Category: Vespa

ScootRSS

Say what you will about ScootRS (please don’t, actually, I’ve heard it all), Randall’s always been kind to me (though, to be honest, I wouldn’t buy a scooter from anyone without seeing it in person first). They’ve recently expanded their facility in Ho Chi Minh City (a funny story in that post, though “Where do some people get their hatred of Asia from?” is an easy question to answer). But the real point of this post is that ScootRS now has an “item of the day” RSS feed and whether you’re down with the eastern hemisphere or not, it’s a neat way to familiarize yourself with random vintage scooter parts, I look forward to playing “Identify that Part” every morning.

Vespanomics Go Green videos

What VespaUSA is calling “your chance to show and tell the world what Vespanomics is through your creative lens” is what the advertising industry calls “spec work,” doing work for free in the hopes of accceptance or a prize. I’m not knocking the entrants, and there are some pretty decent entries, but contests like these always come off as the last gasp of a company with no ideas, and the inequal footing of entrants (some amateur, and some professional enough to know better) and the corporate overview that’s necessary usually strips out most of the fun. With video editing capabilities in the hands of more and more consumers, and the “rise” of “viral” video, it’s not surprising to see contests like this popping up all over, and they are. PiaggioUSA surely borrowed the idea from recent well-publicized Heinz or Doritos contests. While it’s tempting to think they’re doing it to save a few bucks (Heinz’ $57,000 prize was far less than the creative cost of a “real” national advertising campaign), it’s funny to think they also had to spend lots of money and time advertising the contest, which makes it seem even sillier. To be fair, Vespa’s contest isn’t really a “make us a commercial” deal, I think they’re just looking for some viral love (and more mailing list names to whom they’ll never send anything), and the prize (a $5000 scooter) reflects that, though also makes it that much less enticing. Again, the entries themselves are pretty decent and worth checking out, it’s the contest itself that pushes all my wrong buttons. Judging by the fact that no “end date” is posted anywhere, I’m guessing this will be yet another promotional media-bandwagon-jump that will succeed despite PiaggioUSA’s instant abandonment of the project, thanks to the devotion of scooterists and the scooter community. (See also: Vespa Blogs),

Thanks, woman on cell phone in Lincoln Navigator.

rallycrush1.jpg

Lowrider scooters are cool and all, but a month after picking up his restored and kitted Vespa Rally 200 from POC Scooters, Kyle Rose would probably have preferred not being smashed between two SUVs. Sorry Kyle. Here’s a video of Phil riding the bike, which would be uproariously funny had Phil and Kyle wanted the bike to look that way.

LML Vespa? Doubt it.

IndiaTimes reports that after relaunching international shipments in the last couple months, LML is back in the (Indian) domestic market, with their “Vespa brand” scooters. I’m assuming this is sloppy journalism and not some sort of LML-Piaggio joint venture where the LML NV SPL and Select II (on which the Genuine Stella is based) are actually being sold under the Vespa name, but in the unlikely event that Piaggio is involved, that would likely bring a quick death to the Stella.

Quang Nguyen’s hi-tech Vespa GTS

If I’d ever bothered to write about Amerivespa in Seattle, I’d have told you about Quang Nguyen’s Vespa GTS. Engadget beat me to it with a post about Nguyen’s “Best Modern Vespa”-winning scooter with a touchscreen Wi-Fi PC built into the glovebox. (ViaThe Scooter Scoop.) Another modern Vespista pitched an assfit about losing the award to Nguyen’s cool-but-gimmicky (and to be honest, somewhat sloppy) bike, but the more that dude got worked up over not winning a $6 skirt-bike trophy, the more I was happy Nguyen won, his bike certainly did stand out. (More scooter trophy surprises and disappointments in my upcoming review of the Quad Cities rally, ha.)

Honda, Yamaha, and Piaggio prepare for Vietnam war

In the last week, both Honda and Yamaha have announced new factories in Vietnam. The Japanese marques are targeting a booming Vietnamese market for scooters and small motorcycles, Honda will build mainly scooters at their new facility, and Yamaha will increase capacity for their bestselling “Nuovo” and Sirius” big-wheeled scooter models. Even if the Vietnamese market growth continues, Piaggio will find plenty of competition when their Vietnamese plant opens in 2010, though analysts suggest the higher-end Vespas will find their own niche.

