LetsGoScootin Scooter News Page

Watch for Big News from PowerSportsFactory late this spring! March 10, 2007

We can expect some major announcements from Powersportsfactory, which owns the Strada and Yamati brands, in the next few months. They will reportedly be merging with another company(?EuroSpeed?), getting a big influx of capital, and beginning a major nationwide ad campaign.

"PSF will have a lot of news in next 90 days: new corporate structure (merger), multi-mil investments by venture capital firms, major sponsoring deal with top NASCAR personality and new branding campaign." -psfcorp

-psfcorp, thanks for the heads-up! Read more - Link

Indy Dealer Expo Wrap-up: The Chinese "Battle of the Brands" March 3, 2007

There are still a few stories to be followed up on, that have their beginnings rooted in news I discovered at the dealer expo in Indy a couple of weeks ago. But here is a synopsis of the things I saw and heard there that I haven't covered yet. United Motors isn't only releasing the Vertix scooters for 2007, but has a full line of scooters, dirt bikes, a dual purpose bike, 250 and 650cc sport bikes and cruisers, and ATV's from 49 to 170cc's. UM is supporting all of its products with a 3 year warranty in a very serious effort to take on the big four Japanese powerports companies in the US market. UMamerica.com

American Lifan which has had a presence in the US for a little over three years now has modified their dealer requirements so all new dealers must have a brick and mortar location and will not be doing internet sales. They offer the same types of machines as UM, and have the advantage of building all thier own products. Disadvantages so far: 1) They lack the larger dispacement scooters and motorcycles of United Motors, 2) They are unable to offer a warranty close to the UM warranty. American Lifan's current warranty is only 6 months/3000 miles on mechanical components, although I found the overal fit and finish of the Lifan products I saw at the expo to be very good.

americanlifan.com

The headquarters for Keeway America opened in the Dallas area early last fall and reps have begun visiting dealers to sign them up to sell QJ products developed exclusively for sale through their own company. Based in Europe, Keeway is owned by the QianJiang manufacturing company of the P.R.C. Keeway has their research and development center in Italy, with their products all built by QianJiang. They also have recently acquired Bennelli, and a goal over the coming years is opening plants in countries around the world to build their products, to establish themselves as a "world brand". The Keeway brand is already well established in Europe and some other parts of the world. At the time of the Indy expo, Keeway had only a few dealers in the US, but they are confident they'll have 50 dealers or more by the end of the year. With newly developed products only available to Keeway dealers, the plan is to phase out sales of QJ products by other companies as existing products become obsolete. "KEEWAY's product line covers scooters, motorcycles, CUBs, ATVs, mini dirt bikes, pocket bikes, etc. A wide range of displacements are available, from 50cc, 90cc, 100cc, 110cc, 125cc, 150cc, up to 250cc. Keeway is currently in the process of developing products with larger displacement in order to serve the diversified global marketplace." Keeway's progress is something I plan to watch closely and report back on, as chinese companies attempt to establish themselves here as mainstream companies like the big Japanese companies did 35 to 40 years ago. If things shake out the same way, the successful companies will be thriving in 4 or 5 years, and a lot of companies here currently will become a thing of the past, soon to be forgotten.

keewaymotor.com

Pictured on the left is a picture I took of the Buddy Italia, and below is a picture of the whitewall tire and wheel on the front of the Italia. Below and to the right is the CPI GTR180, a 75mph 180cc watercooled CVT bike coming out in April. There's more info on each in past news stories here.

Lifan and UM aren't the only companies trying to make the transition to becoming mainstream powersports names here. CF Moto recently made a deal with Lev Mirman, owner of Baron, that may eventually make his company the sole distributor of CF Moto products here. Lev explained to me that the newly introduced(at the Dealer Expo) line of CF Moto ATVs will be distributed exclusively by his company, and companies such as Sunright and QLink that also carry CF Moto products under their own names, will be able to continue distributing only those products that they already carry. All new CF Moto products developed to be introduced here will be distributed only by Lev's company. There isn't yet a web page for the new CF Moto factory distributed vehicles. CFMoto-USA is NOT a website for the new CF Moto distributor.

http://www.cfmoto.cn/

Schwinn is trying to show that they wish to be taken seriously in the scooter market by adding two 150cc models to their line of 50cc scooters this year. Last year at the time of the expo, they had 50 dealers. According to the staff member I talked to, that has grown to 250 dealers this year, and they are shooting for 500 here by next year. There may be a flaw in their marketing plan, however, as they are trying to target the college crowd with lame names like Campus, Graduate(shown on the right) and Collegiate for their scooter models, but the guy I spoke to told me that's not even their actual market, as they're selling mainly to people 40 and upwards. People who most likely associate the Schwinn name with bicycles they rode as kids.

