Ryetronic’s Cold Weather Challenge is back! The full rules are here, but to summarize, it’s a contest for scooters (no motorcycles, sidecars, or three-wheelers) to determine who can ride 10 miles or more (distance is used only as a tiebreaker) in the coldest weather before February 28, 2007. Last years’ winner was Kent Messer of Ithaca, NY, who rode in -6.5° on December 14 2005. If you live in a sunnier climate, fear not, runners-up are grouped by state. The Cold Weather Challenge is sponsored by Crafty Planet, who reminds you to knit responsibly this holiday season.
Author: illnoise
Lloyd I’m Ready To Be Heartbroken
Here’s a moddy pop masterpiece from Camera Obscura with a great video to match. It’s the Smiths, Belle and Sebastian, Style Council, and Kirsty MacColl all wrapped into one and dropped into a world of IKEA lamps and Repro Depot fabrics (Not a terriblly manly song, no). “Don’t You Dare Cheer Up Tracyanne” (from the comments) should be their next single.
BMW neck brace
South African doctor Chris Leatt, working with KTM and BMW, has designed a neck brace system designed to reduce neck, spine, and collarbone injuries in a motorcycle crash. The brace will be sold by BMW Motorrad.
PM Tuning’s L-series photos
PM Tuning (Lambretta Innovation) has a series of photos of the L-series “new Lambretta,” showing various stages of assembly, and more photos from the EICMA show (Thanks, Stephen and Chad) The engine is, in fact, the Piaggio QUASAR 250ie motor found in the Vespa GTS, Piaggio MP3, and several other Piaggio Group scooters. The bike is being evaluated by Piaggio for engine approval and another Italian company is preparing drawings and production plans. Several years in the making, the new Lambretta is getting tantalizingly closer, but there are still a few hurdles ahead.
Back from the dead: CMSI “L”ambretta?
Steve at The Scooter Scoop reports that CMSI (parent company of TNG scooters) had a prototype “Lambretta” on display in Milan. Not big news if it was the same Lambretta prototype they’ve been showing off for years, but it looks to be a new prototype (comments appreciated). You may remember that CMSI, losing a major investor and finding themselves unable to use the Lambretta name, but teaming up with PM Tuning and looking at a more global market, abandoned the name Lambretta USA and were marketing the scooter as “Scomadi” for a while, but the Scomadi site now features an “L-Series” logo and “coming soon.” Hope springs eternal…
Follow-up: Looking at the photos from the 2005 debut of the Lambretta prototype, the scooter in Milan is pretty vastly different. It appears to be more orange than red, (or poorly color-balanced) and the speedometer, rear turn signals, and glovebox, among other details, would indicate that this is either an entirely new prototype, or the old one was heavily modified. Any engine nerds want to take a stab at what’s inside?
Listpic
More on Bajaj’s scooter rebirth
Following last month’s reports that Bajaj was looking to re-enter the scooter market, Moneycontrol India reported last week that Bajaj will launch the Kristal (for the ladies) in January, and re-introduce the Blade. Rajiv Bajaj, who seemed creepily gleeful a year ago when he proclaimed the Chetak dead, is hyping his mysterious hi-tech blockbuster 150cc scooter to the press and making it clear that it won’t be secondary to the Bajaj motorcycle line; it will be “insightfully positioned” (is that Rajiv for “boutique?”) at only 100 of Bajaj’s 500 dealerships. You’d think Bajaj could learn from Piaggio’s mistakes, even if Piaggio can’t. “Given that the Honda Eterno sells 90,000 units a year,” says Vespa Club of America historian John Gerber, “I have to wonder if they would try to compete in this niche with another geared scooter.” I think that seems unlikely, but I don’t think for a second that Rajiv would have any problem pillaging the “Chetak” name.
Viva la Vespa (the article)
The San Luis Obispo Tribune takes a stab at “the boilerplate scooter trend story.” It’s somehow better than average, actually.
Fire up the willing engine, responding with a roar
Canadian TV host Rick Mercer has driven a lot of different vehicles while interviewing celebrities and officials, but nothing could be better than riding a Vespa following Neil Peart of Rush to the band’s “Batcave” for a drum lesson. Peart, aside from being an amazing drummer, has written two books about motorcycle touring, and another about “road music.”
