RARE SCOOTER BROCHURE SCANS: 1985, 2001
February 14, 2012 -
1985 Honda Aero 80 and Yamaha 2001 Scooter Lineup Scans
Through the 80’s and 90’s, Honda and Yamaha created some really neat literature for their scooter lines. Honda’s quality has waned in recent years (bikes and scooters are now lumped into one), but Yamaha has continued to do a fairly nice job.
Browse over to the full Downloads page to have a look at the growing collection of scooter literature.
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CANADA: NEW YAMAHA TMAX & HONDA RUCKUS RETURNS FOR 2012
December 15, 2011 -
New Generation of Yamaha TMAX and Honda Canada returns with 2012 Ruckus
This week Yamaha Canada quietly updated their website with the addition of the hugely revised and improved 2012 TMAX maxi-scooter. This new generation of TMAX was announced at Milan last month and the updates have really made this a strong sports-maxi scooter. The styling is significantly overhauled and the best news is the reworked motor
Yamaha only briefly offered the earlier generation of TMAX in Canada for 2009, so its been a few years for Canadian fans. Most likely Yamaha USA will announce the new generation of TMAX soon, but since the previous TMAX was offered there in 2011 they likely need a bit more time to clear out dealer stock. This TMAX addition to Yamaha Canada’s 2012 line likely completes their 2012 scooter stable, which began to take shape way back in mid summer with the new BWs/Zuma 50. The full 2012 scooter line from Yamaha Canada is BWs 50, Majesty and TMAX. Curiously missing for 2012 is the BWs 125 (aka Zuma 125).
2012 news is a bit more sparse from Honda Canada, who quietly updated their website today with the 2012 issue of just the Ruckus. Just like Honda USA announced a month ago, the 2012 Ruckus gets no real changes aside from a spiffy new red/white paint option which joins the always popular black color scheme. The 10th anniversary Ruckus (as it’s called only in Japan) is essentially a white Ruckus with a neat red seat and red decals. Canadian MSRP is unchanged from 2011 at $3069. The Ruckus looks to be the only 2012 scooter offering from Honda Canada, although there are still a few dusty 2010 SH150i in showrooms.
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New Scooters at Milan (EICMA) & Tokyo Motor Shows
November 09, 2011 -
New Scooters from Yamaha, Piaggio and Honda
It’s the season for motorcycle shows, with the important Milan (EICMA) and Tokyo motorcycle shows taking place in early November and December respectively. This year Yamaha, Piaggio/Vespa and Honda have all rolled out new designs.
Yamaha
Also of interest from Yamaha is an updated Majesty which gets new styling on the front end. No word yet if either of these updated scooters will be arriving in North America. Full press release from Yamaha.
Piaggio
The big news from Piaggio is a new X10 maxi-scooter with a far more modern/futuristic look than their current maxi, the X9. The scooter is going to be sold in some markets in 2012. There’s no word yet on North America, but this scooter looks like an obvious replacement for the aging X9.
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2012 Honda's Released: Ruckus and Silverwing
November 08, 2011 -
2012 Honda Scooters Announced: Ruckus & Silver Wing
The best news for 2012 is ‘10th Anniversary Edition’ of the Ruckus, which gets some special design touches including a classy red seat. Honda USA isn’t calling this Ruckus a 10th anniversary model, but this same color scheme was announced by Honda Japan (who designed this scooter) as a 10th anniversary model two months ago. Honda USA is calling this a White/Red Ruckus and it joins Black as the second color option for 2012. The White/Red Ruckus is essentially a white Ruckus (sold in 2006) but with a red seat and red side decals. Look for it in showrooms in February.
On the other end of the scooter spectrum, Honda’s steady selling Silverwing scooter will be around for another year (its 11th). No new colors are being made available for this scoot, so your choices for 2012 will be black, black or black.
