Gilera DNA.org

Aprilia Mana – The Truth

May 31, 2009 at 1:48 pm | In Aprilia Mana | Leave a Comment

I’ve been blogging about this bike for some time now but it was only yesterday I physically saw the bike for the first time and had the chance to inspect it closely.

My impression: it’s big, wide and chunky. It reminds me of a Suzuki GSX1400 (okay, I exaggerate a little) or a Kawasaki ER-6n. I know there’s an 1150cc engine on the horizon and it looks like it needs it.

I believe the lineage from the Gilera DNA is valid, but this machine bears no resemblance whatsoever to the principles that made the DNA worth having i.e. it’s small, light and has scooter response within a motorcycle like frame. This bike is a heavy, long distance cruiser. Most medium size motorcycles would be easier to live with than this unless you want to use it just for long distance touring.

I couldn’t go to work on this everyday. I could go international touring on it in full kit (see my previous post from 2007) but I don’t see me doing that, this lifetime. I won’t be buying one.

Technorati Tags: Aprilia,Mana

Don’t try this at home!

April 12, 2009 at 5:58 pm | In Gilera | Leave a Comment

This stuff is really hard to do because the bike is just not built for it but he does it anyway. Not sure where he’s from, I supect he’s Italian or Spanish.

New cool Gilera Centenary paint jobs.

March 18, 2009 at 6:00 pm | In Gilera | Leave a Comment

Gilera fête ses 100 ans avec 3 maxi scooters exclusifs – Actualités Scooter System

Came across these pictures on the French ‘Scooter System’ site. It’s Gilera’s 100th anniversary and all the bikes made this year will apparently get a new logo. (see below.)

Additionally the Nexus 300, Fuoco 500 and the GP800 will get as a premium option, what is described as the ‘Centenary Italy’ paint scheme. Details are sketchy at the moment but I’ll keep an eye on this one. I see no reason why they should not be available in the UK at some point this year.

Technorati Tags: Nexus,Fuoco,GP800,Gilera,Scooter

BMW SCT 800 Scooter not real

February 8, 2009 at 10:40 am | In Media, Off Topic | Leave a Comment

Came across much chatter on the net this morning about a new BMW superscooter on the Motor Cycle News website. Thought this looked fishy and checked out the scooterdesign website I blogged about way back in 2007.

Yep, it all rings true, it’s not real. Shame. smile_sad

Technorati Tags: BMW SCT 800,Scooter

Suzuki Bergman 400 Review

December 19, 2008 at 5:06 pm | In Off Topic | 1 Comment

I had reason to ride one of these recently. It’s the most powerful bike I’ve ever ridden and having been aware of the of the bike over many years and aware of the fact that it has a way bigger fan base than my DNA, I was very interested to try it out.

What a disappointment! It’s not that it’s a bad bike – it’s that it’s an incredibly flawed bike. I can see why the Americans like it because it’s like a Harley: it’s big and noisy, people see you coming, you ride it like an armchair and it has a very low seat; it goes like the space shuttle in a straight line but doesn’t want to turn corners. It’s the first bike I’ve ridden that will comfortably do motorway speeds, yet if you try and overtake a truck on the M4 as I did this morning, you’re so buffeted by the truck’s slipstream that you don’t want to do it again!

I’d like to try a 400cc Piaggio to see if this is better because I do like that engine. You could happily go hundreds of miles on that engine if it had a decent scooter wrapped around it.

Technorati Tags: Scooters,Maxi scooters,Suzuki,Bergman,400

Piaggio/Gilera Windows Live Groups

December 7, 2008 at 3:34 pm | In Aprilia Mana, Gilera, Media, Piaggio, scooter sites | Leave a Comment

Is anyone interested in starting a Windows Live Group on a Piaggio/Scooter theme. I don’t hold up much hope for a Gilera DNA group but someone must do something related to the content of this blog. I know there’s probably something on Google or Yahoo groups but I’m not interested in that. I’m not going to set one up, so I want to join someone else’s.