Month: May 2008

Yamaha Capitalizes On Racing Efforts With Scooters

As in years past, Yamaha is the official supplier of scooters to the MotoGP paddock.  The scooter that will be transporting MotoGP staff and VIPs around the pits is the Yamaha Jog RR MotoGP edition. The Fiat Yamaha Racing team also has made the Yamaha Giggle, known in the US as the C3 and in Japan as the Vox, as their official team scooter.  Not to waste an opportunity for branding, Valentino Rossi has a Yamaha Aerox replica for the ultimate fan to show off who he or she pulls for on race day.  Not to be outdone, MotoGP rookie sensation Jorge Lorenzo has a Jog RR race replica of his own.  The only thing that outnumbers the Yamaha MotoGP-scooter tie-ins in this post is the number of hyperlinks I’ve inserted.

The “Human Network” can’t fix a P200

Check out Cisco’s “Visual Networking,” ad, the third ad on this page, where a phone tells a Vespa rider how to change his spark plug. It pans away before the phone tells him:

  • The engine’s on the other side of the bike, dummy, why do you have the left cowl off?
  • Good luck with that short-reach plug in your P-Series.
  • That yellow scooter up the road is prettier.
  • It’s not your sparkplug anyway, your CDI is fried.

(Thanks, Phil and Ben)

New Vespa Museum opens in Ravenna

If you’re headed to Italy this summer, and you’ve seen the Piaggio Museum three times already, check out Mauro Pascoli’s recently-opened Vespa Museum in Ravenna. Apparently the Massimiliano Fuksas-designed “cloud” museum hovering over the Pontedera assembly line (that was supposed to be finished last year) was just 60th-anniversary P.R. bullshit.
(See also: Machine-translated story from Repubblica.it via Motoblog.it.)

Renault/Nissan/Bajaj announce automobile deal

After months of speculation and discussion, Renault and Nissan have agreed to an automotive joint venture with Bajaj Auto to compete with Tata Motors’ budget Nano model. Manufacturing.net reports: “Sales are scheduled to start in early 2011 in India, Nissan said. The joint venture will be 50 percent owned by Bajaj, 25 percent by Renault SA and 25 percent by Nissan Motor Co.” (Thanks for the link, Dave!)

Piaggio USA names new PR firm

Looks like Piaggio USA won’t have Access Communications to kick around anymore. Hard to believe anyone could be worse than CooperKatz, who botched the “Vespa Blogs” idea, but you’ve also gotta wonder why the current glut of scooter stories are practically ignoring Piaggio products to talk about the 100mpg Buddy. Oh, wait we just answered our own question there. Anyway, if Brandware can increase the Vespa’s fuel efficiency*, lower the price, and improve the parts supply, and give dealers more realistic terms and margins… Good luck, Brandware.

*Place your bets on the exact date Vespa’s fuel efficiency rating is ‘recalculated’ to be more competitive with other scooters. (Alternately, guess how long it takes before the hybrid MP3 becomes the centerpiece of their campaign, despite the fact that $10/gallon gas wouldn’t drive an American to buy an $8000 hybrid three-wheeled scooter.)

Yes, I Am A Geek: Yamaha Vino Gadget Overload

What ever your choice of epithet for those who embrace some sort of technical esotericism, get ready to shout it right..about…now!

But in all seriousness, this Yamaha Vino 50 crammed with all kinds of electronic gizmo goodness is pretty cool.  I think it could be done much more cleanly with better physical integration, but that’s what the fellows at MP3car.com get to do when they get it all tightly installed in their cars with much more real estate to work with.

via Gizmodo

Piaggio stock drops

It’s always the day after a new product release, right? Piaggio’s stock dropped 2.8 percent after an announcement that the company’s quarterly profit was down 21%. Bobby C. tempered the announcement with plans for a stock buyback, and promised Piaggio’s gas/electric hybrid MP3 will be released in October this year (Piaggio unveiled the prototype hybrid MP3 last July).