Make sure to Scoot To Amerivespa with Kymco USA

Kymco USA is doing it again with their Scoot to Amerivespa journey. This is where employees, riders, and dealers ( Plus some special guests ) get to drive from KYMCO USA HQ to Amerivespa.

Check out the video from last year.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKuUANPMrRA

For more on Amerivespa see below. Make sure to visit www.KymcoUSA.com for more info on their trip.

June 16th thru the 19th the Big Easy will be host to the 19th annual scooter rally hosted by the Vespa Club of America and this years local host The New Orleans Scooter Cooperative. http://www.amerivespa.org/index.html

As a Media Guest the Scooter Maven is scheduled to attend to cover the event for the industry. It's a great event that does bring mainstream media attention to scooters and like always leads to a really good time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggB0BJ42vxQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2FdX53Fm90

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXlVNIvK24k

The last time I was in New Orleans I was helping rebuild houses with the Coca-Cola Scholars Foundation. A great time for everyone involved. We got to gut some houses, sleep in Churches, and just live it up back in 2007.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D4UEUJYbmvQ

It will be nice to tour the city and see the changes since Katrina.

New Orleans has lots to offer. I have some fond memories of the city from Anne Rices house, to the Superbowl parties and later on to rebuilding after Katrina. It will be interesting to Scoot Around town and visit some Jazz clubs or try some of the restaurants that have rebuilt.

Scoot Magazine! Will be there and so feel free to sign up for the new digital edition of Americas leading magazine. http://www.ScootMagazine.com

Some Scenes from Amerivespa 2010 last year

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ph7LYKelE-E&feature=relmfu

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XaX8r0HUNCM

New Gates Belts in Stock!

MRP is proud to be the largest outlet of Scooter Belts by Gates USA. There's been a lot of fake "Powerlinks" on the market the last few years from low end fly-by-night importers, but we're an official distributor listed with the big boys. Stocking more models and a greater selection than any other US distributor.

The Gates belts that we carry come in two flavors, Powerlink Standard and Powerlink Premium.   


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUROzykokZA



The Powerlink Standard belts offer a significant upgrade in durability over the stock belt found in most Chinese born scooters, while the Powerlink Premium belts offer an even higher standard of durability by utilizing the best rubber and Aramid fiber compounds available


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDNruj4j1a4




http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVKMh7cV3QM&feature=player_embedded
FOR MORE ON BELTS VISIT:
http://www.martinracingdealer.com/CategoryProductList.jsp?cat=Parts+by+Type:Belts+Non-Kevlar

How to find Vento parts? How to find Zip, hurricane, Keeway, RX 50cc parts?

One common question we've been getting since Powersports Factory, Xtreme Scooters, and Vento USA are all out of business is where to get the scooter parts for the most common 50cc models they importer. Fortunately when MRP acquired Keeway Southeast aka Cubik we got tons and tons of these parts. Just in SKU figures alone we have more scooter parts than any other scooter parts distributor in the USA so if you need a QJ, Keeway, PSF, Andretti, Benelli, PartsforChinese Scooter by Qingjiang then MRP is your place to go for parts.

The common scooter sold as the Vento ZIP, RX50 by Yamati or Powersports Factory, also known as the Keeway Hurricane 50cc, or Xtreme Scooter Hurricane, Vento R3 is on our website.

The RX 50 manual for the plastics and body parts can be found at this link:
http://www.martinracingdealer.com/REPAIR%20MANUALS/CPI/RX50%20body.pdf

The engine and electrical part numbers can be found at:
http://www.martinracingdealer.com/REPAIR%20MANUALS/Vento/Engine%20parts%20Vento%20ZIP%20Keeway%20Hurricane%20Xtreme%20Espresso%20PSF%20RX50.pdf

Using these part numbers you can find them online or at our website by typing them in the search engine.

For example the most common oil seal for the ZIP is found as 15213G02F000 type this into the MRP search engine or online and several of our dealers bring up the part.
OIL SEAL 20 X 30 X 6 for the Zip, B08, RX8, RX50 models the most common Chinese oil seal. So to find parts use the OEM manuals.
The full list of manuals can be found at:
http://www.martinracingdealer.com/WSWrapper.jsp?mypage=Manuals.htm

Amerivespa starts next week! Make sure to sign up today.

