If Vogue Fashion and Harley Davidson were to collaborate to create a product that would emit an air of chic and satiate the need for horsepower, scooters would serve as their poster product.
Add a touch of Italian flair and the Vespa is born.
Within the last decade, America has seen a revival of the European invasion with another form of transportation: scooters. With moto-scooters replacing cars and motorcycles, America is being propelled into the European craze that struck Italy a little over half a century ago.
Originating in Pontedera, Italy ,Rinaldo Piaggio began his company perfecting and engineering airplane engines, engines which were eventually used in battle for World War II. After the bombing and destruction of the Piaggio & Co. plant by Allied bombers, Rinaldo turned his company over to his son, Enrico Piaggio. It was with his innovation of a scooter with a steel body and airplane engine the Vespa was born. Soon, all of Italy found a new way to travel.
With the success of the Vespa in Italy, other scooter manufacturers began to follow suit with scooter companies of their own. Kymco USA, TNG, Yamaha, and Honda have all stepped up to the plate and help continue the scooter revolution.
This Italian invasion is being continued 70 miles south of Tigerland by Vespa New Orleans located on Toulouse Street where scooter buyers can view the “grandfather” of moto-scooters, the vespa. For the past two years even Baton Rouge has gotten a taste of scooter-mania.At University Scooters located on Siegen Lane ,potential buyers can test the wheels of more recent scooter companies, such as Kymco and TNG scooters.
With all of Europe scooting through their day, and now many American business men and women becoming infected by scooter-mania, scooter companies are anxious to break into the college market.
“[We] hope to establish a program with international students,” said Neil West, president of University Scooters. “We would like to make it possible for LSU to offer these bikes so they would have another mode of transportation other than bicycles.”
Not only are scooter owners attempting to establish programs but many companies are actually producing bikes geared towards a lower price market. These bikes are now the opportune price for college students.
“Piaggio will be introducing the Typhoon in August, which will be significantly cheaper than any of the other Piaggio produced bikes,” said Zach Materne employee at Vespa New Orleans. “[We] will be offering the quality of a Piaggio bike but at $1,800, an affordable price for college students.”
Many scooters run within the price range of $1,500 to $6,000. Lucky for LSU students, scooters that will successfully transport them from Hodges to a cross campus study group in the Union, will cost their wallets no more than $3,000.
Whatever dollars are spent in purchasing a scooter, along with any necessary accessories, scooter owners can save in gas.
“Most of our bikes will get 80 miles to the gallon,” said West. “Driving a scooter around Baton Rouge is definitely a way to escape the high gas prices.”
Along with affordability and economic reasonability, scooters provide a convenient way to avoid Baton Rouge traffic. Street legal, these bikes are a perfect way to “scoot” around the lines of cars that fill the streets of Baton Rouge.
Both University Scooters and Vespa New Orleans are concerned about the safety of their riders.
“Scooters are much safer than any other two-wheeled vehicle on the road,” said West, “without a testosterone mentality, riders have a tendency to not drive them as recklessly.”
Even insurance companies
can’t find reason to define scooters as a high death motor vehicle.
“Progressive Insurance informed [us] that within the last year not one Vespa owner was killed on his bike,” said Materne, “our bikes are built to last and with a steel body it makes it harder for the driver to be hurt in an accident.”
Security is also highly important to scooter owners. Luckily, Kymco, TNG and Piaggio have perfected a security system making it nearly impossible for someone to ride away on a stolen scooter. Piaggio has taken security a step further and made it impossible for thieves to start the bike without the owner’s key.
Along with safety, security, mobility, affordability, and economic reasonability, scooter companies have geared their products towards all genders.
“Vespa has created a bike that is designed to meet the needs of
both men and women,” said Materne, “[we] have designed a bike in which women can ride in a skirt and heels but still give the rider the same power and speed of a motorcycle.”
The style and appeal of these bikes has infected some scooter owners so deeply that the appearance or re-appearance of scooter clubs or gangs have begun to invade America.
Whether it is style or speed, power or posh students are looking for, scooters are the auto market’s answer to all their needs. So shake off all your fears of two wheels and scoot your way into the future.