Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

STEPPING THROUGH THE ENERGY CRUNCH By H.G. Hardy The slightly middle-aged, well dressed gentleman cranked his mach ine over to the limit making his tum from right to lef t in front of me . His b riefcase was mounted on t he back and trailing in the wind, his foot on the runn er an d trying to drag w h ile givi ng me one of those th ree finger wa ves of acknowledgement from the handl ebar of his . . .ah, Vespa motorscooter, type 90! I sat there on my Ho nda freezing w hile waiting for the lig ht to change, and thinking, it all seemed w rong trying to rem em b er what I real ly had against the damm t hings. I waved b ack a nyway, for wh e n one is confro nted w it h t he resurr ec t io n of wh at w as though t to be dead and buried, the lea st o ne could do is wa ve! O f.co urse sm iling is opti o nal. . In the cold gr ey light o f today's reality. it has co me to be that our present and future fuel si tua ti on will for ce us all into some dark co rne r to re valuat e our p ers onal standards wh ereby we each will hav e t o m ap out our own strategic plans for surviva l, eco no m ic or otherwises , I think o ur future j us t putted pass me, a nd, as o ne Suzuki st ore manager said , "God , I ho p e not!." As it was an accept ed fact t ha t for all practical purpo se s, the U.S. mar k et for Sco oters, Step-throughs, and Mo p ed s had died a nd had d o n e so mo re than once at that. In each case d ur ing the Fifties and late Sixties t he American consumers were in a fast-b reak mood and simply could no t ta k e those little machines seriously . nor was there any need to d o so . All those vague, far away insi n ua tions of that period : ai r · an d The Yamaha U7E. 10 noise pollution, and , really dumb stuff, Arab Nations plott ing oil blackmail. Ind eed ! Ah, such subjects were best left to the intellectuals, businessmen, War Lords, and diplomats as this was a time when we were too busy danci ng in the dark . In 1946 Piaggio, the Italia n railway and aeronautical company in Genoa, gave birth to the Vespa moto rscooter and since that time has tried to tell Americans what the rest of the free world already knew . . .we would, eventually, walk about in a state of shock wit h t he words "Low Gas Mileage" stamped on our eyelids and searching therefore. Today, Phoenix, the great Bird from the ashes, is in flight and is sm iling down rewards for t hose who k new V esp a m ight be t he only thing w hich m igh t save us all fro m wa lking as t h e b ase means o f p er sonal tra nsportatio n. Smiling on th o se wh o kept the faith, that is. J ohn Kemerly, lik e mo st b us inessmen, d o esn ' t smile easily, so met hing to d o wi th the gam e they pl ay - ga mb ling. H e is the p re sid e n t o f Kemerl y G.I.T .S, Company, d ealing primaril y in t he sa les a nd service o f G ol f , Industrial , T u rff, a nd Service vehicles. Mr . Kem e rly w as p ro u d to n ote t ha t last year h is c usto me rs, and the co nsumers in gener al , could not h ave cared less t h a t h is firm was the o nly Vespa d eal ersh ip in th e state o f India na . Ho we ve r it h as cume t o De th a t , in the ligh t of curren t eve nts, the tune has changed . Ke merly Co mpa ny has, in t he last two months, sold o ut their en tire 1973 inve ntory o f motorscooters and Ciaos (pronounced " C h ow " ) and Mo pe ds. Moreover there are few , if any, new models to be had in t he mi dwes t ! Upon telephoning fellow Vespa d eal er s in C h icago , Cincinatti, and St. Lo uis, the story is the same: " S o rry John, we can 't help you . We've got the same problem!" Mr. Kemerly now has a long waiting list for Vespas, he is very pleased . Western Scooter Distributors in San Francisco is very pleased . Neighboring motorcycle dealers are not. During the Sixties , the Japanese motor cy cle manufactors learned a terribly important fact of that period. Although scooters and Mopeds were and still are, the basic and ess r-ntial form of tr ansportation not only in their country, but in the rest of the world as well. the American cycle people were, and still are, not scooter people. Not even if one chooses to call them "step -throughs." Kawasaki. I suspect, knew this all along an d di dn' t b o ther tr ying t o se ll Amer ica ns so me th ing that the J ap an ese ho me mar k et need ed more. By 19 71 S uzu k i called o ff t he siege a nd stop ped exporting t hei r F-50 m odel t o the U.S. An d in 1972 Yamaha wa s fed up with d ealer s co m p lai n ing ab out not b eing a ble to give a way th eir U7E ste p- thro ugh mod el a nd w ithdrew it fro m the U.S. m ar ke t. Pity , tha t. The Yamah a U 7E wasn' t h al f bad. It was a 75cc tw o stroke, putting o ut 4 .9 h .p . a t 65 00 rpm wi th a n a utomatic clutch, A utolube, e lec trica l starting an d a top speed o f 53 mp h . If o ne