Some lucky bastard is scootin' to work in Bondi Beach every day.

One of the benefits of having an Australian wife is that visiting the in-laws for the holidays means a trip down under to the flip side of the world where an NYC Winter quickly becomes a Melbourne Summer.

This year I had my scooter-eyes on to bring back a brief report on – and a few snaps of – the scootering scenes in Sydney and Melbourne.

First off, let me give a serious hats-off to anyone riding a scooter in either of these cities. Take it from someone who rides in Gotham traffic everyday, you guys, and gals, have some serious brass balls. Car drivers in Melbourne, and especially in Sydney, have a way of flipping around bends at terrifying speeds that put NYC cabbies to shame. Add to that the twists, turns, and hair-pins of Sydney’s rolling hills of traffic and it’s enough to shake the nerves of even the most seasoned rider.

Melbourne doubles-down on the danger with the presence of the city’s ubiquitous trams, slippery tram tracks and local traffic nonsense, the infamous “Hook Turn” that I swear was designed for the single intent of testing the mettle of foreign tourists.

Let’s just say that, while the balmy weather is appealing, I’m not sure I’d want to be out there in either city on a scooter in everyday commuter traffic.

Dedicated powered-two-wheeler parking in Sydney downtown (AKA The Central Business District.)

Scootin’ in Sydney
Our first stop was a few days in Sydney for New Years Eve 2011/2012.

If you’re a foreign scooterist visiting Australia, one of the first things you might notice on local Aussie scoots are the ubiquitous “L” and “P” plates and we saw plenty of both in the city.

An "L-Plater" in Watson's Bay, Sydney.

“L” (or “Learner”) plates are worn by scooters ridden by scooterists in their first few weeks on two-wheels following the passing an initial online test at the local licensing center. Riding as an “L” means the requirement to be accompanied by another rider with appropriate licensing, either riding two-up or accompanying on another scooter or motorcycle. The system works much like the provisional licensing in New York but with visible notification to other drivers (and the cops) that you haven’t quite got your scooter “Sea Legs” yet.

Once you’ve gotten some miles behind you, you can apply for a “P” plate, which includes some restrictions including not being able to carry a passenger before easing into your full license. A system similar to the one I grew up with in England, and something I would love to see introduced in the States for all drivers. I’m convinced it leads to safer streets (my comment about corner-whipping down under aside.)

Attached to these plates my wife and I saw a good range of the usual scooter suspects naturally including a healthy dose of modern Vespas, Yamahas, Kymcos, and Hondas.

It might not have been in production for long, but at least one "La Vita" made it to Sydney.

In addition, much like last year’s trip to Paris, I was also pleased to see a decent amount of modern Peugeot scooters, another company with a historic pedigree, that currently offers a terrific portfolio of bikes that are disappointingly not sold in the US.

From a vintage perspective, if you find yourself in Sydney, do yourself a favor and swing by to check out and support S.S. Scooter Engineering who have been representing the vintage love in Sydney since 2006. They’re a much warmer friendly bunch of folks than their name suggests. The S.S. recently moved to a new workshop in the Alexandria neighborhood and are the local go-to guys for vintage repair, restorations and under-the frame performance pimping.

Finally, if local ride outs are your thing, if you have a couple of days in Sydney you’ll want to reach out to the local scooter clubs before planning your trip. In Sydney, your first stop for trip planning should be the website for the Sydney City Scooter Club that houses an active forum including the usual chatter, smack-talking, wrenching, and silliness that comprises all great scooter forums.

A Peroni billboard in Melbourne tips the hat to other Italian icons.

Movin’ in Melbourne

After a quick domestic flight, a few days in my wife’s hometown of Melbourne provided a great opportunity to swing by local legend, The Vespa House in the Collingwood neighborhood.

While Melbourne has a healthy number of scooter shops these guys deservedly wear the nostalgia crown.

The Vespa House has ruled Melbourne in the very-same location since 1956, founded like all great scooter shops by a guy called Tony from Italy. In addition to being a Piaggio, Vespa, and Gilera dealership, the jewel in the crown of the Vespa House is the fantastic workshop that drips with history and continues to actively take care of the vintage and four-stroke bikes of this very busy city.

