Today’s Chico State Orion features a story on Nathan and Kenny Coy, Chico State students better known to us as “scooter racers.”
Month: October 2004
Haunted Chicago
MMM Stops Worrying and Loves the Scooter.
Per Brooke’s comment, here’s Minnesota Motorcycle Monthly’s August 2004 Kymco People 250 Torture Test. Nice.
Honda Intelligent Transportation Systems
The story is something about Honda Exhibits at the 11th World Congress on ITS in Nagoya, Japan, but the photo just looks like Mykrrr got his hands on a Silverwing and put a double-decker spoiler on it. Jokes aside, some interesting tidbits (albeit PR) about the future of vehicle safety.
Dim Lights, Big City
OK, back to Piaggio-bashing: along with the P150, Vespa is bringing back another icon of the ’80s.
Stella in MMM
Just to prove that we’re still friends, here’s a nice review of the Stella (a cover story, even!) from the August 2004 Minnesota Motorcycle Monthly Magazine. Mmmm.
Stella’s Free Lunch
I’ll take a break from Piaggio-bashing just long enough to pick on Genuine Scooters. From a letter to dealers encouraging them to invite Stella owners on a lunch ride, a wonderful idea, with otherwise reasonable stipulations:
…You have to send a digital photo of your gathering with all those happy riders. It must come with a photo of your local newspaper’s front page so we can see the date. This is just to discourage creative photo-shop experts!!!…
I’d think the restaurant receipt would have the date on it, but allright. I’m gonna go to Scooterworks ride just to see how they get a digital photo of a couple dozen people with a legible date on the Sun Times.
Bajaj investigates Pakistan alliance
Bajaj is planning to sell two- and three-wheeler kits to the Saigol family of Pakistan, to be assembled in Pakistani factories for the domesic market. Three side notes:
- The story says Bajaj is “[India’s] second-largest two-wheeler maker.” Did I miss something, I thought they were by far the largest?
- The story adds new Indian counting vocabulary to the 2sb glossary; “lakh,” which means 100,000, not to be confused with “crore” which is 10 million.
- The story also asserts that “Pakistan does not have any indigenous vehicle brand,” but we happen to know it’s home to the Sitara City Cart.
Cool brands list not so cool
Most people could tell within seconds that Vespa’s Cool Brandleaders award was just a contrived public relations backrub, but Paul Smith and several other British brands spoke out against the “awards” last week, announcing that they’d refused to pay the organziers £6,250 to appear on the list after being notified they’d won awards.
Motorcycle Airbag videos
Dunno who Halo Labs is, or if they have anything to do with motorcycle safety, but they have three “Demo Videos” of a motorcycle airbag vest that are fun to watch.
Dealers see new Lambretta prototype
I heard from a prospective dealer that has seen the the new Lambretta prototype. He was unable to give me details, but he confirmed that it’s pretty much what we’ve been hearing/guessing, (Tube frame, bodywork based on Lambretta Laboratory’s series IV, honkin’ 250cc Piaggio engine) and it sounds pretty exciting. It’s still unclear if the body panels will be metal, carbon fiber, or fiberglass, or a combination. LambrettaUSA is currently talking to a limited number of dealers preparing for the launch.
Voodoo Mounted By the Gods
“In 1988, photo-journalist Alberto Venzago crosses West Africa on an aged Vespa. It breaks down in the town of Ouidah, right in front of a Voodoo cloister. A man appears and offers to help. His name is Mahounon.
He is one of the most powerful Voodoo priests in Africa.”
You’d think Stella would ride a Stella
Macca’s daughter rides a GT200. And that’s what passes for news in Wales.
This is London looks at Vespa
This Is London rehashed the history of Vespa last week in honor of the scooter’s Cool BrandLeaders
Award.
NYC Convention protest flap escalates
Adding to charges that undercover NYC police used scooters (Piaggio BV200s!) recklessly to round up protesting bicyclists at the RNC convention in August, the New York Civil Liberties Union has criticized an undercover scooter cop’s helmet sticker reading “Loud Wives Lose Lives.” NYPD offered an apology and promised to get to the bottom of the matter, then later responded that the officer was “adopting a persona” to fit in (because the average maxiscooter rider wears a pudding bowl with biker slogans and a white polo shirt) and thanked the NYCLU for blowing his cover. Amazing.