w ish ed to travel at 19 mph , it was cla im ed t o b e wo rth about 2 00 m iles pe r ga llo n! The fa t her of a promi ne nt local Yamah a dealer co nfi ded that he n ow would n o t object to having a few such models w h ich he was su re he could sell. At t he Hond a h ouse it w as a different story altogether . T heir step-t hrough, the 1974 C-70 KI , is st ill imported into the Ll.S, but don't look for it in t he new '74 Ho nda cato log - it's not listed . The salesman w here I was luck y eno ugh to find said machine . told me t his so-called boom in scooter b uying had n ' t ca ught up with them yet. lie could only re me mber one C-iO being sold in the las t year. Therefore, he had his doubts. Honda, however, wou ld feel muc h b e t t e r selling their CT -90 K 5 step-through trail bike which they do advert ise. The Yamaha U7 E and Honda C-70 are dissimilar only in that the C-iO is a single seater with a luggage rack (as is the CT-90), and the engine is a 72cc four stroke three speed with built-in turn signals and no floorboards. Bo t h machines possess Earles forks which, much unlike Vespa's trailing-link fro nt . suspension that tries to put you on your face when you grab a ha ndful. No t t o b e o ut do ne , t he Earles fo rks elevate th e fro nt en d of the Ja pa nese jobs during the occasio n of b rak in g. T ruism: "You can't have yo ur cake and eat it too . . .a n ymore! " Many o f t he cycle dea lers in the ar ea , o n th e subj ect of t he It ali an's scooter skyrocke t pop u larity , agree that this is not a n air raid o n their cy cle market positi o n a nd does not pose a th re a t. Howe ver, they are ch id ed b y t he fact t ha t Vespa scooters are selli ng so damm well d uring w hat is c harac te r ist ica lly the s lack wi n t er p e ri od for tw o wheel veh icl e b uyi ng. O ne cycle d eal er op ined -- t ha t t h is m igh t no t necessarily b e a bad thing, co nsideri ng the present scooter owne rs as po te ntial cy cle bu yer s wh en t hey are read y fo r the b ig time. Joh n K em e rl y wh o l eh e a r t edl y d isagrees , citing a familiar statement in reverse . "Sco o ter people are no t cycle people!" It isn't hard to ste reotype and classify scooter people as n o-n o ns e n s e co nservatives. As it was put in so man y w o r ds, Americans come back fro m E uro pe or t he West In d ies quit e i mpre ssed wit h the eco nomy and mo b ility offered by such m achines which d o n o t carry wit h t hem that some times dub ious label of. . .gasp ! "motorcy cle!" The Piaggio Co mpany , of which that g reat m oto rcy cl e firm o f Gil er a is me r g e d with , today produces one vehicl e off its lin e every 15 seconds!A n d th e essence of Piaggio' s m essage to the American co nsu me r abo ut thei r V espas is subtl e and low -keyed: " In vest in a Ve spa!" "Vespa is the answer to your transport atio n pr ob lem s! " All ai m ed a t the ri gh t pe ople b y t he rig ht m eans , suc h as, T im e m aga zin e , a nd the Wall S tr ee t J o urn al. Mr . Kem erl y as sured me , h ow eve r, th at all ty pes of peop le buy V espas , and t hey adve rt ise in suc h as your new spaper's spo rts section. Next year Piaggio's message will go on the up-beat. Of the Vespa motorscooters, there are five models from which to choose : the 90cc Sport - 3 spd. with a top speed of 43 1/2 m p h and fuel consu mption of 130 m pg with a range of 174 miles; the ,25cc Primavera 4 spd. top speed of 52 .8 mph and gas consumption of 118 mp g, range of 174 miles; two 15 0cc models - su p er - speed 55 .92 mph and 10i mpg using 8 inch wheels a nd Sprint-speed 58.4 mph and same fuel consumption, use 10 inch wheels as all the rest. The top of the line ( for now) is t he 180cc Rally model which gained its fame when one machine raced and covered 328 miles of the 19i2 Baja 500 . T he Ra lly is the heaviest at 218 Ibs . and by far the fastest 65 mp h with a consumptio n of 85 mpg and range of 200 m iles . A ll Vespa engines a re si ngle cy linder two strokes wi th auto matic o il mi x as standa rd o n th e tw o 150s and 18 0 . T he power trai n is o ffse t moun t ed o n th e rig ht side of the rear whee l and th e spare t ire m o unted on th e lef t. T he f r on t. and back w heels are interch an geable. If yo u thin k all t ha t isn °t fu n. ..the transmissio n co ntrol is a twist-gri p affair . i.e. the left gr ip an d cl u tc h lever both m ust be t urned fo r gea r shifts/selection. T he re is a 2 0 0cc Mo del on it s way to t he states for '7 4. Now, as everyone kno ws, t he h allmark of a ny great road tes t a t h ome and abroad has got to be those inval uable, an d' quoteable, react ions, o pi n io ns , an d witti cisms of the time ho no red service station attendants in thos e classic first enco u n t ers . Well, I strongly fear that ,

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