Most of us stopped “reading” Sports Illustrated’s Swimsuit Issue in about 6th grade, when we finally tracked down some real porn. But there will always be 6th-graders, so SI keeps publishing it, and comically pretending it’s a guide for women shopping for swimwear. Their portfolio now includes athletes’ wives, tennis stars, cheerleaders, bodypainted nudes, Danica Patrick (you’re killing us, Danica) and the usual fashion models, but, strangely still no men (don’t men need swimsuit shopping advice?). It’s always beautifully-shot, and always edging just close enough to pornography to create a stir and sell magazines. To anyone with a connection to the Internet, the Swimsuit Issue (and even the Swimsuit Issue website) seems as anachronistic as the Sears catalog lingerie section, but as a public service, Michael dutifully searched through the sprawling site to find these photos of Daniella Sarahyba blocking our view of a vintage Vespa 50 Special in Naples, Italy. As fans of imperfection, charm, and natural beauty, we find the scooter much more appealing than the model. Is there something wrong with us if our eyes are immediately drawn to that aftermarket fenderlight, rather than Daniella’s headlights?
Category: Vespa
How’s your Piaggio stock doing?
According to Reuters UK, Piaggio reported a 28% drop in net profit in 2008, which reminded us to check on our Piaggio stock: It’s at €0.95, an all-time low since Piaggio’s June, 2006 IPO at €2.30. Poor sales, a bad economy, and the weak Euro all hurt Piaggio last year, as did nearly €100 million in new debt from stock buybacks and a €.06-per share dividend last year, which will be offered again this year, which seems counterintuitive, but what do we know?
Continue reading “How’s your Piaggio stock doing?”
Vespas in Cambodia
Apparently, the vintage Vespa scene in Phnom Penh is growing. The story actually sounds a lot like stories you’d see in American papers in the late ’90s. Now we know where to ship all the Southeast Asian scooters that ended up in the U.S over the last five or six years.
Magnet-Adorned LED Caltrop May Come In Handy
Tell me this baby wouldn’t come in handy when trying to work on a Vespa smallframe carburetor. You could be right. But I’m imagining being caught on the side of the road in the rain and tossing this little bugger down the hole and heading in after it. A must for the metal-bodied aficionado? Or is holding a mini-maglite between your teeth more comfortable for you? Note to Striker: Send me one and I’ll write another post reviewing it.
UW Engineers Get It Wrong
University of Wisconsin engineering students tackled the problem of why 50cc 4 stroke Vespas are so slow and no fun to ride. Correction, they went after trying to improve the gas mileage by designing some sort of fuel cell system to aid normal gasoline combustion. They claim a ten percent reduction of fuel used. Let me list their mistakes in no particular order of significance.
1) They are trying to improve the fuel efficiency of a 4 stroke 50cc Vespa
2) They aren’t abandoning gasoline all together to go 100% Hindenberg
3) All the dorks pictured are paying no attention to the girl on the scooter. WTF boys?!
All this points to a need to request the University of Wisconsin to stick to stem cells and shortening the lines for beer at hockey games. (I haven’t been in a decade or more, so they may have banned beer sales all together).
Chuck Mead’s scooterrific new video (is back!)
This might be the most scooterific video ever, and would you believe it’s a country song? Check out the new video from BR-549 frontman Chuck Mead: “I Wish It Was Friday,” featuring a Honda Cub, Vespas new and old, Genuine Buddys*, and more, plus lots of footage from East Side Scooters in Nashville.
As far as country songs about weekends, It’s hard to beat Robbie Fulks,’ but Robbie, sadly, doesn’t have a video full of scooters. I wandered into a BR-549 show at Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge several years ago, and that alone made Nashville my favorite city south of the Ohio and east of the Mississipi. (Thanks to Louie from Modern Vespa for the link!)
UPDATE: It’s back on YouTube!, thanks to KymCoJones for his behind the scenes videos and keeping us up to date on the progress).
* “Buddies” just never looks right in print.
Originally posted 2/15/09, updated on 2/25/09 when video was re-posted on YouTube
Dealer Expo 2009, Part I: Overview
Every February, powersports dealers from around the nation descend on grey, shivery, boring Indianapolis to see what’s new in the industry. It’s a chance for manufacturers, importers, and distributors to wine and dine their dealers and hopefully round up some orders for the upcoming riding season. This was our third year at DealerExpo, though it was our first with actual 2strokebuzz press passes. Continue reading “Dealer Expo 2009, Part I: Overview”
“One of those little things that buzz by in traffic”
Just when you think you’ve seen every vintage Vespa film there is, YouTube digs up more gold. This 1961 Vespa commercial, presumably produced by ’60s East-coast distributor Vescony, makes a very clear argument for the Vespa as a commuter vehicle, then pushes their luck with exaggerated mileage promises (125mpg?) and oversimplification of the engine to “three moving parts.” (The party line has always been four, which already seems a bit oversimplified, unless you’re counting, for example, the entire transmission consisting of the gearshift linkage, gear cluster, shifting cross, and Christmas tree as “one part.”) A great find. (Thanks to Dave McCabe.)
