Author: illnoise

New Piaggio/Vespa accessories and clothing

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Rather than manufacturing replacement GTS exhaust manifold gaskets, or telling us more about the Vespa S they’ve teased us with, Piaggio and Vespa have put their combined energy into a new fall line of accessories and clothing. Since it’ll be months before PiaggioUSA posts this on their site — or tells Vespaway about it — I’ve translated it from Itanglish and posted it here, so you can call your dealers and pre-order stuff before they even know about it.

Vespa’s new showpiece is a Dainese-designed Vespa Club jacket and gilet (a fancy word for “really expensive quilted polyester liner that’s sold separately”). The jacket “can be personalised with armour protection,” which apparently means it has pockets for armor (sold separately). (The use of the word “Club” is cute, since the Vespa World Club is entering its seventh month of total inactivity.) On the accessories side, Vespa is releasing a line of leather bags designed to fit inside Vespa topcases, including one designed specifically for laptop computers. if that’s not enough leather, try a leather seat, now available in tobacco for the GTS, and tobacco or red for the LX. Why not throw in some matching grips? And a new Vespa Soft-Touch half-helmet? (why no full-face, guys? It’s 2006!) Rounding out the new line is a full complement of of chrome accessories, and a must-have Vespa-branded chain lock (with matching carrying bag!).

Piaggio further dissects your helmet fraction choices, with new three-eighths (Micro), five eighths (Copter) and seven-eighths (X-Jet) models. The “Micro” features snap-on goggles to cover another small fraction of your face. Continuing Vespa’s “personalizable jacket” theme, they’ve also unleased the “Technocomfort” line, with the unisex GT4 jacket, the Executive for the boys, and for the ladies, the, erm, Lady. The jackets can also be “customized” with armor, liners. or goofy leg covers they’re calling “Flapsâ„¢,” at additional cost, though the adjectives “Revolutionary,” “Elegant,” “Dynamic,” and “Innovative” are yours at no charge.

Photos of all this glorious crap (I kid, some of it is possibly worth looking into) are available for your perusal in the 2strokebuzz Gallery:
Vespa Fall 2006 Accessories
Piaggio Fall 2006 Accessories

SF law student beats parking ticket

Michael, a San Francisco law student, was ticketed for parking his Vino on the sidewalk. Here’s how he beat the ticket in court. Note that your city’s laws, the circumstances of your ticket, the judge, and your command of legal jargon may vary, and 2strokebuzz does not endorse contesting tickets that you damn well knew you deserved. Michael’s arguments would be very unlikley to hold water in Chicago, but we thank him for sharing his experience, maybe it will help others.

New 500cc Gilera 3-wheeler, Vespa S

The ScooterScoop just posted photos of the Gilera 500-cc three wheeler we’d heard about a while ago, presumably built on the Piaggio MP3 platform (yes, another sweet Gilera we will never see in the US) and a total out-of-nowhere surprise, the Vespa S, which looks like a retro-upgrade LX50 with styling based on the original Vespa 50S (square headlight, goofy horncover, boxy front fender). Both will debut at the Milan cycle show later this month. We’ll have more details soon about these scooters, as well as Piaggio’s winter clothing line (seriously).

“Always travel with a chauffeur”

Lewis Lazare on the new Moët ad campaign:

moet.jpgEach execution portrays a rather off-the-wall scenario that still manages to convey a certain charm. In one ad, a fetchingly elegant and beaming woman attired in a smashing evening gown is perched on the back of a Vespa along with a case of Moet. Her date in the scooter’s driving seat is eyeing her with a big smile, as if to suggest “look what I got for the holidays!” The tongue-in-cheek copy reminds readers to “always travel with a chauffeur.”

“Look what I got for the holidays! A drunk debutante bouncing around on the back of my bike.” Great. Moët clearly didn’t get the memo that Vespas are no longer luxury items. It’s 2006! They’re utilitarian eco-friendly transportation for everyone!

Is Italjet back?

“Scooteristi” posted a comment on our interview with P2Motors to let us know that Italjet’s site had a new Dragster on display. Italjet’s site had been down for a while, but lo and behold yesterday when I checked, it was live and totally re-done, with a new Dragster, a new scooter called “Jack,” and a few oogly dirtbikes and ATVs. The link is dead at the moment, but maybe they actually are up to something!

Overzip?

Motoring.co.za reviews Piaggio’s new Zip 100. The Zip 50 is hugely popular in Europe and Piaggio’s most affordable scooter, but is the new 100cc engine too big for the bike? (We’ll have a comment from Brooke within the hour with a resounding “no!,” and some whining about how it’s not available here.)

High Rollers 2007 hotel info

One of America’s greatest scooter rallies, The Las Vegas High Rollers Rally will be held February 22-26, 2007 (remember, it was moved to the weekend after its usual date, thanks to the NBA All-Star Game). Organizers expect The Gold Coast Casino to be nearly half-occupied by american and british (and new this year, french) scooterists, and most of the weekend’s events will be held there. They suggest booking your room before November 20th to guarantee the discounted rate (and availability.) To book, call 702-367-7111 or visit goldcoastcasino.com. The High Rollers Rally discount code is “HIG0222.”

Scooter Jacket Survey

David Wang and a group of students from the University of Washington in Seattle have prepared a Scooter Jacket Survey for a class, with the goal of using the collected data to design and prototype the ultimate scooter jacket, and to hopefully bring it to market. The survey takes about ten minutes, unless you spend another ten minutes adding your ridiculously specific demands in the comments section. 2sb wishes them the best of luck, hopefully they’ll come up with something close to the scooter jacket we’ve all dreamed of.

Get well soon, POC Renae

Renae from Pride of Cleveland Scooters lost two toes in a scooter crash last weekend. POC Phil was with her at the time of the accident, his vivid account is on the BBS. In short, a customer’s Genuine Buddy she was returning went wobbly at about 35mph, Phil suspects the bike’s large aftermarket windscreen was to blame. She lost control and slid along a Jersey barrier with the bike’s weight on her right foot. The friction of the pavement wore through her tennis shoes, skin, and bones so deeply that her two smallest toes needed to be amputated. Luckily she was out of the hospital in 48 hours and is doing fairly well, aside from being short two toes. Just another reminder to wear proper riding gear, and to make sure accessories don’t impede safety or handling. Get well soon, Renae! I’ll try to resist the temptation to call you Bunny Lebowski from now on.