Swerve N Curve 9 wrap-up

Well, it came and went --- SWERVE N CURVE #9. And, it was better than ever!

The Friday night ride turned out to be a sweet, long, mini Swerve N Curve route, lead by All Day South Bay Doug. Everyone met at Killkenny's on the Redondo Beach Pier beforehand and Doug ended the ride at Hennessey's in Riviera Village afterwards.

And the South Bay's famous Swerve N Curve route on Saturday, often imitated or outright copied but NEVER done as well, was a blast once more, 80+ scooters strong, ending at the fun venue, Paddy-O's in Torrance. DeeJay-ed tunes were provided by "ON TARGET" DJ's, and a scooter buffet was set up for all the hungry riders.

"Swerve N Ska" on Saturday nite was happening, and Sunday's ride, led by Tank Top and others to Keegan's in Torrance, was a great capper to another SoCal classic rally, which was a huge success.

Shout outs to all who helped, especially Doug Ewer, Richard & Robin Wondra, Brian & Veronica Schade, Ken Salmacia, Marv Mack, Jesse "On Target" Trejo, Rich Stamper and others in both the South Bay and Westside scooter clubs.

Thanks also goes out to all of the Swerve N Curve sponsors. Without you, Swerve N Curve would not be possible: This Dog Jumps Design, Vespa Santa Barbara, Fullerton Vintage, Massimo's Vespa Shop, Route 66 Scooters (formerly SoCal Vespa), IDC Scooter Shop, Clauss Studios, SpeedoKing, Warrior Clothing, Glory Clothing.

For pics of the rally, click here and here, or check out the scoot.net gallery here. For a couple of videos by Doug Ewer, click here and here. Thanks to all of you who came out - you are the ones that continue to make this such a great rally, year after year! Be sure to save the date for next year's rally, which will be the Big "X" (Swerve N Curve #10), going down August 21-23, 2009!!!!

Gilera Fuoco 500 (MP3-style) coming to the USA

From the Blogspot called "The Scooter Scoop", comes this report about next year's version of the Piaggio MP3's:

Gilera Fuoco 500 to arrive in the USA as the Piaggio MP3 500 (CONFIRMED)

The Piaggio MP3-400 (In the current MP3 body style except with the extra power we've all been waiting for) will be arriving at dealerships as soon as January.

The Piaggio MP3-500 (A rebadged Gilera Fuoco 500) will arrive around March with an expected MSRP approaching the $10k mark. Well, what did you expect? Hotness has a price.

The elusive Vespa S (the cute one with the thin leg shields and rectangular headlight) is supposed to arrive before Q2, 2008 with a 150cc engine and an MSRP of about $4,000.

***UPDATE 9/19/07***
The Honky-Tonk Dragon is droppin' THESE numbers for MSRP:
"Per a reliable source on Modern Vespa"
The 250 will be $7199 next year (They are $6999 right now).
The 400 will be $8699 and the 500 will be $8899.
And the Vespa S 150 will be $4099

For the full blog, go to the ScooterScoop's blog about this.