Here are our photos from the 2007 Dealer Expo. If you’re a 2sb member, you can log in with your user ID/password to leave comments and rate photos (it finally works). Enjoy, and look for our story soon!
Category: Lifestyle
Mid America Scooter Racing Association
The Mid-America Scooter Racing Association (MASRA) is looking to revive scooter racing in the Midwest. They are scheduling open track days starting in the spring, and hoping to share some race dates with the ESRA in Circleville, OH. MASRA is looking to make it easy for anyone with a 250cc-or-below scooter (manual or auto, kitted or stock) to get out on the track and learn about racing
MASRA organizer Matt Devries also recommends US Mini Road Race as a good starting point for racers: “Don’t worry about their classifications, they would consider lap speed as opposed to displacement knowing full well that a cr50 is going to be faster than any P200.” USMRR is open to all small-displacement bikes including scooters, with a full season of racing scheduled.
MP3 faces a growing scooter-car market
The Kneeslider (and the motorcycling press in general) are paying a lot of attention to commuter-friendly three- and four-wheeled motorcycles and microcars such as the VentureOne Tilting 3 Wheeler, KTM’s X-Bow, and the Bombardier Can-Am Spyder (more on the Spyder). As more car-like motorcycles appear, smaller cars (Mini, Smart, etc.) are also growing in popularity, and the line between cars and motorcycles was further blurred at Dealer Expo with a surprising number of trikes, oversized ATVs, dunebuggies, motorcycle training wheels, enclosed scooters, utility cars, and the like. Piaggio must ensure that their MP3 will remain the focus of, rather than becoming consumed by, this trend.
Word at the Expo was that the MP3’s greatest competition may come from within. PiaggioUSA recently spread the word that the 400cc model will come to America later this year. Dealers, who are still waiting for the 250cc version, found the 400cc announcement poorly-timed (and the shipping date optimistic). Piaggio, obviously, would be happy to sell customers either model, but if 250cc sales are disappointing, the 400cc might arrive too late to keep the public’s interest. The Vespa LXS faces a similar situation: again, dealers say U.S. shipping estimates are too optimistic, and the announcement will hurt sales of the “regular” LX in the meantime.
MBI Riders’ Choice Awards: Vote now!
Nominations have been whittled down to a few choices per category, and it’s now time for you, the public, to vote in the Motorcycle Bloggers International Riders’ Choice Awards. Luckily, 2strokeBuzz didn’t make it past the nomination stage, so I won’t be biting my nails on Awards Night, but a lot of scooters–and scooter blogs–did make the cut. Represent!
GTS exhaust gasket: A dealer’s view
We got a great email the other day from Victor Voris regarding the GTS exhaust gasket and some of the other issues we’ve been talking about. Victor’s been running Big People Scooters in Seattle since 1989, and was one of America’s most respected Vespa experts during Piaggio’s absence. When Piaggio returned to the U.S., Victor’s Vespa of Seattle was among the first dealerships to open, and one of very few to be run by someone with extensive scooter experience. Since then, both shops have flourished. I respect his opinion greatly, and like others, he feels modern scooter repair is best-left to a factory-trained technician:
There has been a lot of miscommunication and misinformation about the GT/GTS exhaust gasket and packing problems. The first thing to know about the problem is that you are NEVER to take the pipe apart. in all Piaggio shop manuals, as well as at any factory school, you are clearly told this. The reason that the pipe has this graphite one-time-use packing is that the header pipe is made of a different metal than the rest of the exhaust (I believe the header pipe is titanium). Because there is a joint there, and a clamp that can come loose, the torque on the bolt is to be checked as part of the routine service, as it can loosen over time.
In our shop we have seen exhaust systems come in that the customer has beaten apart, which will never go back together and seal, even with a new packing installed. It is by no means a design problem, any problems are coming from incorrect maintenance or repair. PiaggioUSA requires that their dealers have factory trained staff and offers training to their dealers free of charge. It is unfortunate that not every Vespa shop in the country has only factory trained technicians working on their scooters, but that is the case. There are countless other things that home-repair people and non-certified shops are doing that can cause huge damage to a modern Vespa motor. A common mistake we see all the time in the shop is the re-use of the one-time nut on the variator. If this nut fails, one of the many things that can happen is damage to the crankshaft, and installing a new crank is not fun for anyone. All of the factory shop manuals and workshop manuals are posted on Modern Vespa , and anyone working on their scooter at home should download these and read them. I am planning to offer tech classes at Amerivespa this year, and am trying to get Piaggio to send a technical representative as well.
It’s common in scootering (especially on the internet) for a scooterist (often me) to insist he knows more about scooters than the people who make and sell them. Sometimes they (I) do, but there are certain people I’d never dare argue with, and Victor is one of those people. I do, however, look forward to rebuttals.
