2strokeBuzz News, December 2000

by Bryan Noise, except where noted.

Comments, news items, and follow-ups are welcome.

We would also love to post info about your event, or a link to your page-include email address, phone numbers and web address if applicable.

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Monday, January 22, 2001

Vina found this Nickelodeon scooter game while she was supposed to be working the other day, and minutes later, my friend Susan came across the Ghetto Scooter. OK, neither is about motorscooters, but they're both neat-o. If you must look at real scooters, how about Matt and Trish's DeathScoot 2000 photo album?

Ed Rhine of the Vespa Club of Seattle wrote an insightful email in response to the Green Magazine articles we re-published back in July:

Thanks for re-publishing the Green Magazine articles on Vespas coming to the USA.

We members of the Vespa Club of Seattle feel the same way as the other scooter people in the articles.

Just to let you know how we got treated, an international motorcycle show happened here in Seattle the first weekend in December. The promoters gave us a FREE 10' X 60' space for our club to display our scooters and have a booth. We tried several time to get Piaggio USA to provide us brochures, display, anything, about the new scooters. Nada, nothing, zilch. I'm not into sales, but I could have easily sold a dozen scooters that weekend. All we could say is "go to the web page or call them." We gave out over a hundred little cards that had the Piaggio USA web page address and Big People Scooters address on it. One guy wanted to take one home that night for his wife.

Embarrassed was the common feeling among the members working the booth.

Piaggio USA missed a golden opportunity to show off their new scooters to thousands of people.

Ed Rhine
Vespa Club Of Seattle Secretary

Yep, Ed… We're all a little embarrassed. I asked (admittedly a bit rudely) to be placed on their media information list, and I got a polite note back from Peter Laitmon, but even while local mass media has run stories about the opening of the Chicago boutique, I've yet to hear about it from Piaggio. It's easy for me to get on a soapbox with my stupid little web page, but I just can't see how they think they're going to do well here with such a half-assed, one-sided marketing strategy. to be fair, they're probably working with a small budget and it sure looks like they're having a hard time keeping up with demand, so maybe it's not worth it to make a bigger splash. It's funny that the sad state of journalism in America has allowed them to get so much mileage out of public relations: every story I've read—other than the fabulous Green story—is copied word-for-word from their press releases without any research or investigation. A story I read last week (January 2001) even said the new scooters would arrive in Summer, 2000. It makes me want to buy a Lambretta.

Wednesday, January 17, 2001

Rob Hodge posted a pretty comprehensive list of 2001 events on Two Stroke Smoke. Nice, now I don't gotta do it. It also includes MASS racedays.

Note: Rob's rally schedule is now on 2SB


Painting is back on track! The brother of the deceased painter is working on it and it should be finished soon. After waiting another month for ET3 racing stripe decals from Scooter Centre Köln, I emailed them and found out it was too small of an order to ship overseas. Understandable, but thanks so much for letting me know! After further consideration, I realize i'd ahve to cut them up to fit over the extra left-side battery door, so they would have looked dumb anyway.


Have you been out in the garage? It's cold out there!

Old News: November 2000 December 2000



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