Piaggio MP3 in full winter kit

April 28, 2007 at 2:43 pm | In Piaggio MP3 | 4 Comments
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Now my objections to the Gilera Fuoco are on record but I do have a soft spot for the MP3. It’s just less pretentious. It’s still expensive and heavy but I think it looks nicer.

I came across these shots on The Knee Slider and the’ re worth a closer look.

That tall screen is ridiculous – if it went up any further it would be a roof. I do like the hand protectors though and it would be nice if they came separately. The apron is something I’m moving towards bizarrely because on a feet forward scooter your knees naturally lie horizontal and therefore seem to attract the wet in heavy rain. I love the chunky tyres but I’m not convinced we’re really going to change our tyres twice a year! We’ll have one or the other depending probably on where we live and/or how the bike is used.

I love the top box come back rest because I have a notion to tour two up on a large scooter (not the DNA obviously.) I’m a bit worried by that hinge screw – it looks like someone could unbolt it with a spanner and walk away with the topbox. Perhaps it’s just the photo, perhaps not.

This stuff all costs an arm and a leg though.

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Scooterdesign

April 26, 2007 at 3:50 am | In Blogroll | 1 Comment
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Here’s a fun site I came accross on Blogger, http://scooterdesign.blogspot.com/. This guy is an Italian professional bike designer who publishes these wonderful fantasy scooter designs for fun. There is a sister geared motorcycle site as well http://motosketches.blogspot.com/. It’s all in rather flowery Italian so Babelfish struggles with the language more than usual but both sites are well worth a visit.

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The Gilera Fuoco 500ie three wheel SUV and Gilera GP 800

April 18, 2007 at 3:51 pm | In Gilera | 4 Comments
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This photo for me sums up Piaggio’s approach to this vehicle: Land Rover headlamps, bull bars, serious off road riding.

Sadly this is all fantasy because:

  1. It still only has one driving wheel so it’s going to get stuck.
  2. It’s too heavy, 238Kg.
  3. It’s too expensive.
  4. It looks ridiculous.
  5. Everyone will stare at it (for the wrong reasons.)
  6. He’s going to break it.

This is the Gilera GP 800. It succeeds where the Fuoco fails because

  1. It has an 850cc engine, the biggest in it’s class with rumors of an 1050cc engine to follow.
  2. It weighs less than the Gilera Fuoco, 235Kg against 238Kg.
  3. No one will try and take this off road!
  4. People will stare at this for the right reasons.
  5. BMW drivers will give this a bit of respect.
  6. You can reasonably traverse countries on this.

Piaggio can be really stupid (remember they cancelled the DNA’s with the decent size engines after only a couple of years) but we forgive them because they can bring out really great bikes as well.

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Some Scooters you won’t see in this country because ‘There’s no market for them.’

April 1, 2007 at 3:38 pm | In Uncategorized | Leave a Comment
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This is the Piaggio Beverly 400. Now I think I might quite like one of these but I can’t buy one because I live in England. This sucks.Price is comparable to the X8 400, €5195 (about £3,700) against the £3,849 for the X8; It’s lighter: 189Kg as against 198Kg for the X8, has a 13 litre fuel tank against the X8’s 12 litres and has a slightly lower seat height, 770mm against 790mm. Both vehicles will have the 399cc Master engine. Not much in it really but it’s a question of choice. Why can I buy one and not the other?

Similarly, this is the Piaggio Carnaby 200. I think it looks quite nice, reminds me a lot of the old Yamaha Teo 125, but with a 74ish mph top speed. 21bhp, €3250 (£2,325), 146Kg, 790mm seat height; compares with the Gilera Runner VXR 200 much as the Beverly and X8 above. The Carnaby isn’t even sold in this country in any form and a 200cc…don’t even go there.

Will it ever change? Probably not but I do wonder about the effects of the environmental lobby driving people on to smaller machines, warmer weather and greater congestion driving people onto scooters and the ever increasing interference of the EU with licence entitlements. We shall see.

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