Category: Dealers

World’s Largest Scooter Ride


Scooter Therapy, Madison, WI’s Genuine/Kymco dealer is attempting to enter the Guinness Book of World Records on April 17 with “The World’s Largest Scooter Ride.” We heard rumors of this a couple weeks ago, and found it curious: Isle of Wight organizers brag that their 2008 Sunday ride was Guinness-verified as the world’s largest parade of scooters with about 5000. Even though there’s no mention of this record on Guinness’ site, European rallies routinely top 1000 scooters.

It turns out, despite the vague name of the event, Scooter Therapy is trying to break a 2005 Dutch record for Largest Parade of Mopeds (motorcycles Under 50cc), which currently stands at 674. All mopeds and scooters are welcome, but only those under 50cc will count towards the record.

I don’t know what kind of moped population Madison has these days (maybe it’s through the roof, unlike most states, WI law clearly specifies 50cc scooters as mopeds, legal to operate with a regular driver’s license, and Madison is a relatively affluent college town) but that still seems like a lot of bikes, considering that the biggest (and more-publicized) midwestern scooter and moped rallies rarely attract half that many. When you limit it to 50cc bikes, and hold it on the same weekend as a big moped rally in Louisville, that just doesn’t seem possible, but maybe they know something I don’t. In any case, it’s a ride, it’ll be a good time, and they’re giving away a Genuine Roughhouse 50, so if you’re in the area you’ll want to check it out. Here’s hoping they pull it off and steal the title from those stinking Nederlanders!

Testing your Loyalty?

I know Vespa rudely scheduled their dealer meeting in California the same weekend as Genuine’s dealer retreat in Wisconsin a couple years ago, but it doesn’t seem sporting to schedule the grand opening of the redesigned Scooterworks Chicago space the same day as Motowork’s North Avenue shop opening. I’m not sure who called dibs on the date first, but if I can’t go to both, I’m not going to either. Even if one of them books Jay Leno.

Chinese Food for Less!

Last month, a dealer sent us an “end of the year sale” email that he received — unsolicited — from a Chinese scooter importer.

2strokebuzz policy is to maintain a certain level of privacy regarding wholesale prices. Dealer markup on most scooters is pretty modest, and keeping that number a secret is only fair.

In this case, though, I think it’s only fair to consumers to show how low dealer prices have dropped on Chinese scooters. So we’ll list the prices, but not the importer. The importer in question is not a top brand, but they’re a brand that’s been around a while and advertises in scooter and dealer magazines, so they’re not a bottom-feeding internet outfit, either.

Here’s a sample of their DEALER prices on 2009 models:

150 Scooter: $400
150 “Deluxe” Scooter: $450
150cc ATV: $500
250cc Motorcycle: $900

Turns out, a few weeks later, the importer filed for bankruptcy, which is hardly surprising. But even if these prices are below their cost, what does that say about the quality of the scooters? Would you ride a 150cc scooter that cost $500 to build? Think about all the cost of all the individual components of the scooter, the labor to assemble it, and the shipping costs to deliver it across the country. Think about the cost of running a business, warehousing the scooters, supplying parts and service. And even if the importer is taking a bath on these bikes, the manufacturer in China surely made a couple hundred bucks in profit, selling it to the importer. Do you want to ride a 150cc scooter that cost $300 or less to make?

Do you want to pay $900 or $1200 for the opportunity? Dealers sell these bikes because they can mark them up 100% over dealer cost, and they still look like a bargain compared to the (quality) competition. So the importer is making more per scooter, the dealer is making more per scooter, and customer gets a particularly crappy scooter, without even getting the good deal that the dealer got. These sales hurt quality dealers and importers, who put a higher percentage of the customer cost into manufacturing and quality assurance.

Now More Than Ever…

Several people have sent us the Denver Post story about Sportique’s financial woes. That’s certainly a sad story worth reading, and proof that even the best scooter dealers are in big trouble right now. Sportique’s been around for twelve years and certainly has a reputation equalled by only a handful of shops, so if they’re in trouble, we’re all in trouble.

A lot of fly-by-night scooter shops (and a few good ones) have already closed down, and many more will close in the next few months. This attrition of dealers is actually a good thing in one way: we’ll finally see fewer strip-mall dealers selling questionable or illegal bikes with virtually no aftersales support. Dealers that survive are the ones that know their stuff and love scooters. Anyone who’s been involved in scootering for more than a few years knows the market is brutally cyclical, but scooterists in the know hoped to see these “good guys” — great shops run by true scooter fanatics — survive. These shops aren’t bandwagon jumpers, they knew what they were getting into. They realize that a hemorrhage of sales can be replaced with chirping crickets in a matter of months. A few shops have been around since the eighties and have already been through the cycle. But even with vision and responsible planning, the triple whammy of the global recession, the end of a scooter-sales boom, AND the winter lull is proving too much to endure.

