Just for old times’ sake: Hoodibaba. Bajaj could sure teach Triumph a thing or two.
Category: Sightings
Scooters pop up all over the place
Colbert scooter ire (photoshoppery)
Modern Vespa, You’re on Notice!. ROFL!
Look out for Donny Osmond’s milkshake.
Donny Osmond’s dreams come true. Yes, it’s second-rate fake Jackass with Jimmy Kimmel, but stick it out until the end.
Decepticons?
More PR about the Vespa/”Transformers” promo tie-ins. “Scheduled for theatrical release July 3rd, “Transformers” is already generating buzz as a hot summer blockbuster.” It is? I thought the buzz was that “Transformers” was yet another expensive plotless Michael Bay nostalgia vehicle that, if the producers are lucky, will be popular with a handful of repressed action-figure collectors. His future projects include a remake of “THE BIRDS” (seriously!) and like six sequels of movies based on video games. Please, make him stop.
Free gas in Denver
From Girlbike: Denver Vespa dealer Erico Motorsports is giving away gas to all scooterists this Saturday as part of a radio promotion. If that doesn’t sell a few scooters, I have no idea what will.
Woke up this morning…
I’m really freaking sick of hearing about the Sopranos (even NPR wouldn’t shut up about it this morning). I didn’t watch it and I don’t care what happened, but I noticed this got a lot of hits this morning, so I’m relinking it out of civic duty. Also, remember when James Gandowhatever crashed a Vespa last May? And it was national news for a week? It always amazes me what passes for news, that every media outlet has basically decided to cover American Idol, the Sopranos and P– H– (I won’t say her name) 24/7, when we have this evil lying fascist regime screwing over our country. Oh, by the way, the Lake Erie Loop didn’t go quite as planned, details at 11.
Julie Plug’s “Blue Sky Propeller”
Once again, YouTube (via John Rana) serves up a great music video that slipped by unnoticed (to us anyway) a few years ago. Julie Plug (on MySpace) is a Bay Area band influenced by Britpop and the Sundays. Their 2003 “Blue Sky Propeller” video is pretty much the Filipino-American “Lloyd, I’m ready to be Heartbroken”, only a few years older and more scooter-ific. Read John’s post for more about the band.
Vespa “Transformers” open house
Vespa’s planning a dealer Open House June 14-24, 2007, featuring a “Transformers” cross-promotion. Something about “Transforming Transportation”? Yeah, we’re not really getting the connection either. That said, I guess Spiderman and 7-Eleven don’t have anything to do with each other, but that hasn’t stopped us from drinking a schload of Spiderman Slurpees.
Vicious Cycles
Dave McCabe has long been searching for a short film he remembers seeing before Star Wars or Indiana Jones at the Polar Theater in Anchorage. He finally found it on good ol’ YouTube. Despite a resurgence in popularity in the 80s, Vicious Cycles was actually made in 1969. It’s a goofy live-action stop-motion animated film featuring the grungy Vicious Cycles MC facing off against the bowler-hat-clad Mild Ones Scooter Club. If nothing else, it proves the go-to newspaper headline “Mild Ones” (drink!) was already an old joke in 1969. It’s fantastic and authentic, right down to the squeaky Vespa drum brake sound. Stick around ’til the end for a Coke ad featuring vintage motorcycles and a public service announcement about loud pipes.
Daggit, Muff!
I prefer my Battlestar Galactica as a vague, distant memory involving Lorne Greene and some second-rate action figures, but if you’re into the new version, apparently these chicks posing on these Vespas are what the kids call “hot.” Also, it is awesome that whenever someone posts a photo of attractive celebrity women on a scooter forum, someone starts digging into how unauthentic the bike is. We rule.
This month’s Piaggio news
We haven’t done a news roundup in about a month, so we’re breaking it down by company. Here are some late-February/early-March news stories about Piaggio and Vespa:
- Vespa’s anime-porn-styled pre-Valentines-Day ad on Yahoo is red-flagged by personal security experts. (Little do they know PiaggioUSA have never figured out how to spam.)
- In Mid-February, a PiaggioUSA press release explains that a new study (financed by Piaggio) has solved New York’s traffic and environmental woes. The press takes their word for it (the study isn’t included in the press release) and the story makes news nationwide.
- On February 22, Piaggio announced big plans for foreign plants and 1 million vehicles annualy by 2010. The plan includes regional manufacturing and distribution to facilitate the growth (from 2006’s 850,000 vehicles).
- Vespa and Piaggio scooters are now available down the street from the Bluth’s Banana Stand.
- “All I could think as I rode the Vespa GTV250 in unseasonable rain along Cape Town’s Atlantic coast was: ‘Who on earth will lay out [$9400] for a scooter?'” Motoring.za test-rides the Vespa GTV250.
- The PR-fluff-boilerplate “Police on scooters” story meets the MP3 era as Savannah cops test the three-wheeler on St. Patrick’s day. Intrepid!
- On Friday, March 16, Piaggio announced 2006 profits were up 10.4% over 2005. A 0.03-euro dividend to investors has been proposed.
News particles, February 10, 2007
More news from the past week:
- Kymco Canada is teaming up with Motoress to attract more Canadian women to scootering. Both parties seem to think the way to attract women to scootering is to glam it up, which is their prerogative, but that tack seems a little superficial and patronizing to me.
- A few stories covering Italy’s soccer ban cited the famous May, 2001 incident where Atalanta supporters snuck a Lambretta into the San Siro and dropped it off the balcony onto AC Milan fans. Yeah, that’s not very good security.
- Scooter backlash and vandalism is out of control at the University of Florida, scooterists blame the lack of scooter-specific parking.
- Speaking of Florida and smashed scooters, even Jim Carrey and Jenny McCarthy aren’t safe, their bike was smashed up while they ate (and copiously made out) in a Miami restaurant.
The Chicago Cycle World International Motorcycle Show is this weekend, stories and photos coming soon.
“A Date with the Undead”
Zombies and gin don’t mix. I should have known this, but I learned it the hard way on my first date with a hot and moody scooter rider…
This dating horror story from Time Out Chicago has got to be about someone we know. I’d bet on Chad, but no one would ever describe him as “hot.”
News chunks: February 7, 2007
Here’s what Vina–and R. Kelly–missed while having their appendices removed:
- The Hartford Courant ran a decent-but-typical scooter trend roundup story Tuesday.
- 40 scooterists rode through Cardiff, Wales to promote a stage adaptation of Quadrophenia.
- Indian political contender Surjit Singh Kohli is campaigning on a scooter in Punjab, while nearly 100 supporters of another Punjabi politician rallied on scooters.
- Bajaj will feature digital twin-spark ignition (DTSi) on all models starting in 2008
- The MP3 isn’t the only new three-wheeler out there. Also, (thanks Chandler),there’s this. Or (thanks, Vespabelle,) this. Hopefully Piaggio won’t face much marketplace confusion from these other vehicles.
- Australian police note that scooterists are creating traffic mayhem down under.
- Kinetic’s sales and income are up, but investors don’t seem to care.
Welcome home, Vina! Now if I could just remember where I put our daughter…
Scooter games
Four scooter video games at vespa.org.uk.