Don’t forget this Sunday, December 3th [sic] is the Chicagoland Toys for Tots Motorcycle Parade. The parade starts in Dan Ryan Woods, but despite the best intentions of the organizers, it’s entirely impossible to cope with the freezing mess of twenty thousand or more Harley riders at the starting point, so local scooterists have decided to meet at the cozy Water Hole Lounge at 1400 S. Western Ave, and join the ride around 9:30am. Bring a new, boxed toy (no stuffed animals). The weather doesn’t look too promising, but it’s not a long ride… especially since we’re blowing off about half the distance and the cold wait in the park.
Category: Motorcycles
Fire up the willing engine, responding with a roar
Canadian TV host Rick Mercer has driven a lot of different vehicles while interviewing celebrities and officials, but nothing could be better than riding a Vespa following Neil Peart of Rush to the band’s “Batcave” for a drum lesson. Peart, aside from being an amazing drummer, has written two books about motorcycle touring, and another about “road music.”
Piaggio’s EICMA site
I could have saved myself a lot of work if I’d seen this a few days ago: Piaggio Group’s site for Milan motorcycle show visitors. Don’t worry, I’ll still do the Piaggio writeup, but this might give you more detail than my stories, and won’t leave out the motorcycles, some of which are interesting. It’s strange that this site calls the Vespa S the “LXS” wheras the press release avoids making any connection between the LX and S models. (Thanks, Myttrr mA5ty.)
Teutels go west
Also from MCN: Proof that the ready-made chopper fad is almost over. Here’s hoping poker, ‘alternative rock’, and cigars go down with it. (Note: Despite a correction to the original story in the comments, I’m letting my snarkiness stand.)
Toys for Tots: Save the date
Just a reminder that the Chicagoland Toys for Tots Motorcycle Parade is December 3th [sic]. We’ll post the meet-up details for scooterists soon.
Brudeli’s leaning three-wheeled motorcycle
Gizmag reports that the Brudeli 625L, a Norwegian-designed and KTM-powered leaning three-wheeled motorcycle, will start production in 2007. The article is correct that Piaggio’s MP3 platform is the only tilting three-wheeler in production, but they neglect to mention that a 400cc version is expected soon, and the similar (and sportier) 500cc Gilera Fire will be on the market before the Brudeli. Interesting that the Brudeli’s wheels are so far apart, it seems like that would reduce the “motorcycleness” of the riding experience, but it’s probably a hoot for off-road riding.
Ryan in Valencia!
Ryan’s photos from the Valencia MotoGP race. I have a feeling I’ll be fortunate enough to see the Vespa g-string in person someday.
Hayden wins MotoGP
I’m not a huge MotoGP fan, nor am I a huge Nicky Hayden fan, but it was cool to see Valentino Rossi dethroned by an American. Rye was actually in Valencia for the final race, hopefully he’ll let me repost his story when he gets back.
Two new Asian bike blogs
Two great new-ish blogs about Asian motorcycles and scooters, for those of you that can’t get enough Hyosang, Hero Honda, and SYM news: The Bike Chornicles [sic] of India has been doing a great job documenting the Indian motorcycle industry for the past three months, and Two-Wheeled Asian Invasion offers a “view of the motorcycle industry in China, India, Taiwan and elsewhere,” mostly from a U.S. powersports-dealer perspective.
Kymco Venox 250 review
Total Motorcycle’s exhaustive review, with several rider opinions of the Kymco Venox 250 fake-cruiser thingy. I don’t understand the need to disguise a bike as something it isn’t, but the testers liked the Venox, and if it keeps newbies from buying a 1300-cc cruiser until they learn how to ride, good for Kymco.
NTSB reports troubling M/C stats
At a recent Public Forum on Motorcycle Safety, National Transportation Safety Board member Deborah Hersman reported that an increase in motorcycle fatalities is outpacing the growth of motorcycling. The NTSB reports that:
- In the past ten years, there’s been a 230% increase in fatalities of riders over 40.
- In the past ten years, there’s been a 540% rise in fatalities of riders over 50 riding bikes with 1,001-1,500 cc displacement.
- Larger engine displacement, riders taking up cycling later in life, and fewer riders wearing helmets contribute to these trends.
- in 2004, 41% of those killed in a solo motorcycle crash were legally drunk.
Bikers interviewed by AP, predictably, demanded “more data” and invoked Vietnam, rather than taking action to promote safe riding or sharing any sort of responsibility.
Catching up
A few good news stories that got lost in the fog of the last week:
- The Salt Lake Tribune on Vespas at the Italian Festival.
- BusinessWeek on the Suzuki Burgman craze
- FloridaToday on the Bajaj Rickshaw in the U.S.
- SmartMoney on the scooter boom.
- The U.S. scooter boom is also news in the Philippines and the United Arab Emirates, via a French press agency.
- Forbes on vintage motorcycles as an investment.
živeli!
How many things are wrong (read: freaking sweet) in this picture? It’s from the Oldtimer-Grand Prix, held at the Vrsac airport in Serbia.
MSF’s group riding video
From Scooter Diva: The MSF has produced a Group Riding Safety Video (right-click to download, it streams poorly). It’s definitely worth watching for some good tips (hand signals!) and Lindsay Buckingham-esque guitar riffs.
Gadabout town on a Swallow
Barry Hartnell of Wangaratta, Victoria, Australia shows off his motorcycle collection to the ABC, including his pride and joy, a Swa… sorry, Swall… snort! er, Swallow Gadabout, made by:
“…the people who went on to make Jaguar motor cars. (The Vespa) arrived in England and they didn’t have anything to counter it, so they quickly sat down and made this horrible little bike out of steam pipe and tin…”
A 1950 scooter book in Hartnell’s possession:
“…shows all the bikes from A to Z, and when it comes to the Swallow Gadabout, there are seven and a half pages of it’s virtues and how wonderful the bike is and further on in the book you get to “V” for Vespa and it simply says ‘small scooter made in Italy’.”
Great story, great quotes.