The "New" Piaggio MP3 Motor Scooter…or….Haven't I Seen This Somewhere Before?

There I was: reading the Italian daily "La Republica" (dated September 9th) and catching up on the good news and bad in Italy and abroad. I turned to page 9 and got hit right between the eyes by a full page ad for the PIAGGIO MP3 - a "revolutionary" new motor bike that has two wheels up front and one in the back. The MP3 is on the brink of going on the market in Italy and this ad was a wake up call for interested buyers to reserve an appointment for a test drive.

Only thing was, for such a revolutionary new bike, I could have sworn I'd seen this model somewhere before. It took some digging but sure enough, at the Milan 2001 AutoShow one of the new models on display was the ItalJet-Scoop (see photo). A motorbike with two wheels up front and one in the back and which sure looks a heck of a lot like the new PIAGGIO MP3 (see photo).

Now, I'm not sure what happened since the ItalJet-Scoop was introduced. It was supposed to go on the market in the Spring of 2002. I did some serious digging and couldn't come up with anything. No vendors, nothing on eBay. ItalJet Manufacturing still exists. They produce a full line of motorbikes, but the infamous ItalJet-Scoop….just seems to have disappeared. Maybe Italjet sold its license to their Scoop model to Piaggio. I honestly don't know. But the bike obviously has come full circle and the design is being rediscovered by the bike-buying public.

Fast-forward to 2006, and Piaggio is on the brink of introducing the MP3. According to the Piaggio press release for the MP3, "…the front assembly, with two independent tilting wheels, is far more stable than any scooter. The PIAGGIO MP3 grips the road even when tailing other vehicles, providing top performance in total safety…"

But what Piaggio is selling people on is the "tilt". I don't claim to know much about motorbikes, cuz I don't. But this whole tilting thing - it's great when you barrelling around a race track, but in city driving? Just how fast are you supposed to be driving (in the city no less) that you are going to really enjoy the thrill of the tilt?

Ladies and gentlemen, call me a stick-in-the-mud but I see trouble ahead.

The Piaggio MP3 has the potential to be as popular as the "MicroCar". You can't possibly remember the MicroCar because luckily the MicroCar never got sold in the US. But in Italy, the MicroCar sold like hotcakes for about 6 months. Its selling point: the only car on the market that doesn't require a driver's license for operation!

Parents were purchasing their 16-year olds a MicroCar for the equivalent of about $2000.00 dollars and before you knew it, Italy's big cities like Rome an Milan were crowded with these things. It only took a few fatalities of kids mowing down a few tourists to get the sale of the MicroCar halted and production stopped.

But I digress.

What scares me - and again unless you've lived in Naples or Rome or Milan you just can't appreciate where I'm coming from - is that the ad campaign for the MP3 caters to the lowest common denominator of motorbike enthusiast. Again, from the Piaggio MP3 press release: "…The PIAGGIO MP3 comes into its own when heading out of town. Its road grip, cornering safety and tilt angle are unprecedented for a scooter, adding to the pleasure of riding different road surfaces at high speed..."
There's that phrase "high speed" again. Granted, they were nice enough to stick in the phrase "when heading out of town..." But I have a funny feeling this may be overlooked by the young "hey-look-at-me-and-my new-motorbike" owner of a Piaggio MP3.

I hope I'm wrong.

According to the Paiggio MP3 website, the technical breakdown of the Piaggio MP3 looks like this:

"….The PIAGGIO MP3 frame in high-tensile steel tubes is the result of the best CAD technology and computerized FEM (Finite Element Method) analysis. Elements such as frame strength and weight were precisely defined and tested from the initial phases of the project, with the suitability of each solution checked at every stage. The innovative parallelogram suspension, an original Piaggio design, is anchored to the frame. The tilt mechanism is composed of four cast-aluminium control arms with four hinges fixed to the central tube and two guide tubes on either side of the parallelogram, connected to the arms via suspension pins and ball bearings. The tubes on the right and left enclose the steering tube in a classic single-arm setup…"
Further more, the PIAGGIO MP3 uses "…three 12" wheels with large tyres - 120/70 front, 130/70 rear. Together with the revolutionary front suspension, the wheels provide a tilt angle of up to 40° while riding like any normal two wheeler and simultaneously ensuring better road grip on any surface, especially slippery tracks. The parallelogram suspension also ensures increased stability at high speeds: the PIAGGIO MP3 grips the road firmly, with no wobbling, even when tailing large vehicles…"

Huh…? When tailing large vehicles? There I go again. I'm such a pessimist.

Yo never know what the public really wants. Maybe te new Piaggio MP3 will be no less of a hit than the ItalJet-Scoop.

I predict that - like the SMART car (which, by the way, will shortly go on sale in the USA) the Piaggio MP3 will sell millions and make even more than that for Piaggio. I just hope it lives up to its reputation for being safe. As much for the individuals riding it as it is for those who don't.