Italian deisgn, French charm, German engineering, American style.

In the past years the United States have not exactly been an inspiration to Europe. The retarded one and his team – that is of course George W. and his administration – have pretty much made sure that international relations between the ‘old’ and ‘new’ world have turned a little rusty. But this magazine is neither The Economist nor is it about international affairs, it is of course Scootering and therefore concerned with the finest Scooters from all over the world...

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The mindless majority… now there’s a statement to ponder over. I’ve not just plucked that out of thin air, it’s written over this scooter’s headset which goes to prove the second string to the scooter’s name – it needs more than just a casual look…

Taken from the Elite Casual’s website to turn an oft-abused quote on its head (‘Mindless minority’ to portray the ill deeds of a, usually, young crowd’s actions), the implication is that it takes quite a definite mental stance to stand apart from the crowd – a deliberate distancing from the bland moral majority. Something I assume, as you are reading this, you would probably identify with, asweall in some way feel the need to pull back a little from whatweperceive to be middle of the road banality.

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Bibendum, the globally famous Michelin man, is probably one of the oldest trademarks in the world, dating back 110 years to 1898. Designed by Marius Rossillon it was inspired by a comment that a stack of tyres looked like a rotund human form. Interestingly the name comes from the slogan on his first poster appearance – ‘Nunc est Bibendum’ or ‘Now is the time to drink’ as we’d have it. I’ll not point out the obvious connection to scooterists there...

You could also argue that the image is appropriate on this scooter when you remember that the following Li series was known as the 'Slimline', which implies that the Series 2 was a little on the portly side. The inspiration for this scooter is one of the more unusual ones that I've come across in that Mark Walker, the owner of this street racer, owned a couple of Bibendum – Bib to his friends – pins, and it all spiralled out from there.

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Sometimes it’s the quiet ones you have to watch out for, which in the scootering world doesn’t necessarily refer to engine tone but to the overall finish.

This Vespa is another of those scooters I first saw at a rally. It was parked up just away from the centre of what was a gathering of custom scooters at the Speedboys SC rally in Belgium last year. It was meant to be a show of sorts, but wet weather meant most owners abandoning their scooters as close to the bar door as possible.
Despite the rain, this Vespa shone, probably something to do with the red Candy Apple and multi-colour flake over the black base coat, and what I later learned was a stockpile of lacquer with plenty of elbow grease. It just begged to be looked at a little more closely.

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