You may remember Pedro from Portugal. He’s healing up nicely at home now after his leg was run over by a big rig. Well, part of the deal with that accident was that he promised his family he’d retire his scooter for good. I respect that decision, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t miss riding. As a matter of fact, he recently sent me this email:
Hi Steve!How was your week in Florida? I’m sending you a photo of a Piaggio MP3 here in Lisbon that I saw today, which lead me to have a three-wheeled epiphany: what would you get if you mixed a Piaggio MP3 with a BMW C1, plus a little from a Smart car? Imagine a BMW C1 with two wheels up front. Now, because you don’t need to get your feet on the ground on when you stop, you can add doors! You would have a vehicle that was weatherproof, almost as safe as a car, but still narrow enough to split lanes! How do I get the people from all three companies speaking to each other? :-) Since I had the accident and promised to never ride again on two wheels I’ve been thinking of loop holes :-P
Pedro
Ingenious! Well Pedro, you are not alone with that thought. Cyberscooter.it just did a story on the “Fiat” Hang 400. I say “Fiat”, because it’s simply labeled a Fiat. It doesn’t belong to Fiat, it belongs to Massimo Barcella who provided the concept and John Keogh & Ian Pegram who provided the design. Together with their concept and their blog they are hoping to drum up some interest and perhaps do just what you’ve suggested Pedro. Get the players together to engineer this thing.
Your dream of riding again may someday come true Pedro! I’ll keep my finger on the pulse here and keep ya posted.
8. September 2007 at 5:11 am
That ssems like the next logical step in the direction of the MP-3 layout. I can’t believe this concept wasn’t developed earlier. If something like this came to market, I would definitely buy one. We may end up calling regular scoots “nakeds” or “opens” by the time something like this becomes the norm!
8. September 2007 at 11:00 pm
Well Steve – if I had to run a quick hundred mile round trip into the next county, I sure as hell would rather be riding ANY Burgman rather than squeezing my knees against the flimsy fiberglass for a 10 minute run in that complete POS.
Hmmm.
It was nice running 88mph indicated today on I-10.
pcd
8. September 2007 at 11:03 pm
ON MY TOO DAMN BIG BURGMAN!!!
:-)
pcd
8. September 2007 at 11:07 pm
Darn – wrong post reply – all that was in response to your snide remark about burgmans.
pcd
9. September 2007 at 6:32 am
I like this similar all-weather commuter more.
http://www.flytheroad.com/
10. September 2007 at 1:36 pm
Hey PCD!
Now, you know that comment (Burgman is too damn big!) wasn’t meant to be malicious or snide. It was meant to be a sort of preposterous joke. The idea of someone buying a submicrocar because they felt scooters were too big. A car smaller than a scooter?
You’re right. I’d never take a 50cc sub-microcar on I-10 unless it were in my trunk or riding in my passenger seat on my way to some rally.
Cheers!
steve