Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2004/08/22
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Wonderful photos as always. Heck they were partly responsible for me getting the Vespa bug in the first place. I disagree with your criticism of the latest Vespa offerings. I like the way they are modern but also echo the earlier styles: functional and retro at the same time. Most of the Far-eastern scooters are just weird and ugly. A few look good because they are trying to look like Vespas. The Vespa ET2 and ET4 were a revolution in the modern scooter market. They restored Piaggio's fortunes and started the present scooter boom. Automatic is unfortunately the way the market has gone. Scooters were always designed to be inexpensive to purchase and easy to ride. The variable size pulley, belt drive automatic system wins on both counts. Regardless of what the purists (me) say, the modern autos are faster too. John Collier On Aug 22, 2004, at 2:26 AM, Mark Rabiner wrote: > The Vespa company seems alive and kicking we have a new dealership in > my > neighborhood and all the units in there are automatic transmission. > Which I'd certainly not want. > And they've lost that European look. They look like someone melted > them down > half way. > Most of the character melted out of them. > A character of much European design this decade. Anyone notice how the > Mercedes turned into Subaru's? But Now they look like Italian cars so > that's > an anomaly. > snip > Mostly Mods. But a few eclectics. Gals even. > http://rabinergroup.com/Catagorypages/ScooterPage.html