So this is a call to arms: if you like your local dealer, they need your support now more than ever. It just plain sucks to be a scooter dealer right now. So if you’ve been considering a new bike, or a performance upgrade, or a new jacket or helmet, or a rebuild, now’s the time to do it, and it’s more critical than ever to buy local and support the people that have supported you. Your dealer’s prices might be a bit higher than online or catalog prices, but they’ve worked hard for your business and chances are, they’re up against a wall. Your dealer needs you. Fewer dealers and fewer sales means fewer new scooter models being imported and fewer new scooterists, and reduced parts and accessories availabilty. If your local dealer closes, you may be stuck driving to the nearest big city (or the bigger city past that) for service and accessories. If importers start shutting down, you’re going to need to learn foreign languages to find parts.

If you’re new to scootering, 2008 was as big as it gets, but the lean years are great, too. A smaller scene separates the real life-long scooterists from the trendies, creates tighter bonds between scooterists, and paves the way for the next ‘boom.’ We’re going to lose some dealers, it’s a fact, but we MUST keep the best dealers going. With just a little boost from customers to survive these worst-case-scenario next few months, the best shops will eventually thrive, even through the lean years ahead.

Taffspeed Closing

Venerable Welsh parts supplier/tuner Taffspeed Ltd. will close at the end of the month after 27 years of service to the worldwide scooter community. Ian Frankland is scheduled for heart bypass surgery, and his former employees will continue running the shop (and dyno) as “Welsh Scooter Parts.” The Taffspeed name will live on in Frankland’s “Taffspeed Special Products” which will still be available from the new shop.

Thanks for the tip, Matt, and best of luck to Ian and the new shop!

Corazzo behind New USTT Foundation

Our friend and Corazzo owner Bradford Duval stepped down from the presidency of the VCOA a couple months ago (Mike Bobadilla of Vespa Club Los Gatos took his place, btw) but he’s putting his time into another great two-wheeled organization. The new United States Tourist Trophy Foundation is looking to send Alaskan Jimmy Moore to the Isle of Man TT in May/June. The backers of the USTTF feel Moore is the man destined to be the first American on the podium in the races’ history, and they need your help getting him (and his bikes) there. Read more at RoadRacerX.com.

When that’s done, Bradford, Eric Almendral and I need your help getting Silent Ron to Dakar on a Blur 220EFI next winter. Eric and I have a new years’ resolution to make Ron the first American to not kill himself in the desert of South America on a Taiwanese moped.

Scooterworks’ Secret Santa, 6 Days Of Corazzo, and Scootmoto

More great holiday sales, this time from Scooterworks and Corazzo.

Philip McCaleb of Genuine/Scooterworks and Bradford Duval of Corazzo, both actually CALLED us (on the PHONE!) to ask us to hype these sales, and they both promise you’ll never see better deals…

Scooterworks Chicago’s Secret Santa Sale is this Friday and Saturday, McCaleb promises lots of bikes from Genuine, Kymco, and more at or below dealer cost, and vintage scooters sold for the best offer. They’ll also be offering big specials from scooterworks.com (only for orders placed at the store these two days) with free shipping.

Corazzo’s already in the midst of their big “6 Days of Christmas” sale, sorry for the late heads-up, with one special per day for the next few days.

Don’t forget Scootmoto is also a great place to stock up on holiday gifts for scooterists or yourself. We don’t have any big specials because our prices are always stupid-low (and include shipping!) but we do have new 2010 Scooter Calendars and the new issue of Bumpstart and we’ll be adding a few new items in the next couple days including Voodoo’s Buddy lighting adaptors and the new American Scooterist. And all your Scootmoto orders benefit 2strokebuzz and other small-time scooterist-owned businesses!

Take the Kymco

Toronto’s Kymco dealer ran transit ads on Toronto’s TTC system imploring riders to “Take The Kymco,” (TTK). A clever idea, too bad they flagrantly copied the TTC trademark and TTC removed the ads. Whatever your feelings about scooters’ impact on ecological, economical, and traffic impact, public transportation is surely better, but that said, public transportation riders are probably a wise target market for scooter dealers!

