THE BUDDY may be the best Vespa knockoff on the market. That's saying something because so many scooters these days are attempting to emulate the famed Italian marque and style.
The brand making the scooter: Genuine, which is funny for a bike that is so shamelessly trying to be something else. But genuine also describes the appreciation I have for this small company's "new vintage" model and the cult following its scooters have generated in the six years it's been in business.
Genuine Scooter Co., whose two-wheelers are made in Taiwan, is based in Chicago. The company was founded in 2002 by self-described scooter dork Philip McCaleb, who saw a market for old-looking bikes with modern technology, though what's happening right now his crystal ball could not possibly have foreseen.
Genuine's sales are up 122% this year, according to McCaleb, and that's on the heels of five successive years of 45% annual growth. With anticipated North American sales of 11,000 for 2008, Genuine will be selling more scooters in the U.S. than Ducati sells motorcycles.
I spent the last week running around with my new Buddy to find out why. As with many bikes, I was a skeptic when I first saw it. Yet another Vespa wannabe, I thought when I took in its curvaceous Euro bodywork. Then I looked a little closer. For a bike that costs only $3,099, I was impressed with the fit and finish. The chrome and plastic didn't look chintzy, as I was expecting. In fact, there were a lot of nice styling cues, such as the elegant and easy-to-read analog dash, the whitewall tires and the color-matched rims, paint and saddle.
I was riding the new Saint-Tropez version of the Buddy -- one of three International models Genuine's introduced in two-toned color schemes intended for Europhiles of both sexes.
No one would mistake them for a real Vespa, but they are all quite pretty. What I most enjoyed about my Genuine Buddy, however, was its power and handling. Lightweight and low to the ground, it was stable and easy to throw around.
It also had a good amount of zip from a dead stop and enough juice on the top end that I spent almost all my miles astride the bike on the freeway. My top speed was 75 mph, although as with all 150cc scooters I've tested that speed is not sustainable.
