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It was something like 800 riders. I know, it's small but it's what we've got to work with. Tiered licensing and million dollar gallons of petrol in Europe force created a scooter enthusiast culture, hence 1000's attend an event.

Here's the hard truth about the Chinese scooter market in the US (backed up by the PFS customer base metrics, and don't get me wrong, I love my customers): The vast majority of people who ride Chinese scooters in the US don't do it because they love it, rather they feel that it is one of the last options available to them for private transportation. It isn't a culture for them, it isn't something to be enthusiastic about or a point of pride, it's an appliance to get back and forth on. It's a last resort. These riders don't wave, they don't get the proper training to ride, they tend to feel helmets and safety gear are superfluous, they often times don't work on their bikes and then wonder why it broke; in short, they don't love it the way that you and I do. Could this attitude alone also force create an enthusiast culture here?

In much of Europe, riding a scooter often isn't a last resort, based on age it's simply one of the few 2 wheel options regardless of your income level, so people have bought into it on a grand level and it's amazing.

The question is "How do we, as enthusiasts, create an overarching enthusiast culture, and bring more people into the fold?" I know that one of the best things that we (I) can do for this is to do what we do: provide parts. The better the parts supply, the more apt people will be to look at riding scooters as a viable alternative as opposed to a last resort. These forums are also great since they are populated by you guys, people who legitimately love riding. Scooter evangelists.

We're supporting events like Amerivespa, despite its Italian focus and relatively small size. We're going scooter drag racing (http://usascooterracing.com/?tag=nasra) with Chinese bikes because it turns out (gasp!) that Chinese bikes are awesome drag racing platforms. The GY6 is a phenomenal little engine that can and does. We attend trade shows, we preach the gospel of scooters.

But these actions really only tend to solidify the already established enthusiast base. So I pose the question to all of us again; How do we get more people involved? Why don't a crap load of Chinese scooter riders simply converge on Amerivespa this year? The organizers freely admit that it's open to all riders and makes, and lord knows there are enough Chinese bikes out there or I wouldn't have a company to run. I'm not asking this hypothetically. Seriously, what do I have to do? I'm really open to suggestions here.


Matt

P.S. Funny side story. I learned that in Europe they don't really wave, that seems to be an American thing (this may not be gospel so YMMV). I asked a German guy about that once at a gas station as I was following for a while and I noticed that he wasn't waving. He simply told me "I'm too busy riding, we greet when we stop." I spoke with him for a bit, he was a pretty cool guy.

Holy smokes, I wrote a book!