2006

I am sitting in the tropics of Africa! I am back in my homeland Zimbabwe. My ancestors came here over a hundred years ago. The majesty of this place is amazing and it is sad that the economic and political conditions are so bad. Inflation is between 500 and 600 percent. When I was chased off my farm in 2002, a loaf of bread cost 20 local dollars. The same loaf costs 50 000 local dollars today!

I am battling to get any meaningful traction with this blog as I am limited by dial up internet at 28 kbps!

I know that there is still the big story of the 1 000 mile scooter and I have a few other little stories to post but they may have to wait until I return to South Africa and bigger bandwidth.

In the meantime, Happy holidays and may 2006 be a great year for you all and the scooter industry in particular.

Evo has a huge year ahead with the continued development of our electric motor and the progression of the pumpabike technology.

Thank you for all your support, stimulating criticism and interaction, and your friendship.

Mike the 'Pitbike Racer'

Now most of you in the scooter business know the name Mike Puzey. His designs have sold more scooters on earth than any one else. Take a look at the line he designed for Bladez and Tanaka and then see how the look has been replicated by all the wannabees in the East!

Remarkable really to think what an impact he has had. His engineering and design abilities are awesome. He is not constrained by formal design protocol but rather is influenced by the testing he does and the tinkering that goes on in the workshop. "Hands on" is the real reason for his ability. This "hands on" is then married to regimented engineering skills for which there are no shortcuts. This is the real world of black and white, yes and no. The genius is in being able to combine the two worlds of design and engineering.

So I have posted some pictures of Mike racing the Bullet. This is one of his prototype bikes that has been part of the development of the 2006 Pitbike called Bullet!

Yes! There is fun behind the scenes. I guess it makes up for the long hard hours of grind.

1000 mile Evo

There is an Evo out there that has done 1 000 miles. Now this is no ordinary thousand miles and this is no ordinary Evo. Jason Fischer, the magician from California has a story on this all that we will be bringing you in the next few days.

What this means is that Evo Scooters can really perform and do so in style and at peak!

Cool publications - Gizmag

One of the smartest magazines in the Evo space is called Gizmag. you can check them out here.

They seem to be really quick at finding new things. I was on there this morning and I found a scooter with a difference! Shucks it made me laugh a bit as it was the last thing I expected to be associated with the word scooter! Here is the link and I think that this would be great for a bunch of folks. Here is the article.

Now you can ride a scooter in your garage whilst you are working, or posting to SE!!

China

I had a Skype message session with Mike Puzey yesterday. He had just visited a factory in China that makes 16 000 (sixteen thousand!) motorbikes every day.

Do they care about what we think? Perhaps.

More importantly, we care about the output quality and the Bill of Materials and so on.

No crap products are going to cut it!

This Chinese manufacturing company has just bought the 100 year old Italian motorcycle company Binelli. They are clearly intent on welding their skills at mass production with the quality, elegance and acclaim of Italian motorcycle business.

Evo Bullet 2006. Pitbike Pictures

Well, Mark Parsons, the main Evo dude in Europe is ahead of us and already has these two awesome bikes. Here are two versions of the 2006 Bullet. I will be sure to keep new pictures coming.