BigAssMotors is trying to breathe life into TNG by taking over their distribution in the Southwest. Though TNG has seen a couple promising stretches, they’ve been plagued by Costco’s return policy, quality control issues, Schwinn, manufacturer changes, dozens of importers selling identical-looking bikes, several years of disappointment regarding the Lambretta/Scomadi/L-Series, and rumors of lapses in business ethics (notably a BBS post about their warranty manager selling warranty-returned bikes out of his garage on Craigslist). Needless to say, the announcement was less-than-enthusiastically received on the BBS. (Thanks for the link, Matt)
Month: June 2008
GIVI graphic windshields
A neat idea for windscreens from GIVI, though something like that is only cool if you’re the only person in town with one, painting something yourself would be cooler.
POC Phil and his red shirt on TV
POC Phil, trying not to gloat on the local news in Cleveland. Somehow, it transcends the “yet another scooter story,” could it be the shirt? (Thanks, Andrew)
Mods vs. Rockers 2008
Update: Scooterists are meeting at the Globe at 10:45am Saturday, to ride down to Delilah’s as a group.
I would tell you that Chicago scooter rally season kicks off this weekend with Mods vs. Rockers 2007 but the truth is, it’s been going on for a while already. I’m woefully behind on events posts and you already missed a Comic Book Release Party and the ModChicago’s Weekender (Sorry, mods!) But don’t miss the Motorcycle/Scooter/Hot Rod show at Delilahs from Noon-4pm on Saturday, and the Fish & Chips Dinner and Chicago Premiere of Brittown at the new Bottom Lounge on Saturday night.
Scoot Green and/or Pink
Crystal Waters has added two new sites to her Scooterfix (previously Girlbike) empire: Scoot Green is about financial opportunities in the powersports sector, and Scoot Pink is all about scooterists in the porn industry. Made you look.
ABS scooter brakes?
After visiting Dealer Expo twice, I feel entirely justified in questioning the quality of Chinese scooters just based on build quality and looks, but I’ve had limited experience actually riding them. This weekend, I got the chance to ride a cousin’s “Boss” brand Chinese scooter (Qingqi, maybe?). Aside from the steering column’s desire to whip to the left or right if nudged more than a few degrees from center, and a less-than-peppy engine, it wasn’t the worst bike I’ve ever ridden… until I tried to stop.
Continue reading “ABS scooter brakes?”
Acrobazie Ecologiche… con il Vectrix
From motoblog.it: flying vetrix…es (Vetricies?). I didn’t bother machine translating the text, I’m just going to go ahead and assume that scooter is powered by Adobe.
New Yamaha Zuma 125 for 2009
There has been some speculation about a new 125 Zuma model from Yamaha. But now it’s official as a Yamaha shows the impressive offering in place in it’s 2009 scooter line up along with the T-Max. The specs/features list a 4 valve, fuel injected 125 four stroke and the photos reveal a very impressive look. It’s priced at 2999.00 and should give the Genuine Buddy 125 a run for it’s money. My only problem with the new offering is what appears to be a lack of a kick-start. Don’t fret 50cc 2 stroke scooter lovers, the 50cc Zuma will still be available for all your Ipone and Motul burning needs. The scooter that started off known as the BW back in 1990 has come a long way.
No Dragsters, No Rollercraft, Few Surprises
Last Friday Steve Guzman from The Scooter Scoop and Italjet USA announced some sad news. They have decided to “…re-evaluate our requirements for the current season,”. Their press release quoted on The Scooter Scoop cited the lack of the new Italjet products, such as the Dragster and Rollercraft. Steve went on to explain some issues with the development of the new lines. Apparently Italjet just didn’t have the capabilities to build or find partners to build the new bikes. Unfortunately, this resulted in Steve leaving the company effective May, 30th. Interestingly, the Amarcord was cited, originally shown as a prototype back in September, 2001 (yes, almost 7 years ago), as one of the scooter designs that didn’t get off the ground but Italjet has already diluted the name and put it on a Mainland China-made bike of dubious appeal.
This sad news goes beyond a good guy like Steve Guzman having to find a new job. It demonstrates again how difficult it will be for any non-fully established firm to ever create something new. It would be great to see an upstart make a great new design from scratch and bring it to the masses. But that scenario is probably not likely in the current environment. We very sincerely wish the best of luck to Steve and Italjet USA. That stated, to the latter I suggest no more ‘coming soon’ news until trucks leave your warehouse on their way to dealers.
Honda, Yamaha unprepared for scooter rush
Posts at Adventure Rider and UrbanScootin suggest that even the Japanese big boys woefully underestimated scooter demand this spring. Vinos and Metropolitans are in very short supply. Even if you read our original story about the shortage, go back and read the comments, a few dealers have posted that it’s even worse than we reported.
Aussies: goodbye PX, hello $10K MP3
The Courier-Mail in Australia reports Piaggio has shipped their last containerload of Vespa PX scooters to Australia. We reported that Vespa PX production effectively ended in December, 2006, though the U.S. received 2007 models (likely manufactured in 2006) and a 30th-anniversary limited edition of 1000 white PXes was released last October in Europe. It’s unclear whether the anniversary and Aussie-market PXes were leftover stock from the 2006 batch, or a later production run.
Also from that story: after a recent AU$1000 price drop, the price of an MP3 250 in Australia is close to US$10,000. I’ll never complain about U.S. scooter prices again.