Here's an article from my local paper. It was about scooters and Kymco got mentioned in it.
Link to articleDavid Uhler
Express-News Staff Writer
When my editor asked me to write about scooters and the reasons people ride them, he told me to "have some fun with it."
So, on a picture-perfect South Texas day, I'm just following orders as I tool around the hilly side streets of Alamo Heights on a Vespa test ride. I've got the sun shining on my face, the wind whistling in my ears and, in my mind, there's a tape loop of Dean Martin singing "That's Amore."
In other words, I'm having a blast.
Chances are you've spotted more and more scooters around town lately. There are some good reasons for that. Scooters are not only fun, they're also economical. Basic models start around $2,000. All of them can run 50 miles or more on a gallon of gas.
And, there's a new scooter store in town.
Vespa Alamo Heights opened seven weeks ago at 5926 Broadway, and customers — many attracted by the colorful scooters parked along the street, balloons attached to their handlebars — have been flocking to the store ever since.
"The biggest selling point is it's just more fun to get on your scooter than it is to get into your car," says owner Matt Whitley. "Typically, once somebody gets on a scooter, they'll look for reasons to ride it. It's totally a lifestyle thing."
Whitley can relate. Until a year ago, he was a fun-loving motorcycle enthusiast trapped in an insurance agent's body. Out on a ride with a friend in the Texas Hill Country one day, Whitley had an epiphany: Why not get into motorcycles full time? Back in San Antonio, however, Whitley's dream morphed a bit after he did some product and market research.
Motorcycle dealers had the local market sewn up. But, while doing his startup homework, Whitley bought a Vespa and fell in love. And KC International — a dealer of pricey Italian motorcycles and vintage and luxury cars in northwest San Antonio — was willing to let him sell its Vespa line.
Whitley, a 48-year-old Alamo Heights native, closed his insurance business and found space for his store just five blocks from his home. He calls Vespa Alamo Heights a "scooter boutique." It doesn't offer service (Whitley has a Ducati motorcycle-trained mechanic who can provide that) and it doesn't take trade-ins (although Whitley will sometimes hook up customers with people shopping for special, used models).
What Whitley's store does have is every model of every scooter Vespa makes in every color. He also stocks scooters made by Piaggio, which is Vespa's parent company, and Aprilia, another Piaggio nameplate.
There are other scooter brands made in other parts of the world, but none have the name recognition or panache as the Italian-made Vespa.
"Nothing sells a Vespa like a Vespa," Whitley says. "You can't ride a Vespa anywhere without somebody asking you where you got it, how much did you pay for it, where you ride it, how much stuff you can carry on it, what colors does it come in. People roll their windows down at stop signs and red lights."
In Whitley's 1,500-square-foot, high-tech storefront — a space about as wide and long as two bowling lanes — dozens of gleaming scooters stand at parade rest, illuminated by track lighting. The walls are decorated with old, black-and-white photographs of Gary Cooper, Tyrone Power, Angie Dickinson and other Hollywood stars. In the 1950s and 1960s, Vespa's PR department loved staging photo ops whenever movie stars visited Italy on location shoots.
To most Vespa owners — and most scooter owners in general — image and lifestyle are inextricably intertwined in their two-wheeled rides.
Al Honigblum, a college buddy of Whitley, was his first Vespa customer. A real estate developer, Honigblum is planning a pair of San Antonio condominium projects. He and his business partner, who owns two Vespas, plan to offer parking and other amenities to encourage the use of scooters.
"I'm a firm believer in this urban lifestyle," Honigblum says. "If I'm going to promote it and build it, I wanted to live it."
Honigblum doesn't ride his LX150 to work. But he uses it in the evenings and on weekends for trips to stores, restaurants and tours of downtown and San Antonio's Spanish missions.
"I had a bicycle when I was a kid," Honigblum said. "But this is the first two-wheeled motorized anything that I've ever owned.
"At first, all of my friends said I was crazy. Now, I'll bet you five or six of my friends have them."
For some riders, the scooter lifestyle can become an all-consuming passion. A self-described "scooterhead," Dawn Brooks is a member of the Scooter Club of America and Alamo Scoots, a local group. She's also attended Amerivespa, the annual U.S. convention of Vespa owners, every year since 2002.
Brooks and her sister, Lisa, who also rides scooters, own a catering business and Gourmet Fresco Café, a restaurant coincidentally located just across the street from Vespa Alamo Heights. Three years ago, the sisters went to Italy and toured Tuscany on Vespas.
"We're half Italian," says Brooks, who took her first ride on a scooter as a 20-something in San Francisco in the 1970s. "So, of course, riding scooters — especially Italian scooters — is in our blood."
Brooks and her fellow scooter aficionados (she calls them "the scooterati") go on frequent group rides, including trips to the Hill Country and a recent tour through San Antonio's Windcrest area to view Christmas lights. On the first Friday of every month, Alamo Scoots organizes rides that usually begin and end at local restaurants and icehouses.
"It's a great group of people who ride scooters, a very varied group, from all different backgrounds and interests," says Brooks, a frequent visitor to Alamo Scoot's Yahoo chat room, where her online nom de plume is "sascootergirl."
Brooks owns two vintage Vespas: A 1957 Farobosso and a 1979 P series, the later recently stylized with a custom paint job by San Antonio artist Robert Tatum.
Not all scooter riders own Vespas, not even diehard "scooterheads." Besides vintage models, such as the venerable Lambretta, scooters made by Kymco, Genuine Scooter Co. and other manufacturers also have fans among Alamo Scoots members.
Comparing new models — a Vespa is to a Kymco what a Cadillac is to a Chevrolet — can be difficult. But Fred Trott, the owner of The Motorcycle Shop in San Antonio, says the Taiwanese-made Kymco has a quality that comes close to the Italian manufacturer's craftsmanship.
Trott sells several makes of scooters at his store at 2423 Austin Hwy., including the Kymco. A native of England, Trott also owns a scooter shop in London, where he sells Vespas and other brands.
"Vespa is good, but it's expensive," says Trott, in business in San Antonio since 1977. "The Kymco, in a lot of respects, is a lot easier to maintain. Servicing on a Vespa is like taking a Mercedes in to get it serviced versus a Ford. The same job is three times more money."
The price for a new Kymco ranges from $1,599 to $5,999, depending on engine size and options. The Vespa line, which starts at $1,999, includes a limited edition model with retro styling and a $7,299 price tag.
Unlike Trott's clientele in England, where most kids get scooters on their 17th birthdays, about 90 percent of his customers in San Antonio are older than 40. And of that lot, 30 percent are women.
"People are buying them because they're not a motorcycle," Trott says. "They're a scooter and they're so easy to ride. You press a button to start the engine and just go."
To prove his point, Trott hands me the key to a 250cc Kymco.
Just like a Vespa, the engine starts easily and runs smoothly. With a twist of the rubber grip on the right handlebar, the scooter accelerates and moves smartly into traffic, quickly matching the pace of other vehicles on the road. Approaching a corner, I ease off on the throttle and bleed off some speed before squeezing the handlebar-mounted brake calipers.
And, as I lean into the turn, I wonder: How do you say "amore" in Chinese?