Month: August 2007

Moped Takeover

Hollywood Holt's

OK, I’ve been waiting for this day for years. between Hollywood Holt’s “Throw a Kit” video (featuring Chicago’s Peddy Ca$h club) and Andy Samberg’s Hot Rod movie, mopeds have officially taken over the hipster market and are finally positioned to become ubiquitous in television commercials and otherwise overexposed and boring, allowing scooters to fade back into obscurity so I can buy them for $800 again. Take note, hipsters, there soon will be folks showing up at moped rallies wearing fanny packs. And not Pac-Man fanny packs from Ragstock, either, I mean actual unironic fanny packs.

That said, “Throw a Kit” is awesome, and the first rap song to ever rhyme “Garelli” with “Minarelli”

Tire pressure: ignore the sidewall.

I just saw a post on a forum asking about proper tire pressure for a modern Vespa. Several people said “it’s on the tire, duh!” That seems like an obvious answer, but tires are usually designed for many applications, and that number is the MAXIMUM pressure the tire can handle, not the pressure for your vehicle. Filling to that pressure (on any vehicle, but especially on a scooter or motorcycle) can affect handling, traction, suspension, safety, and fuel efficiency. Modern vehicles always have a tire inflation sticker somewhere. On cars it’s almost always in the driver’s side door jamb. On motorcycles, it’s usually a sticker or metal plate on the swingarm or fork. On scooters, it’s usually a sticker in the glovebox or helmet bay. If you can’t find the sticker, consult the manual for proper pressures (If the sticker and manual contradict each other, go with the sticker, it’s more likely to be accurate for your specific bike/country). If you’re in a pinch and don’t have the data, it’s usually best to inflate it to several PSI below the “maximum” listed on the sidewall, then adjust to the proper PSI as soon as you can.

Lessons from Italy

Sure, Italy and the U.S. are two very different markets, but you’d think this data would mean something to American motorcycle marketers. 15 of the top 20 selling motorcycles in Italy (Jan-June 2007) are scooters. The top five are ALL scooters. The top-seller is a 150cc. The top three are all Honda SH-series scooters. (Why aren’t those here, come ON, Honda!) The best part? There’s not a single bike on there over 750cc. If Italy can sustain that kind of sales/growth with such restrictive displacement and emissions guidelines, U.S. sellers need to abandon the “But 1600cc cruisers are what people WANT!” mentality. Motorcycles are a niche market here, it’s time to focus on the other 99% of Americans who are so repulsed by overpowered and unpleasant-to-ride cruisers and sportbikes (and the people that ride them). Teach them that a responsible, polite motorcycle or scooter can change their lifes.