If you haven't signed up yet, make sure to head out over to the websites and get ready.
Scoot Magazine! the main magazine sponsor of the magazine will also be there. Meanwhile the guys from Kymco are doing the SCOOT TO AMERIVESPA ride again, which is pretty sweet you can find out more about that at: http://www.kymcousa.com/

http://www.vespaclubusa.org/
http://www.amerivespa.org/

Some good news in Powersports Business the New 2012 Yamaha lineup

I love the idea of the new Yamaha units coming to the USA. It's a shame they pulled the ZUMA 125, but for 2012 the Majesty 400 comes back plus a new ZUMA 50!


The 2012 Zuma 50F scooter comes with a liquid-cooled, fuel-injected, four-stroke 49cc engine, sharp new styling and twin headlights, updating the original “‘tough, off-road” image of the Zuma MSPR $2490. The 2012 393cc liquid cooled Majesty comes in Charcoal with an MSRP of $6,750. Both are a little on the high end, but then again they are YAMAHA and you get what you pay for. Plus this means a whole new crop of parts since they use a different engine than previous models.

You might have seen me mention the ZUMA 50 LC, Majesty, and ZUMA BW 125 and BW 100 in some of my previous videos in travels in Italy and the Caribbean.


Shame the Morpheus is no longer around that was a cool scooter as well.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OgPFQtoPFi0


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WnGXZqqxlW4


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FeWjEoB943Q

Malaguti Italy still needs a buyer, any investors ready to take on a luxury brand?

I saw a Malaguti F-15 this morning on the way to work. It was a Ducati edition scooter so obviously the guy in Coral Gables Florida who owns this got it at the old Ducati Miami at $3999 a pop it wasn't for the average 50cc rider, this was a gift for someone who wanted luxury and to smoke an SR 50 at the track.


That's the thing that get's me under the right management with lower production these companies can survive. You can't compete with Asia in the low cost, high production category. Not only that we all known in the industry that every manufacturer in China gets a kickback for bringing in dollars. So how can any Italian company compete? They can't. They are under the false illusion that selling a couple of hundred Ferrari's and a few Ducati's each year will make up for the thousands of jobs they have lost in shoes, apparel, and in all the imitation Prada you see Tunisians selling on the streets of Milan that say Made in China on the back.


However, you can compete by making low production, high margin, quality goods. This is the Ferrari trick. Yes, they license the name to anyone so does Coke and Pepsi that's how you make some revenue, but the main good is still a quality good. That's the value of brands like Malaguti. They can be luxury goods. 


What is needed here is a management team and buyers who have an excellent track record in buying low-performing businesses with sales between 50-250m Euros. Someone who can get rid of the agreements with the Unions and bring in some cash. 




http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q49BUmUiwRg



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fsZYjY6F0Hg&feature=related



The sad thing is that after months of ups and downs there is still no buyer. Rumors are circulating that the factory will come back with a Chinese partner who is buying the molds. Who knows.


It's pretty clear the politicians in Italy are useless. One by one they are letting the companies fail on their watch as the Asian brands take over. Next thing you know they will loose the pasta trade as well, oh geez they probably already did.


I imagine this how Michael Moore felt in the 1980s as Detroit just started moving jobs to Mexico, later on they would kill the electric car only to spend millions saying how green they are 20 years later. This is the state of Italian Motorcycling. They stood there and didn't bother adapting and now they are overcompensating. Parts companies are scrambling to sell to the public, screwing over US distributors, and running to catch up to Asian brands. It's sad, but it will be even harder if they don't keep the manufacturers in town.


The incentives are there. A good US luxury brand management company could come in, scoop up Malaguti, get those incentives, and turnaround the firm for next to nothing. If they could get past the red tape.


That and the fact that half the workers work less than 20 hours a week now.  
Maybe Mr Parrini will wake up and push this.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=doToyGMEFjs

Most price based importers are too stupid to see the big picture when it comes to scooters

Like everything in life we keep lowering the standards. After a decade in the business I try not to answer people when I hear comments like "its Chinese but the same as a Honda" yeah your Kia is great, but you can't say it's the same as a BMW. Seriously, where do some of these importers come from?

I'm looking at their warranty policies and not only are they illegal in states like Arizona, Washington, and Texas they make no sense whatsoever.

