In a surprise announcement today, Diamo USA announced they’ll import the Italjet Dragster and Torpedo, and other Italjet bikes including the Griffon 650 motorcycle, starting in February. We’ll have more details and analysis tomorrow. (Note: these will be Italjet-branded Dragsters, not the “Italiano” models that were once expected to be built under license by Kinetic in India)
9 thoughts on “Italjet Dragster to return to US in February”
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holy crap – i might be selling some stuff soon to afford one
The Dragster *and* the Griffon 650 are coming to the USA? Hells Yeah! Now you’ll be able to indulge your inner mod and your inner rocker at the same shop. It’s Quadrophenic, it is! There goes my SH300i money, sigh…
I, too, have long dreamed about fully-legal Dragsters being imported by someone with a clue. And Diamo is a decent company with at least some decent products, from what I’ve heard. But I’d want to know a little more before placing my order. Italjet’s reappearance happened so fast that it makes me wonder if Italjet is just a cubicle in an Italian office park who licensed their name to a Chinese manufacturer. I’m also curious why Italjet pulled the Dragster and Torpedo away from Kinetic. Italjet’s quality and support was not legendary to begin with, so for some reason the idea of Kinetic taking over their models was more exciting than the return of the real Italjets. I guess my reasoning is that an Indian-made Kinetic “Dragster” would probably cost less and possibly be better quality than a Chinese made “Italjet” Dragster. I know, I worry too much.
If the new Dragsters are of good quality, wherever they’re made, and Italjet and Diamo have their act together for support/parts/service, this could indeed be the biggest news of the year, but if not, it could be even more disappointing than Italjet’s earlier U.S. deals.
It’s been pointed out on the BBS that the prototype has a Piaggio Quasar engine. If that’s the case, place your orders now. And prepare yourself for some serious sticker shock. But yeah, that got me a little more excited.
Only way Christine will let me buy this is if I suddenly get offered a six figure salary out of the blue.
But I want one very badly.
They’re only producing a 2-stroke 50cc and a 250cc 4-stroke. I guess the 180cc 2-stroke is a thing of the past, which is what would really makes this scooter worth it for me.
I cant wait
How exciting. Finally its being brought back. woohoo.
In the pic that Bryan has posted, it is the prototype model they demo’d at Milan in 05 (if memory serves..), and it may look a little alien because they have used to 50cc dragster frame with the 250 engine. That’s why the engine sticks out the tail so much. Be sure that the final release will be better engineered and again, if i recall correctly, someone was saying that the bodywork would be slightly recrafted and a tad more aerodynamic (- basically the rouding of the corners)
to reply to david…
it is a damn shame that the 180 is gonna die a cruel death, i loved my 2t 180sp Runner’s speed, but in fairness it was a stupid size capacity considering one of its main market places is the UK where the law states that to ride anything > 125cc you have to pass your full license.