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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.

The 80’s were the peak of the effort put into this literature and 1985 was Honda USA’s magnum opus - the year they put out an artistic brochure for their entire scooter line, as well as multi-page quality brochures for each of their 7 models. 27 years later these brochure are exceedingly rare, but once in a while one pops up on eBay. About 6 months ago I posted a scan of the 1985 brochure on Honda’s complete scooter line, and now I’ve been able to acquire the 1985 brochure on the Aero 80. Here is the 1985 Honda Aero 80 brochure.

In addition, I scooped up Yamaha USA’s 2001 scooter lineup brochure and scanned that in as well. It’s also a neat brochure. 2001 may sound pretty recent, but having a look at scooters like the Razz and original Zuma will make it feel older than that.

Browse over to the full Downloads page to have a look at the growing collection of scooter literature.

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YAMAHA ENTERS INDIAN SCOOTER MARKET

January 08, 2012 -

Yamaha India Tries the Hot Pink Strategy
Yamaha is finally entering the scooter market in India for 2012 with a few popular models and one all new scooter. Despite selling lots of scooters in near by countries like Thailand, Indonesia and Veitnam, Yamaha has amazingly

neglected one of the globes largest scooter markets until now.

Yamaha has been expanding their motorcycle presence in India over the past few years and finally at the recent India Auto Expo they announced a line of scooters. Yamaha is expecting 30% of their Indian sales

to be scooters by 2014.

The biggest news for the Indian market is the new Ray scooter, which is aimed at women with its hot pink paint job. Specs aren’t out yet, but it’s widely assumed this scooter will be 125cc, which is the most popular size in India.

Buyers looking for something a bit more masculine can take a look at the sporty 125cc Xeon scooters, which has been popular in other parts of Asia in recent years.
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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

which puts out a lot more power

and does so at lower RPMs. Also new is a bunch of convenience touches like the adjustable windscreen. MSRP is $10,499. Check out the TMAX page for the full details.

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

A second generation of TMAX is set to be officially released at the Tokyo show in early December and it appears to be quite a nice scooter. Yamaha has overhauled the sporty TMAX scooter with redesigned suspension, a bump up in engine size (to 530cc) and even

sportier styling. They’ve done a great job of updating the styling and making it even more aggressive, while still keeping this clearly a TMAX. ABS is going to be an option in some markets.

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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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.

The brochures that have been re-done are:

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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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:

1) Searching Worldwide
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 >>

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New Yamaha Zuma / BW's for 2012

August 19, 2011 -

New Yamaha’s for 2012
It’s now mid-August, which means we’re only a couple months away from the main period of announcements for the 2012 scooter lineups from the major manufacturers. Yamaha has early announced their new 2012 Zuma 50 / BWs 50, so check out that page for complete information on that new model.

In a surprise move, Yamaha has gone with a 4-stroke engine in the new generation of Zuma. Accordingly, the 2011 Yamaha Zuma 50 is likely the last 2-stroke scooter we’ll ever see from Yamaha in the North American market.

The other early Yamaha news for 2012 is the return of Majesty, which was missing for 2011. Sometime in September or October, we can expect to learn which existing Yamaha scooters will continue to make the cut for 2012.
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