More Calendars (the old kind)
sctrcst
The vowel-less sctrcst.com (assumedly pronounced “scootercast”) is a new scooter podcast by Dave in (?) Colorado. I haven’t listened yet, but it sounds promising and I’ll by syncing it to the ol’ iPod tonight. Looks like the current episode is mostly about Cincinnati, with a little support from the 2strokebuzz news network.
15 (cold) days left in CWC
After a trip to sunny St. Lucia, then the harsh reality of a houseful of burst pipes, and at least one weird email threat, Ryan has updated the Cold Weather Challenge page. Minnesotans hold the top four spaces, the contest ends on February 28, 2007. 2strokebuzz, and our new secret (for now) site, will also be kicking in a few prizes.
Only In Jakarta…
Racecar Bob (aka Letterpress Bob, who printed us some fantastic new business cards that I keep forgetting to post about,) found these photos of a Batik-covered low-rider scooterette. Actually, a Bajaj or LML would look pretty sweet covered in that Indian batik fabric they sell in the back room at Moti Mahal, but covering a scooter in fabric seems less-than-practical.
Chicago International Motorcycle Show 2007
You’ll hopefully forgive 2strokebuzz if coverage of the 2007 Cycle World International Motorcycle show is a little scaled back this year. The truth is, very little has changed from year to year. Each year there are fewer surprises, less swag, and fewer perks (the bus service to the CTA parking lot was cancelled this year, brrr.), while parking, concessions, and admission (at least seem to) get more expensive. Probably that’s why Triumph didn’t appear for the second year in a row, and why Kymco, CMSI, and Genuine rarely bother with these shows.
On top of that, we had a head start on new 2007 models, thanks to the Milan EIMCA show, and next weekend I’m attending the Indianapolis Dealer Expo (my first trip), which promises to be a bit more exciting. But out of a sense of duty, and because Ryan was driving, I decided to once again trek through the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont, IL, to see what there was to see. Which wasn’t much, really.
Continue reading “Chicago International Motorcycle Show 2007”
News particles, February 10, 2007
More news from the past week:
- Kymco Canada is teaming up with Motoress to attract more Canadian women to scootering. Both parties seem to think the way to attract women to scootering is to glam it up, which is their prerogative, but that tack seems a little superficial and patronizing to me.
- A few stories covering Italy’s soccer ban cited the famous May, 2001 incident where Atalanta supporters snuck a Lambretta into the San Siro and dropped it off the balcony onto AC Milan fans. Yeah, that’s not very good security.
- Scooter backlash and vandalism is out of control at the University of Florida, scooterists blame the lack of scooter-specific parking.
- Speaking of Florida and smashed scooters, even Jim Carrey and Jenny McCarthy aren’t safe, their bike was smashed up while they ate (and copiously made out) in a Miami restaurant.
The Chicago Cycle World International Motorcycle Show is this weekend, stories and photos coming soon.
SF Scooter Girls calendar
Another calendar! But can one really ever have enough pictures of girls on scooters?
“A Date with the Undead”
Zombies and gin don’t mix. I should have known this, but I learned it the hard way on my first date with a hot and moody scooter rider…
This dating horror story from Time Out Chicago has got to be about someone we know. I’d bet on Chad, but no one would ever describe him as “hot.”
News chunks: February 7, 2007
Here’s what Vina–and R. Kelly–missed while having their appendices removed:
- The Hartford Courant ran a decent-but-typical scooter trend roundup story Tuesday.
- 40 scooterists rode through Cardiff, Wales to promote a stage adaptation of Quadrophenia.
- Indian political contender Surjit Singh Kohli is campaigning on a scooter in Punjab, while nearly 100 supporters of another Punjabi politician rallied on scooters.
- Bajaj will feature digital twin-spark ignition (DTSi) on all models starting in 2008
- The MP3 isn’t the only new three-wheeler out there. Also, (thanks Chandler),there’s this. Or (thanks, Vespabelle,) this. Hopefully Piaggio won’t face much marketplace confusion from these other vehicles.
- Australian police note that scooterists are creating traffic mayhem down under.
- Kinetic’s sales and income are up, but investors don’t seem to care.
Welcome home, Vina! Now if I could just remember where I put our daughter…
20,000 miles @ 50cc
Another great link from Crystal Waters’ Girlbike: “In 2003, Rupert Wilson-Young rode from Alaska to Ushuaia in South America — that’s over 20,000 miles — on his 50cc Yamaha Vino.”
Speaking of Crystal, it looks like Vespaquest and Vespaway are — thankfully — back online.