Author: illnoise

NoHo’s “Cash For Clunkers” Program

NoHo Scooters in Los Angeles is doing its part to clear out our streets and carports of junk scooters, without government subsidies! Bring in any scooter, running or not, and get $300 off a new one. That’s the best deal you’re ever going to get on your Geely with a seized engine and 250 miles on the odometer. NoHo Owner Mike Frankovich tells us “Somebody had to do it!.”

Genuine’s new “cruiser” due in 2010

Everyone’s been talking about Genuine’s retro-styled touring scooter for months, but Genuine (amazingly) has kept images and details under wraps. So I was surprised as hell when, after an already-surprising Blur 220 ride, Genuine president Philip McCaleb and designer Eric Carl offered me a peek at a series of computer renderings last Monday.

Of course, I’m sworn to secrecy about the details, but I can reveal a few things:
Continue reading “Genuine’s new “cruiser” due in 2010″

Genuine Blur 220: test ride

Blurristas, rejoice, your favorite bike may be back!

Genuine’s Blur 150 was a great scooter that never sold well. Its fans will gladly extoll its virtues, especially its sublime braking, handling, and suspension. Unfortunately, Genuine discontinued the Blur after two years on the market (the 2007 model was orange and charcoal, the 2008 model was black and charcoal) and many bikes sat on dealer floors until lucky riders snapped them up at a discount in the big scooter rush of 2009.

Meanwhile, PGO in Taiwan has been making several versions over the past few years (it’s called the G-Max in most of the world) and it’s become popular in other markets. Why didn’t it succeed here? Was the modern styling ahead of its time for the U.S. market? Was it too orange? Was it the fact that a Buddy 125 was hundreds of bucks cheaper and offered roughly the same top speed? Whatever the reason, American scooterists missed out on a really well-engineered bike that was leagues ahead of most 150s in everything but speed.
Continue reading “Genuine Blur 220: test ride”

Motorsport 30% off sale, two Chicago rides

One of our favorite shops, Motorsport Scooters (aka Scooterwest) in San Diego, CA, has a spiffy new site and a big “NC-17” anniversary party scheduled for Saturday. If you’re not in town, take advantage of 30% off all items this weekend when you order from the new site.

And here in Chicago, don’t forget about Logan’s Run on Saturday and Scooterworks Chicago’s Sunday Ride.

MadAss 125

The Scooter Scoop reports that the MadAss 125 is finally available at dealers. We first reported on the MadAss more than six years ago, and a 125 version was announced shortly later. The Xkeleton Trickster, a knockoff version, beat the MadAss 50 to the U.S. market, and original MadAss importer Tomberlin (who now runs Schwinn’s scooter business) apparently never got the MadAss 50 off the ground here. Since then, Pierspeed became Sachs’ U.S. importer, and displayed the 50cc and 125cc versions at DealerExpo in early 2008. The 50cc finally became widely available in spring 2008, but supply problems held back the 125 for another year and a half. A sweet-looking MadAss 500 prototype was the darling of the internet last summer, hopefully that becomes reality, and the seemingly-forgotten X-Road 125 (and a rumored 250 version) would also be nice additions to the lineup.

VVV: JDiggz “Make It Hot”

Vespa Video Vednesday is back, on an actual Vednesday! Here’s a good one that I think ten people sent me two years ago when it was new and I never even watched until I saw it on David Smith’s master list that inspired this enterprise:

Artist: JDiggz
Song: “Make It Hot”
Album: Memoirs of a Playbwoy (2007)
Scooter(s): Series 1 Lambretta, Vespa P-series
Scooter content: about 30 seconds
Jump to the good parts: 1:11, 1:42, 4:08

Canadian rapper JDiggz’ tune doesn’t do much for me, but it’s at least innocuous. The fact that the video is so totally incongruous to the song kinda makes it better, and the fact that they steered clear of the obvious gang-war motif buys them some points, too. It’s very nicely shot, and fun. JDiggz looks totally slick, and his posse of mods and hot-pantsed bootie chicks is somehow funny and believable.

