{"id":5657,"date":"2024-02-26T16:03:00","date_gmt":"2024-02-26T16:03:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/globalautosources.com\/?p=5657"},"modified":"2024-02-26T16:03:00","modified_gmt":"2024-02-26T16:03:00","slug":"a-feeling-for-scooters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/globalautosources.com\/?p=5657","title":{"rendered":"A Feeling for Scooters"},"content":{"rendered":"

China\u2019s scooter production increased last year partly because of big demand from Europe. In the UK the title \u2018Scooter Dealer of the Year\u2019 went to Llexeter a company that deals exclusively in China models. Here ChinaMotor\u2019s Euro correspondent Dimitri Hettinga describes the love and hate felt when you get emotional about your scooter.<\/b><\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The invention of the century? Well that is last century. \u00a0Piaggio was well\u00a0ahead of its time in 1946 and came up with the scooter; a vehicle with small wheels and\u00a0enough space to carry a dog between your legs, a pussy or just somegroceries.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve owned and ridden them the V50 Special, Primavera 125, PK 50\/200 the lot.\u00a0Vespa really died for me when they started with fully automatic CVT\u2019s.\u00a0The charm was gone. Changing gear with the wrist. How cool was that. 2\u00a0stroke, just the smell of it, loved every inch of it. They don\u2019t make\u00a0them any more like that, Not that they were a quality built. They couldfall apart when you looked at them. The sheet metal was the worst. Rust is\u00a0a must so to speak. The engines were pretty much bullet proof but needed\u00a0attention. I can still blind folded taking\u00a0them apart and putting\u00a0them back\u00a0together. \u00a0But for a novice this wasn\u2019t plain sailing. Fitting the exhaust\u00a0on these old 2 stroke Vespa\u2019s was not for the faint of heart; Italianengineering at its best. I\u2019ve had my share. And I still look back at it\u00a0with a smile. Do not know what it is. Character, charisma, it just had\u00a0something to drive around on an old Vespa. Beautiful!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The last one I had was stolen in front of my house in Amsterdam. \u00a0When\u00a0they stole it\u00a0it was a piece of shit, and in desperate need of TLC. The\u00a0headstock had more play than a Broadway musical. I do hope the thieves\u00a0killed themselves joy riding it on the Amsterdam streets with its typical\u00a0speed bumps.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s go back to our times. In Europe a Vespa is still the one to have.\u00a0The modern one\u2019s with CVT, 4 stroke, options galore\u2026 etc. Some of the\u00a0dealers we work with, also sell Vespa\u2019s. And they go on and on about them\u00a0like they were 2 wheeled gold. I do not get it. Yes the quality is right\u00a0but it is definitely overweight. The ride is comfortable but there is nofeel, no feedback like the old ones had. Yes they did flex, those old\u00a0buggers with the typical 2 stroke torque, but in a predictable manner.<\/p>\n

When you have read my previous article about cafe racers you can say I am\u00a0a\u00a0nostalgic romantic.And things from the past are always better. \u00a0Not in\u00a0quality but in feel. And that is something that is so much lacking in most\u00a0scooters and motorcycles produced nowadays.\u00a0The target group doesn\u2019t give\u00a0damn probably. They just want to go from A to B or Z without a hassle.\u00a0Push a button and go. And that is fair enough.<\/p>\n

Last week I tried the new Vespa Primavera 50. As said before the quality\u00a0is 200 % compared to an average Chinese lookalike Vespa. It feels solid,\u00a0a million dollars. And it goes. When derestricted it probably does over\u00a070 km\/h. But is it fun?\u00a0No, not for me. Boring it is. \u00a0Riding a scooter\u00a0or a motorcycle is cool because it is a bit dangerous. When you take that\u00a0bit away,\u00a0I think you\u00a0wouldbetter drive a car or use the public\u00a0transportation. But this is what the people want because Vespa\/Piaggio is\u00a0still making a lot of money doing so.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Scooters are mainstream again, with Chinese models getting in on the act. They were just that in the 50\u2019s and 60\u2019s\u00a0just because it was an easy, stylish and affordable means oftransportation. Cheap & chic. Nowadays that\u2019s all gone. People in Europe\u00a0drive Vespa\u2019s as a status symbol. And dress them up with all kinds of\u00a0unnecessary options and accessories doubling the base price tag. Good for\u00a0Vespa and its dealers but totally missing the point of the initial\u00a0scooter conception. Don\u2019t get me wrong, making (a lot of) money is a good\u00a0thing, but as a critical consumer and brand owner it does make me think.\u00a0Do we really need all this BS? Is a bang for buck product not good\u00a0enough? And do you really stand out of the crowd with skyscraper high\u00a0windscreen and chrome plated crash bars all over the place? Is it a\u00a0marketing ploy or a consumer need? If so, it is a pretty smart one.Harley-Davidson (and yes they also made scooters a long time ago) made a\u00a0shit lot of money from their accessories lines long before Vespa did. So\u00a0the idea is not very new. \u00a0I always liked the idea of \u201cless is more\u201d and\u00a0\u201cchrome won\u2019t get you home\u201d. But selling this idea to the public is\u00a0difficult and not very smart from a financial point of view. So, yes we\u00a0also sell accessories to our consumers to make an extra buck. We do try to\u00a0keep it to the bare necessities; a sport exhaust for some extra ponies and\u00a0some high spec shock absorbers for that extra grip in the corners.<\/p>\n

I might come across like Don Quixote fighting windmills but I will not\u00a0give up raving about the real driving experience- because that\u2019s what\u00a0makes me tick\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

China\u2019s scooter production increased last year partly because of big demand from Europe. In the UK the title \u2018Scooter Dealer of the Year\u2019 went to Llexeter a company that deals exclusively in China models. Here ChinaMotor\u2019s Euro correspondent Dimitri Hettinga describes the love and hate felt when you get emotional about your scooter.   The…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5658,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194,192],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalautosources.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5657"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalautosources.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalautosources.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalautosources.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalautosources.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5657"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/globalautosources.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5657\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5662,"href":"https:\/\/globalautosources.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5657\/revisions\/5662"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalautosources.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5658"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalautosources.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5657"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalautosources.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5657"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalautosources.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5657"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}