(Click to make each SUPER sized)

Both scooters are 150cc 4-stroke with very similar performance and specs. Both are from the drafting tables of Nova Design. Both are from SYM, but only ONE has a chance to make it to the USA. So what's it gonna be? You choose.

It's never too late to prepare for next Halloween or even your next rally.  Don your favorite cowboy garb and swing yer cowboy hat in the air and hold tight cause it's gonna be a bumpy ride!

If Major T.J. "King" Kong is too far of a faded memory, you could always dress as Homer Simpson and reenact a similar scene (which I could only find in Spanish).

I found this thing over at Disaboom.com

If low gas prices have you back to driving your 4WD Dually to the office you should consider a career for your out of work scooter.  Here's an idea from ace2heart.  It's not real, mind you, but a concept called "Sweep-scooter" that he/she entered into the Worth1000 Dream Vehicles 5 contest. 

Just thought it could give you some ideas to keep your poor, lonely scooter active and engaged during these times of $2/gal gas.  Don't worry Scooty!  You'll be back to work before you can say "carbon tax".

Since we're expecting a slow news week... you know, no big announcements or anything ;), we'll be keeping an eye on EICMA #66.  This will be the show where the remaining 2009 models are expected to shake out.  What's new?  What's exciting?  What's expected?  Stay tuned as we run through them this week.

First let's start with a brand that's not going to make much of a difference to us because you can't get them in the USA, Malaguti.  Malaguti has trumped Piaggio's MP3 for bad-choice-of-names with their new 125cc / 160cc Malaguti BLOG.  I'll be on the lookout for the Aprilia Ninja Cat and Italjet Hadron Collider 250 announcements this week too.

The Malaguti Blog is described as such:

"an agile scooter, easy to ride in the city traffic thanks to its low seat, with large wrap-around leg shield and windshield, compact and short wheelbase, flat platform, under-seat storage compartment big enough to hold 2 jet helmets, double disc brake, high-powered frontlight.  The maximum comfort combined with the modern and aggressive, elegant and dynamic design of a “Made in Italy” scooter.  BLOG are equipped with the innovative and reliable 160 and 125 cc, liquid cooled, electronic injected engine, the ones assembled also on the CENTRO range.  They grant excellent results in terms of performance and driveability under any condition."

The Centro, Malaguti's big-wheeled scooter, is well received in the rest of the world so the engine should do good for the BLOG.

Malaguti has an update to the hot little liquid cooled Phantom F12 R 50cc Fantasy 2-stroker as well.  Look for a trippy new graphics set that will look something like this: 

Additionally for 2009 Malaguti will offer a new 4-stroke version of the Phantom and a new flagship scooter called the SpiderMax RS500 that goes a little something like this:

Looking more like a robo-mantis than a Spider, the SpiderMax RS500 is based on the GT 500 execpt she's "more dynamic and sportier".  You can read all the deets right here if you'd like.  I'm gonna save my hands for news on scooters scheduled for the American market.

Years 1966-1968.  Your choice of Metal/Chrome, Red/White, or Yellow/White.

Yes, you're reading this correctly and no, I'm not on crack... I'm not so sure about Royal College of Art grad Grahame Fowler and his firm GGF Restoration who is really selling them on Vivre for twenty-five LARGE each.  Grahame Fowler also makes a $1,725 aircraft-grade aluminum chess set also available at Vivre if you're interested.

Nuff respect to Grahame.  I appreciate his gumption and wish him much success with his fashion career in NYC and his little scooter restoration project.  I could see spending that much on a Lammy... if it were an original, hand-built by Corradino D'Ascanio himself. 

Oil prices drop due to fears that we will begin using less. 
*Insert Curtis Mayfield's "I'm Your Pusher" here* 
Here's part of the Bloomberg story:

By Mark Shenk

Oct. 15 (Bloomberg) -- Crude oil fell below $75 a barrel for the first time in more than a year on skepticism that a rescue of the world's banks will be enough to avoid a recession and stem a decline in global fuel demand.

Oil, which has followed movements in equity markets this month, fell as the Standard & Poor's 500 Index and Dow Jones Industrial Average tumbled today. The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries cut its 2009 demand forecast because of ``dramatically worsening'' conditions in financial markets.

``The oil market is under a lot of pressure and nothing is going to change that anytime soon,'' said Ric Navy, a broker at BNP Paribas SA in New York. ``We are entering a poor-demand cycle, which will put further downward pressure on prices.''

Crude oil for November delivery fell $4.09, or 5.2 percent, to $74.54 a barrel at 2:54 p.m. on the New York Mercantile Exchange, the lowest settlement since Aug. 31, 2007. Prices, down 13 percent from a year ago, have dropped 49 percent from the record $147.27 a barrel reached on July 11.

How much would oil prices decline if we just stopped using it all together?