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!

Our friends over at Motorcycle Classics have a great scoop for us by letting us know The California Scooter Company is bringing back the Mustang motorcycle in three different flavors – The Classic, The Babydoll and The Greaser. When you combine 12 inch wheels, a 150cc 4 stroke engine and a curb weight of less than 250 pounds you can bet these are two scoops of fun. Check them out at Motorcycle Classics.

Found this after a long hiatus from… well, EVERYTHING. Check out TopSpeed’s scooter section for more where this came from. I didn’t know TopSpeed was in Miami. Interesting.

WARNING: Do not attempt to recreate what you see here. We will not be held responsible for any physical or emotional harm caused to any persons if you mount something like this on your scooter. We do NOT encourage such activities what so ever. If you do not heed our warnings and do so anyway, we will be forced to post your video as evidence here for the worlds disapproval. ;P

Over the Thanksgiving holiday we wrapped up another long awaited review.  This is actually our first motorcycle review!  The MadAss has always been of those hard-to-classify designs.  It has elements of a trials bike, a BMX, a mountain bike, a moped, a scooter.  I was expecting this one to come in as an automatic.  It would be a bit easier to compare to other modern scooters that way, but the only thing scooter about this bike was the engine.

If you’d like to see what we thought after 200 miles of testing you can head over to Motorcycle.com or Motorcycle-USA to read the whole thing and watch a companion video edited to show what it looks like and sounds on the road.

Yes, this story may not be the freshest scoop (it’s about a year old) but I missed the notice. Thanks to Dave at ScootMaryland for the scoop.

I love the economics and practicality of small displacement bikes like this. I would hope that technology like this could make it to the rest of the world.

“Recent City Council action on the new parking ordinance included an incentive to reduce carbon emissions of motorists in the urban core.  Now two-wheeled vehicles, including motorcycles, mopeds and scooters will be allowed to park for free for up to 12 hours per day in parking areas at all City of Austin meters and pay stations”.

Now parking has never been easier for those working in Austin, especially downtown. I hope this trend catches on in other cities as well. :)

I do have one problem however… It might be a bit premature to say we are “reducing carbon emissions” with this ordinance.  There are many factors that may make this a truth or untruth.  Your old, 1969 Kawasaki Mach III motorcycle is going to produce more carbon emissions than a Chevy Volt buzzing around downtown, but your 2009 Yamaha T-Max with its electronic fuel injection and catalyzed muffler is going to burn cleaner than most of the 4 wheeled vehicles downtown.  I would have said “this ordinance was to reduce congestion”.  The idea is to get people used to riding smaller vehicles downtown.  A lightweight vehicle with a smaller footprint is also easier to power with alternative fuels, so as people get used to riding smaller they are also opening the market up for more opportunities in the electric car sector.  If you reward people for riding 2-wheelers to get them out of Expeditions, the move to a tiny electric car would seem like an upgrade… or at least that seems logical to me.

Shout out to Fred Brown for the scoop!  Although… I’m a bit chagrined that my inside girl (madtolive) didn’t hook us up with the supa-fresh, as-it-was-happening scoop.  Wassup Jaz?  You don’t call, you don’t write, you don’t even give us the scoop no more!  :P~ ]]> http://www.thescooterscoop.com/2009/07/21/city-of-austin-rolls-out-free-parking-for-scooters/feed/ 10 http://www.thescooterscoop.com/2009/07/01/whats-so-good-about-a-small-lightweight-bike/ http://www.thescooterscoop.com/2009/07/01/whats-so-good-about-a-small-lightweight-bike/#comments Wed, 01 Jul 2009 12:01:00 +0000 Steve Guzman http://66.147.242.95/~thescoot/2009/07/01/whats-so-good-about-a-small-lightweight-bike/
Raffaele De Rosa’s Amazing Knee-Riding Save – Watch more Funny Videos
You can’t do THIS on a big bike… Raffaele De Rosa is on a 250cc 2-stroker that weighs in at about 220lbs. Way to handle it De Rosa!