Some of the photos are stretched funny, some of the lineups will probably change in February, and a few brands I might have included are omitted, but all in all, Scooter Diva’s 2007 Scooter Buyer’s Guide is a lot better than most of those fancy magazine buyer’s guides. And if nothing else, they weren’t pressured by advertisers into listing the 2004 Bajaj Chetak as a current model.
Category: Technical info
Scooter Sidecars
A site devoted to scooter sidecars, incorporating the site formerly known as “Sidecars by George.” Good stuff! (Via the Honky-Tonk Dragon.)
Tower Scooters’ advice
Tower Scooters (London) claim that 40% of secondhand scooters shouldn’t be bought. I’d say in the U.S., that’s a conservative estimate. They offer this advice to anyone looking for a used scooter.
Smallframes.com
Niall King’s Vespa Smallframes site is an oldie but goodie, with tech info and photos of Vespa’s smallframe scooters, and a good amount of info on Asian-market models. It also features a downloadable font “Primavera,” a Mac or Windows version of the 70s Piaggio logo font (sort of a stylized Clarendon Bold Extended, if you’re a type nerd).
Ron Patrick’s jet-powered Metropolitan
Photos of the “Jet Powered Honda Metropolitian” have been circulating for months, but Engadget’s piece is the only one I’ve seen that actually tracked the guy down and got the story.
Qatar two-fiffy roundup.
Four 250cc scooters and the Yamaha Morphous compared for posterity, from Qatar’s Peninsula newspaper. (Note: Turns out this was not from Qatar, but a poorly-credited wire story by Susan Carpenter of the Los Angeles Times, it also ran in the Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette with a good photo and better proofreading.)
The ultimate pose?
From Gome: British company Retrovesp is manufacturing plexiglas panels to disguise your Vespa P-series as an earlier 60s-style Vespa. The kit would presumably also work for the Stella,. It seems like an awful lot of money and effort (the panels need to be cut and bondo’ed together, and then it all needs to be painted) but the horncast is cool if you’re looking for a quick way to improve the looks of your P.
Buddy Review at JustGottaScoot
JustGottaScoot (with an enthusiasm 2strokebuzz couldn’t muster on our best day) has posted a detailed review of the new Genuine Buddy 125, including GPS comparisons with the Vino 125 and other scooters, and many photos comparing the Buddy and the similarly priced-and-sized Yamaha Vino 125.
The Lawn Mower Repair Man
As we struggle to start our lawnmowers for the first mow of the year, it becomes clear we, as scooterists, have a lot to learn from a Lawn Mower Repair Man. His rant on modern gas going bad explains a lot of common scooter (and lawnmower) problems, though I’ve heard contradictory opinons on the merits of using high-octane gas in a scooter engine.
Girlbike ET mods
Girlbike, the Readymade magazine of scooter blogs, added tutorials about lowering the seat profile and Installing a European-style dual headlight on a Vespa ET2 or ET4. The headlight photo on the latter story joins our old navigation and Minnescoota’s turn signal in the pantheon of gratuitous-but-awesome scooter website animations.
Spark Plug diagram and Motorcycle Repair Course
This reprint of an old NGK brochure is the most comprehensive diagram of plug colors I’ve ever seen. Good stuff. It’s just a small chunk of Dan’s Online Motorcycle Repair Course: “Now, I’m not going to claim that this course will train you as well as a formal Motorcycle school. But then again it is FREE.” Thanks for the link, Nitro, (Who posted some photos from the Scooterworks ride on his moblog.)
The Denny’s dumpster is not a HazMat disposal center
(not even at 3am)
As I was hunting for a new battery for our motorcycle this morning (found at Illinois Battery, thanks), Matthew posted some links to upcoming hazardous household waste drop-offs in our area (Illinois EPA schedule / Northern Cook County schedule). Scooterists use all kinds of paints, cleaners, oils, and lubricants to maintain their scooters, and we go through batteries and tires much faster than the average citizen (“but they get such good mileage!”). If I was smart, I would have taken the battery to the store with me and exchanged it. Most auto parts, battery, and tire stores accept discarded hazardous materials for disposal, and most local agencies have collection days and disposal guidelines. More suggestions for recycling and disposal of household hazardous waste can be found in this EPA document.
Return of the 5-speed Vespa transmission
The newest Scooterworks mailer offers a 5-Speed Transmission Upgrade for the Vespa P-series and late-70s largeframes. I remember talk of a five-speed kit that was available in the early nineties, but I haven’t seen one for sale in the last ten years. It’s not my bag to tamper with Piaggio’s genius, but if you’re the type who insists his amplifer “goes to eleven,” order now.
Dave Tooley and the Wildcat Lambretta
Dave Tooley raced Lambrettas in the early seventies for the Rafferty Newman “Wildcat” team in the UK, most notably the 158cc-model that dominated the 160-and-under class. Dave’s site contains great scooter racing photos, memoirs, scans of period magazines and advertisements, and technical info about Les Rafferty’s Wildcat Lambretta race scooters. And unlike most UK scooter sites, there’s not an animated navigation button or mod target to be found. Well-done!
Lunabase
Proof that the Lambretta Luna is the next big thing for scooter collectors: Lunabase is a well-designed, up-to-date, comprehensive British site celebrating the underappreciated Lambretta Luna range–Lui, Vega, and Cometa–designed by Bertone in the seventies. The site features technical info, brochures, a mailing list, and even an owners club. You’ll be coveting a Luna in no time.