Category: Featured Stories

Adidas/Vespa parties in 5 cities

vespadidas
After teasing America with mostly unobtainable European tidbits, the Adidas Originals/Vespa clothing and shoe line is hitting the U.S. in full force with five launch parties at U.S. Adidas Original stores over the next week:
Berkeley, CA July 23 6-8 PM
Chicago, IL July 23 6-8 PM
Georgetown, DC July 23 6-8 PM
Miami, FL July 23 6-8 PM
Portland, OR July 24 6-8 PM
(Click on the city for the specific invitation)
These “Private Shopping Events” include a 20% discount and a gift with an $80+ purchase (I’m told anything that’s sold out or unavailable in-store can be ordered online at the event with the discount). Visitors can enter to win a customized Adidas Originals Vespa S-50.

SYM vs. Lance

This whole thing might have worked out if Lance hadn't NOT EVEN BOTHERED TO TAKE THEIR OWN PHOTO of the damn thing.
Last week, Carter Brothers, SYM’s US importer accused Lance Powersports of buying SYM’s Fiddle II scooters from SYM’s Chinese supplier via a third party with the intention of selling them in the USA as the “Vienna” 50 and 125. (Are there any European-sounding “V” words left to name a scooter? Yes! But that’s another story!) Of course SYM demanded they not sell the scooters here and… well… let’s try something new. Instead of posting snarky commentary in which 2sb takes sides and gets in trouble and has to apologize profusely for being right, let’s just post their dueling press releases, which are far more entertaining than anything we could come up with, anyway. Enjoy:
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Test ride: SYM Citycom 300i

2sbcitycom01
SYM USA lent 2strokebuzz the new Citycom 300i for a few days. Ron Brockman and I rode it for a couple days each, mostly on urban interstates and city streets.

I’ve always felt that the sweet spot for scooters is in the 125-200cc range. 50cc bikes have always seemed like a letdown, and Barcaloungers like the Honda Helix (at a whopping 250cc) and its descendants (pushing towards 1000cc these days) were just not interesting to me. Obviously, different people have different tastes and needs, and it’s great to see such a wide range of scooters available these days, but to get around the city and the occasional longer ride, 150 cubic centimeters was always sufficient for me.
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The New Stella, unveiled

newstella1
For more than a year, rumors have been circulating about a new 4-stroke version of Genuine Scooter Company’s Stella motorscooter. Genuine confirmed the model a few months ago, but has otherwise been very quiet about the project. This week, Genuine allowed 2strokebuzz a quick look at a “New Stella” prototype (and a ride!) just before it was sent for CARB testing in California.
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Prima Pullman Jacket review

8738Over the past few years it’s been great to see scooterists finally getting more concerned about safety and wearing protective gear, and it’s hard to say which is the cause and which is the effect, but at the same time we’ve seen more scooter-specific gear becoming available.

You could argue that there’s no specific difference between a motorcycle jacket and a scooter jacket, and you’d be absolutely right. The demands of either are pretty similar, and any of the thousands of motorcycle jackets out there would certainly protect you equally on a scooter or motorycle. The difference is fashion. 10 years ago, your choice consisted of three varieties: The too-colorful leather “Power Ranger,” the leather classic “Biker,” and the hundred-zipper Scotchbrite-and-black-fabric “Tech.”
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Happy Earth Day! (2-Stroke Dope revisited)

A couple days ago, we got some great feedback about our story refuting press reports about scooter emissions, notably Cecil Adams’ syndicatedThe Straight Dope column“Give a Scooter, Pollute Her.” The way Cecil framed the question left us doubting his conclusions, but we admitted there was something to his findings, and wondered about specific emissions figures.

Well, 2SB reader “JSH” tracked down some real numbers, and his comment was so thorough and insightful, we’ll just reprint the whole thing here:
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Tuk Tuk USA lineup features… Ape Calessino?

Ape Calessino or Tuk Tuk USA?

Jeremy Korzeniewski of Autoblog reported today that Tuk Tuk USA has “officially been granted both DOT and EPA approval for its line of Mitsubishi-powered three-wheelers.” Jeremy’s clearly a big tuk-tuk fan, he’s been following Tuk Tuk USA for about year, and he also posted an elegy for BajajUSA’s three-wheeer.
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TGB to USA

I’m not sure how long this notice has appeared on TGB’s Taiwan website, but it’s been up for the last few days at least:

[Cobra] Powersports is no longer the exclusive distributor for TGB products in the US. We will be manufacturing some of their scooters brand[ed] as Peirspeed. Please look for TGB to bring in new products under the TGB brand to the US in late March!

Over the past week or so, I’ve heard from several parties related to both TGB and Cobra, including George Lin, the President of TGB. I feel that especially considering what I’ve learned since my apology, it’s absolutely fair to say that my original interpretation of the facts was correct. What Cobra’s rep at the show told me was technically true, and Cobra maybe didn’t see it coming, but as of last week, TGB gave Cobra notice that they’ll be breaking their contract, and will be importing TGB bikes themselves. I’ve offered Cobra and TGB a chance to fully clarify the situation, more to come.

TGB & Cobra: A clarification and apology

In my 2009 Dealer Expo new scooter roundup, and again in my rant about SYM and Steve Guzmán, I reported that TGB had apparently ended their relationship with U.S. importer Cobra Powersports. As it turns out, this is not true at all. In short, Cobra is only one year into a five-year contract with TGB and their relationship is solid. I’d like to apologize for not clarifying the situation sooner, and (at great length) try to explain what happened.
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Worse than Worst

Binqi scooters
We always hear about low-quality Chinese scooters, and how the Chinese scooter industry has little regard for intellectual property. POCphil sent us this email from Binqi, and we’d actually received the same email recently, but ignored it. Dealers and anyone with a scooter website get emails like this several times a week. This one deserves a good look, though, because it’s the perfect storm of absurdity:
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