Viva la Vespa (the podcast)
Trevor from Southern California wants a Vespa, and has decided to document his journey into scooterdom in a podcast. He’s still trying to sell his car, and doesn’t have the bike yet, but he’s determined. It’s sort of the podcast version of the Scooter Snoop blog. Trevor will thus be happy to learn that Scott from Scooter Snoop finally passed his test last Wednesday and has his GT200 on the road! (Thanks for the link, Rye.)
Burgdog
Reader Bill Meek responded to our “Burgmania spreads” story:
It’s great that a 2-stroke site has information and links about the Suzuki Burgman. Here’s an interesting newspaper article about a Burgman rider (me) and his unusual passenger that I thought you might find amusing.
We certainly did. Bill and his dog Sandy have covered over 10,000 miles in the last year. Sandy even has her own website with photos, press appearances, and videos.
Piaggio’s EICMA site
I could have saved myself a lot of work if I’d seen this a few days ago: Piaggio Group’s site for Milan motorcycle show visitors. Don’t worry, I’ll still do the Piaggio writeup, but this might give you more detail than my stories, and won’t leave out the motorcycles, some of which are interesting. It’s strange that this site calls the Vespa S the “LXS” wheras the press release avoids making any connection between the LX and S models. (Thanks, Myttrr mA5ty.)
Pssst! Secret Sales
We’re not sure why both the Phils (McCaleb of Scooterworks USA, and Waters of Pride of Cleveland Scooters), would both choose to include the word “Secret” in sales that they seem to be promoting pretty vigorously, but both promise the best deals of the year (in-store only), and both insist you “bring a truck.” POC’s “Super Secret Sale” is this Friday (11am-7pm) and Saturday (10am-6pm) at 2078 W. 25th St., Cleveland, OH, and Scooterworks’s “Super Secret Santa Saturday” is December 9, starting at 11am, at 5410 N. Damen Ave., Chicago. As Phil (the POC one) says, “Santa can’t be trusted – shop for yourself.” (The full text of POC’s email is posted as a comment, below).
Aprilia and Derbi at EICMA 2006
Despite our promise to tackle Piaggio’s Milan show offerings next, it proved too daunting a task for one night, so we’ll finish that up over the weekend. In the meantime, we present Derbi and Aprilia’s new products from the EICMA. It’s clear from just the press releases that Derbi and Aprilia are still not fully integrated into the Piaggio machine. The text is organized differently, less details are given, and the English translation is even more awkward (In Derbi’s case, perhaps a result of translating from Spanish to Italian to English).
Derbi
Derbi scooters are still unavailable in the U.S, but for what it’s worth, their Atlantis and Senda models will be offered in new colors. The GP 125 and 250i have been modestly updated, note that the 250 has been given electronic fuel injection. The only all-new model is the Boulevard S (pictured above), a nice-looking big-wheeler offered in 125 and 250cc displacements.
Aprilia
Aprilia hyped some new motorcycles in Milan, but didn’t have too much to show as far as scooters, not deeming any of them important enough to include a photo with Piaggio’s press kit.
Four variations of the Scarabeo line have changed. The 2-stroke Scarabeo 50 Street has been given some minor cosmetic changes, including new wheels and a new front fairing. The Scarabeo 125 Street and 200 Street have been given “a lighter design and form make for perfect access to the Scarabeo range,” whatever that means, and are now available in “Blue Couture,” “Shot Grey,” and “Shine Red.” The 250 has a new fuel-injected engine. No mention is made of the 4-stroke 50, 100, 400, or 500cc models, which are presumably unchanged from 2006. It’s also unclear why the world needs eight versions of the Scarabeo.
The Atlantic 400 boasts a new top-end design, a watercooled one-cylinder with a higher-flow valve that meets A2 licensing and Euro 3 emissions standards. The Atlantic 125, 250, and 500 presumably remain unchanged.
The venerable SR 50 has been given new replica graphics based on Jorge Lorenzo’s World Championship winning “Spain’s No. 1” Aprilia RSW 250 .
The range also includes the Sonic 50, Mojito Custom (pictured above, and rumored to be returning the the U.S. at a lower price in 2007), and the Sportcity 125, 200, and 250.
More photos in EICMA06 Gallery.
Cheer up, Peter Reid…
This one’s for M5, complaining about the recent lack of football news on 2sb: Sunderland’s 19-year-old goalkeeper, Ben Alnwick, hit a teenage girl on a Piaggio scooter with his Range Rover yesterday morning. Alnwick was questioned and released, the girl went to the hospital on a stretcher. Amazingly, among the witnesses was Graham Poll, who presented the scooterist with a yellow card for her blatant dive.