Month: April 2008

Record Store Day

Tomorrow is (Record Store Day, which is an awesome idea. I’ve always been a music snob/nerd, but I’d lapsed a bit. I bought a great new turntable a couple months ago, and I’ve really reconnected with music lately, maybe I’ll write an interminable rant about it tomorrow to celebrate.

100mpg 115mpg at Scooterville?

From WCCO in Minneapolis:

Bob Hedstrom’s Minneapolis store Scooterville is struggling to keep up with demand as customers brag to their friends about their gas mileage. The scooters, whose prices start at $1,800, get 100 miles to the gallon.

Bob Hedstrom is probably our second- or third-favorite scooter shop owner in the United States, and, to be fair, he’s not directly quoted as saying the Buddy gets 100mpg, but this is the fifth story this month that implies that the Buddy gets 100mpg. I like and trust Bob a lot, so I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt and believe that the Buddy can get 100mpg, but it certainly doesn’t get that in real-world conditions, and 80mpg is surely worth bragging about. Despite Vespa’s claims of 60mph on most of their bikes, I saw a story this morning (Link to come later) where a Vespa owner claimed to get 80mpg. Again, I just think it’s the small gas tanks, the inaccuracy of scooter odometers, and lack of careful record-keeping that convinces people they’re getting better mileage than they are. 100 miles per tank? sure, but not per gallon.

UPDATE: Here, sandwiched between two Hedstrom quotes, KARE says scooters “get anywhere from 50 to 115 miles per gallon.” WTF?

Genuine mythbusting

Genuine Blur 150 and Buddy 125 owners have had a healthy argument going on since both models were introduced: Which is quicker?. Nathaniel over at Modern Buddy did some tests and confirmed they’re pretty much even in the 100m dash. There’s still debate over which is faster, I’d argue that despite the displacement difference, they have a very similar top speed, but the Blur handles and brakes much better, with this video (the part after the G-Max commercial) as my evidence. Now for the next question, how much faster/better is the new Buddy 150?

Agility Knock-Offs Continue

As reported on 2SB earlier, cloning the Kymco Agility seems to be the latest craze.  Peirspeed, the importers of the Sachs MadAss and TGB products, have their own Agility clone like the Italjet IT.50.  Their Model is called the RM50.  In the early days of mainland China clones the Kymco Cobra was the scooter of choice to be copied and sold by fly-by-night importers.  It is slightly disturbing to see the same tactics practiced in regard to the Agility this time around by distributors claiming to be more reputable and in it for the long haul.  Does this reflect the changing marketplace where clones are now OK and intellectual property is fairly meaningless?  Or is it an indicator that these companies are really no different than the shipping container importers/dumpers of the past?