Category: 2sb News

From Vina: Minnesota motorcyclist gets nabbed for 205 in a 65 MPH zone. Without a motorcycle endorsement. And with Bill Janklow only a state away.

The official Cannonball Run site has a travelogue of the event, and a promise of more details in the new Scoot! Quarterly. Bajaj’s site has some notes from J.D. Merryweather, who came in second on a Bajaj Legend 150. The overall winner was the organizer (Take that Brock Yates), Mike Heytens on a Vespa P200.

Fanatic Scooters is now offering a guide to Indian Lambrettas, with sections such as “the SIL fiasco” and “the Lambretta Spare Parts Mountain.” Sounds like a must for all owners of SIL GPs and Lamby Polos. The site also features a good bit of information for those unwilling to part with £4.50.

CMSI recently announced they’ve arranged a financing plan for their products, including TN’G Scooters and the new Lambretta. The release states “a new line of scooters carrying that
prestigious [Lambretta] badge will be available in showrooms in early 2005. We’ll see.

AutoWeek, unlike 2strokeBuzz, was invited to Piaggio’s recent conference on the scooter’s role in easing traffic congestion in American cities. Their reporter, after conceding “that’s like the fox holding a conference on free-range chickens” agrees that they might have a point. I can’t find anything else about the conference, but it sounded more like an X9 press party to me.

Stuff.co.nz reports that Piaggio/Aprilia owner Roberto Colaninno has denied rumors he’s looking to buy Fiat. Which can only mean he’s looking to buy Fiat. Fiat used to own Piaggio, by the way. Seriously, someone make me a flow chart of who owns what in Italy.

Matthew “Pierce” Wysocki sent this link to The Philip C. Vincent Collection. The article is from April, so I don’t know if it sold yet, but I hope whoever buys/bought it catalogues it on the web. I wonder if Corazino D’Ascanio kept similar records. I do, but I doubt ebay is ready for two file drawers of 2sb crap. That reminds me, I have more old letters to 2sb to post!

As a result of the Bic Pen crisis, Kryptonite is replacing the following locks free of charge to owners who registered their locks in the past two years: Evolution lock, KryptoLok lock, New York Chain, New York Noose, Evolution Disc Lock, KryptoDisco or DFS Disc Lock. Full details will be available at kryptonite.com tomorrow afternoon.

In totally unrelated news, Piaggio has announced they’re making their Indian facility the hub for their three-wheeler manufacturing.

Exciting news, from a newsletter sent to Piaggio dealers September 17, 2004:

Vespa PX150 “SERIE AMERICA” (Limited Edition): Yes, you read correctly—it’s finally on its
way! Twelve months of work from our engineering team has paid off and the PX 150 has now passed U.S. homologation. After a 20 year absence, the PX is back, practically unchanged (few aesthetics and
a disk brake) with its timeless design and unique riding feel. This is sure to be a winner.

To celebrate this historic event, we will be numbering the first 500 units of the “American”
production run. No orders will be taken for this vehicle until after our formal announcement
expected around late October. Availability will be extremely limited and supply will be subject to
allocation, however, 2 units from the first production run will be guaranteed to all dealerships. Expect deliveries to start in late November. Availability of the “standard” version will commence first quarter 2005. Full details will follow the day after the production start in October.

The newsletter also announces the Piaggio Typhoon 50 will arrive in late October, replacing the LT50 and LT150 in the lineup.

This week’s Zits storyline features Pierce’s new scooter. Pierce is sort of like a high-school-comics version of Matthew Wysocki, so I figure the series will end on Friday when he gets paint chips in his carb. Thanks for the tip, chad.

I am going to, Matt-Drudge-style, say that Piaggio will announce soon that they will be importing P-series scooters to the U.S. Then I will not give you any more info, or cite a source. I’m expecting more details tomorrow. I will, however go out on a limb and say that if they’d done this five years ago, they wouldn’t have any competition in the metal-framed, geared scooter market today.

The custom Coach Vespa autographed by 50 Ellen De Generes show guests that was auctioned off earlier this year was bought by Sutter Home Family Vineyards and is now back up for auction for their charity, Sutter Home for Hope. This could go on forever, until the Vespa is worth hundreds of millions of dollars, and it still won’t top 70mph.

Coming up: the Parka Run between New London and New Brighton, MN, is October 8-11. I was originally against the “vintage scooter/suits and parkas” plan, but then I thought “How often do you get to do a long ride in a suit?” and now I wish I could make it. I’d rather be dead than Mod, but pretending for a day or two would be fun.

Matt and Trish were in town for the Renegade Craft Fair and we went to Binny’s to get some beer Saturday night. Lo and behold, we found Three Floyds’ Gumballhead Wheat Beer, named after Skin Graft comic artist Rob Syers’ character Gumballhead The Cat, whom you may remember from the cover of 2strokebuzz #3. We got a couple bottles, but it wasn’t chilled, so we downed the Oberon and saved the Gumballhead for next time, but I’m assured that like other Three Floyds’ products, it’s good stuff. Matt and I are already working on 2strokeBeer, look out.