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We didn’t know how badly we wanted a scooter in the garage until we saw the Italjet Dragster at EICMA this year. The Italian brand is bringing back one of its most…unique models, with a decisive modern twist.

The funny front-end you see is Italjet’s patented Independent Steering System (ISS), which separates out the front suspension and steering forces, which the Italian company says filters out any roughness from the road, without transmitting any vibrations to the handlebars.

Honestly, we just think it looks cool, along with the exposed steel trellis frame and its aluminum plates.

You might be wondering why the words “sport” and “scooter” appear together in the headline of this story. And, you might be asking yourself why we are covering the launch of a new scooter here on Asphalt & Rubber. Those are fair questions.

No, we haven’t lost our minds, and the Yamaha TMAX is no normal scooter. While we may be into our flashy sport bikes here at A&R, there is a whole world that revolves around the TMAX, which gives way to a rich tuning culture and cult status in markets outside of the United States.

Try this on for size, now in its seventh generation of production, Yamaha has sold over 275,000 TMAX scooters in the last 20 years, and now for the 2020 model year, the Yamaha TMAX 560 counts itself as the most powerful version ever produced.

It looks like the Canadians are getting deeper into the electric vehicle space, as Bombardier Recreational Products (BRP) has released more than a few electric concepts across its various product ranges.

Debuting the six concepts at the Club BRP 2020 event in Las Vegas, BRP’s offerings caught our eye for two very obvious reasons: the electric scooter and motorcycle concepts.

Interesting developments on the EV side of the motorcycle industry, as Energica & Dell’Orto have decided to team up on making electric drivetrain systems for small and mid-sized motorcycles.

The move does not mean that Energica is about to burgeon its lineup with smaller electric motorcycles, but instead it means that Energica will follow Dell’Orto’s lead as a product supplier for other OEMs.

Suzuki Motor of America is recalling roughly 300 units of its  Burgman 200  scooters (2018 & 2019 model year machines) because the rivet connections may fail on the Continuously Variable Transmission (CVT), which would allow the movable drive plate to break.

According to the recall documents, continued use of the faulty CVT drive could lead to the motorcycle no longer being operational.

Due to improper shape of the holes for the rivets that fasten the component parts of the movable driven face, the rivet connections may be insufficient.

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.

Hello from cold and rainy Southern California, where we will be swinging a leg over the Honda Super Cub in order to find out if you really do meet the nicest people on a Honda.

This iconic motorcycle changed the American motorcycle industry in the 1960s , offering a break from the 1%’er image that dominated the two-wheeled landscape at the time.

Though the model has evolved over the years, Honda has been churning out the Super Cub continuously since 1958, with production spiking in the late-1990s and hitting the 100 million unit mark in 2017.

This makes the Honda Super Cub the best all-time selling motorcycle in the world…and now it is coming back to the United States.

Harley-Davidson continues to push its new electric agenda, releasing this week two videos that show its electric scooter and electric moped models in action, just ahead of the X-Games in Aspen, Colorado.

The videos are interesting for two very important reasons. First, they show the two concepts running, just a few weeks after we saw the concepts in actual photos, not sketches.

Not exactly exciting two-wheeled video porn, nevertheless it shows that Harley-Davidson is hard at work bringing these bikes to market…though they do seem pretty rough and in the early stages of development.

This is the year. This is the year that Harley-Davidson steps beyond decades of being stuck in the past, and instead takes a chance on leading the future.

I am of course referring to the Bar & Shield brand’s move to debut electric motorcycles – starting first with the Livewire electric cruiser.

The Harley-Davidson Livewire doesn’t exist in a vacuum, however. This is because the American motorcycle company has plans for a whole host of electric two-wheelers, which ranges from an electric bicycle, all the way up to full-sized models.

Today, we get a glimpse at the first of these additional models (along with more details on the Livewire electric cruiser), with Harley-Davidson showing us the physical forms of its electric scooter and and electric moped concepts.

The two motorcycles look very similar to the concept sketches that we saw last year, which is a good thing to our eye, as both machines look fit for the part.

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.

The biggest announcement from Harley-Davidson today wasn’t its adventure-touring motorcycle (though it looks interesting), and it wasn’t its new Streetfighter or Custom models either (one of these I like, the other not so much).

The big news wasn’t the Livewire getting closer to production, though that is close to the mark, and where this story is ultimately headed.

All of these announcement would have been worthy of their own day in the press cycle, but the real news from the Bar & Shield brand is a look at Harley-Davidson’s upcoming electric lineup, which is coming across as very robust, and shows a decisive plan for the future.