Vespashopping.com

Almost slipping past our notice at the bottom of the Vespa S press release, Piaggio has announced a new international online store, vespashopping.com. At a glance, items that are hard/impossible to find in the U.S., (their “Club” jacket, and most of their helmets, for instance) aren’t available online, either. The “accessories” listed are accessories for you, not your scooter, but there is a decent selection of gifts we’ve not seen anywhere else (the cute but expensive handlebar-grip LED flashlight?). Surely this endeavor was a tightrope walk to avoid cutting into boutique sales at dealers, but even dealers have a hard time procuring some items, it’d be nice to see more available online.

New Ape, VespaS and Hybrids from Piaggio

Piaggio made three big announcements yesterday, each with large implications on the scooter market:

2007 Piaggio Ape Calessino

Ape Calessino

This was the surprise, of course, an absolutely retro and luxurious new Ape dubbed the “Calessino.” Appointed with whitewalls, chrome, leather, and tropical wood, with a 422cc 4-stroke 4-speed diesel engine the Ape Calessino is being released in an edition of only 999. It’s safe to assume no one reading this crappy excuse for a scooter blog will ever see one in person outside Monte Carlo, let alone own one, but it re-establishes the dream that someday Piaggio may just surprise us with a loving reproduction of the GS160 with a modern geared engine.

2007 Vespa HyS motor

Hybrid Piaggio MP3, X8, and Vespa LX

The only surprise here is that the HyS hybrid engine (more info here and here) is still in the prototype stage. These appear to be more or less the same machines tested in Milan last April, apparently the “news” is that the MP3 has newly been outfitted with the HyS as well. Without getting into details again, the technology is promising: an electrical-assisted gas engine that can be switched to zero-emissions electric power only. We love the idea, now please make them available to consumers!

2007 Vespa S

Vespa S 50 and 125

The Vespa S was announced last fall among several other models. It seemed to have been buried in Piaggio’s priorities at the time, though it got a fantastic reception from the press. Now with the top-priority Piaggio MP3 entrenched in scooterdom worldwide, Vespa is releasing the S in 50cc and 125cc versions. The design is a tribute to the smallframe Vespa, notably the square-headlight Vespa S, and it’s nearly entirely successful visually, no other modern Vespa comes so close to emulating the details, lines and style of the vintage models we all love. The only conceivable complaint (at least on paper) is the displacement, but we’d argue that the owner of such a lovely scooter deserves to be cursed with the speed of its ancestors. Bravo, Piaggio, bring it to America ASAP. While previous press photos showed the S only in white, it will be available in “Dragon red, Shiny black and Montebianco white.” Piaggio will also offer several optional graphics kits (“Flowers,” “Europe,” “Sport”) and Jet-style matched helmets.

All photos courtesy of Piaggio
More press photos: Ape Calessino gallery, HyS Gallery, Vespa S Gallery.

VespaUSA recalls 2,757 GTSes

A source has informed 2SB that VespaUSA did file a recall with the NHTSA (back on May 24) and it was due to be announced today. According to the source, the paperwork takes time when it’s not an emergency recall (no one has been injured). The recall is now listed on the NHTSA’s ODI – Office of Defects Investigation page. You can summon the report by typing in the Make/Model/Year (Vespa GTS 2007) or the NHTSA Campaign ID number (07V253000). The gist is that 2,757 2006 and 2007 Vespa GTS scooter owners will be notified by mail, and can have their header, pipe, clamp, and gasket replaced by the dealer at no cost. Note that not all GTSes are affected by the recall. All GTS owners, even those with the redesigned assembly, should note that the two parts of the pipe should never be separated, the pipe should always be removed in its entirety. At each dealer service, the clamp should be checked for alignment and the torque of the bolt checked (11-13 ft-lbs for the stainless steel clamp, 9-10 ft-lbs. for the plated steel clamp).

Canadian GTS 250 Exhaust Recall

Jana, a ModernVespa.com user from Calgary, reports she’s heard firsthand from Vespa Canada that a GTS 250 Exhaust Recall is about to be announced. Here’s some backstory on the situation, if you’re not familiar with the problem. While Piaggio HQ has issued a Technical Bulletin that outlines potential dangers, solutions, and maintenance (without acknowledging possible manufacturing or design flaws) to dealers worldwide, PiaggioUSA has never publicly acknowleged the issue, despite bad publicity, misinformation, and recalls in other countries.