Three Norwegians are taking part in an overland rally event called Budapest-Bamako on Vespa scooters. The rally is described as a poor-man’s Dakar and is not unlike the early days of the most famous desert rally, now run in South America for security reasons. The trio are just taking part in the African leg of the journey ending in Guinea Bissau (Yes, I just linked to the CIA World FactBook. Just want to remind people that there is information on the interwebs other than on Wikipedia!), but still no easy task as it appears to be the most challenging part. Their web site and their facebook page detail their progress and challenges. When you think making a trip across a few States in the US for Amerivespa is going to be too difficult, read up here an get motivated to put your big boy pants on and ride.

Scootermercato shared an Italian language article about a new Lambretta design. I like the color and the headlight has been moved to the front of the leg-shield. The angle of the headset and light position likely taunt those passionate Lambrettisti who adore the the first series of LI model scooters that followed the LD with enclosed bodywork. The photo looks great because the scale would be perfect if those would be 10″ wheels. But they are 12″ and if placed alongside other models it’s lack of proper proportion would be more apparent.

If you are interested in the Lambretta Saga, check out the Lambretta.com site. It is now mostly a posting of legal actions the supposed true copyright holders are taking against everyone involved in anything tangentially related. Tartarini the younger designed this new bike. They should have just done these bikes under a name of a different Lombardy river or maybe just the Italjet founder surname.

Libertarians, complain away, but it doesn’t make sense to have a computer, a million sensors and a text display (if not a video display) in your car, then hide the results from the consumer.

If you’ve ever paid a mechanic $90 to tell you that your gas cap wasn’t screwed in tightly enough, sign the petition before February 16.

According to our source, The Piaggio MP3 250, 400, and 500cc three-wheelers are no longer available to dealers, and the promised MP3 Yourban 300 will not replace them, let alone the endlessly-hyped hybrid that Jay Leno promised dealers in 2008. It appears Piaggio is totally abandoning the MP3 in the United States.

(UPDATE: Other evidence suggests the MP3 Yourban will be available in the U.S. later this year, probably with 350cc displacement. see comments.)

The BV lineup, previously available in 250, 300, and 500cc displacements, is now limited to the new 350 model in black or silver only.

The Vespa line is being desaturated in a more literal way, with a far smaller color palette. The Vespa GTS/Super 300i is no longer available in red, and the Vespa 150 LX S loses its red, orange, and two-tone versions, it will now be available only in Black or Titanium.

If our info is correct, that leaves only the Fly 50, Fly 150, Typhoon 125, and new BV350 in the PiaggioUSA lineup. The Fly is a reasonably-priced and worthy but unexciting scooter. The new Typhoon is an obvious competitor for the Yamaha Zuma, a very popular scooter in the U.S., but it sorely lacks Piaggio’s italian charm. The BV350 is the most compelling offering by far, and a reasonable decision… there was no need for a Scarabeo-esque range of displacements. The biggest surprise is that after years of betting the farm on the MP3, PiaggioUSA seems to have totally abandoned it. It’s actually selling great in other markets, but (to the surprise of zero Americans) Piaggio’s innovative but expensive three-wheeler never caught on here.

The Vespa line seems to remain mostly intact, but far less colorful.

None of this is surprising, Yamaha and Honda have scaled back to 2-3 models each for 2012, and it’s a well-known fact that most manufacturers are still unloading years-old stock. Honda, for instance, lists seven models on its current site but only two are labeled as “2012,” with the Metropolitans labeled “2009.” It’s not hard to find Piaggio/Vespa dealers with 2009-era stock on the floor, and with so many dealers closing industrywide, and the resulting unsold bikes coming back on the market, just about any importer would be wise to limit new models, and riders on the market may actually not even notice the lineup reduction, with so many 2-3 year old scooters on the floor nationwide. The U.S. scooter industry simply can’t support the annual model turnaround that the auto industry enjoys, and needs to find a way to convince customers that the manufacture date isn’t important. Honda’s decision to be up-front about it should be emulated by all importers.