I've heard a lot of complaints lately on how some warranty credits you can only use on co-op or on future orders, I get it, but at least those companies are trying. These Chinese importers now write the most ridiculous things that with a shoe store lawyer you could hand them their behind in court. Even better a nice consumer lawsuit with a defect would have them running for the hills.

Sorry 150cc Scooters are MOTOR VEHICLES in most states. I don't think most importers in California know what LEMON LAWS are, but they affect dealers, they affect importers and guess what they make lawyers rich since some of these Chinese importers don't bother reading them when selling in these states. California Carb and the CSB have a horrible record of enforcing the law when it comes to these things. Yes they stuck the owners of Roketa in jail a few months back, but they got out, settled for some cash since the state is broke and they continue to give people the same crappy warranty. You think anything has changed?

Ignorance of the law doesn't mean it doesn't apply to you.

I'm starting to think that the only way any change will happen is if more companies act like Scoot Magazine. If Dealer News, Powersports Business, Motorcycle Product News the remaining trades would report on who has real EPA certs, real insurance, and a real warranty before taking these ads for these companies. Let's hold them to the same standards as say Kymco.

Great CPI MuZ Scooter Video from the 90s

Alright, I hated this song. Back in the late 90's Daytona was some left over afterparty from MTV Summer where you saw people like Jean Claude Van Dam getting in trouble and underage kids trying to get in trouble, but you know what everyone that liked scooters loved this video.

You can tell it was done on a budget by renting some MuZ scooters ( Made by CPI ) these Mozquito scooters are still out there, I see them everytime I go to the keys or South Beach. MuZ North America would sell between 2000 to 3000 of them a year compared to only a few hundred motorcycles making them probably 2/3rds of their overall profit and sales. The CPI Mozquito is still a workhorse to this day making a lot of money for the dealers.

If you need parts for CPI you can contact MRP http://www.mrp-speed.com or the new CPI importer

http://www.pitmotorsltd.com

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1fzJ_AYajA

How markets can change in a year

The Scooter Markets can change a lot in a year or two. We are at the height of the season, but stores especially all the new "Vespa" guys mainly Chinese stores that were able to pick up the franchise thanks to the economy ( put some other brands in there as well ) fail to realize how quickly things change.

Some of the top dealers last year are gone. The market keeps changing. Two of the top 2010 Vespa stores are no longer in business. Something to think about as we head into summer.

Play it smart, focus on parts, and work with distributors that don't go around you or undercut you.

Vespa Oceanside was the top Armadillo dealer at one point....

Feedback from Groupon in Powersports has been mostly negative

So I was right, so far all the emails I got back from dealers tell me that = Groupon is bad for the Scooter Dealer.

I wrote a blog piece last month on this and several dealers have emailed to tell me I was 110% correct about this. 

What works for selling nice hot massages in some upscale part of town or Tattoo removal maybe even a Brazilian all you can eat beef isn't going to work for a motor vehicle. Only someone stuck with a few thousand units would think it's a positive thing for a motorcycle dealer to liquidate inventory at a discount and give the very poor people at Groupon in Chicago $300 bucks to help a dealer move a few units. Here's an idea give the consumer $300 in accessories and don't pay Groupon so much money! 

These days that's what we have the NDA auctions for since they are closed to the general public and we don't devalue the vehicles out in the open. We have sufficient incompetence from Chinese importers to do that for us we don't need Groupon putting downward pressure on the mom and pop stores.

Dealers have to contend with Ebay, online competition, wholesale distributors who like to sell parts direct plus all the new people who work out of their garage at home and every China supplier selling online. So Groupon is just one more thing you can add to the enemy of stores list. I was right, to those who emailed us thank you. 

A veteran writer for the leading Dealer News magazine wrote me to tell me he doesn't think it's a big deal. To quote him "its a consumer driven market so it doesn't matter if stores can compete or not, the trend is for all distributors to sell direct to the public and as long as they take it the distributors will continue to do it." That's from the guy who has to keep his mouth shut to get them to advertise. 


What's next all the major four brands selling on Shopatron or Cycle Trader? Next thing you know people without stores will buy a PSN site? Maybe Parts Unlimited could sell to the public as well you know like run Dennis Kirk or something. It's a good time to be a dealership, embracing Groupon is just another step into the industry downward magin trend or as I like to call it the Chinese discount syndrome.


To read my full blog visit
http://martinracingperformance.blogspot.com/2011/05/groupon-is-bad-for-scooter-and.html