Category: Manufacturers

Genuine Buddy 170 for 2011,
Electric IDEP coming to Europe


Bosco on Modern Buddy beats us to the scoop: 161cc fuel-injected Genuine Buddy in three new colors for 2011. If they can keep the price reasonably close to the carbureted models, these will rule the scooter market.

In other PGO Buddy news, PGO’s promisingly redesigned eBuBu is called “IDEP”, it’s a “Buddy” with electric motors mounted within both wheels, It’s due in Europe soon.

Book Review:
Vespa Scooters Essential Buyer’s Guide

Veloce Books is a British publisher focused mostly on vintage cars and motorcycles. They’ve released several scooter books, some reviewed here in the past, and all worth checking out. Their newest scooter-related endeavor is The Essential Buyer’s Guide: Vespa Scooters (subtitled “Classic two-stroke models 1960 to 2008“) by Mark Paxton. The word “Essential” in the title is not hyperbole, this book is truly a “must-own” for anyone considering the purchase of a vintage Vespa.
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Vespa Scooters Essential Buyer’s Guide”

An Alternate Reality?

The MV Agusta motorcycle, like the Vespa, was born from the remnants of an Italian aircraft manufacturer after World War II. But did you know the Agusta and Vespa very nearly had a lot more in common?

MV Agusta produced their first prototype, called “Vespa 98”, in 1945. After learning that the name had already been registered by Piaggio for its Vespa motorscooter, it was referred to simply by the number “98”.

Agusta went on to build a few scooters, such as the CGT, the Ovunque, and the Chicco. So if it was not for some paperwork, we could all be riding Ovunques today!

Thanks to our Belgian friend David V.

Isle Of Man Lambretta Racing c. 1970

This is a great video. You may want to turn up the brightness on the monitor but that may take away some of the appeal. The music is so good you’d think Mr. Illnoise had posted this. The event isn’t quite the closed-road TT, though the pilots just show their mettle by mixing it up with lorry traffic. Now you’ll excuse me while I go look for a petrol can in the carport.

Via the SIP Facebook page

LML Electric Scooter Revealed At EICMA

As posted earlier, LML Italia has promoted the arrival of an electric scooter. The German scooter shop SIP has delivered the goods with four snapshots of the literally green Star Electric. The scooter is an electric conversion of the popular LML Star (aka Genuine Stella). Electric conversions of largeframe Vespa scooters has been available as custom work from Soundspeed Scooters in Seattle. I’m betting a Stella Electric may come in at a similar price as the conversion plus an old project someone has never finished. We’ll wait and see. How much would you pay for an electric Stella?

LML ready to counter Vespa threat

Can Vespa shut down LML in Europe with their new PX retread? We’re betting it won’t be easy. The LML was on the market first, and even their top-of-the-line 4-stroke model is quite a bit cheaper than the Vespa model it apes (no pun intended). On top of that, Italy and PGO are offering subsidies of up to 22% for the 4-stroke LML Star Sure, there is a crowd that would never settle for an LML over a Vespa, but we bet plenty of thrifty Europeans will choose the cheaper LML, especially where subsidies apply. And Vespa’s threat is further mooted with new LML models expected to be announced at EICMA this week. Rumors include automatic transmission, electronic fuel injection, an electric version, and 50cc, 200cc, and even 250cc variants. We don’t expect to see all of those (especially the 250) but you can bet on a few of those, and a “Create your Star” program becoming available soon, at least in Europe.

In the disintegrating U.S. market where the LML Star is sold as the Genuine Stella, Vespa is unlikely to import the PX. The PX models sold a few years ago were priced at about $5000 and were unavailable in California. That price would likely be higher today, and California’s CARB emissions standards are spreading to 16 states, including scooter-friendly Washington, Oregon, New York, and Florida.

Ironically, the Vespa’s dated-but-beloved 2-stroke engine might be it’s biggest selling point, as LML is allegedly phasing out their 2-stroke version. But it’s still a mystery why Vespa, who were forced out of the US market in 1985 by emissions laws, haven’t bothered to develop a 4-stroke engine for the classic Vespa frame in the ensuing 25 years. Vespa and Piaggio continue to innovate in other product lines, so perhaps it’s a smart decision (and minimal investment) to keep the Vespa PX frozen in time, but LML is likely to cut deeply into the PX’s relatively small pool of customers with the same classic body, competitive pricing, and more modern engineering.