The shop, now in its third generation of the same family, includes Giovanni (Johnny) Scriba who has put in an incredible 40-plus years as the in-house Vespa mechanic.

Outside The Vespa House in 2012.

The same location back in the day. Spot the Lammy. Photo courtesy The Vespa House.

If you’re into vintage bikes of another pedigree, don’t hold-your-breath for a sight of a Lambretta however. While the workshop does service Innocentis, its website claims that the business has seen four times as many Vespas than Lammys, particularly back in the rivalry heydays.

For a sense of the history of the place, check out the gallery over at the Vespa House website which includes some fantastic images from the past 50 plus years.

Customer bikes inside The Vespa House.

If you’re looking to soak up some more Italian nostalgia in Melbourne, the city is home to some terrific Italian coffee houses that put American coffee to shame, including – but by no means exclusive to – the “Little Italy” neighborhood stretch on Lygon Street where you’ll occasionally spot a vintage scoot or two, even if it is sitting there for display purposes propping up a couple of Cappuccinos., or better yet, some of the best Gelati on the planet. Personally, operational or not, I’m always happy to see a scooter in any shape or form. Seeing an old bike as décor always brings a smile to my face.

Like Sydney, Melbourne is also home to a number of active scooter clubs including the Vespa Club of Melbourne, Melbourne Crusaders and the Vintage Vespa and European Motor Scooter Club and if you ask nicely through their forums, they’ll no doubt set you up with an experience in the city.

If you find yourself joining one of the local clubs for a ride out, you may also want to check out Melbourne Vespa Tour who offer modern Vespas to rent for city traversal.

All said and done, we had a terrific trip and I can’t wait to head back to the Southern hemisphere to check out more on the active scooter scenes of these two terrific cities. If you’re also fortunate enough to make the trip, not only will you have an amazing time you’ll also get to experience modern scooter culture at its best. A warm “G’Day” and “How yer goin’” to all our Aussie NYCS readers.

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The LX150 remains the Vespa marque's most popular scooter this year.

Back in 2008 Piaggio North America had one of its best years ever as skyrocketing gas prices provoked commuters to think twice about their chosen form of transportation. The scooter business was booming and everyone set to profit from the growth was smiling from ear to ear.

Then gas prices fell, and so did scooter sales. Established dealers were left with models on the floor that nobody wanted, and many new dealerships that had sprung up in response to scooter fever found themselves closing as quickly as they had opened.

Now, a couple of years later, US scooter sales are once again on the rise as gas prices (and the economy in general) prove challenging.

The LA Times business desk released a story yesterday highlighting scooter sales for all the major manufacturers are now up close to 30% over equivalent quarter sales from 2010. Importantly, according to the Motorcycle Industry Council, this rise in sales is above and beyond any other category of powered two wheeler.

A quick glance at Piaggio’s Vespa USA site certainly confirms that the brand is going after cash-strapped commuters in a big way with the brand continuing to push the daily savings provided by, “Vespanomics.”

Also of interest is that Piaggio in particular are seeing a rise in larger-capacity sales with scooters in the 150cc-300cc seeing significant growth as, one assumes, consumers look to bikes that can get them off the back-streets and out on the highway without making the transition to a higher capacity motorcycle.

The Times also leverages the article to introduce its coverage of the scooter exhibit currently on show at the Petersen Automotive Review. You can see photographs and read our review of the exhibition here, or click on through to the LA Times photo gallery of the show for more.

For the full LA Times article, click here.

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This is one time of the year that even parking on the sidewalk can’t protect you from dents, scratches and all things that go bump in the night.

Yet another use for a front rack you hadn't considered.

I love this little 50cc Honda Spree. It's the only one I know of in New York. And today? It's buried.

This Vespa PX is starting to see the light again.

I took a photo of this Vespa the other week in "Long way from Rome." That was bad. This is worse.

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All of the basics are covered below with step by step walk-throughs. What they lack in high production values, they gain many times over in helpfulness.

