Press for Scooter Bottega

Gas Prices and Scooter Sales, Jim Colgan

A Vespa and Lambretta

The TakeAway - May 2nd 2008

In times of rising fuel prices, Americans are shifting from gas guzzlers to smaller cars. How small? The Takeaway went to Scooter Bottega in Brooklyn, N.Y., to investigate.

See the full video here:

http://www.thetakeaway.org/stories/2008/may/02/video-gas-prices-and-scooter-sales/

Joy Rides: By Katherine Wheelock

Hard-core scooter connoisseurs—or those who must have the very scooter they saw in La Dolce Vita—need not suffer the modern renditions. Travel back in time via six-month-old Scooter Bottega (65 Union St at Van Brunt St, Red Hook, Brooklyn; 718-858-4667; www.scooterbottega.com), a retail shop and infirmary for vintage Vespas situated on a desolate corner in Brooklyn. In a red, slant-roofed garage, proprietor Alberto Bruchi lovingly refurbishes old Vespas and Lambrettas (scooters akin to Vespas made by a now-extinct Italian company) to their original glory. Bruchi is as qualified a Vespa doctor as they come—he was born in Pontedera, Italy, the town where Piaggio has manufactured the scooters for more than half a century, and he labored at the Piaggio factory before coming to New York four years ago. He can tell you when Piaggio began producing Vespas with round headlights instead of square ones (1969), what year the company began making some models with plastic instead of aluminum panels (1978) and from what year restored old scooters can be truly reliable for everyday use (1962).