Category: 2sb Archives

Tomorrow (Wednesday, July 16, 2008) is Ride To Work Day. It says a lot that their language and graphics are so inclusive of scooters this year.

When Brooke posted about Motogiro’s American debut a few months ago. It sounded like a tradition-steeped dream-come-true vintage weekend. Now that it’s here, with Ducati, Guzzi, and VespaUSA as official sponsors, it looks like an upscale marketing binge targeted at the heated-garage crowd.

I’m figuring VespaUSA surely dropped a lot more coin on this than Amerivespa. Jealous much, Bryan?

Amerivespa 2008 pre-registration will close this Sunday (July 13, 2008) at midnight. The first 250 registrants (very close to that number already) will get a free Corazzo Milano messenger bag ($79 value!). Register now, see you in Chattanooga!

“Arkansas linebacker faces felony charge”. It’s hard not to get angry when a cager endangers you or your scooter, but it rarely pays off to fight back. I’ve had a gun waved at me for flipping off a dude that almost killed me, another guy I flipped off tried to run me off the road once, then chased me for blocks (documented in a comic in 2sb issue #3), and a friend of mine was even stabbed by a cabbie once.

Still, the most upsetting confrontation I ever had was with a guy in a van, who nearly hit me. When I pulled up next to him and started yelling obscenities, he was nearly in tears, and said “I’m a motorcyclist, too, that could have been me!” Most of us are cagers some of the time. Drivers are generally sorry enough without us getting in their face, and if they’re not, they’re just going to get even more dangerous when confronted.

Another tip, if you do get in a near-accident, or a shouting match, pull over and calm down, riding while you’re jittery and overfocused on what just happened will just increase your odds of something worse happening.

Roadracingworld.com reports that former scooter racing ace Scott Smallwood crashed at Virginia International Raceway and fractured several vertebrae.  Apparently he’s doing ok (as he was healthy enough to write to RRW) and wrote that he was, “quite lucky to be alive and not paralyzed”.  Smallwood was racing his 125 machine in a U.S. Grand Prix Racers Union event on June 22nd when he was apparently on a hot lap before crashing and ending up into a tire wall.  Get well soon, Scott.

Modernmechanix has a nice set of photos from a 1939 Popular Mechanics piece on scooters.  It mentions a scooter company in Chicago, parking on sidewalks, over 100 mpg and scooters surviving a fad stage.  Some think the ‘scooter boom’ is coming to a close.  But I’d suggest just widening ones view.  Was there a boom?  Is the current buying frenzy just a crest in the sine wave that would look like a steady line from the right perspective?  Thanks to The New Cafe Racer Society for the link.

That’s right, folks, Donald Rumsfeld has apparently bought himself an LX150. How much longer until the rest of the Bush Cabinet find themselves on the back of an Italian scooter, i just don’t know. Maybe soon we’ll be seeing them show up to PVSC; Condi Rice on a naked ride aboard a VBB, or Ashcroft tearing up the gymkhana course with a tallboy of Old Style in his hand.

thanks, Rollie

Check out Cisco’s “Visual Networking,” ad, the third ad on this page, where a phone tells a Vespa rider how to change his spark plug. It pans away before the phone tells him:

• The engine’s on the other side of the bike, dummy, why do you have the left cowl off?
• Good luck with that short-reach plug in your P-Series.
• That yellow scooter up the road is prettier.
• It’s not your sparkplug anyway, your CDI is fried.

(Thanks, Phil and Ben)

As reported on 2SB earlier, cloning the Kymco Agility seems to be the latest craze.  Peirspeed, the importers of the Sachs MadAss and TGB products, have their own Agility clone like the Italjet IT.50.  Their Model is called the RM50.  In the early days of mainland China clones the Kymco Cobra was the scooter of choice to be copied and sold by fly-by-night importers.  It is slightly disturbing to see the same tactics practiced in regard to the Agility this time around by distributors claiming to be more reputable and in it for the long haul.  Does this reflect the changing marketplace where clones are now OK and intellectual property is fairly meaningless?  Or is it an indicator that these companies are really no different than the shipping container importers/dumpers of the past?

There is an abundance of talk about gasoline prices hitting 4.00 per gallon this summer.  Scooter businesses don’t seem to mind a bit.  The higher the price of a gallon of gas, the more people seem to walk through scooter shop doors.  The LA Times reports general motorcycle businesses are starting to catch on to that idea as well.  The article discusses how the stated fuel efficiency is not as accurate for two-wheelers as it is for automobiles.  The fact that fuel use on a scooter varies greatly due to rider weight and how aggressive they are with the throttle is widely accepted and should be made clear by retailers.  Another thought-provoking report by Business Week expresses how it seems that supply and demand may not have a whole lot to do with the rising prices at the pump.  This week congress is making an attempt to get to the bottom of it all.  Good luck with that, Mr./Mdm. Senator.  Most scooter owners don’t drive a scooter as their sole mode of transportation so gas prices going up will affect them significantly for their automobiles, not to mention higher costs for everything else that is ever shipped or involves gasoline in it’s production (read: food).  But, overall, do you readers feel immune to or insulated from the rising cost of fuel due to your scooter use or even enriched by your scooter related business during this time of three to four dollar per gallon gasoline?  Sound off!

Imagine it’s springtime and you haven’t done anything to your scooter all winter (I know, it’s a far fetched idea).  It kicks over on the first few tries.  It’s a beautiful day and you want to go for a ride and burn off some of that Stabil tainted gasoline.  It’s time for a safety check.  Brakes work, at least one mirror still attached, license tabs only a month or so expired, it’s time to hit the road.  But within one block you realize that your trusty scoot handles like you are driving through mud.  It soon becomes obvious that you skipped the tire pressure check.  The Self Inflating Tire, SIT for short, by Coda Development aims to make that last snag a thing of the past.  Their system claims to be able to keep the tire pressure up after a short drive using a peristaltic pump system integrated with the tire or wheel.  Check out their video for an explanation.  It’s worth the time if you like to see computer generated machines in action.  This seems to be in the early stages of development and will likely appear on high-end automobiles first, but I imagine it will be only a matter of time before new scooters come with this technology.  Speaking of that, it won’t work on the old split rims of your classic ride.  Besides keeping you up on two wheels rather than skidding across the road, properly inflated tires can help save the planet.  From Jalopnik, via Gizmodo.

The Sachs MadAss has gotten a bit of a bump in interest lately with the new importer, Peirspeed, showing off the new 125cc MadAss at the Indianapolis dealers show.  The New Cafe Racer Society has reported on some artwork done for the Chilean MadAss importer Apumanque.  I’m not sure if they are importing the real deal or a clone (or if it matters).  But their artwork for their advertisements is very eye catching.

The EPA has ordered Go-Ped manufacturers Patmont Motor Works of Minden Nevada to comply with federal Clean Water Act requirements. The company has been given until the end of April to meet wastewater disposal regulations. (Yep, we expected something related to engine exhaust, too, but no, just the water thing.)

Forbes reports Piaggio expects to cut costs this year to improve profits in a “flat” European market. Chairman Roberto Colaninno predicted growth in the commercial three- and four-wheeler markets in Europe and India (New Ape and Porter models were released last week), and vowed to maintain scooter market share with new models. As for the American market, (in Forbes words):

The US market will be stable, [Colaninno] said, noting Piaggio mainly sells Vespa scooters where customers are not particularly concerned by price and the ‘very high margins’ offset the weak dollar.