Category: Vespa

Cackalacka News bits: 4/3/08

A bunch of stories to block out election coverage:

Farewell, Scooter in the Sticks

Steve Williams closed up shop on his Scooter in the Sticks blog yesterday. I loved “Sticks” (as it’s called in my bookmark) for Steve’s great photography and writing, which was always sweet, personal, and meditative without ever getting sappy or melodramatic (so, basically, the exact opposite of 2SB). I’m sure whatever Steve decides to do next will be just as great, and hopefully he’ll leave it up for posterity (and so I can catch up on reading it, I’m a few posts behind).

Christian Science Monitor on the scooter craze

It’s always tempting to make fun of The Christian Science Monitor, just because they’re Christian and all, but aside from a handsome-but silly illustration showing a Vespa S leaving a wake of natural goodness*, their obligatory scooter-craze story is pretty decent, rating a mere 12 drinks on the 2sb scale.

* I wish that was the true proportion of a Vespa S to a human being, that would be rad.

Celebrities are just like us!

They sweet-talk their way out of scooter DUIs! So after you’re pulled over for weaving around Miami Beach at 4:11 AM, try telling the arresting officer “F**k you, I’m not drunk,” then later bragging “I’m friends with most cops in the city and they told me the guy who got me isn’t even liked by his colleagues. He’s a 400-pound f**k unfit for duty” Oh, wait, that only works for Mickey Rourke.

Oh, goody, more from fashion.ie:

Mickey had a passenger with him on the Vespa, but there’s no way anyone was getting a hold of her to testify. He doesn’t even know who the hell she was: Rourke said the mysterious blond riding on the back of the Vespa at the time of his arrest couldn’t have been used as a witness at a trial. “Don’t ask me her name,” Rourke says. “I have no idea who she was. I met her in a bar and never saw her again.”

And he’s looking good in the NY Post.

Quad mod rods on display in UK

Gordon “Sting” “Ace Face” Sumner’s Vespa “GS” and Phil “Jimmy” “Parklife” Daniels’ Lambretta are the highlights of a Quadrophenia exhibition at Littledean Jail in near Gloucester, England. Quadrophenia director Franc Roddam is calling it: “This is the best collection of Quadrophenia memorabilia I have ever seen.” Book your flight now, and cue ten angry comments questioning the authenticity of the bikes and/or reminding us that there were six GSes made for the movie and none of them were GSes.

Goodbye, Vespa pioneer Andre Baldet

Baldet advertisement
Famous daredevil and, for a time, England’s greatest Vespa and microcar dealer Andre Baldet passed away last week. Baldet allegedly invented the “dealer special” when he launched his customized line of “Arc-en-Ciel” Vespas with a 150cc model in 1957. The line continued through 1961 with the Vespa GS160, and possibly even into the SS180 era. By Baldet’s estimation, he sold 600 such scooters, usually with a few upgrades and a two-tone paint job achieved by spraying a second color over certain sections of the stock paint. During the same period, he became world-known for racing, daring stunts, and endurance rides featuring Vespas and microcars. He continued to sell Vespas until the early 1980s when he sold his dealerships. A great Baldet biography by John Gerber appeared in American Scooterist issue 48/49 (The GS anniversary double issue). (Image from the collection of John Gerber)

Vespa S, new MP3s in shops

Heads up! Piaggio dealers are starting to get the new Vespa S as well as the MP3 400 and MP3 500 (the rebadged Gilera Fuoco.) The Vespa S is hott, the only current model that really evokes the old days, and it’s amazingly priced below the equivalent LX models, which seems to be rare smart move for Piaggio. With the S and the exciting (but expensive) MP3 500 on the floor, Vespa dealers can expect some foot traffic this weekend.

Ford blocks publication of Mustang club calendar

This story about a Mustang Club being told by Ford that they were not allowed to publish photos of their own cars just seems like some sort of silly mix-up, but it’s probably only a matter of time before Piaggio tries the same thing. When Piaggio returned to the U.S., they sued several long-time Vespa shops, including dealers that had been around since the last Vespa invasion, for using “Vespa” in their name. They’ve also blocked several Café Press users and other folks selling Vespa merchandise. Every company has every right to defend their intellectual property, and block people from cashing in on their trademarks and copyrighted designs, but to crack down on a club of enthusiasts for publishing photographs of their own vehicles and preventing them from using a brand name to describe events or clubs is ridiculous. Sure, Harley-Davidson has lost some cash over the years to the underground biker community, but it’s that same underground biker community that’s kept their brand alive through thick and thin for a hundred years. The same could be said of Vespa enthusiasts, but in Piaggio’s never ending search for profits, it wouldn’t be surprising to see a similar crackdown soon.

Update: The matter has been resolved. Thanks, Becky! But this still doesn’t bode well for clubs and enthusiasts, I think we can expect more battles in the future.