Honda’s Worldwide Super Cub Special Site. (I think that’s Renae’s foot at the beginning.) Slow and clunky, just like the Cub itself, but also amazingly cute and useful. And in English! As excited as everyone is about the Symba and the Flyscooters Scout, It sure would be nice to see the real thing back in America. (Thanks, Rye!)
Author: illnoise
The New Stella, unveiled
For more than a year, rumors have been circulating about a new 4-stroke version of Genuine Scooter Company’s Stella motorscooter. Genuine confirmed the model a few months ago, but has otherwise been very quiet about the project. This week, Genuine allowed 2strokebuzz a quick look at a “New Stella” prototype (and a ride!) just before it was sent for CARB testing in California.
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Ipotesi Super Vespa GT 500
The Vespa Experiment
Vespanomics is in motion for the Vespa Experiment, in which three singer-songwriters are in the midst of a Vespa tour of California nightclubs and coffee bars. A solid idea, everyone loves acoustic folk peppered with pseudo-environmental PiaggioUSA talking points, until you hear raging bullshit like (take it away, Paolo!):
“If the 69% of Americans who own two or more cars would just switch one set of four wheels for two, the reduction in fuel consumption, emissions, congestion and cost would be significant – not years from now, but right now,”
So all we need to do is immediately and permanently change the transportation habits of a mere 69% of Americans? If only America’s 21 million 2-or-more-car households* bought a scooter (a Vespa, natch), we’d se a significant change?
Am I cynical? Am I a big hater? No. That’s just a ridiculous dream.
Piaggio sold 15 million Vespas worldwide between 1946 and 1996. VespaUSA bragged a few years ago that with new plants in Brazil and Asia, they could supply the American market with 1 million scooters a year, even that was a pipe dream, seeing as how the MIC reported that only 222,000 scooters were sold in the U.S. 2008, the best year for scooter sales in decades.
(Feel free to quote those numbers if you go to one of the shows.)
Also, here’s a bit more detail on Vespa’s Pandora music channels (is that ANOTHER ad agency?) and news that Vespa’s doing a promo tie-in with that sad new Da Vinci Code-prequel.
*The exact number here is arguable, but we’re probably being more conservative than Timoni. First, we’re assuming he’s talking about households, not individuals, it’s ludicrous to think 65% of Americans own two cars personally. We found stats citing 21 million multi-car households in the U.S in 2005, and went with that. If Timoni’s “69%” was applied to all US households (105.5 million in 2000), that would mean 72.5 million multi-car households. We’ll give him the benefit of the doubt and stick with 21 million rather than 72.5 million. Or! Maybe he meant “69% of the Americans” rather than “the 69% of Americans,” that would get him down to only 15 million scooters. The gist remains the same.
Prima Pullman Jacket review
You could argue that there’s no specific difference between a motorcycle jacket and a scooter jacket, and you’d be absolutely right. The demands of either are pretty similar, and any of the thousands of motorcycle jackets out there would certainly protect you equally on a scooter or motorycle. The difference is fashion. 10 years ago, your choice consisted of three varieties: The too-colorful leather “Power Ranger,” the leather classic “Biker,” and the hundred-zipper Scotchbrite-and-black-fabric “Tech.”
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What’s your zip code?
Help out Mau Spencer of Classic Scooterist Scene. Mau’s looking to supply his distributor with a list of cities and zip codes with a high concentration of scooterists (especially vintage, I presume) Any suggestions? Just list “City, State, Zip(s),” e.g. “Chicago, IL 60707 60642, 60622, 60647, 60657.” I’ll compile the list and pass it on to him, but I’m also curious to see for myself.
Vespa Radio?
Vespa Lexington covers some upcoming Vespa promotions and advertising, including Pandora radio stations.
Plug in, 2006-style!
We’ve been asked several times this week why we haven’t fallen all over ourselves to join the media bandwagon hyping Piaggio’s revolutionary MP3 plug-in hybrid, due to the U.S. in 2010. Here’s why:
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Merciless Tigers FTW!
After several seasons in multiple leagues (summer, winter, indoor, outdoor, mens, co-ed, over-40m etc.) and sometimes several games a week, our beloved Cincinnati Merciless Tigers have finally won the highest honor of the Soccer City Men’s Open Blue Division, top of the table after a 7-1-0 season. They’re also holding steady at .500 (1-1-3) in their current outdoor league. Congratulations to our men in black, Soccer City Men’s Open Blue Division Champions!
| TEAM | W | L | D | G | PF (AVG) | PA (AVG) | DIFF |
| Merciless Tigers | 7 | 1 | 0 | 8 | 3(6.63) | 27(3.38) | +26 |
White PowerSound
Another sweet-looking new pipe from Pinasco, but as Matt points out, they really might want to re-think the name.
LML Star Deluxe for Italy
LML launched their Star Deluxe 125 and 150 in Italy this week (Google translation). As we all know, the Genuine Stella is based on the LML Star, and a “new” California-legal Stella 150 is expected to arrive in U. S. soon, but these appear to be more or less the same models available in Europe for some time (though has the Star always been Euro3 compliant?) Still, there might be a few colors and options within that story to fuel the rumor mill.
Philip McCaleb has confirmed the new Stellas will feature 150cc 4-stroke engines, and despite the wacky predictions we’ve heard (and spread), we suspect they won’t be otherwise wildly distinctive from the currently-available Stella 150. Still, that’s good news for Californians (and the environment,) and California compliance will likely allow Genuine to import and market the Stella on a larger scale.
Flock Yeah 2
Cool video of the Flock Yeah 2 Moped Rally in Los Angeles. Thanks to the narration and editing (and mopedista’s fashion choices), you’d believe it was shot in the ’70s if not for the almost-ubiquitous full-face helmets, though we’re certainly not going to complain about that. (Thanks Imiuswi!)
Piaggio targets Continental Airlines
No, Roberto Colannino isn’t looking to acquire another airline,* Piaggio USA is marketing directly to Continental employees in Newark, NJ as part of a Continental Airlines alternative-transportation program featuring designated scooter parking and giveaways. It’s actually a pretty neat idea, though it might be tough to implement on a wider scale.
*It’s easy to forget that the Vespa’s roots are in aviation. Piaggio Aero (an entirely separate company, but still bearing the Piaggio name) still makes airplanes. It’s odd that with all of the news about Colannino’s acquisition of Alitalia, that factoid never came up.
Miami to LA
Photographer Scott Branch is riding from Miami to LA on a Kymco People 50. He expects to take 30 days and spend $65 in gas. It does not appear Scott took the weight and aerodynamics of his giant backpack into account when calculating his speed or fuel consumption, but good luck to him! You can follow Scott’s journey on his blog.
Happy Earth Day! (2-Stroke Dope revisited)
A couple days ago, we got some great feedback about our story refuting press reports about scooter emissions, notably Cecil Adams’ syndicatedThe Straight Dope column“Give a Scooter, Pollute Her.” The way Cecil framed the question left us doubting his conclusions, but we admitted there was something to his findings, and wondered about specific emissions figures.
Well, 2SB reader “JSH” tracked down some real numbers, and his comment was so thorough and insightful, we’ll just reprint the whole thing here:
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