The La Dolce Vita-esque intro is funny, but doesn’t really fit with the Quadrophenia thing. Though it appears to be a TV175, the Series-1 Lambretta predates the mods-and-rockers era, and the P-series Vespa is even more out of place. Of course JDiggz fans could care less about that. It’s obviously shot in Toronto on a leftover Jackie Chan movie set, which doesn’t really evoke London or Brighton, but JDiggz looks just about as wobbly and uncomfortable on a scooter as Phil Daniels.

Remember that time we had an idea for a regular feature and only kept it up for three weeks? Check back next week and see if we can break our record!

Oberdan’s dream world

Oberdan, just stop it already, I can’t read Italian and Google translations never make it clear if the insane vehicle I’m looking at is a real manufacturer-endorsed concept sketch, or just random nuttiness that popped into your head.

Update: he’s got a new Gilera sketch, too.

And a million more on his Motosketches site, which is a joy to visit. We love you Oberdan, we just can’t tell the difference between fantasia i realtà.

Back from Sturgis…

sturgis
Yep, we were gone for a week or so, checking out the scooter scene in Sturgis, Michigan. (I posted a similar photo on my Facebook page and apparently my friends actually think I’d waste valuable vacation time at a Harley rally.)

In any case, we’re back and there’s some some good stuff on deck, including a Vespa Vednesday Video and some good news from Genuine.

VVV: Third Eye Blind, “Semi-Charmed Life”

So we’re back with the second installment of Vespa Video Vednesday, only a couple days late, and this time we’ll choose a video at random from David Smith’s list… Ah, crap, not this one…

Band: Third Eye Blind
Song: “Semi-Charmed Life”
Album: Third Eye Blind (1997)
Scooter(s): Many vintage Vespas and Lambrettas
Scooter content: 30-40 seconds
Jump to the good parts: all over the place

This is the sound of late-nineties douchebaggery, the sound of Spin-Doctors-wannabees stomping on Kurt Cobain’s grave throughout the second half of the decade. To be honest, it’s not a terrible song, it’s catchy enough, but its oversaturation in commercials, movies, shitty parties, and Sabrina the Teenage Witch was more than enough to make these guys rich, and they probably hate the song more than I do. It’s such a chick flick cliche that even chick flicks make fun of it now.

I didn’t have a TV for the second half of the nineties, so I never saw this video until a few years ago. I don’t imagine I would have cut the song a break even knowing about the scads of sweet vintage scooters in the promo clip. If you turn down the sound, and you aren’t prone to seziures from the EXTREME! NINETIES! ONE! SECOND! EDITS!, there’s a lot to see here. Clearly they rounded up a So-Cal club at the height of the vintage glory days (Burgundy Topz? Secret Society? someone will post an angry comment and tell us, I’m sure) and you can see in the scooterist’s faces, they’re hoping the song doesn’t catch on and immortalize the two afternoons they spent hanging out with these guys.

Check in next vednesday! Ve promise it vill be better.

VVV: OMD “Telegraph”

Every few years, our old friend David Smith, a Chicagoan living in Japan, gets in touch, and it’s always something good. This time he sent me a list of about 100 music videos featuring scooters. Some are obvious, and some are obscure, even in Japan. Some feature dozens of scooters throughout the video, some just flash one on the screen in the background for a few seconds.

So that (and Matt’s Halo Benders find) gave me the idea to try another weekly feature on 2strokebuzz: Vespa Video Vednesday (pronounce it like Count Floyd). Every week (or two) we’ll feature (steal) a video featuring a scooter. Goodtimes! Right?

Let’s kick off with a video that’s not on David’s list, that I posted a while back: Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark’s “Telegraph.” With no further ado:

Band: Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark
Song: “Telegraph”
Album: Dazzle Ships (1982)
Scooter(s): 3 red Vespa 50 Specials
Scooter content: 5 seconds
Jump to the good parts: 0:42, 1:00

OMD’s best song had a Karmann Ghia in the video, but this isn’t a half-bad song. The great 12″ single cover was designed by Peter Saville and there’s evidence he was involved in the video; his secondhand futurism is echoed a bit, and his cover for their first album is used as a backdrop.

Check in next vednesday, when… we’ll have already forgotten that we promised to do this veekly!