Category: Piaggio

News bits

Sorry, we’ve still been a bit under the weather and busy with the impending holidays, but here are some stories from the last week to keep you up to date:

Colaninno: 4 years in jail for role in scandal

colaninno.jpgPowersports Business online reports today that an Italian court has convicted Piaggio & C. SpA Chairman and CEO Roberto Colaninno for illegal handling of the bankruptcy of a real estate and hotel company. Colannino has been sentenced to more than 4 years of jail time, subject to appeal. Two other Italian bankers were also convicted and sentenced. Colaninno remains in his post at Piaggio. We’ll certainly have more details on this as it becomes more clear.

Piaggio redesigns design process

Powersports Business reports that Piaggio has selected a new product development system designed by Product Development Company of Needham, Mass. The system is currently used by 1400 vehicle and parts manufacturers. Piaggio will implement the PDS for all its brands (Piaggio, Vespa, Moto Guzzi, Aprilia, and Derbi) at all facilities in Italy, Spain, India, and China. The system is expected to promote the use of components across product lines and facilitate collaboration among Piaggio’s 700 engineers worldwide, thus reducing development costs and bringing new products to market more quickly.

PM Tuning’s L-series photos

PM Tuning (Lambretta Innovation) has a series of photos of the L-series “new Lambretta,” showing various stages of assembly, and more photos from the EICMA show (Thanks, Stephen and Chad) The engine is, in fact, the Piaggio QUASAR 250ie motor found in the Vespa GTS, Piaggio MP3, and several other Piaggio Group scooters. The bike is being evaluated by Piaggio for engine approval and another Italian company is preparing drawings and production plans. Several years in the making, the new Lambretta is getting tantalizingly closer, but there are still a few hurdles ahead.

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.)

Cheer up, Peter Reid…

This one’s for M5, complaining about the recent lack of football news on 2sb: Sunderland’s 19-year-old goalkeeper, Ben Alnwick, hit a teenage girl on a Piaggio scooter with his Range Rover yesterday morning. Alnwick was questioned and released, the girl went to the hospital on a stretcher. Amazingly, among the witnesses was Graham Poll, who presented the scooterist with a yellow card for her blatant dive.

Piaggio sales up 60% in the U.S.

Piaggio reported yesterday that first-9-months profits were up 20.4% over 2005 and sales were up 60% in the U.S. (compared to 2005) Is that increase a result of Piaggio’s marketing genius, or expensive gas? 2SB reader jrldg has re-sparked an old discussion and points out Piaggio’s stock has risen over €3 per share. Piaggio’s showing at the EICMA is impressive, and maybe they are starting to get their act together in America, but I’ll stand by my argument that it’s mostly lucky timing.

Piaggio previews 2007 models

Gilera Fire, Vespa GTV, Vespa S

A bit more info on an earlier post (but not much): Tuesday in Rome, Piaggio brass presented their new 2007 vehicles to Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi and other government dignitaries, in advance of the official unveiling at the Milan Salone della Moto in two weeks. The lineup featured some Aprilia sportbikes (including a nifty RSW250 race bike to remind us all that Aprilia won the 2007 MotoGP 125 and 250 “Constructor” titles), the Moto Guzzi 1200 Sport, the 60th-anniversary Vespa GTV, and two never-seen-before scooters. The press release still sheds no light on the Vespa S, but I’m sticking to my theory that it’s an LX50-based tribute to the Vespa 50 Special (Note the square headlight, front fender, and horncast cover). I guess Europeans are sentimental about the 50 Special (what with the Lunapop song and all), but they weren’t Vespa’s prettiest bike. Likewise, there’s no info about the new Gilera three-wheeler, other than the name (“Fire”) and displacement (500cc). The next couple weeks and the Milan show will reveal more, but it’s probably safe to assume it’s based on Piaggio MP3 technology and the 4-valve 4-stroke Piaggio MASTER engine found in the Beverly/BV500.

See more photos in the 2strokebuzz Gallery

New Piaggio/Vespa accessories and clothing

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Rather than manufacturing replacement GTS exhaust manifold gaskets, or telling us more about the Vespa S they’ve teased us with, Piaggio and Vespa have put their combined energy into a new fall line of accessories and clothing. Since it’ll be months before PiaggioUSA posts this on their site — or tells Vespaway about it — I’ve translated it from Itanglish and posted it here, so you can call your dealers and pre-order stuff before they even know about it.

Vespa’s new showpiece is a Dainese-designed Vespa Club jacket and gilet (a fancy word for “really expensive quilted polyester liner that’s sold separately”). The jacket “can be personalised with armour protection,” which apparently means it has pockets for armor (sold separately). (The use of the word “Club” is cute, since the Vespa World Club is entering its seventh month of total inactivity.) On the accessories side, Vespa is releasing a line of leather bags designed to fit inside Vespa topcases, including one designed specifically for laptop computers. if that’s not enough leather, try a leather seat, now available in tobacco for the GTS, and tobacco or red for the LX. Why not throw in some matching grips? And a new Vespa Soft-Touch half-helmet? (why no full-face, guys? It’s 2006!) Rounding out the new line is a full complement of of chrome accessories, and a must-have Vespa-branded chain lock (with matching carrying bag!).

Piaggio further dissects your helmet fraction choices, with new three-eighths (Micro), five eighths (Copter) and seven-eighths (X-Jet) models. The “Micro” features snap-on goggles to cover another small fraction of your face. Continuing Vespa’s “personalizable jacket” theme, they’ve also unleased the “Technocomfort” line, with the unisex GT4 jacket, the Executive for the boys, and for the ladies, the, erm, Lady. The jackets can also be “customized” with armor, liners. or goofy leg covers they’re calling “Flapsâ„¢,” at additional cost, though the adjectives “Revolutionary,” “Elegant,” “Dynamic,” and “Innovative” are yours at no charge.

Photos of all this glorious crap (I kid, some of it is possibly worth looking into) are available for your perusal in the 2strokebuzz Gallery:
Vespa Fall 2006 Accessories
Piaggio Fall 2006 Accessories

New 500cc Gilera 3-wheeler, Vespa S

The ScooterScoop just posted photos of the Gilera 500-cc three wheeler we’d heard about a while ago, presumably built on the Piaggio MP3 platform (yes, another sweet Gilera we will never see in the US) and a total out-of-nowhere surprise, the Vespa S, which looks like a retro-upgrade LX50 with styling based on the original Vespa 50S (square headlight, goofy horncover, boxy front fender). Both will debut at the Milan cycle show later this month. We’ll have more details soon about these scooters, as well as Piaggio’s winter clothing line (seriously).