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You have to assume that the advertising folk behind this idea were snorting a lot of something to come up with the “They’re Everything But Ordinary” approach.

The video features two versions of the same commercial. Apparently the first one in which Grace Jones bites Mr. Ant on the ear was considered too provocative and quickly banned.

I would say that they just don’t make scooter commercials like this anymore, but let’s face it, they don’t make scooter commercials anymore period. Hell, they don’t make commercials like this anymore. What were they thinking?

I’ll let you decide:

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It should be pretty clear by now that when it comes to scooters I have a bias to those with “vintage” and “Italian” in the descriptions. But running a scooter site means reporting all things scooter regardless of manufacturer, make, or origin.

Thankfully, I do have another burgeoning passion. I love me some pimped out Ruckus. The bike is just so cool in its standard format that any customization just takes it into the stratosphere.

Today’s CraigsList find is a tricked out Ruckus that has has all the standard customization for this type of bike:

• Engine swap for a 150cc GY6 using an ATR kit and harness.
• ATR front disc brake setup.
• Rpro handle bar.
• LED Tail-light upgrade.
• License plate relocation.
• Soda can holder??

The original bike is a 2002 but the GY6 is barely broken in with just 800 miles.

$3500 gets you a very tight bike providing you’re a fan of riding within inches of the ground beneath you. The seller is based in Jersey City and you can contact him through the original posting here which also has plenty more photographic pleasure.

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In the show, the three presenters are challenged with crossing Vietnam South to North (1000 miles) in eight days on a (very) limited budget leaving them to resort to two wheels rather than four: A 125cc Russian Minsk, a Honda 50 Super Cub and chief presenter, Jeremy Clarkson’s form of transport? A Vespa showing every sign of being a Viet-Bodge.

The presenters begin their journey (as did I) in Ho Chi Minh city and unveil their chosen forms of transportation at the war museum in Ho Chi Minh, which I have to tell you is a fascinating place that gives Vietnam’s historic perspective on the presence of American troops during the war.

Give yourself an hour to sit back and relax and watch some of the funniest scooter moments ever televised as two-wheeled hater Clarkson curses (and crashes) his way along the roads of Vietnam.

Part One:

Top Gear Vietnam Special – Part 1

Part Two:

Top Gear Vietnam Special – Part 2

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Parking in Ho Chi Minh City. Not a center stand in sight.

Last week I talked about my few brief days in Southern Vietnam and the scooter culture there. In part 2 we move into Cambodia. But before we move on, one last note about Vietnam:

If it’s one thing Vietnamese scooterists seem to like to do with their rides it’s customize. But not in the radical sense of a complete chop-down. More a thing here, a thing there. Almost every rider I saw had replaced some small part of their scooter with a custom part to add a little extra bling. A wing-mirror here, a fender there; and chrome is a big factor no matter the accessory. On every other street corner in Ho Chi Minh City, a scooter bauble could be bolted on to your ride for a couple of bucks. Every bike also comes with a kick-stand as standard even the latest catalog of Vespas which are sold without USA style center-stands. In part I think to help park these beasts. With parking spaces consisting of hundreds of scooters leaning onto their stands, parking a straight-up center-stand scoot would, well, just not fit in.

Decals are also big here and I saw several shops that specialized in letting riders pick from a thick catalog of decals and have them applied “while-you-wait.” Brand new Vespas in particular seemed to be targets for these embellishments with entire cowls, fairings, or leg-shields jazzed up with Manga characters, flowers, swirls and other patterns. Want your helmet to match? No problem.

A vintage Vespa used as an art display outside a restaurant. Note the PX in the background. A dying breed here.

With four days in Ho Chi Minh city behind me it was time to hit the road to Cambodia.

Scooter prevalence, of course, continues into Cambodia and the route we took there revealed some other interesting facts about scootering in this part of the world. For one, you never drive more than a five mile stretch of highway without encountering some form of scooter service, whether it’s a gasoline stop, repairs, or an opportunity to purchase a brand new scoot.

