Month: May 2006

LML seeks investors as Bajaj sales soar.

As LML seeks partners to help get back on its feet, (wasn’t Piaggio’s Roberto Colaninno just talking about investing in the Indian market?) Bajaj Auto reported a 37% increase in motorcycle sales this April (“Big deal,” you might say, “it’s spring, of course they sold well,” but that’s 37% over April 2005’s sales). Apparently the 137,858 bikes they sold last month are justification that it was time to ditch the Chetak.

Scooter lamps

Google News is giving us nothing but a hundred more “Vespa 6oth anniversary” and “Scooters get 60mph” wire stories, so how about some home decor tips? Check out these nifty Lambretta and Vespa lamps by Italian designer Maurizio Lamponi Leopardi. It does not appear they’re for sale, but now you have the idea, you can make one and clear one more milk crate full of spare parts out of your garage.

2-stroke, 4-stroke, 6-stroke, go

San Diego inventor Bruce Crower is developing a super-efficient six-stroke engine that uses steam to create more power while cooling the engine. It sounds reasonable enough, and maybe useful for scooters or motorcycles, though the space and weight saved by removing the cooling system would be replaced with distilled water tank. I don’t know why, but this story brings to mind this Achewood strip or this Onion article.

Buddy 125 Assembly Line

Genuine Buddy scooters on the assembly line

PJ Chmiel at Genuine Scooters has posted some new photos of the first Buddy 125 scooters being assembled at the PGO Factory in Taiwan. These bikes are on the way to the US now, and should arrive here in about a month. The 50cc Buddy and Black Cat models are expected in early July. Genuine also plans to introduce two more PGO models to the US this summer (“but not the 3-wheeler,” says PJ). We’re betting the quite-cool PGO EVO G-Max is one of them, that’s the scooter PJ rode from Chicago to Cincinnati and back last month.

Deus Ex Machina

Deus Ex MachinaAs the popularity of motorcycles and scooters spreads to well-to-do city-dwellers, there’s been an increase in urban “motorcycle boutiques” (Vespa and Harley each sport a flashy upscale retail location in Chicago) where the machines are a distant afterthought to a line of expensive clothing and accessories. Deus Ex Machina in Camperdown, Australia has taken this trend a step farther by selling a variety of late-model “retro” bikes and dirtbikes in a similar environment. They’ve even produced several custom “Deus” motorcycles and host a gallery with rotating motorcycle exhibits. While Vespa and Harley’s “shoppes” seem like a cheap cash-in, Deus comes off as a more personal, heartfelt venture, though that might just be the utterly amazing graphic design talking. Unlike Vespa’s ho-hum (or plagarized-and-settled-out-of-court) t-shirt designs, Deus’ shirts almost seem worth $50.