Here’s a nice PR roundup of Taiwan’s offerings at the EICMA show in Milan. If you think I’m taking a long time to write up DealerExpo reports, remember that EICMA was last November, and these dudes are presumably getting paid to write this stuff.
Month: April 2008
Farewell, Scooter in the Sticks
Steve Williams closed up shop on his Scooter in the Sticks blog yesterday. I loved “Sticks” (as it’s called in my bookmark) for Steve’s great photography and writing, which was always sweet, personal, and meditative without ever getting sappy or melodramatic (so, basically, the exact opposite of 2SB). I’m sure whatever Steve decides to do next will be just as great, and hopefully he’ll leave it up for posterity (and so I can catch up on reading it, I’m a few posts behind).
Vespa’s punchy “new” scooter
If this article is to be believed, the Vespa LX150 was just released in Canadia. Maybe they meant to review the Vespa LXS, which just came oot, and is being promoted in Canada under the banner “Born to be Square”, with what looks like 4/5th of the Kids in the Hall, circa 1992, with LXS headsets for heads.
Many people hate the square headlight on the “S.” Those people are dumb, it is awesome, and VofC is smart to turn it into a selling point. If you want a round headlight, buy the “new” LX 150!
Tu Trung, a Vietnamese Vespa restorer
Thanhnien News profiles Tu Trung, a Vespa restorer in Ho Chi Minh city. I don’t know his work, but it’s neat to read a local perspective on the Vietnamese Vespa restoration industry.
2SB in NYT 2x
We made the New York Times’ Wheels Blog twice in two weeks, first for Brooke’s self-inflating tires story, and again with my motorcycle and scooter marketing rant. Thanks, Daniel McDermon, and welcome to 2strokebuzz, Times readers, make yourselves at home!
Vermont and Canadia were brought in for questioning
From the Brown Daily Herald (Providence, RI)’s Campus News’ police blotter:
1:59 p.m. A student reported that sometime between 11 p.m. on March 14 and 9 a.m. on March 16, someone poured maple syrup all over her motor scooter in Lot 77 at Brook and Benevolent Streets.
Scooter Rider Punched
Another good reason to wear a full-face.
Merciless Tigers on Myspace
Look, friends, we can stand here and argue about Man Utd. all day, but there is one team, ONE TEAM, that unites us all under the banner of mediocre soccer… a team as drunk as we are… a team that doesn’t mind if you don’t drive six hours through god-forsaken Indiana to see them play every Sunday, let alone drag your hungover ass out of bed when you ARE in town… That a team is called the Merciless Tigers. And now they’re on MySpace. En-friend-ify those motherfuckers, or whatever you internet people call it, they’re out there chain-smoking cigarettes at halftime so you don’t have to. Zivio!
Royal Enfield floats on
Sify’s story about Royal Enfield‘s modest success, which can been seen as somewhat analogous to LML’s story. It’s a good model for business; targeting a small-but-fanatical market that’s totally ignored by bigger corporations.
XO Move Scooter
A neat concept bike: the XO Move Scooter, which folds up on itself to prevent theft, It’s a handsome design, and adjustable seat height is a neat feature unseen since the Piatti.
2nd Octannual 2SB Coloring Contest!
It’s been eight years since our last coloring contest, and the wounds have healed, let’s try it again. As you may have heard, MotoGP’s coming to Indianapolis Motor Speedway this summer, so we’re co-opting THEIR contest to show those cheese-eating, terrorist-loving Europeans what a MotoGP bike should look like.
Another (positive) Honda-inspired rant
Bob sent this great Honda ad from 1967. The ad’s a perfect illustration of everything Honda got right back then, and explains how they came to dominate the U.S. motorcycle industry at that time. There are a lot of ideas here for aspiring foreign scooter and motorcycle importers (in no particular order):
Continue reading “Another (positive) Honda-inspired rant”
Mumbai Drunk-Driving poster
This Is What Happens When U Drink and Drive. Let’s buy a case of Haywards 5000 and a Bajaj Chetak and try it out!
“Have it your way” with Honda?
Honda’s site welcomes you to “Have it Your Way” and customize your scooter to your exact specification. Fun, right? Except the SilverWing only comes in one color and offers no options or accessories, and the Ruckus is only available in black or silver this year, with no further options. The Metropolitan offers many accessories, but its rainbow of colors and patterns in recent years has been stripped back to red only. There’s something to be said for keeping a product line simple (Brooke’s working on a story about that), but a huge worldwide player like Honda, with such a wide variety of models overseas, should be offering more than three scooters in the U.S., or at least the one that’s topping all the best-seller charts in Europe.
Daelim Besbi 125
Dunno if South Korea’s Daelim scooters are any good, but their Besbi is sort of cute, if you’re into the “faux-retro” thing. It doesn’t look like Daelim USA is importing it, though.