BEHOLD, the great Japanese Big Scooter – massive, futuristic and fantastically gaudy; Japan’s super custom scooter is slowly vanishing from the Tokyo landscape where it found it’s birthplace.  The two-wheeled offspring of the Dekotora (Decoration Truck) of the mid 70’s, and inspired by the 70’s Kamen Rider (and others), the Big or sometimes called Baka (negative connotation meaning absurd, ridiculous, extreme or dumb) Scooter had it’s heyday in the early to mid 2000’s with dozens of custom scooter magazines and tons of aftermarket parts available.  Today, Japan’s strict noise regulation on <250cc scooters and global economic “cooling” has changed people’s opinions about such expensive and outlandish decorations and now even the magazines have dwindled down to a small handful to make way for the new craze… The American Chopper.  That’s right!  Even though motorbike sales have been decreasing in Japan at a rate of about 10% per year, that hasn’t stopped the Japanese’ attraction to self expression through personalizing their bikes.

Now, instead of the Big Scooter (which never really caught on here in the USA) expect to see more and more of this:

You can keep an eye on the Japanese Mooneyes site for more coverage of how the chopper craze is blazing across Japan.  Thanks to Aki-san for the update (even though it was sad to hear).  Aki believes electrics will catch on as soon as someone figures out how to customize and tune them.  We look forward to seeing Aki’s photos from the floor of the 2010 EICMA show next week!

Oh!  And here’s another shot of the green wonder.  What do you think?  Looks a tiny bit familiar to me, but I just can’t place it.  Not the Yamaha Cuxi 100.  I’m not sure what.  Take a closer look and tell me what you think about the design.  We know that the Mini E Scooter concept will be powered by a Lithium Ion battery but we’ll have to hold out another week or so before we know what kind of motor is moving this concept.

Also coming in with their “ME TOO!” concept is Smart with their Smart Escooter. The design is very alien, but it’s growing on me.

***UPDATE 9/24/2010***
Ladies and gentlemen, we have video!

And (thanks to Lorenzo from SCGT) some footage of the E Scooter in the wild.

If you don’t keep up with the UK scootering culture, you may not know about “the theme scooter”.  We rarely see them here in the USA (luckily) but it’s been a favorite past-time of many Brits since the Mod Revival and gets a regular feature in Scootering Magazine.  Most of the Motown and Northern Soul themes are lost on me but this one, scooped by “Q”, really spoke to me.  Check out the Star Wars theme custom scooter captured in Leeds, England (source).

Wait!  It looks like… It’s got TWO engines!  The original two stroke with custom pipe and a bolt-on 50cc 4-stroke?  Whoa… I’m feeling woozy.  I need to sit down and let my eyes adjust.

Shouts to our homeboys in Korea, Furange, for the scoop!

Is America turning into a third world country? That was the provocative topic of a panel I took part in last week at a conference sponsored by The Economist entitled “Innovation: Fresh Thinking For The Ideas Economy.”

Once upon a time, the United States was the world’s dominant innovator — partly because we didn’t have much competition. As a result of the destruction wreaked by WWII, the massive migration of brainpower to the U.S. caused by the war, and huge amounts of government spending, America had the innovation playing field largely to itself. None of these factors exist as we enter the second decade of the 21st century.

America now has plenty of countries it’s competing with — many of which are much more serious about innovation than we are. Just look at the numbers:

A report by the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation looked at the progress made over the last decade in the area of innovation. Out of the 40 countries and regions it examined, the U.S. ranked dead last.

If you get a chance please take the time to read the whole story. This is of critical importance! We’re a bunch of innovative people here; let’s SHOW IT! Support the Maker movement, the DIY movement, the garage inventors and local Fab Labs, the artisans and grease monkeys. The consumption era is over! Let the second industrial revolution BEGIN!

Anyway, here’s that video I was talking about:

You can follow them on Twitter and see more Bowls LA videos here.

NOW then, do you wanna see the “beat THIS!” badassmanship in action?  Of course, we don’t have video of the COUNTLESS hours spent rendering this bad boy, but we DO have video of the hyperMILL app controlling a Gildemeister DMU60 Duoblock machine as it puts the tool to it!  (Casey… wipe the drool off yer chin)  Did you know that JUST  a CAD mock-up of the DMU60 costs $1,500!  I can’t imagine how much the actual machine costs.  (anybody?)

…a small scooter but have a large integrated storage area and an optional storage compartment in the mid-section of the scooter. The flexible steering handlebar allows the scooter to transform into a more potent motorbike for higher speeds which improves the aerodynamics of this vehicle and brings more pleasure of riding.

Interesting idea! I’ve always liked the cargo scooter and in fact, this isn’t the first one to show up on Tuvie. I’m also a big fan of the cargo Microcar. I have to wonder if Aprilia ever sold any of their Cargobikes, which was really nothing more than a SportCity with a large storage compartment where the step-through once was. Not taking anything away from it! I’d like to see that kit available here in the USA! *writes email to Cargobike*

Oh, and… it’s really too bad we won’t ever see any Honda Cargo Gyro’s or new Bajaj Vans here. Well, not so much “too bad” as “it really pisses me off”. *climbs on soapbox* STOP the auto lobbyists from blocking the acceptance of micro work vehicles on American roads! *steps off soapbox* At least I think (hope) you can still get Peirspeed’s Pizza scooter.