Rather than counting on full-service gas stations, make-shift gas stops litter the side of the highways with gasoline sold by the liter in re-used soda bottles. In fact, it took me a few times of seeing pee colored Pepsi to figure out that these stalls were selling gas and not refreshments.

One of a small handful of vintages spotted on the road to Cambodia.

Scooter repair is generally indicated by two or three sixteen inch tires tied together into a makeshift pyramid and placed road side. Whoever was the first to think of this, I don’t know, but it has certainly become the scooter equivalent of the barber’s red and white pole to telegraph repairs. It is not unusual either at the side of the highway or on street corners in the major towns and cities including Ho Chi Minh to see a couple of guys set up on stools and working on scoots right there and then on the sidewalk. Usually the guys had a simple set of tools, a couple of spares, and a wire-brush which seemed to be the ubiquitous solve to all scooter ills.

After a few hours of driving we arrived in Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia. Phnom Penh is also the home of the Cambodian Tuk Tuk, a recent introduction to the country according to the locals. Rather than its more famous Thailand cousin, the Cambodian Tuk Tuk is not a complete unit vehicle similar to the Piaggio Ape, but rather a colorful passenger trailer that is connected to a pivot welded to the back of a normal scooter. During off-duty hours it was not unusual to see these scooters buzzing around the city without their trailers, no doubt taking the taxi driver home at the end of his shift.

Phnom Penh is also home to the famous Russian Market, a sprawling undercover market so called because it is the market most frequented by foreigners rather than locals who up until recently were mostly Russians (remember Cambodia has a troubled Communist history.)

As is typical in this part of the world, the market, like the streets, is divided into sections specializing in particular goods. Also like everywhere else in this part of the world, one of those goods is scooter spares. The scooter section is overwhelming with close to one hundred back-to-back stalls hawking scooter spares. Some gently used, some not-so-gently used and others brand new.

Every imaginable part can be purchased here including full chassis and engines although don’t expect said engine to be new. Much like Vietnam, the Honda Cub and various Asian clones rules the roost of scootering here. Syms, PGOs and Yamahas being similarly popular.

Sixteen inch wheels are in and, sadly, eight and ten inch wheels are most definitely out. In fact in my five days in Cambodia I didn’t see a single vintage Vespa or Lambretta. Maybe they never made it here in any significant numbers, I don’t know. Without the French colonization that was part of Vietnam’s past but not Cambodia’s. Cambodia or Kampuchea as it was once known never had a European connection.

Why uncrate scoots at the dealership when they sell faster than you can unpack them?

In the section of town specializing in selling new scooters however modern scoots were plentiful and were literally being sold directly out of the crate at many dealerships. A Cambodian I spoke to told me that a new scooter is typically close to a year’s wages in his country so it’s no wonder that these bikes become a critical part of the family and are kept running at all costs.

That’s it for this week. Next week in the third and final part I’ll wrap up my adventures in SE Asia with a few days in Bangkok where I finally found what I had personally been looking for, vintage scoots aplenty.

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Yes we know this is a SYM knock-off of a Cub but you get the idea.

Ride a Honda Cub? Or any Honda 50cc for that matter then photographers James and Tracey at Tribble and Mancenido need you.

The pair are putting together a story on Honda 50cc riders for Amsterdam’s CODE Magazine and are having a harder time than anticipated tracking you (yes you) down.

For a chance to get your name and scoot in lights, reach out to the pair here.

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Everyday traffic in Ho Chi Minh City.

Earlier this month I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to visit a region of the world many Scooterists call two-wheeled heaven: South East Asia. Specifically, a whirlwind two-week tour through Vietnam and Thailand by way of Cambodia. At every step of the way the sound of two-stoke (and some four-stroke) engines buzzed in my ear.

Starting in Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon) in southern Vietnam, and heavily jet lagged from close to 24 hours in a tin bird, I was woken with a jolt by the madness that is scootering in this part of the world. Riding a scooter in New York City is for some of us an idiosyncratic hobby, for others, a form of convenient transportation. In Vietnam it is a way of life. Everyone and I mean everyone here rides a scooter (or motorcycle as they prefer to call them.) Big ones, small ones, fast ones, slow ones, new ones, and plenty of old ones, but in every case clearly cherished as a valuable part of the family.

