Category: Lifestyle

Italy repeals 50cc 2-up ban

Friday, Italy will overturn a recent law prohibiting passengers on 50cc scooters. The new law allows passengers over 18 (sorry Brooke!) to ride on 50cc scooters if the vehicle is authorized to carry a passenger and a new €50 license plate is obtained. 50cc owners can keep their old plates if they are not able to, or do not wish to, carry a guest, but if they do meet a nice girl down at the Piazza and give her a lift home, they may be fined up to €275. (via Urbannerd

Garelli’s Gilardino bet pays off

A few weeks ago, 2sb poked fun at Garelli’s decision to hire Alberto Gilardino as a spokesperson, especially in light of Suzuki bringing in Alessandro Del Piero as “Mr. Burgman. Now that the Cup is over, we are eating our words, Gilardino played more minutes, and roughly equalled Del Piero’s stats. Assuming (surely) Del Piero cost Suzuki a good deal more than Garelli paid Gilardino, Garelli got quite a bargain. (We ignore the fact that Del Piero is a worldwide household name and we’d never heard of Gilardino before June):

GILARDINO Alberto (GARELLI)

MP MinP GF PG A SOG S FRE YC RC FS
5 304 1 0 1 6 8 0 0 0 9

DEL PIERO Alessandro (SUZUKI)

MP MinP GF PG A SOG S FRE YC RC FS
5 172 1 0 0 3 4 0 0 0 5

M1 takes 2sb Cup

M1 1:1 Spiny Norman a.e.t. 5:3 PSO
I haven’t really felt like talking about it until now, but So1oSC founder, and non-soccer fan Mike Durso (aka “M1”) won the 2strokebuzz Cup. (Here’s Mike and his Italian flag smallframe Vespa). At least some good came of it: Lu$ sent a game allowing us to relive the final seconds of Zizou’s career. After the game in our mostly-Italian neighborhood, people were driving around waving their flags and honking, and I just wanted to put on some mime makeup and a beret and slowly drive around in a Citröen, listening to Jacques Brel and looking sad. Maybe that should be Mike’s prize; a beret and a Jacques Brel CD.

Crain’s story piques Chicago’s interest in Vespa

Stuart Luman’s story in Crain’s Chicago Business about Chicago’s lack of a Vespa dealer (2sb’s reaction) attracted a good deal of other media interest today. Along with some radio coverage and word of mouth, local culture site Chicagoist posted about the story (thanks for the link!). In a strange coincidence, the downstate Belleville News-Democrat ran a story about a sales spurt for local motorcycle dealers, including a bit about Vernon Carver of Moto Italia, the Edwardsville Vespa dealer interviewed in Luman’s story. Chicagoist’s blurb ended: “This was all just a “sky is fallingâ€? thing to see if we could make you want a Vespa. To tell you the truth, now we just want a Vespa.” Even PiaggioUSA knows, there’s no such thing as bad publicity.

Why no Chicago Vespa Dealer?

Stuart Luman of Crain’s Chicago Business explores the “Great Chicago Vespa Dealer Mystery.” 2strokebuzz talked to Stuart on several occasions about the story, to the point of probably creeping him out. The story won’t be surprising to regular 2sb readers, but Crain’s gets big props for coining the word “Vesparate.” Three points that the Crain’s story missed, in our opinion (we’re not bound by the rules of journalism or a capitalist publisher, ha):

  1. While Vespa of Chicago’s closure was a direct result of the bankruptcy of Sam Tomaino’s West Suburban Auto Group, the story does not address allegations that Tomaino intended to keep the local rights and/or sell them to a new dealer. There seems to still be some dispute over the rights, which is probably why the Olde Town Motocycle Shoppe has not officially been named the new dealer. It’s also unclear whether Piaggio approached the new OTMS/MotoplexUSA or vice versa, or how Dan Kay, the former Sales Manager of Vespa Chicago, now sales manager of OTMS, was involved.
  2. The story also does not address similar conflicts in other cities where the boutique concept was abandoned and original dealers saw their dealerships taken away, or alternately, were unable to find a buyer because of Piaggio USA’s dealer obligations.
  3. The story says Vespa of Chicago is still operating through the Diversey Boutique and is not offering service on bikes, though, as 2sb has reported, Tomaino’s Roselle location, while allegedly bare-bones, is servicing bikes, and presumably doing dealer prep for the Diversey shop, which was never a service center.

2sb has no agenda here other than curiousity, and from our conversation with Luman, neither did Crain’s, but we think the more interesting story, from a business perspective, is the failure (in many markets) of PiaggioUSA’s original upscale “boutique” marketing plan, which the current management finally seems to have to abandoned, along with some of their original big-investment dealers. 2sb lacks the sources and the resources to really follow through on this story, but a whole book will be written someday about Piaggio’s return to the US, no matter whether it’s ultimately a failure or a success.

Virginia bans pocketbikes

While pocketbikes (the miniscooters and tiny motorcycles sold at auto parts stores and in gas station parking lots) are theoretically illegal on public roads anyway, the State–er, Commonwealth–of Virginia has banned their use on all public roads. Such bikes are almost universally ridden (helmetless, even) by children and teenagers and cheaply made with little provision for safety or reliability. Hopefully more states will follow their lead, or enforce existing laws. The ban will not affect street-legal, titled and plated motorscooters operated by licensed drivers. Google News usually lists a couple stories a day regarding deaths and serious injuries of children as young as eight, there’s no reason people, especially children, should be riding these deathtraps in traffic.

Piaggio, Vespa scooters arrive at Old Towne Moto

2sb’er Matthew reports

Piaggio USA was just dropping off new Vespas and Piaggios at Old Towne Moto. Included in the mix was one of the Police stickered BV250s.

So despite any official word from Old Towne Motocycle Shoppe (1421 N. Wells, Chicago) or PiaggioUSA, it appears certain now that Old Towne (and presumably parent company MotoplexUSA) are Chicago’s new Vespa/Piaggio dealer. it’s still unclear whether the ex-Maywood “Vespa of Chicago” operation (now in Roselle) is an officially sanctioned dealer or service center, though 2sb reader Wezul reports they serviced his bike to his satisfaction.

Open track day at Norway

Ryan tells us there will be an open trackday this Saturday (July 8, 2006) at Norway Kart Track (the map looks vague, but you’ll see it). The track opens at 9am, and $30 buys you track time all day for scooters, pocketbikes, motards, and such. Safety wire is not required, but lights must be taped over. This is a perfect opportunity to try your bike out on a track.

Denver Post: 600+ scooterists at Amerivespa?

A column in the Denver Post is projecting Amerivespa/LammyJammy/Stellabration will “more than double” the size of Denver’s recent 300+ Mile High Mayhem rallies. If you’re planning on coming, PRE-REGISTER NOW to make sure you’ve reserved your place at all the events, especially the banquet at Wings over the Rockies Air and Space Museum, which is limited to the first 500 registrants.

2SB Cup: The Final!

  • M1 (ITA) 2:0 Brooke (GER)
    vs.
    Spiny Norman (FRA) 1:0 Kilotravis (POR)

M1, who doesn’t even “get” soccer, finds himself in the finals after beating Brooke’s favored World Cup hosts in the semis. Surely this is not the same Italy team who drew against the USA. Spiny Norman’s Bleus won a beautiful, evenly-matched game against Portugal. Surely this is not the same French team that drew against Switzerland and Korea. Who will maintain the charade and take home the 2sb Cup this Sunday? France! (Just kidding, we don’t actually know yet.)