Kymco Yager GT200i: POCphil’s review

yagerrr
POC Phil from Pride Of Cleveland Scooters test rode the new Kymco Yager GT 200i, here’s his report…

Let’s get the obvious stuff out of the way first.

“Yager GT200i?” Who names these things? Didn’t Vespa recently have a GT200? They should have chosen RT or ST… GT is a Vespa call sign. “Yager?” Spellcheck please: “Jäger,” yep, that’s what I thought, the German word for “Hunter.” Not an entirely bad name for a scooter. The downside: as an homage to the Sym-Phony 125, they printed the word Yager on the side but they stylized the Letter “A” as to include the left arm of the “Y,” so now it looks like it’s an “Ager GT200i.” I’m aging fast enough on my own, no help needed thanks.
Continue reading “Kymco Yager GT200i: POCphil’s review”

CARB fines Viva $1.875 million

The California Air Resources Board has fined Viva Motor Sports and some Viva dealers $1.875 million for importing and selling motorcycles, scooters, and ATVs that didn’t meet CARB requirements. CARB chairman Mary D. Nichols summed up the case:

There are plenty of great motorcycles that meet clean air standards. Most dealers know this and carry only bikes that have their California smog certificate. Those who try to cut corners put themselves in a lose-lose situation. Violators pay penalties and damage their reputations while putting public health at risk.”

Only $268,000 of the fine will be collected if the companies follow CARB regulations in the future. Importers complain that CARB regulations are too strict and the approval process is overcomplicated, but CARB is one of few agencies that have the power to regulate scooter imports and punish violations, so it’s good to see them actually going after some flagrant violations.

Owners can return the bikes, if the bikes are not returned, they will be barred from future registration.

(Thanks to NoHo Scooters and Scooterism for the story!)

Hyped to death

BusinessWeek talks about why GM just doesn’t get it:

Why won’t [the Volt] be knocking socks off? Because by the time dealerships actually receive their Volts, the impulse buyers will have been seeing the vehicle for almost three years. To GM’s most cherished buyer demographic, the Volt will be old news by the time the first one hits the streets.

The same applies to most products, including scooters. People often accuse me of favoritism towards (for instance) Genuine and SYM, and being mean-spirited about other brands. To be fair, I’ve had less-than positive things to say about both Genuine and SYM, but I think part of the reason I have so many good things to say about them is that they’re two brands that do a great job of building up hype while keeping expectations realistic, then deliver on time, with a product that’s even better than what was expected.

Most other brands just don’t do this well. Piaggio posts photos and press releases months, sometimes years, before a product is available in Europe. Then, any excitement from the European launch is long-gone by the time products finally arrive in the U.S. To make matters worse, U.S. models are often stripped-down versions of their European counterparts. Diamo (Italjet) and CMSI/TNG (the Lambretta/Scomadi/”L” series) hyped vaporware for years and years and never came through. Cobra/Peirspeed’s exciting MadAss250 was old news when it arrived a few weeks ago, a few years after dealers and consumers expected to see it.

The small-but-dedicated American scooter media is always hungry for news. Bloggers, journalists, and newsgroup admins become players in this careful balance between hype vs. reality. We love a scoop, but we hate empty promises, especially when they’re repeated for years, and our bullshit detectors have become finely honed since 2000 or so. Obviously, getting press is important (What the hell has Kymco done in the last 9 months?), but press is useless when products are years away from reality. Ultimately the decision to release information is up to the manufacturers, and they could be doing a better job of it. Genuine (since the Stella) and SYM (recently) have done well to reach out to the small-but-dedicated scootersphere, always being honest and realistic about their plans. This communication benefits the company, who keeps interest in their products high, the media, who get something to talk about, and consumers, who get a realistic forecast of the direction of the industry and reliable new-product information.

’Tween Wolf

Phil Waters from POC Scooters had the chance to take a road trip on SYM’s Wolf 150, here’s his report:

merwolf1

Ever since we first spotted the SYM Wolf 150 at DealerExpo in Indianapolis in February, we’ve been pretty well enamored with it. Some of us readily admit that our love of scooters goes hand in hand with our love of motorbikes so seeing the resurgence of the small displacement motorcycle is pretty important to us.
Continue reading “’Tween Wolf”

NoHo’s “Cash For Clunkers” Program

NoHo Scooters in Los Angeles is doing its part to clear out our streets and carports of junk scooters, without government subsidies! Bring in any scooter, running or not, and get $300 off a new one. That’s the best deal you’re ever going to get on your Geely with a seized engine and 250 miles on the odometer. NoHo Owner Mike Frankovich tells us “Somebody had to do it!.”