It’s a family affair
Speaking of family – we’ve all heard stories of families riding four-up on a scooter. And this and more I saw at every turn of the head. The configuration of choice seems to be Junior up front standing on the foot board with hands balancing on the speedometer, Dad riding the scoot with arms around Junior, and Mom sitting behind Dad with either a baby in her arms or a second child squeezed onto the saddle between the parents. But trust me, this is just the start of possible configurations. Boyfriends driving girlfriends, women driving office-mates, old guys hauling buddies home from the bar, children driving children. Some scooter set-ups looked more like motorcycle acrobatic displays than nine-to-five commutes and no-one raises an eyebrow. That’s Vietnam.

Strangely while most of the parents I saw wore one of the wide array of candy-colored helmets on sale at every street corner, almost none of the children wore head-gear. I guess it’s the Vietnamese equivalent of children growing up through shoe sizes way too quickly to keep up. Nothing telegraphs Vietnam scootering more than the look of these half-helmets. Something tells me they wouldn’t pass a US DOT certification, but boy do they look cool, coming in every imaginable color and decal and almost always accompanied by a similarly wild print face mask to block out the two-stroke exhaust smoke loved by classic scooter hobbyists worldwide.

Helmets for sale in Ho Chi Minh City.

Who needs a truck?
Family contortions and fancy headgear aside, Vietnamese scooterists seem to take pride in just how much they can transport, and the higher the better. It was not unusual to see boxes, bags, clothing, crates of beer, or other parcels piled up on the back seat at twice the height of the rider or more teetering against impossible odds. Commonly riders strap this load in part to their back causing the tower of what-not to defy gravity and remain complete as it leans into each and every corner. Similarly bags and other items hang from every fixable point on the scooter, in foot-wells, off handle-bars, on the front fender, you name it.

At one point I saw a rider with his companion passenger sitting behind him facing backwards with his arms linked around a huge 20-something-inch tube TV set. On another occasion a local vendor was heating nuts in a wok containing hot coals and heated from below with a propane tank, all while putting down the street. Incredible.

Transporting coat hangers by scooter.

Vintage woes
If you’re hoping to spot some classic Vespas or Lambrettas in Vietnam you’re going to be disappointed. Scooterists here, as is clear above, ride their bikes hard; as in into-the-ground hard and these classics just simply haven’t survived the fifty year ride. Combine this with the fact that what are left of these bikes are being scooped off the streets, patched up, and sold on to unsuspecting Westerners and the result is that very few remain on the streets. I saw a small handful, mostly retired to pure decoration, advertising restaurants and what-not.

Most classic scooterists have heard horror stories of what a shiny new coat of paint can hide on an restored bike imported from this part of the world, but I have to say having seen the life these bikes have had with my own eyes, all I can say is that it’d have to be one heck of a Vietnamese barn-find for me to consider one. Judging by the amount of trade taking place in used spares in Vietnam regardless of manufacturer, most of these bikes were clearly driven three or four times past their natural lifespan during their lives in Vietnam BEFORE a quiet freshly-painted retirement in the US.

Scooters today
While the Vespa VBB (a restoration favorite) may have introduced scootering to Vietnam, it’s the Asian manufacturers who now rule the roost. Honda and Sym constitute 90% of the bikes I saw in my time in Vietnam with 16” wheels proving far more practical than a Vespa’s outdated 10. Having said that I was fortunate enough to visit Ho Chi Minh’s Vespa dealership and saw a surprising number of LX125s, S125s and various GT and LXV incarnations during my time in the city. These bikes however are clearly the Mercedes Benz of local transportation and those riders I did see riding the Italian Stallions looked justifiably proud of their steed which no doubt costs in the order of two-to-three times the cost of their Asian counterparts.

The Vespa dealership in Ho Chi Minh City

For part 2 of my time in SE Asia, stay tuned…

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