NSFW in NSW! The Aussies step up the humble motorcycle visibilty PSA a notch with this full-frontal masterpiece. Apparently all this time we were wearing yellow reflective vests, when we we would have been much better off wearing much less. Where’s that guy tucking his I-Pass? Ooof! I’m starting to sound like Michael Musto, sorry. (Thanks Ben!)
Category: Scooter News
Media frenzy via Girlbike
Crystal at Girlbike compiled a couple hundred recent boilerplate “save gas” scooter news stories. Thanks, Crys! That’s an alcohol-induced-coma-worth of Roman Holiday references and 100mpg promises, right there.
Yamaha MPG throwdown
Autobloggreen noticed that Yamaha has added MPG estimates to its website. They claim 124mpg for the Zuma, 110 for the Vino, 115 for the C3, all of which are 50cc models (the Zuma is a 2-stroke). Even their Barcaloungers pull over 50mpg, with the Morphous at 56 and the Majesty at 51. All those numbers seem pretty unrealistic in the real-world, and likely to spark even more exaggerated claims from other makers.
Media frenzy finds Chelsea
After a rush of scooter stories in North Carolina and Minnesota, the evil biased liberal media finally wrote a fair and balanced article, including another of our favorite dealers, Chelsea at Scoot Richmond. The gratuitous Roman Holiday reference was vindicated with the quoted 60mpg mileage figure, which is actually kind of on the low side. (Remember that time that Chelsea posed topless for 2sb? You knew I was going to bring that up.)
India to break the 150cc barrier
Indian manufacturers, who have all but abandoned the scooter market over the past couple years to produce 100c motorcycles, are developing new scooters with bigger displacements to compete with their own motorcycles that killed off the scooter market in the first place. And Kinetic expects to launch the full Italjet-derived line “in the coming months.” Sure they are.
Save the Planet, ride an LML
If you’ve gotta write an Earth-Day column about something, why not write it about a thirty-year-old-design 2-stroke engine saving the planet?
Celebrity crash of the week: Jason Segal
This time it’s Jason Segal, of “Forgetting Sara Marshall” and “Freaks and Geeks.” Segal was rear-ended while he was standing up to stretch, leaving him standing safely as his Vespa was knocked out from under him. He says, “The guy thought I was crazy because I just started laughing hysterically. It was amazing.”
Operation Vectrix
Vectrix has been lending out 100 electric scooters in European cities (more than they’ve sold to date, by some accounts) to celebrate the third anniversary of the Kyoto treaty. Riders can reserve a bike to test for a limited period, and are then offered incentives to purchase (EU “green” credits and discounts make the bike much more accessible in Europe, Vectrix is lobbying for a similar program in the U.S.). The program started in Rome, is currently running in Bologna, and will visit Milan, Turin, Madrid, and Paris in coming months. Vectrix has also started taking pre-orders for its three-wheeled electric scooter based on the Piaggio MP3 system.
Malaguti: “Draw your own conclusions”
Baron Motors’ BBS announcement-of-sorts is actually more of a caption contest than an announcement. (BTW, that’s one “t” in Malaguti). I suppose the gist is that CFmoto is building Malaguti-branded bikes and selling them here via Baron. (See also: PSF/QJ/Benelli, LS/?/Italjet.) Also, just for fun, read the Wikipedia Malaguti page and guess who probably wrote it. (Thanks, Matty.)
Cackalacka News bits: 4/3/08
A bunch of stories to block out election coverage:
- AutoWeek reviews the Vectrix, which will replace gas-powered bikes at the Boston Marathon, which seems like a long-overdue idea.
- A florida girl was trapped under her scooter for three hours.
- British scooterists strut their stuff in Hastings, North Wales, North Allerton, and Rotherham.
- A Miami scooter dealer epitomizes Vespa USA’s marketing shift from “Show off that bling!” to “Save the planet!”
- More “Save Gas” stories from North Cackalacka, another from North Cackalacka, and, wait! another one from North Cackalacka! Way to come up with original story ideas, N.C. media. I guess you had to get that out of the way before the primary.
GPS horror!
As if mobile phones, ipods, and conservative talk radio aren’t distracting drivers enough, GPS navigation systems can actually tell a distracted driver to go ahead and run right into you (w/gory photos!). On the other side of the coin, more and more scooterists are using cell phones, iPods, and GPS navigation systems as they ride, which scares me even more.
100mpg 115mpg at Scooterville?
From WCCO in Minneapolis:
Bob Hedstrom’s Minneapolis store Scooterville is struggling to keep up with demand as customers brag to their friends about their gas mileage. The scooters, whose prices start at $1,800, get 100 miles to the gallon.
Bob Hedstrom is probably our second- or third-favorite scooter shop owner in the United States, and, to be fair, he’s not directly quoted as saying the Buddy gets 100mpg, but this is the fifth story this month that implies that the Buddy gets 100mpg. I like and trust Bob a lot, so I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt and believe that the Buddy can get 100mpg, but it certainly doesn’t get that in real-world conditions, and 80mpg is surely worth bragging about. Despite Vespa’s claims of 60mph on most of their bikes, I saw a story this morning (Link to come later) where a Vespa owner claimed to get 80mpg. Again, I just think it’s the small gas tanks, the inaccuracy of scooter odometers, and lack of careful record-keeping that convinces people they’re getting better mileage than they are. 100 miles per tank? sure, but not per gallon.
UPDATE: Here, sandwiched between two Hedstrom quotes, KARE says scooters “get anywhere from 50 to 115 miles per gallon.” WTF?
2 scooters better than 1 car?
I’m no mathematician, but if a couple that used to drive to work together are now riding two seperate 76-mpg Honda Metropolitans instead, aren’t they really getting 38 mpg now? Sure, it’s still better than the Ford Focus they’re leaving in the garage, but not that much.
Electric Buddy?
I posted this last week after skimming it, and I skimmed right over the part where PGO UNVEILED AN ELECTRIC-POWERED BU BU at EICMA. Electric-powered chinese scooters were a dime a dozen at Dealer Expo, but maybe PGO will get it right. And is it a coincidence that the model shown apppears to be painted in Genuine’s Buddy Italia colors?
NSU Lambretta: Bear powered!
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TfeuZk0lqSQ]
The coolest vintage scooter video since the Lambretwist! Still blows my mind how more and more magical stuff continues to appear on YouTube. (Thanks Matt!)