UPDATE: VCOA historian John Gerber comments:
It’s definitely Vescony, but it’s 1964 NOT 1961. It’s a Carl Alley produced commercial. Several were produced, but Piaggio would not share in any of the costs for airing them. They were never shown nationally, but some of the larger dealers showed them locally during non-primetime. In general, they were way too expensive to be shown even at off times. I saw one only once for my local dealer during a Saturday afternoon movie re-run. If Piaggio had enough sense to underwrite serious advertising in the U.S. things might have gone a lot different for them.
Vespa versus Venti
Don’t say it was unexpected (1, 2) but 2sb has learned that Piaggio has taken some sort of legal action against Hammerhead, the importer of the Venti 150 vintage Vespa lookalike. Our source tells us “Piaggio sent Hammerhead a cease-and-desist order in regards to the Venti yesterday.” We suspect it was actually a C&D letter rather than an order“ (there’s a difference) or if it’s based on the design of the Venti or the marketing language used in their flyer, but either way, domestic legal action against importers is usually a safer bet than an international legal contest, especially when China is involved. The good news for Hammerhead is that they’re raking in publicity leading into Dealer Expo (just a couple weeks away), so we applaud their market savviness , if not their design and engineering.
Venti 150: more details!
Way, WAY more Venti 150 info and photos on the Dallas/Fort Worth Scooterist board. Apparently it is a plastic body and the photos show a real prototype that was made to spec in China. The photos look pretty impressive, and the importer is candid about its possible shortcomings. I have to admit that I’m excited about this, somewhat because it’s so Vespalike, but moreso because it appears it’s actually the result of a U.S. importer working with a Chinese manufacturer to design a scooter (at least the bodywork) rather than buying a containerload of off-the-shelf Vino knockoffs. In any case, it appears there’s a real scooterist behind it and not a fly-by-night opportunist, and you gotta love that. An interesting tidbit: it sounds like Adly is working on a similar project, probably with a Lambretta twist. Back to the Venti, wouldn’t there be intellectual property issues with Piaggio? I’m of the opinion that if Piaggio has a problem with it, they could just shut the hell up and make a vintage-styled Vespa themselves, for crying out loud, but lawyers don’t think like I do. (Thanks for the link, bbehanna.)
When you fail the CWC, at least document it thoroughly
0° is pretty darn cold for Lexington, KY, so Whit and Michael of Vespa Lexington decided to give the Cold Weather Challenge a shot. Despite exceptional video, photo, and text documentation, Michael only did 7 miles and Whit just rode around the block in shorts and a t-shirt like, in his own words, “an idiot.” Nice work anyway, guys, and I believe Michael’s still leading the CWC Kentucky division.
Amerivespa 2009: registration open
The website is up, and registration is open for Amerivespa 2009, July 2-5 in Los Gatos, CA. Nice artwork! Don’t forget the dates fishtail nicely into the Motogiro America AND the MotoGP at Laguna Seca, so you might want to go ahead and take two weeks off work.
Venti 150: The impossible dream
“It’s simple,” we always say. “Why can’t someone just slap a modern engine in a Vespa frame already? Why can’t Vespa just put the 160GS back on the assembly line? Why can’t LML/Stella make a California-legal 250cc Vespa? Everyone would buy it, no matter what they charged!”
Well, here’s proof, straight from an ad in Dealer News that it’s not so easy to make a truly-vintage-looking scooter in this day and age: Ladies and Gentlemen of the scooter buying public, witness the Venti 150 (click on photo to enlarge).
Continue reading “Venti 150: The impossible dream”
Vespa 300 coming to U.S.
PiaggioUSA announced on January 16th that The Vespa GTS 300 Super will be sold in the U.S., though the scooter isn’t included on vespausa.com yet and no availability date was mentioned. Specs appear to be the same as the European model, with the same body as the U.S.-only GTS 250 Super. “The GTS 300 Super doesn’t just stand out in the crowd – it gets you out of the crowd,” quipped PiaggioUSA CEO Paolo Timoni. The GTS 300 Super (which features a 278cc engine, debate away!) is the largest-displacement scooter ever to bear the Vespa brand name, and a subtle but very handsome upgrade from the 250cc model.
UPDATE: Here’s the full press release. It’s due in March.
“Daniela” Wooden Vespa
Clearly, 2sb has jumped the shark when Boing Boing and Jalopnik beat us to a scooter story. For the three of you that haven’t seen it, check out the Wooden “Daniela” Vespa. The body was hand-made by Portuguese craftsman Carlos Alberto, and it features a real engine and lights. One photos shows Alberto in motion on the scooter, so it apparently runs! Whether it’s rideable or not, it’s absolutely inspirational and beautiful.