2011 Vespa PX 125, 150 for Europe


As predicted a couple months ago, Vespa has taken note of LML’s success in the metal-bodied manual-transmission market. Scooter Station, Scooter-Infos, Hell for Leather, and Motoblog.it are reporting that Piaggio is dusting off the Vespa PX 125 and 150, which will be available in the first quarter of 2011 with some minor cosmetic changes and a catalyzed 2-stroke engine that (somehow) meets Euro3 specs.
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Vintage Vespa(SM)

Steve at The Scooter Scoop was trolling the patent sites again, and learned that our friends at Piaggio & C. S.p.A. are hoping to protect the phrase “Vintage Vespa” as a service mark. Piaggio returned to America a decade ago and alienated their entire customer base with a schload of legal action against the small handful of shops and parts distributors that kept the Vespa brand name alive in their absence. A handful ended up paying big money to be certified as a “Vintage Vespa Restoration Center,” a designation which carried little weight and was soon forgotten. At the same time, Piaggio offered (for sale!) a catalog of vintage parts that they seemed unable to supply to their dealers in any sort of timely fashion. In the ten years since then, most of the few truly successful Vespa dealerships are back in the hands of scooter enthusiasts, including several that Piaggio tried to shut down back in ’99 in favor of snooty luxury car dealerships and boutiques. But many of the best vintage scooter repair shops still want nothing to do with Grande Azzuro.

If the request becomes reality, how can an unsanctioned repair shop (many of which have been in business much longer than PiaggioUSA) attract customers? “We fix postwar Italian monocoque 4-speed rotary-valve steel-bodied 2-stroke motorscooters” just doesn’t flow off the tongue. Our suggestion? Simply offer vintage Piaggio parts and service.”

“Tribute” Vespa for your Superyacht

We don’t throw the word “Yacht” around on 2strokebuzz very often, which is surprising since several maxiscooters could fairly be described as “yachts,” and VespaUSA seems to have been targeting yacht owners since 1999. But they’ve clearly been doing it wrong.

If you have been keeping up on your southern-hemisphere superyacht news, you’ll know that an outfit called Digital Veneer in New Zealand is offering a Limited Edition “Tribute” Vespa designed to max-out the pretentiousness of a regular Vespa LX50 by adding woodgrain-sublimated vinyl and some seafoam-colored upholstery. Like any good yacht, if you have to ask how much it costs, you can’t afford it.

Via the facebook feed of the mighty Vespa Lexington. You probably know this, but @Scooterism and I were just saying the other day, Michael and Whit probably have their online presence nailed down better than just about any shop in the country and you should be copying everything they do, from the attractive and up-to-date website, to the customer photos on the blog, to the great tweets and facebook posts, to sending 2strokebuzz free t-shirts. Especially that last part.

LML Must Pay Tariff on “Engineering Drawings”

To your average Economic Times of India reader, it’s a boring Indian tariff law ruling. To a scooterist, it’s a gateway into a world of mystique and speculation. Where is LML importing engineering drawings from? Are they related to LML’s long-delayed plans to manufacture their Clipper/Vespa ET4? Is it an 8-stroke 1200cc Stella? WHEN WILL WE GET IT!?

(Thanks, Rob!)

SIP Scooter Shop Photos And Hints Of Another New Lambretta

SIP Scootershop has a great collection of photos on flickr from INTERMOT in Germany. Among the photos were several interesting snaps of new offerings. First, one that caught my eye as a novel design for an electric scooter. I’m not sure of the origin. Please, if anyone recognizes it chime in. According the the INTERMOT booth chart the company next to Hyosung-Germany is “SUZHOU HANDE ELECTRIC BICYCLE CO.”. I think it’s just a good use of long, horizontal, flat floorboards and the raised channels space as well as other ergonomically sensible configuration aspects.

But most interesting was the appearance of the Lambretta name in one of the photos. Sadly, no machine. While several entities vie for the Lambretta name and image, the teaser image on the web-site is attractive if even just the tail end. This group is apparently Irish, spreading the claim to yet another nation. Hopefully we’ll have even more to write about this and other new Lambretta efforts soon.