Category: The Biz

When you fail the CWC, at least document it thoroughly

0° is pretty darn cold for Lexington, KY, so Whit and Michael of Vespa Lexington decided to give the Cold Weather Challenge a shot. Despite exceptional video, photo, and text documentation, Michael only did 7 miles and Whit just rode around the block in shorts and a t-shirt like, in his own words, “an idiot.” Nice work anyway, guys, and I believe Michael’s still leading the CWC Kentucky division.

Scooterworks’ “Cabin Fever”

Scooterworks here in Chicago’s having a big “Cabin Fever Sale” on (Saturday January 24, 2009). They’ve got free t-shirts for the first 50 people there, closeouts on helmets and apparel, and new and used scooters at “The best prices of the year,” including 1.9% financing on new Genuine scooters. (click on flyer to enlarge) Guess they’ve got to make room for all the Blur 225 Turbos and Stella 300 Eco-maticas.

Vespa 300 coming to U.S.

PiaggioUSA announced on January 16th that The Vespa GTS 300 Super will be sold in the U.S., though the scooter isn’t included on vespausa.com yet and no availability date was mentioned. Specs appear to be the same as the European model, with the same body as the U.S.-only GTS 250 Super. “The GTS 300 Super doesn’t just stand out in the crowd – it gets you out of the crowd,” quipped PiaggioUSA CEO Paolo Timoni. The GTS 300 Super (which features a 278cc engine, debate away!) is the largest-displacement scooter ever to bear the Vespa brand name, and a subtle but very handsome upgrade from the 250cc model.

UPDATE: Here’s the full press release. It’s due in March.

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.