When scooter news breaks, we put it under a tarp in the garage.
It’s always tempting to make fun of The Christian Science Monitor, just because they’re Christian and all, but aside from a handsome-but silly illustration showing a Vespa S leaving a wake of natural goodness*, their obligatory scooter-craze story is pretty decent, rating a mere 12 drinks on the 2sb scale.
* I wish that was the true proportion of a Vespa S to a human being, that would be rad.
Peugeot unveiled two new scooters last week, the Speedfight Ultimate Edition and the RCup. The RCup features a mismatched double-round-headlight look that seems to be popular these days (Sym Mio, Adly Panther, etc). It’s hard to believe no one’s been able to convince Peugeot to enter the U.S. market, they’re great scooters, very popular in Europe, and sold in many small markets. A few Peugeots were grey-marketed through a Florida company a few years ago, and their story is unclear, they were never listed as an official distributor on Peugeot’s site, and they folded shortly after distributing one small shipment.
They sweet-talk their way out of scooter DUIs! So after you’re pulled over for weaving around Miami Beach at 4:11 AM, try telling the arresting officer “F**k you, I’m not drunk,” then later bragging “I’m friends with most cops in the city and they told me the guy who got me isn’t even liked by his colleagues. He’s a 400-pound f**k unfit for duty” Oh, wait, that only works for Mickey Rourke.
Oh, goody, more from fashion.ie:
Mickey had a passenger with him on the Vespa, but there’s no way anyone was getting a hold of her to testify. He doesn’t even know who the hell she was: Rourke said the mysterious blond riding on the back of the Vespa at the time of his arrest couldn’t have been used as a witness at a trial. “Don’t ask me her name,” Rourke says. “I have no idea who she was. I met her in a bar and never saw her again.”
And he’s looking good in the NY Post.
The very last 2SB/MT soccer jersey is being auctioned to benefit Josh Rogers. The auction closes tomorrow. Victor from Big People Scooters has driven bidding to a lofty $150 (all for Josh!), but if you can’t compete with that, there’s a lot more great stuff/a>
Neat story on how some motorcycles are designed to resemble a human face:
[Honda’s tests] found that motorcycles that resemble a human face – especially an angry one evoked with diagonal headlights – are “significantly” more visible to other drivers. Measurements taken with functional magnetic resonance imaging confirm that a more lifelike front-end design “elicits a response similar to that when a human face is seen,”
So, in conclusion, The Blur rules, and Andretti’s “Happy Cyclops” just isn’t going to cut it. (Thanks for the great link, Chandler!)
From Motoblog: Piaggio plans to launch new Beverly and Carnaby models next week. The Beverly Tourer is a new version of the scooter known as the “BV” in the U.S. The new line will feature 125, 250, and 400cc versions. The Carnaby (unavailable in the U.S.) will feature new colors with 125 and 200cc engines. While we’re on the topic, I don’t think we’ve mentioned their new-ish X7, yet, by the way. It’s getting a lot of press in Europe lately.
Gordon “Sting” “Ace Face” Sumner’s Vespa “GS” and Phil “Jimmy” “Parklife” Daniels’ Lambretta are the highlights of a Quadrophenia exhibition at Littledean Jail in near Gloucester, England. Quadrophenia director Franc Roddam is calling it: “This is the best collection of Quadrophenia memorabilia I have ever seen.” Book your flight now, and cue ten angry comments questioning the authenticity of the bikes and/or reminding us that there were six GSes made for the movie and none of them were GSes.
Vespa Canada’s disturbing-but-cool television commercial. Can you imagine, a television commercial for Vespa? Is it actually running? Has Kanye paved the way for anyone to wear an Evel suit?
Forbes reports Piaggio expects to cut costs this year to improve profits in a “flat” European market. Chairman Roberto Colaninno predicted growth in the commercial three- and four-wheeler markets in Europe and India (New Ape and Porter models were released last week), and vowed to maintain scooter market share with new models. As for the American market, (in Forbes words):
The US market will be stable, [Colaninno] said, noting Piaggio mainly sells Vespa scooters where customers are not particularly concerned by price and the ‘very high margins’ offset the weak dollar.
Famous daredevil and, for a time, England’s greatest Vespa and microcar dealer Andre Baldet passed away last week. Baldet allegedly invented the “dealer special” when he launched his customized line of “Arc-en-Ciel” Vespas with a 150cc model in 1957. The line continued through 1961 with the Vespa GS160, and possibly even into the SS180 era. By Baldet’s estimation, he sold 600 such scooters, usually with a few upgrades and a two-tone paint job achieved by spraying a second color over certain sections of the stock paint. During the same period, he became world-known for racing, daring stunts, and endurance rides featuring Vespas and microcars. He continued to sell Vespas until the early 1980s when he sold his dealerships. A great Baldet biography by John Gerber appeared in American Scooterist issue 48/49 (The GS anniversary double issue). (Image from the collection of John Gerber)
Just got a press release from LS Motorsports about new consumer financing plans on Diamo, Italjet, and Fischer scooters and motorcycles, just in case you wanted to have your Dragster loan paid off before the bike came out. (And they spelled “Fischer” wrong.) Before you accuse me of being mean, you should know I haven’t posted my LS DealerExpo writeup yet, because I don’t want to hurt Guzmán’s feelings. I’m a smooth criminal. Can you tell I’ve been reading too much Wonkette?
Motorcycle Bloggers International has announced the 2008 Riders Choice Awards winners. Entries were nominated by motorcycle and scooter bloggers, then chosen by the public. We scooter bloggers (well, 2sb anyway) kind of dropped the ball during nominations this year and some of the scooter categories got cut, but the results are still interesting. I love that the KTM toaster won both first place for “Wish we’d thought of that” and third place for “What were they thinking?”. (Of course there was no way it was going to beat the BabeCage.)
Britain’s “THINK” motorcycle safety campaign just keeps topping itself: “An Awareness Test.” Mindblowing. Even if this makes an impact on drivers, how many scooterists and motorcyclists push their luck (and luck is very often the only thing keeping us alive) by not wearing safe gear, riding drunk, disobeying traffic laws, and/or showing off?
Here’s the full two hours of video from the Seattle city scooter meeting. Thanks, Orin!
Malaguti (back from the dead in Europe) has unveiled their newest Ducati race replica Phantom F12R, featuring Casey Stoner’s #27.
