Scooter Company Teams up with EMI, Bessie Bardot and the Special Olympics
Australia, Commonwealth of (Press Release) December 5, 2007 -- In an effort to capitalize on the craze in new scooters these days, Manhattan Scooters have joined forces with EMI Music Australia to promote the new and much talked about band “FAKERS”. As part of this promotion, EMI Australia are using one of the new “gondola” brand of motor scooters, complete with fancy artwork to promote the band. Manhattan scooters recently teamed up with the Australian Special Olympics Committee, with a charity event that was held at the Kogarah Golf Club in Sydney. The event was a huge success with not one but three Gondola scooters auctioned off to help the Special Olympics cause. This on top of the companies recent successful partnership with Australian celebrity, Bessie Bardot has caused murmurs within the Australian scooter industry. The proof is in the pudding as they say, with the Manhattan Scooters website receiving over 5000 hits in just five days earlier this month as the weather turned summery. To top it all of for their competitors, Manhattan Scooters offers a mobile showroom where they come to you with the scooter you’re interested in. They’ll even take you for a test ride. This service has been proving very popular with the punters, mostly due to the tough licensing restrictions in NSW.
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International Motorcycle and Scooter show preview
Hot on the heels of the Paris motorcycle show, the Birmingham NEC hosts in two weeks time the International Motorcycle and Scooter Show in association with The Sun newspaper. The show will feature the exclusive world launches of several new models:
BMW Motorrad UK will showcase the world premier of a new model that will be on sale in 2006, of which details are still under wraps. Yamaha will unveil their new YZF-R6R, 'bristling with MOTOGP technology' and YZF-R1SP- a high spec limited edition. The firm's FJR1300AS will be the first production semi-automatic motorcycle. British manufacturer CCM will launch its brand new FT35S model at the show, a street version of its American-style 'flat tracker' based on a new chassis that has a much reduced seat height compared to any previous CCM model. Triumph will launch its three new models in the UK at the NEC. The Rocket III Classic, the twin-cylinder Scrambler and the middle-weight triple-cylinder Daytona 675 Triple. Kawasaki will unveil to a UK audience for the first time the ER-6f, ZZR1400, VN900 Classic and KX450F. Honda will show a revised Deauville, CBR1000RR Fireblade and CBF1000. Ducati will be launching the new Ducati Monster S2R1000, The Paul Smart 1000 Limited Edition and the Sport 1000 to the UK market, and Suzuki's 2006 models on show will include the GSR600 and two additions to its GSX-R series, besides an updated Bandit 1200/S.
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International Scooter Rally
Widely recognised as the largest scooter event in the world, the August Bank Holiday weekend welcomed thousands of fellow scooter enthusiasts to Ryde for a fun-filled line-up of ride-outs, rally events and parties. Blue skies and bright sunshine greeted the scooterists, mod fans and of course their faithful two-wheelers as they descended upon the IOW for the greatest rally of the scootering calendar. As always, the highlight of the weekend was the mass ride-out around the Island on Sunday, which, regardless of your personal preference and opinions on scooters, was without any shadow of a doubt, a truly awesome sight to behold.
A record breaking, breath-taking assembly of enthusiasts
The scooterists have been coming to the Isle of Wight every August for over a decade and the rally has increased in size annually. Incredibly, this year's turnout of around five thousand bikes for the ride-out on Sunday afternoon smashed the Guinness World Record for the biggest uninterrupted parade of machines. The previous record stood at 449 machines, and organisers VFM confirmed that in 2007 more than 1,100 were present in a continuous line. There were in fact 1,600 scooters in the parade, but as a spokesperson for the scooterists' organisation VHM pointed out, the rules state that the line has to be unbroken, and unfortunately a car did break the chain.
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Scooter invasion catching on in Tucson
High gas prices are causing more drivers to switch to two wheels instead of four. In the first quarter of 2008, scooter sales were up 24 percent nationwide, according to the Motorcycle Industry Council. The scooter invasion is also catching on in Tucson with sellers reporting sale increases ranging from 25 to 70 percent compared to a year ago. The scooter fad could end up resulting in a sticking trend if the price of gas doesn't go down considerably. On average, scooters get between 70 to a 100 miles per gallon of gas while most cars and trucks have fuel economies that are quarter of that or less. Will Stanton commutes by scooter six days a week and travels 25 miles both ways from his home in Oro Valley to his job on the far southeast side. When the price of gas tipped the scales at nearly four dollars a gallon three months ago Will decided it was time to ditch his truck, which only gets 13 miles per gallon for a scooter that gets 85 miles per gallon. On average, he saves more than $300 a month on gas. While he paid a little more than $4,000 for his scooter; he'll have it paid off in less than a year with all the money he's saving on fuel.
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The Scooter Appeal
Gas Prices And Fun Image Make It 'The' Alternative Transportatio. With the high price of gas, you may be saying to yourself, "If only I could get rid of my car." Actually, some people are doing just that by trading in a large SUV for a much smaller scooter. It's a trend that is sending sales of these road trippers soaring. Always popular across the pond in cities such as Rome and Paris, scooters are now being embraced more and more by Americans such as 48-year-old Leslie Taylor from Portland, Ore. ConsumerWatch correspondent Susan Koeppen. Tired of paying $50 dollars to fill the tank in her SUV, she recently bought a scooter to save at the pump. "My scooter takes one gallon of gas, about $2.57 right now, and that lasts me about a week and a half," she says. Christine Gifford, who owns a Vespa dealership in Ridgefield, Conn., says her sales are up 20 percent over last year thanks in part to prices at the pump. Her husband was thinking gas prices, but Russell says she was thinking, "fun." She's even fighting with daughter Annie over who gets to ride it. There was a time scooter riders were considered geeks. "Now it's completely different," Annie Russell says. Even though she's nine months pregnant, Koeppen had to give a scooter a try, and found it was fun. So the next time you check out your rear view mirror, don' t be surprised if you see someone on a scooter, smiling. Depending on its size, a scooter can get upwards of 70 miles of gas per gallon and can go anywhere between 35 and 70 mph. Some can even go over 100 mph. According data provided by Vespa, a scooter can save you over $600 a year in gasoline annually compared to a Toyota Camry, and almost $3,000 compared to a Hummer.