So if the lineup reduction was understandable, and the MP3 was simply a flop, the more disappointing news might actually be the loss of colors. As we reported last spring, European riders see scooters as modest transportation and are not fond of garish colors, but Americans prefer to see a rainbow at dealers. Possibly the most appealing thing about the successful Genuine Buddy and Stella are the range of colors and ‘custom’ two-tones available. Americans don’t like to have to choose between black, white, or silver scooters. American Piaggio and Vespa dealers have always had problems getting popular colors, but if you prefer a scooter that matches your Model T, you should have no problem finding the model you want. Maybe it’s time for dealers to cook up some “Dealer Specials,” like the old days.

I’ll leave it open for a couple days, so if you’ve been eyeing a 2strokebuzz “Beat Happening” t-shirt or any of our other wares made by scooterists, for scooterists, act fast. I’d offer a storewide discount, if the cart software would allow me to. Sorry. Free scootmoto decals with all orders, how ’bout that? (Yes, we always did that anyway.)

Stock levels are subject to inaccuracy, but I’ll let you know right away if we’re out of something.

While we’re talking site news, I apologize for the lack of posts lately. You may have noticed Brooke and now Matt have been posting occasionally, which is great, and hopefully they’ll keep them coming. Honestly, I haven’t ridden a scooter for months, though I have been working on my Vespa 150 and hope to have it running reliably for Amerivespa in Lake Geneva, WI in June, I’m really looking forward to that. I also recently (finally) finished designing a special issue of American Scooterist celebrating the life of one of America’s most outspoken devotees of the Vespa and scootering in general, John Gerber, who passed away in 2010. It’s on press now and will ship to VCOA members soon.

SIP Scooter Shop shared a video on their Facebook page today. It is a National Geographic program clip about the Piaggio factory in Pontedera. The video has a few shots of vintage machines in their museum. But one of the views that appealed to me was the factory building tucked in the Tuscan hills shown in the background of the test ride shots. I don’t know if the buildings are the same, but it was reminiscent of those old aerial photos of the factory from the 1950s. Other parts show the processes involved in the building of their larger engines (What are they doing tossing crankshaft halves into big vats of rocks?!) and the assembly of the MP3 hybrid scooter. Not a 2-stroke in sight. I wonder where they build those? I focus on the visual aspects of the video because it’s all in Italian, a language I do not understand. If anyone wants to translate any remarkable points of what looks to be a standard factory tour for the kind of shows that used to make the Discovery Channel great before they jumped the shark, feel free to post below.

Via Vespa Lexington (a month ago, sorry).

The smallframe, old-style, hub version has also gotten the anti-dive design worked in as well and is currently available via their Ebay store. But as yet I’ve not seen that model mounted. If someone wants to trade me a set of old v90 wheels, hubs and fork and 592.52 USD in exchange for a PK fork with Paoli shock complete with wheels drop me a line and I’ll try to arrange a test!

The response to the BMW scooters makes me wonder how wrong I am. I’ve never seen a scooter get so much coverage in American mainstream media. Maybe PiaggioUSA was right, maybe scooters will never succeed in America without being considered a luxury, and Piaggio/VespaUSA’s only failure was lack of name recognition and advertising/PR smarts. There are few people in America that don’t recognize the BMW name, and even in a dreadful economy, there are plenty of Americans who gleefully snap up wonderful-but-overkill BMWs, Audis, Leicas, and Tiffany jewelry. Nowhere in the world does a brand name matter more than in America. Only in America would people buy $8,000 scooters to save gas money. It was logical that they’d pay even more for a scooter bearing a blue and white rondel.

I’ve said before: while media and scooter dealers love to use the economy and gas prices to hype scooters, but American scooter buyers use those factors as justification to buy themselves expensive toys. Scooters are recreation here, not transportation, and boy do Americans love to spend money to forget about their money problems.

So that’s why I’m not very excited about BMW’s 2012 scooters. I’ve got no problem with their modernity. They’re probably very well-made (Though it seems likely the engines are coming from Kymco, who’d be happy to sell you a good scooter for much less). They’re also handsome, and more than up to the job of schlepping you around town. They’ll almost certainly do well in Europe, where it actually makes economic and practical sense to buy a luxurious scooter rather than a small car. But there’s very little ‘scooter’ in these BMWs, or at least little of what originally attracted me to scooters.

Someone fine me a photo of Justine Bateman on a scooter, then we’re talkin’.

Via Vina Vroom, reading celebrity news so I don’t have to!

Thanks to Scooterville in Minneapolis for sharing the post on facebook. The owner, Bob, once designed sets and trade show displays and now sells Vespas. Full circle.