SIP Scootershop posted a history of the Hoffman Vespa on their community blog. It’s not fluff piece and it’s worth a read. Anyone with a Hoffman GS out there, raise your hand.
Category: 2sb News
Happy Halloween
Future Of The Past
Is a new slogan for Giannelli exhausts, or maybe just a poor google translation. The company is reintroducing many of its pipes for mopeds and scooters from 1980’s on the angle that if it was good enough 25 years ago it’s good enough for old guys with more money to relive their youth with now. Also appears the company will introduce a new exhaust for the 4-stroke LML Stella/Star. Living in the past not for you? Well then maybe the MyMuffler program from Polini is more your style. I’m sure you often thought “boy would I like my name emblazoned on the can of my exhaust” well now you can!
Burn Like Fire in Cairo
Two Italians are participating in the Pharaons International Cross Country Rally taking place across Egypt on two specially prepared P200’s. Check out their bikes and short video here and lets hope not everyday is like this.
More Four Stroke Vespa PX Rumblings
SIP Scooter Shop reports that they have a reliable source confirming that Vespa will be showing off their new 4-stroke powered PX series scooter at the upcoming EICMA show in Milan this Fall. The Genuine Scooter Company LML-made Stella 4-Stroke has recently made it to dealers around the country. But will the new PX come back to America? Would current Vespa dealers want it? One thing that many will be interested in is the design of the engine. Will it be unlike the LML and fit into the classic Vespa frame?
File it all under RUMOR until we see it rolling around Rome.
Hostile Takeover II
Choosing the (few) rallies I can attend these days tends to be a matter of finding a free weekend, and checking what’s going on. Sadly I missed Cincinnati and Niagara this year, and I know I can’t go to PVSC or Amerivespa, so when the opportunity to go to Hostile Takeover presented itself, I jumped at the chance. Rarely would I be so excited about visiting Des Moines, IA, but when I think of the fun I’ve had in rural Ontario and Ohio, Moline, IL, and even Vegas (I’m not a fan), I knew Des Moines had a lot of potential.
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Timoni’s Travels through Time
Former Piaggio Americas CEO Paolo Timoni has written an editorial speculating on the future for Dealernews. If we ever seemed less-than-confident in Timoni’s guidance, this editorial piece should make our case nicely. Timoni’s hopes for the future in many ways are parallel those of 2strokebuzz, but we’d never in a million years imply that our dreams are realistic. Granted, he admits it’s all a bit of a fantasy, but one can’t help wondering if Piaggio’s U.S. growth plan was hitched on the same fantasy.
Let’s take a quick look at his predictions:
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Major Lambretta Parts Distro Merger
Besides the hot topic in the Facebook world asking Lambretta owners where they buy their goods, there was an announcement today of a merger between two of the major Lambretta outlets in America. Jet200.com and Casa Lambretta USA have merged and will soon be operating under the Jet200 name. The same services of both companies will continue as before. So don’t fret, DCD. The shop will still be serving you at it’s Mile High location, though it will now be a purely Innocenti snob shop, excluding Vespa work for the benefit of focusing on, to put it politely, those who need the most help. (My words, not theirs!) Hopefully this will benefit all involved and make owning a beautiful scooter all the more tolerable.
Ace’s Bomber Jacket
Inspired by a newbie thread about patches on Modern Buddy, I finally tracked down the source of a particularly awesome JPEG I came across a few weeks ago. Turns out the JPEG was just the tip of the iceberg of Ace’s Jacket Cosplay Breakdown. Anyone stuck home watching Dr. Who on PBS in the late 80s, I bet you’re with me on this one. I wanted a scooter in 1986, but I wanted a Honda, thanks to Adam Ant and Lou Reed. I didn’t know anything about scooter culture back then, but man, did I want a bomber jacket with a bunch of random patches.
Ciao, Paris. Avec une Primavera
SIP-Scootershop posted this video on Facebook that makes vintage scootering en Paris look almost as cool as Bryan’s photos. It’s an advert for a scooter rental shop in Paris, called Ciao Paris. Modern Vespas are offered but the option of the tried and true smallframe makes this a unique opportunity. If only the Bedells had known, some clutch repair tips could have been forthcoming.
2sb Visits Paris, 2011
I visited Paris in 2006, and wrote about my experiences and shared some photos. I was lucky enough to go back last month (April, 2011) and it seemed that things have changed enough to make a new story and photo gallery worthwhile.
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Lambretta LD3: No Tilting At Windmills
While it probably handled more like an ATV rather than a 2 wheeler like the Piaggio MP3, I’d trade the lean for the style. Via Ride The Machine (again), but originally from this Czech scooter site with lots of cool old images.
Scooter Art of Takashi Harako
I came across an image on the Ride The Machine blog that caught my eye. A Japanese scooterist and apparent Lambretta rider had made some wonderful commercial art for a place in Tokyo called Jungle Scooters. It looks like a neat shop and what’s more is that I’d really like to see where the Harako artwork ended up. Scroll down and check out a few examples. And someone email him and beg him to do more!
I’m Scooterist, Moto&Go, and the Copa del Rey
Just as we left for Paris, Dawson from Hell’s Fairies came back from Barcelona and told us about a great scooter t-shirts shop there, I´m Scooterist. Then a couple days later, Moto&Go in Madrid emailed to offer their rental services. If you do ever rent a scooter in Madrid, look out for Real’s bus, it’s a menace. Coming soon: Barça will crush Real in the Champions’ League, and I’ll eventually post a bazillion scooter photos from Paris.
VINs Updated
We just updated our Scooter VIN database to catch up with a years’ worth of posts on This ScootDawg thread. Thanks for the tips, everyone, keep them coming!