Category: History

Pinasco Revisits The “Swinging 70s and 80s”

et3biancaSeveral weeks ago the performance tuning house of Andrea Pinasco announced the addition of a throw-back exhaust for smallframe Vespas. The exhaust is of the ET3 ‘banana’ variety with the addition of some special cosmetic touches. The silencer section of the exhaust is painted with an eye-catching, white, high-temp, enamel paint. Additionally the classic Andrea Pinasco logo is applied and is claimed to be able to withstand the test of time. A perfect addition to your ET3 or 50 Special with full UTAH accessory kit.

Melody Maker’s Mod revival revival revival.

melodymakermodAh, 1994. Back then I was going out to see bands three nights a week and spending $50 at the record store every night. I didn’t have a scooter yet, but I noticed the mod revival revival revival going on in Engerland and that (among other things) probably had some effect on my scanning the classifieds for old Vespas a year later. As a musicophile and anglophile since high school, I’ve certainly read my fair share of NMEs and Melody Makers, so when I came across Archived Music Press, it was heaven. Continue reading “Melody Maker’s Mod revival revival revival.”

“One of those little things that buzz by in traffic”

Just when you think you’ve seen every vintage Vespa film there is, YouTube digs up more gold. This 1961 Vespa commercial, presumably produced by ’60s East-coast distributor Vescony, makes a very clear argument for the Vespa as a commuter vehicle, then pushes their luck with exaggerated mileage promises (125mpg?) and oversimplification of the engine to “three moving parts.” (The party line has always been four, which already seems a bit oversimplified, unless you’re counting, for example, the entire transmission consisting of the gearshift linkage, gear cluster, shifting cross, and Christmas tree as “one part.”) A great find. (Thanks to Dave McCabe.)

UPDATE: VCOA historian John Gerber comments:

It’s definitely Vescony, but it’s 1964 NOT 1961. It’s a Carl Alley produced commercial. Several were produced, but Piaggio would not share in any of the costs for airing them. They were never shown nationally, but some of the larger dealers showed them locally during non-primetime. In general, they were way too expensive to be shown even at off times. I saw one only once for my local dealer during a Saturday afternoon movie re-run. If Piaggio had enough sense to underwrite serious advertising in the U.S. things might have gone a lot different for them.

Lambretta Maxi-Scooter: The L-Ong 150

The New Cafe Racer Society brings us another gem from the past. The re-revelation is this long and low, two-seat, feet-forward steed that looks far ahead of it’s time. The “Centauro” is stated to be Spanish built and appears to be a nice cruising machine with handlebars not unlike a Lambretta Vega. For me, finding evidence of a proto-maxi-scooter dating back so far is like the first time I realized poor, misguided Apple Computer enthusiasts don’t have any ground on which to stand to shout “first!” after I learned about Xerox PARC inventing the GUI as we know it. Take that Lambrettista! Your brethren invented the Helix

Pre-1914?

Some folks get really worked up about “vintage-only” events. I’m not a fan of elitism in the rally scene, but looking at these fantastic photos of a ride from Epsom to Brighton on pre-1914 motorcycles, it’s easy to understand the desire to experience this group of vintage machines on the road or on display without a bunch of off-the-shelf metric cruisers mucking it up. Modern scooters have plenty of merits, but there’s nothing like vintage, and with all the rallies and rides going on these days, a few all-vintage events would be refreshing. (Thanks for the link, Andrew)

2SB helicopter news

78 years ago today, the first Italian helicopter, looking like a sketch from DaVinci’s notebook, broke the last of three current helicopter flight records. How does that relate to us? That primitive chopper was designed by Corradino D’Ascanio, who joined Piaggio two years later, and went on to design the world’s most famous and innovative motorscooter.

Piaggio Aero lives on, though it was divided from Piaggio & Co. in 1964. Just last week, Tata Motors of India acquired a one-third share of the company from the Ferrari/Di Mase families and Mubadala Development Co.

Talking ‘Zines: Jeff Lillie’s PDX Scooter Rider

(2sb welcomes Karen Giezyng of Bumpstart magazine talking to Jeff Lillie about his seminal and beloved ’90s zine, PDX Scooter Rider:)

PDX Scooter Rider #3The Pacific Northwest is known for a lot of things, but many of you might not be aware of the region’s rich scooter ‘zine history. During the ‘zine explosion of the ’90s there were three different scooter ‘zines in publication. The Vespa Club of Canada published the region’s first scooter ‘zine, The Indicator in 1992. A few years later, in 1995, Jeff Lillie created PDX Scooter Rider. Susan Goodwin and Danean Mauer followed suit with the rollicking, P-Town Uncensored from 1999-2002 and from 2006-2008, I did Kickstart. (Karen’s new ‘zine, Bumpstart, is available now at Scootmoto.)

I recently chatted with the creator of PDX Scooter Rider, Jeff Lillie about his ‘zine and what it was like being a part of the scooter community back then.
Continue reading “Talking ‘Zines: Jeff Lillie’s PDX Scooter Rider”