segways are ridiculously stupid, but this does pose an interesting question about how governments will react to the many alternate-fuel vehicles coming to market, especially those that don’t conform to standard vehicle categories. Few companies can afford the luxury of developing and marketing a product that may likely be banned on streets, just one more reason why huge companies already armed with lobbyists and lawyers will probably continue to dominate the market. In other words, good luck getting licence plates for your new Vectrix electric motorscooter (what’s the displacement, sonny?), and welcome to 2007.
  • New Honda Metropolitan rider tells the Arizona Daily Star how much she loves her scooter.
  • “At one point I was going to lease a BMW to try to meet women,” Jeff Schultz tells the Louisville Courier-Journal. Luckily, he came to his senses and bought a Kymco People 250. We assert that scooters’ environmental impact is notable, yet generally overstated, so we found both comments pretty funny.
  • Kymco has expanded its relationship with ARI to improve customer relations by streamlining warranty claims and product registration.
  • Following up the results of an earlier report, the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries confirms that scooter sales are kicking ass in Australia. While several Australian companies, notably Bolwell, have been importing rebadged scooters from Asian makers, Vmoto has gone a step farther and bought their Chinese supplier, Freedmoto, outright. (That’s ONE way to ensure decent quality control from a Chinese company.)
  • Motorcyclenews.com reports on a 112-horsepower Italian racing scooter built by Team Cristofolini Racing. The custom-made aluminium 4-cylinder 350cc engine is mounted in what used to be a Malaguti F12 frame.

Kristal leads Bajaj scooter revival

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With scooter sales exceeding expectations in India, Bajaj–known for decades as a a world-leading scooter company–doesn’t list a single scooter on their website. For a year, Bajaj has been selling of remaining stock of their unpopular Wave and bragging of their dominance of the second- and third-world motorcycle market. Stuck without a product in a growing (or at least very stable) market, Bajaj seems reluctant to admit their judgement error, even as they scramble to release new scooters. The first new effort, the Kristal DTS-i, debuts in February. At 95cc, it’s targeted towards teenagers and specifically women, which seems sort of old-fashioned even by Indian and Bajaj standards. Dave McCabe of VCOA and American Scooterist just returned from India, and some Bajaj plant tours, and reports:

The Krystal is kind of a disappointment. It’s smaller than the [Indian Honda] Activa. It has all sorts of funky angularity built into the design (crystal-like?) The scooter has lots of gadgets added to it, an underseat storage light, light-sensitive sensor for turning on the headlight at night. Turn the ignition key one way and it pops open a gas fill. The underseat compartment can hold a full-face.

In India, at 16 you can ride an “ungeared” scooter under 100cc. You need to be 18 to ride a geared scooter. The wimpy engine capacity is targetted for this market.

The engineers who gave me the tour assured me that the Krystal’s engine was an entirely new design from the Wave. It keeps the Wave’s dual spark system and the “exhaust tech” (I know, B.S. names.) I understand the point of the dual spark but I had to have an engineer explain the point of the exhaust system. It’s basically a little box off the main line of the exhaust pipe. At low rpms, the little box (ahead of the cat converter) help reduces back pressure on the engine. It’s more” low tech” than “exhaust tech” but apparently it works.

Bajaj was pretty coy about why they stopped production of the Wave. It had something to do with the starter motors, but I also think that it had other design flaws. It was evident that they were being super-careful with the rollout of the Krystal. Dealers were getting limited numbers to test for bugs and there were many stages of quality control in the engine production. All of the engine cases were pressure tested. If the cases didn’t hold pressure they were pulled from the line. The leak was found using the old “soapy water” method, then repaired. All engines were also bench tested before being put in bodies. The bench test was interesting, they had a system set up so they could check that the engine would run on both spark plugs or either plug. At the end of the assembly line, all of the scooters were dyno tested as well. It’s pretty clear they want rock solid scooters going out before they ramp up into full production.

More Kristal news from the Hindu Business Line, the Business Standard, and Techwhack.

Lambretta > No. 50 Bus

Birmingham, UK, transport chief Coun Martin Mullaney made a name for himself by demanding that other public officials use the bus system, but he admitted to the local paper that he usually rides his vintage Lambretta because public transportation is so backed-up. “Birmingham is seen as anti-bus, and some of the things we have done have added to that perception,” says Mullaney. Um, yeah. (Thanks for the story, e*rock.)

More on LML “rebirth”

lml-star.jpgIndian news has been closely following the news of LML’s return. Indian station CNBC-TV18 interviewed LML Vice President RK Srivastava, who made it clear Piaggio is not involved in the recovery. DNA India had a bit more detail, but not much, a few days after the original announcement. The loudest chatter came from several Indian investment experts, who warned against investment in LML, reminding us that they were, lest we forget, losing money for years before the lockout and a speedy return to profit is unlikely.