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High Quality Honda & Yamaha Brochure Scans
October 20, 2011 -
High Quality Honda and Yamaha Brochure Scans
After much delay, high quality scans of many scooter brochures from Honda and Yamaha are now online (to replace the camera taken low-quality PDFs that were online). All of these new PDFs and more are on the Downloads page.
In addition, a few more old Honda (3) and Yamaha (2) brochures have been purchased recently and those will be scanned in soon (Update: Honda USA 2001 and 2008 now added. 2001 is very neat). These old brochures are pretty neat and hard to get. If anyone has any they’d like to share, please Contact MotorScooterGuide.
Honda USA - 1985, 1989 Accessories, 1993, 2001, 2008
Honda Canada - 1984
Honda UK - 1984 Mopeds and Commuters
Honda Japan - 2003 Zoomer
Honda Australia - NH80 Brochure
Yamaha USA - 1996, 1998, 1998 Alternate Version
Yamaha Canada - 2008, 2009
Check out the Downloads page to see all the brochures and manuals available for download.
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New 125cc Scooter Engine from Honda
September 25, 2011 -
Honda (Worldwide) announced an new mid-sized ‘global standard engine’ for their future 125cc scooters. This new motor is a 125cc liquid cooled 4-stroke that will be used in quite a few future scooters starting next year. Honda hasn’t announced any specific scooters that will use this engine yet, but it’s good to get to know this motor, as it will likely make it to the North American market in some form in the future years.
Honda announced this motor as a ‘global standard engine’, which means they will eventually create quite a few variations to meet different price points and scooter designs (ie. different swing arm lengths to accommodate different wheel sizes). On first glance, this motor might not look like anything radical, but there are a number of nice improvements that will benefit scooterists. Honda claims they focused on three areas with this new motor: durability, fuel economy and quietness. The most interesting of these areas is the fuel economy.
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Tips for Using eBay to Find Scooter Parts
September 24, 2011 -
Using eBay to Find Scooter Parts
Getting the parts you need for an older scooter can be an adventure. The major manufacturers are pretty good at supporting their scooters for quite a while, but if your scooter is nearing 20 years old (or older) then parts available is likely diminishing. Even owners of new scooters will often want to look online to save money. Some new parts can be surprisingly expensive from the dealer (ie. some 50cc OEM scooter exhausts run $400) and often used parts will work just as well.
There are different ways to buy parts online (ie. online scrapyards, websites specializing is NOS (new old stock) parts) but eBay is by far your best shot. Searching on eBay sounds like a fairly straightforward thing, but there are a number of ways you can really improve your odds of finding that rare part. Here are 5 keys to success:
By default, an eBay search will normally only search your home country or maybe continent. Scooter models are often sold all over the world, so by searching on all of eBay’s sites worldwide you really boost your chances of finding that part. To search worldwide, instead of typing in a normal search query, click on the ‘advanced’ button to the right of the search box. On the advanced search page, scroll down to ‘Location’ (see picture) and set it so you get results worldwide.
2) Using all the Names for your Scooter
Almost every scooter sold has both a ‘model code’ and a name (or bunch of names). For example, the Honda Ruckus has the model code of NPS50 (or NPS50S if you get the special paint) and it’s called the Ruckus in North America, but it gets the name ‘Zoomer’ in Europe and Japan. READ THE STORY >>
2012 Honda Scooter Lineup Predictions
September 10, 2011 -
Honda Scooter Lineup Predictions for 2012
I do expect we’ll see the PCX 125 return as Honda has high hopes for that scooter as a world wide model and it is indeed a great scooter. Scooter sales were slower in 2011 though, so it’s possible Honda will skip a year. The Elite 110 is a tough call, because this is a great little scooter but it also overlaps a lot with the PCX 125.
One of these years the long-running Silverwing is going to get the axe, but it has avoided being dropped for a decade now so I bet it’ll hold on for another year yet. Since Honda doesn’t really have a replacement for it, most likely the Silverwing will return with the usual new color offering and continue to sell at low numbers.READ THE STORY >>