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Got big plans for the coming weekend? Of course you don’t, you’re probably stuck inside like the rest of us. But, we can help with that and ease your motorcycle cravings at the same time.

On Saturday, May 9th at 10am PDT / 7pm CEST, Asphalt & Rubber will be sitting down with esteemed motorcycle designer, Miguel Galluzzi.

Currently the head of design at the Piaggio Group (Aprilia, Moto Guzzi, Piaggio, and Vespa), Miguel has been responsible for a wide range of motorcycles and scooters.

His resumé includes a number of iconic designs and important motorcycles for the industry, from his time at Piaggio, and also during his tenure at Cagiva/Ducati.

Always with a keen eye on the industry, and what is happening in the world at large, Miguel always provides great insights. You have probably passed him a motorcycle show or race, and not realized it, while he soaks up the latest trends coming to the industry.

For our live chat, I will of course have some questions of my own for Miguel, but we want to make the show interactive, so we will be taking questions from the audience as well.

This means you can submit questions ahead of time, here in the comments section or via social media. Or, you can join us on the live stream, and ask questions from the live chat on YouTube.

There are several ways to watch the live stream. The easiest is that the video above will go live on Saturday, but we will also be reminding you on social media as well.

Of course, you can also go straight to YouTube via this link here. We hope to see you on the chat!

Link: YouTube

Piaggio Group Americas is recalling certain 2019 Vespa GTV 300, 2019 Vespa GTS 300, and 2020 Vespa GTS 300 HPE scooters because of issues with their braking system. In total, there are 1,328 units affected by this recall in the United States.

According to recall documents filed with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the J.Juan brake lines on the affected models may have been improperly galvanized, and thus may allow hydrogen to be released into the brake fluid.

While the rest of the industry walks on pins and needles, the Piaggio Group is celebrating a strong first-half to the 2019 sales year, with overall unit sales up 9.2%.

That number isn’t just all Vespa scooters though (however, the Italian brand does sell quite a few of those), as Piaggio reports that its motorcycle sales saw a 14% bump in gross revenue.

The Italian conglomerate pegs the new Moto Guzzi V85 TT for the sales boom over last year, which is quite a feat since 2018 was a strong year for the Piaggio Group as well.

Episode 12 of the Brap Talk podcast is now out for your two-wheeled audio pleasure, and it continues where we left off in Episode 11, which came out last week.

As such, this show picks up where we stopped on Jensen’s travels in Europe, this time focusing on the Vespa and Moto Guzzi brands.

As such, we talk about riding the new electric scooter from the Italian brand, the Vespa Elettrica. From there, we turn our attention to the Moto Guzzi V85 TT adventure bike, which we rode in Sardinia.

I will be honest, I don’t keep that close of tabs on the scooter segment in the motorcycle industry. This is probably because it feels like a separate entity all onto itself. I do try to keep a pulse on the Vespa brand though, and let me explain why.

When you think of scooters, no name is perhaps more iconic than Vespa. So, that makes it an obvious choice, but I also track the movement of the Italian scooter-maker because it acts as a bellwether for the space. Where Vespa goes, surely so too does the rest of the scooter market. 

This is why we have been covering the Vespa Elettrica with a great deal of interest on Asphalt & Rubber. As you can expect from the name, the bike is Vespa’s first electric model, and it is finally ready for public consumption.

Ripping around the streets of Milan, Italy on the the Vespa Elettrica, A&R gets our first feel for what electric urban mobility looks like from Vespa, and we were able to frame that against the company’s other newest model, the potent Vespa GTS Super 300.

As such, here is not-a-review of this intriguing new two-wheeler.

 Today’s headline is all about Moody’s upgrading Piaggio’s credit rating to “Ba3” – up from its previous “B1” rating.

I understand that financial credit rating systems aren’t exactly your typical fare on a motorcycle news site, so stay with me here for a minute.

The basic gist is that moving from a B1 rating to a Ba3 rating takes Piaggio beyond the threshold of being “highly speculative” investment opportunity to “non-investment grade” business in the eyes of investors.

September will be an historic day for the Vespa scooter brand, as next month the Piaggio Group plans to begin finally the production of the Vespa Elettrica electric scooter.

Taking the classic Italian “wasp” design that has warmed the hearts of many owners, the Elettrica adds an electric drive train to the mix, to ensure Vespa’s iconic status endures for many generations to come.

Initially slated to be in production by “late 2017”, it has taken Piaggio a bit longer than expected to get the Vespa Elettrica out the door. But, with production set to start in September, at least the Italians are making good on their promise to make this model a reality.

When it comes to scooters, no name is better known than Vespa, as the iconic Italian brand is recognizable around the world, with 18 million scooters carrying the Vespa name in cities globally.

It is of note then that Vespa has jumped onto the electric bandwagon, and unveiled its first electric scooter this week at EICMA. As such, we get our first look today of the Vespa Elettrica, which will be for sale in the latter part of 2017.

Not quite ready for production at this time though, Vespa says that it will be working with leaders in the electric drivetrain business to develop the Elettrica, making the scooter shown at EICMA more of a concept than a finalized vehicle.

However, the Italian company promises that the Vespa Elettrica will continue to bring the attributes the brand is known best for – which in our mind hinges mostly on its classic Italian styling. To that goal, we say mission accomplished.

The 2015 EICMA show is finally over, and of course the guys from the Two Enthusiasts Podcast have something to say about everything that was unveiled in Milan. There is so much to talk about, in fact, that we had to break up the EICMA coverage into two separate shows.

So first up is Episode 9, which is Part 1 of our EICMA round-up. It covers all the happenings from the Italian OEMs: Aprilia, Benelli, Bimota, Ducati, Energica, Moto Guzzi, and MV Agusta.

Keep an eye out for Part 2 (Episode 10), which should debut on Wednesday, and will feature an in-depth discussion on the rest of the OEMs. Yes, that means double the Two Enthusiasts Podcast goodness for this week. Booyah!