Month: November 2006

India proposes “spares law”

As anyone who’s bought an Italjet or Malaguti in the last ten years can tell you, it’s frustrating to spend a few grand on a motor vehicle, then find out a month later that a $5 component you need to replace will never be available again at any price. The Indian government is taking steps to require vehicle manufacturers to provide parts and service for five years after a model is discontinued or (handy for LML owners) if the company shuts its doors or changes hands. The Indian Business Standard reports that a new car model is launched in India every month. Meanwhile, Daewoo Motors Ltd., Premier Automobiles Ltd., Hero Puch Ltd., and LML, have all shut down. These closures and remaining manufacturers’ haphazard product lines are leaving millions of customers helpless to maintain and repair their cars, mopeds and scooters.

The article cites “similar laws in the US and the UK,” begging two questions: First, where do American Italjet and Malaguti owners get the proper forms; second, how can a government force a defunct importer of a defunct manufacturer (or worse, a fly-by-night importer dumping Chinese scooters on the market) to provide parts and service?

Piaggio sales up 60% in the U.S.

Piaggio reported yesterday that first-9-months profits were up 20.4% over 2005 and sales were up 60% in the U.S. (compared to 2005) Is that increase a result of Piaggio’s marketing genius, or expensive gas? 2SB reader jrldg has re-sparked an old discussion and points out Piaggio’s stock has risen over €3 per share. Piaggio’s showing at the EICMA is impressive, and maybe they are starting to get their act together in America, but I’ll stand by my argument that it’s mostly lucky timing.

Gilera at EICMA 2006

Our reports on the Piaggio Group’s presence at EICMA start with the models we’re least likely to ever see. We’ve never heard a single squeak about Gilera coming to America, a damn shame because the Runner and Nexus were perfectly good reasons to covet a Gilera dealer, and the Milan show just gave us a few more:

GPeicma.jpg

GP 800

One of the biggest stories at EICMA, scooters or otherwise, is Gilera’s new 75hp, 850cc GP 800 (Gilera might be the first manufacturer to ever round down cc’s for a model name). The GP features a V-twin 8-valve liquid-cooled engine in a Runner-like body (reports this summer predicted it’d be called a “Runner”) outfitted with a CVT automatic transmission, a horizontal single rear shock, and twin front discs. The only way to describe it is “Automatic Sportbike.” Whether the performance is comparable to an 800cc sportbike remains to be seen, but it’s going to outpace just about any other scooter. And the price will surely reflect the displacement.

FUOCOeicma.jpg

Fuoco 500

We’ve already talked about this a bit, but we now have some new photos in the gallery. As reported, it’s a MASTER 492cc engine in a sporty frame with tilting dual front wheels borrowed from the Piaggio MP3.

NEXUSeicma.jpg

Nexus 125

The rest of the lineup is a bit less exciting. The Nexus 125 is Gilera’s sporty Nexus 250 scooter with a downsized engine for 16-year-olds with a Euro A1 license. It’s a fairly large bike, and presumably not as peppy with the smaller engine, but the high-end features are retained from the bigger models, so at least it’s still flashy and luxurious. Adorably, the underseat compartment has been redesigned to hold a fullface helmet AND a half-shell for unexpected guests.

STALKEReicma.jpg

Stalker 50

The Stalker 50, Gilera’s version of the Piaggio Typhoon, now comes with a 2-stroke Hi-PER2 PRO engine previously found in the Gilera DNA and Piaggio NRG. Dig those “Urban Graffiti” graphics. It’s Christmas morning in Bari, and little Gio has just turned 16. He’s been begging his parents for two months for the new Gilera Nexus 125, but the butcher shop hasn’t been doing so well, and when they lead them to the garage and uncover his eyes, he sees a blaring “Stalker” decal glaring back at him. He’s polite, and it’s still a brand-new scooter after all, a good brand, better than most of his friends’, and out of his parent’s budget. And thank God it’s not the white one. But it’s still not easy to hide his disappointment. By mid-January, all the kids at school are calling him “Il Stalker” and Annabella has dumped him for an 18-year-old with a ten-year-old Runner 180. Gio and his friend Mario save up enough money to buy a 133 kit and a sports exhaust from a kid that crashed his Typhoon. They peel off the “Stalker” decal and put a big Inter Milan sticker on it, and decide it’s not such a bad bike after all.

See more photos in our EICMA 2006 gallery.

ABATE meeting reminder

A reminder from Dan Kay of Olde Town and ABATE of Illinois:

Tomorrow is the 3rd Wednesday of the month. That means at 8PM at the Park Ridge VFW, 10 W. Higgins (corner of Canfield where there’s an exit off the Kennedy). Parking at the auto-pay meters was addressed because enough of you chose to show up 2 months ago, going pro-active requires a maintained presence. Coming up with dedicated parking and a more permanent solution than the temporary one offered by Chicago D.O.R. Be there or don’t bitch!

ABATE of Illinois – Chicago Chapter

007 clogs Vespa searches

Actress Eva Green plays a character named “Vesper Lynd” in the new 007 flick, already misspelled “Vespa” by several news agencies. Not since Spaceballs was released on DVD have I randomly deleted “Vespa” Google News alerts without reading them first. Isn’t “Eva Green” sort of a better name for a Bond chick anyway? Ironically, Ursula Andress, who played Vesper Lynd in the original Casino Royale, posed with a Vespa 90 for a Vespa Calendar in the Sixties.

More: Gilera Fuoco 500

As expected, Gilera’s new 500cc three-wheeler was officially unveiled in Milan. We got it right that it was based on the MP3 platform (no-brainer) but we (and others) mistakenly machine-translated the name to “Fire,” when it is in fact named, in Italian, “Fuoco.” The Fuoco will feature the same engine found in the Gilera Nexus 500. Motorcycle News has a few more details and a photo of the back-end. Surprisingly, it will be available for sale (in Italy, anyway) in a few weeks. We expect more details and photos of the Fuoco and Vespa S soon.

Burgmania spreads

Suzuki’s doing something right, their Burgman continues to rack up glowing news stories nationwide. Interestingly, the bike also seems to be expanding beyond touring scooters’ usual market (the elderly, and wives of touring motorcyclists) in almost every direction. Here are a few news reports we’ve seen lately: