Ok. While on my honeymoon in Italy :dg We rented this I know not ATGATT. :fyyff Spur of the moment. Anyway. I saw a few of these What the hell is this? It's made by BMW. What motor does it have? This thing is the perfect way to one up the guys at the starbucks on their Stellas.
I think it's called a C1. They played with the idea of importing 'em to the usa, but nothing happened.
Now that I look at that pic again. The girl off to the left looks like she would have been pretty hot.
C-1's came in a variety of styles (three, I think) with a couple of different engine sizes. They had seat belts and were designed to be ridden without a helmet. Passengers would ride on the rear seat, outside of the roll cage, if there is no cargo box fitted. There is a BMW video showing the C-1 during crash tests, with an unhelmeted rider/driver. No injuries, etc., but of course all hands and arms remained inside the roll cage. Sadly, after its introduction, it was determined that motorcycle helmet laws would apply to the operators and sales sagged. I believe that production ceased a couple of years ago, but there is an outfit in Florida that is supposedly importing them to the US. They are very cool. They even have a windshield wiper inclement weather.
In Paris these scoots are ridden without helmets and seem very popular with the chain smoking set. They actually make alot of sense in areas where rain moves in quickly (i.e. alot of europe). But in the U.S. with no exemption given for helmets and weather that you can plan for a week in advance I don't think they ever had much of a chance. BTW, there are some Asian knockoff's at a fraction of the price......whatelse is new!?!?!?
LS MotorSports, L.L.C. is the "exclusive US Importer" of Diamo. LS MS has offices in TX. http://www.ls-motorsports.com/ "Diamo" is a Chinese scoot. Interestingly enough, when Benelli went out of the scooter business, Diamo picked up the rights to produce their scoot, added a few features, and called it the Velux. The chinese and taiwanese manufacturers take a lot of crap in the US marketplace--some of it deserved--but a few lines have done well with some additional QC put into place once they crates land over here. Vento, for instance, adds in another QC checkpoint in their TX facility and has done well with the US market. Other manufacturers, like Kymco, have been around for decades building parts and engines for the big Japanese motorcycling companies, and branched out on their own.
I happen to know more about the Diamo than I let on. This Diamo Velux is for sale at my buddy's shop. I haven't ridden it yet but I like it. It has a convertible top which I don't think shows up well in the pictures.
