Author: illnoise

ScooterworksUSA and Scooterworks Chicago

There’s been some confusion and angst lately on the Chicago lists about changes at Scooterworks and parts availability. Until recently, both the local dealership (and its service department) AND the catalog internet/mail-order business were located on Damen Avenue and called “Scooterworks USA.” Starting last month, the parts business, Scooterworks USA has moved to a new location on the West Side, and the dealership, still on Damen, has been separated from the parts business and christened Scooterworks Chicago (note the separate websites, as well).

Scooterworks Chicago will stock the general supply of parts, gear, and accessories typical to any good scooter shop, but will no longer sell the full lineup of items available from Scooterworks USA.

Sadly, Scooterworks USA is not accessible to retail customers, so local scooterists will not be able to order in person, or pick up orders placed by phone or online. This was very disappointing news to Chicago scooterists spoiled with 6-day-a-week access to just about any imaginable scooter part. To lessen the blow, ScooterworksUSA is temporarily offering free shipping for all Chicago orders over $35 until September 31, 2009:

Attention: Chicagoland Scooterworks customers
As many of you know, we have moved our warehouse across town from our dealership, Scooterworks Chicago. We are in the process of making Scooterworks Chicago one of the greatest scooter shops in the country.
We are unfortunately not able to stock all of our parts at our dealership. We know this is an inconvenience to our local customers, and for that we apologize. So to help everyone get through the 2009 riding season we are offering all Chicagoland customers FREE SHIPPING on all orders over $35 through September 31, 2009.
Thanks,
Scooterworks Staff

As always, orders placed before 2pm ship same day, and Scooterworks generally offers free shipping on orders over $100.

Test ride: SYM Citycom 300i

2sbcitycom01
SYM USA lent 2strokebuzz the new Citycom 300i for a few days. Ron Brockman and I rode it for a couple days each, mostly on urban interstates and city streets.

I’ve always felt that the sweet spot for scooters is in the 125-200cc range. 50cc bikes have always seemed like a letdown, and Barcaloungers like the Honda Helix (at a whopping 250cc) and its descendants (pushing towards 1000cc these days) were just not interesting to me. Obviously, different people have different tastes and needs, and it’s great to see such a wide range of scooters available these days, but to get around the city and the occasional longer ride, 150 cubic centimeters was always sufficient for me.
Continue reading “Test ride: SYM Citycom 300i”

Vespa Vintage 2009 catalog

Piaggio’s latest Vespa Vintage catalog is available online. The PDF download doesn’t seem to work, but you can peruse it in Flash. The first “Vespa Vintage” catalog came out around the same time Piaggio returned to the U.S., and sent many Vespaphiles running to their local VVRS (remember those?) expecting to find some of the lovingly depicted reproductions of rare bits actually in stock. The new catalog (have there been any in between? Is this a once-a-decade thing?) seems a little less, well, imaginary, and VespaUSA’s parts department has improved (a bit) since 2000, so now’s your chance to score that Piaggio-approved GS spare tire gas tank.

Symba: First ride impressions

Earlier today, 2SB met up for a chat with our local SYM rep Ken Rudoy, and ended up leaving with a SYM CityCom300i and a NEXX X30 Viper modular helmet to try out for a few days. More to come in that department. The visit also included a quick spin on the much-heralded Symba, in fact the very same preproduction example from the DealerExpo floor. If you’re like me, your first scooter was a rickety deathtrap with a convoluted manual transmission and way too much power for its own good. If you’re like me, you’ve since settled into a comfy automatic with push-to-cancel beeping turn signals and other modern conveniences (like brakes! and traction!), and forgotten all about springs in your butt and stalling and wheelies and the awesome, wonderful terror of your first ride. If you want to relive that magic, get thee to a SYM dealer, pronto. The Symba is a beautiful, well-made bike, but nothing (aside from maybe a vintage Honda Cub) will prepare you for clutchless foot-shift 4-speed. We’re hearing most dealers aren’t offering test rides, and now we know why. It’s a 101cc, but it just about shot out from under me a few times, and I didn’t dare test the upper gears. I’ll give it another try once I regain my composure, and write a more in-depth review, but for now, suffice to say that the Symba felt like (with apologies to Smog) a wild horse on a collision course with the sun, and we dug that feeling.

Symba, unleashed

Orin test rides the first Taiwanese scooter to be given a (misspelled) Swahili name. It’s a good overview, from a scooterists’ perspective. It appears the first shipment has spread around to dealers nationwide. SYM must have a new midwest sales rep who doesn’t know me, because he’s been in touch, hopefully we’ll have 2SB Symba and CityCom 300i reviews soon. If you think you’re going to need more Symba news than 2strokebuzz can provide, be sure to check out Team Symba.

LML launches 4T “Stella” in India

LML has apparently launched their 4-stroke “NV” (known to us as the Genuine Stella) in the Indian markets of Delhi and Ghaziabad. This Indian-market version surely varies to some degree from the DOT/EPA/CARB-approved version scheduled to come to the U.S. in early 2010, it’s good to read more about it. Sadly, this story seems to have many factual errors, such as the claim that it’s branded as a “Vespa,” or listing every country besides the U.S. as “Stella” territory. (It’s also a safe bet this is a third-generation re-write of an LML press release, and the bike’s not actually on the market yet) Two interesting numbers: They’re claiming almost 130 mpg, and an MSRP of $851 for the deluxe version. Genuine suggested 120mpg, so that’s maybe not far off, but the price is rather hard to believe. Genuine’s surely marking them up a good deal to make it worth their while, but we’d like to think it’s not that much.

Also good to see that the Indian scooter market is bouncing back a bit. Remember, we’ve been predicting a “retro” Bajaj for 2010, though if LML is only selling 1500 scooters a year domestically (and only 5000 worldwide), maybe India’s not ready yet. (Thanks for the link, Pete Selkowe!)

Seattle’s All-City Scooter Community Day

I love the idea of Seattle’s All-City Scooter Community Day. There are always a lot of rides and rallies in any major city, but we’re usually just enjoying ourselves and we rarely think of ways to engage the greater community. I keep thinking of ways it could be expanded: transportation forums, local government involvement, riding classes or demonstrations, rider education, and maybe even some community service… with a lot of planning and publicity, it seems like a terriffic way to promote scootering.

Honda Elite Returns for 2010

It’s Honda News day: The venerable Honda Elite will return for 2010, but in name only, it appears to be a rebadged Honda Lead 110. I never thought I’d be saying this, but as out-of-date as the original Elite design was, it’s 25 years old and thus ripe for nostalgia. As Eric points out at Modern Buddy (thanks for the tip, Eric!), the least they could do is give it a pop-up headlight. Devo has a new album coming out and Lou Reed’s playing Lollapalooza this year. Grace Jones, Adam Ant, and Jim McMahon aren’t too busy lately, let’s get the old gang together!