Category: Scooter News

Like Kymco?

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Another likely winner from EICMA: The new Kymco Like 125 and 50. 12″ wheels, free matched topbox, spacious floorboards, front-and-rear discs, and it looks like a cross between a Vespa LX and a Yamaha C3. What’s not to “Like?” Some of Kymco’s recent Chinese-import bikes are a bit disappointing compared to the quality of their Taiwan-made product, hopefully the Like reminds us why we like Kymco. If you’re not counting, that was four “Like” puns. This bike is due out in mid-2009, no word on U.S. availability.

Drag*snarf*ster!

Italjet once again mocks reality by displaying the Dragster (with a new sticker!) at EICMA. The Italjet.com and ItaljetUSA.com websites remain frozen in time in 2005, their entire corporate reputation resting on the unlikely return of an overrated ten-plus-year-old scooter. Can you imagine a company so hopeless that China won’t even touch it?

A modest proposal?

Mike Frankovich at NoHo Scooters is trying an interesting new offer on Craigslist. NoHo will accept accept your broken-down Chinese internet special for $100 off any Genuine, Kymco, or SYM, and include a free helmet. It maybe doesn’t sound like much, but it’s $100-and-a-helmet more than most scooter dealers would give you for your broken dreams.

Baotian’s Vespa knockoff

Chinese manufacturer Baotian unveiled a new scooter pretty clearly influenced by modern Vespa design.
Betcha:

  • That’s plastic bodywork with a tube frame under it all.
  • “Lambretta” (the “Italian” one), Jin Jian, ZNen, FlyScooter, Lance, Milan, and countless others will all be selling this scooter soon.
  • Piaggio, unable to stop China from copying their bikes, will instead launch individual legal campaigns against dozens of importers in dozens of countries, costing the company millions, a cost they will pass on to consumers by marking up color-matched half-helmets another $100 each.

Is “Piaggio GT850” the Gilera GP850?

Remember the rumors that Piaggio would display a new 850cc scooter at EICMA? Remember we asked why Piaggio and Aprilia called the V-Twin 839.3 engine an “850” while Gilera called it an “800?” Well, this appears to be the scooter in question, and it’s not Piaggio-branded after all, instead, it’s a nicely revamped Gilera GP800, and they upgraded the displacement to 850cc without changing the engine one bit. At least they’re consistent now.

“Never a better” timing

We just got a Cycle World International Motorcycle Show postcard here at 2sb HQ. Their slogan this year is “Never a Better Time to Ride,” featuring a gas pump with a dollar sign on it. The dollar sign signifies that a gallon of gas will cost $1 by the time the Chicago show opens. Good call. Needless to say, they’ve scrubbed that image from their website and are working on getting some more ’90s tribal tattoo art to replace it.

In just a couple more years, the motorcycle industry will catch up with the gothic-squiggly-coat-of-arms look that all the Westside Polish gangster kids were rocking two years ago. Go to Target right now and see what everything looks like, that’s what everything motorcycle-related will look like in 2012. Except Troy Lee, he’ll never catch up. I hear there’s a scooter pavillion this year. I hear they’re red-hot.

“How to Fix a Flat”

New York Times columnist Thomas L. Friedman feels about as sorry for American automakers as most scooterists do. If they want to blame trade unions and the recession for their situation, instead of thier stubborn refusal to innovate and plan for the future, someone else will be happy to manufacture cars for us. Throwing more money at the idiots in Detroit might save some jobs, but not for long. I’m not sure Friedman’s ideas are better (even as a closet socialist, I don’t want the government running the auto industry), but it’s better than giving them free reign with giant wads of taxpayer money.

Just for fun, here’s Bob Lutz on 60 Minutes, pretending to believe that he’s excited about the Chevy Volt.

Pennsylvania DOT delays Chinese scooter registrations

The Scooter Scoop (welcome back, Steve, where have you been?) reports Pennsylvania’s DOT is holding all registrations of Chinese-made scooters for review. If this initiative covers any scooter with a VIN starting with “L,” it would not only target the fly-by nighters, but many legitimate NHTSA/DOT/EPA-approved importers and even top brands (like Piaggio and Kymco) that make some models in China.

We’re happy to see a state taking a stand against unsafe scooters and fly-by-night importers, but it seems Pennsylvania has cast their net a bit too wide, and is targeting dealers and consumers rather than importers. Hopefully the new system allows speedy processing of legitimate scooter titles, and penalizes the importers rather than the buyers of questionable Chinese scooters. The dealers deserve a big slap on the wrist, but the importers are the real criminals here.

Find more information about scooter VINs at our scooter VIN database and from Dr. Buzz.