Schwinn Scooters

Two other companies represented at the Indy Expo that are positioning themselves as overall powersports dealers with ATvs, scooters, and motorcycles, are Vento and QLINK.

As mentioned in a previous article, Vento seemed to be making a very serious play for new dealers, with a specially closed off area separate from the main floor where they could talk to prospective dealers in relative privacy. However no one who seemed to know anything about prospective new models displayed there, or the direction the company plans for the future, was available to talk to any media, as you had to be a prospective dealer and make an appointment to talk to them. Although there are many new models in their slick glossy "Vento Motorcycles USA" brochure for prospective dealers, many existing dealers, including their east coast distributor, don't really believe they will ever see many of them in dealer showrooms. With only a very little bit of information available on the internet about a few 2007 Vento models, and most existing dealers never having heard of a number of them yet, it's a waiting game to see if their presentation at the expo was just so much smoke and mirrors.

Everyone at the QLink booth, which I visited on three separate occasions, was very gracious and friendly, and I ended up taking home all the literature they had available, which they offered to me again each time I visited their booth. I would have liked to get to talk to Johnny Tai, who heads up OLink here, because I've only ever talked to him over the phone, and had some questions prepared to ask him, but I waited around for him to get free for quite awhile each time, and finally gave up. I know he was busy with people interested in becoming QLink dealers each time, because I got close enough to eavesdrop a bit. And he was fielding lots of questions from them. No high pressure sales stuff going on there that I could see, only prospective dealers taking a strong interest in what QLink is doing. From all accounts QLink has a great relationship with their dealers, seems to rank very high in customer satisfaction, and has impressive products. They may have a problem with CF Moto product availability drying up down the road, but there's time to prepare for that possibility. I think they're another company to keep your eye on. QLink

There were two other chinese companies that may have some news soon. One, that I'm in close contact with, has a decision to make first, and the other, I haven't been able to get any info out of since the expo. So on both counts I am waiting for a more complete story before posting anything further, as well as the pics I have.

2007 United Motors Vertix Scooters

United Motors is coming out this spring with a 250cc Scooter with 14" rear and 13" front wheels, which puts it right in between the 250's with 10" rear and 12" front wheels, and the scooter I feel is setting the bar for the direction 250 scooters will be going in the future, the Kymco Exciting 250 with a 14" rear and 15" front wheel. Seeing as most motorcyclists and scooter riders prefer state highways to the competitive driving styles most often found on the interstates, a 250 scoot is the size that seems like the best compromise between economy and travel capability, and larger wheels certainly make travel easier. However, aside from the ocassional day trip and scooter rally, I haven't noticed many scooterists actually wandering far from urban areas, so although the 250cc and larger scooters are the ones that get the most press, the 150cc and even smaller scooters are likely to remain the scooters that pay the bills for most scooter dealers.

UM Vertix 150

UM has also completely revamped the styling of their 150cc scooters, so what was the Matrix last year is now the 150cc Vertix. The specs haven't changed much, but the styling looks sort of Darth Vaderish to me. I'm having a bit of trouble making up my mind if it's futuristic looking or a throwback to 1980's styling, but it certainly reminds me of a sci-fi movie. There are some new high tech tech features, and no cheesy floor panels for the Vertix, it has solid floor panels and an easily accessible battery cover. New this year are dual disc brakes and a larger 2.4 gal fuel tank. Also a tach, a trip odometer, a digital speedometer with three color selectible lighting, and and an LED taillight. The projector headlamps, new on a number of scooters this year are promised to light up the road far ahead better than the anemic headlights on the Matrix and similiar scooters to date. I'm a bit skeptical on their ability to light up a wide enough area for slow speeds in dark areas, but once they're out, we'll find out soon enough. The new UM scooters are supposed to be available by sometime in April.

UMamerica.com

L-Series Production Date not Definite Yet February 20, 2007

I got a chance to look over the L-Series scooter being developed by CMSI at the Indy Powersports Expo last weekend. It's a very impressive blending of an old design with modern technology. With dual disc brakes and a 250cc fuel injected Piaggio Quasar engine and digital dash readout, it's like something a science fiction writer might have imagined back in the days of the original Lambrettas. According to CMSI staff the L-Series rear view

L-Series scooter will go about 90mph top speed and have a MSRP of $5795. There will also be a 125cc model which is expected to retail at $3995. They told me that they are getting close to obtaining final approval from Piaggio for the L-Series, with only a couple of technical issues left to be resolved. When asked when we could expect to see it available in stores, the answers varied, depending on who I was talking to. The most optimistic answer was late summer or early fall of this year. The most pessimistic... I have no idea! Besides changing a couple of things to satisfy Piaggio, there are still production details to be worked out. The sense I got from hanging around the CMSI booth, both asking questions and also listening to what they were telling others, is that we can probably expect it by early next year... if not sooner. But very likely not much sooner. Dennis DenHartog

CMSI L-Series Website