http://www.carzi.com/2008/12/12/bajaj-pulsar-stunt-video-commercial/

Vespa; scooter enough for the manliest of British guardsman, perfect for the lady in your life, and even occasionally self-driving. These three vintage Vespa ads make a strong case for the iconic scooter, with a heavy helping of cheese on the side. Click on the video above and enjoy.
 
+ YouTube: go vespa go

With offerings of television shows, movies, comic books, and nearly unfathomable amounts of toys, the Japanese Gundam series amounts to multi-billion yen industry around the world. Hoping to capitalize on some of that juice, Lalabit Market is releasing an ultra limited edition series of full-face motorcycle helmets, all tagged with golden Gundam war paint.

Attractive enough in their own right—even to those who may not be obsessed with the anime series—the helmets’ price tag may scare away all but the most ardent Gundam fan. Lalabit will produce 100 of the shiny lids, asking more than $2500 (258,000 yen) for the collector’s piece.

+ Akihabara News

Have you always thought that you might look pretty good sitting astride a super hip motor scooter, but haven’t had the time/opportunity to take one for a test ride? That’s the premise behind a new guerrilla marketing campaign from one Italian ad agency, which has taken to the streets with a sort of scooter visualization device.  A clever approach; have a look by clicking on the video above.

+ YouTube: Guerrilla Marketing - Lanzi Moto

Motorcyclist, inventor, and green-thinker Dave Akhurst has built an LPG powered motorcycle that should be the envy of any DIY garage. Called the Greenfly, Akhurst started with a 1970s-era Yamaha XT500 and modified the bike to run on compressed natural gas. The high octane rating, cheap running costs, and clean-burning nature of LPG are all plusses in the inventor’s book—enough so that the prospect of a potential bomb-like detonation if the tank is ruptured doesn’t really make him sweat. We should all be so brave.

The 500cc single-cylinder engine is tuned to deliver approximately 30 horsepower while returning about 70 miles per gallon—about a 20 mpg improvement over the standard, gasoline-burning motor. Additionally, Akhurst has  done a raft of custom metalwork on the bike, including a hanger for a full-size spare behind the front fork, quick-change hubs on the custom five-spoke alloys, and a massive touring pannier that can be swapped out for the removable pillion seat.

The Greenfly is an exceptionally well-done piece of work from what we can see, and a standard bearer for green, DIY projects everywhere. Have a closer look at the bike in our gallery of images above.

+ The Biker Gene: Dave Akhurst’s Greenfly: the LPG-powered custom motorcycle.

Regaining a measure of popularity recently in its native Europe, the supremely funky Moto Graziella foldable scooter seems to offer equal parts fun and humiliation to the daring rider.

The tiny bike with the stretched seat post and handle bars—and looking an awful lot like a little, motorized gazelle—is powered by a heroic Sachs 502/1A engine, which displaces 47cc and produces 1.8 horsepower at 4500 rpm. Believe it or not, but the Italian company maintained that that motive force was enough to carry riders of up to 286 pounds, though we’d guess any one that beefy would have a hard time reaching the quoted top speed of 25 miles per hour.

Have a closer look at the distinctive Italian mini scooter in our gallery above.

+ Museo De Transporte

In May of next year, science fiction fans will be treated to the eleventh (!) motion picture sized installment of the Star Trek series, getting to see a fresh face (Chris Pine, sorry Shatner) playing the monumental role of Captain James T. Kirk. In this early trailer for the movie, we not only get a chance to see the Trek crew’s imagining of the future’s motorcycle (George Lucas’s imperial speeder bike had better watch its back), we also are treated to a very young Kirk making a very foolish move with a Corvette. Geek out a little with the video above.

Over the years, Fiat's sport division Abarth has been building a reputation for tweaking and intensifying cars to offer just that little bit more Italian insanity. Though the company primarily sticks to Fiats, it seems that it really doesn't stop them from getting its fingers on whatever is deemed fit. To wit, the tuning company recently got hold of a Yamaha FZ1.
 
And the result? A red, white, gold and black painted “naked bike” dubbed the Yamaha FZ1 Abarth Assetto Corse Concept Bike. But the attraction is not only skin deep as a new Akrapovic exhaust as well as suspension and brake upgrades have been fitted on. The FZ1-based concept also has a 150 horsepower 1.0-liter engine derived from the Yamaha R1 supersport bike.
 
This Yamaha concept was developed in cooperation with Abarth as part of a celebration to commemorate the firm founder Karl (Carlo) Abarth's birthday on November 15. Along with the motorbike is the release of a limited edition version of the 500 Abarth and a funky Abarth badged desktop computer powered by an Intel Core i7 Extreme processor.
 
+ Carscoop: Yamaha FZ1 Abarth Assetto Corse Concept Bike with 150HP R1 Engine

Since the first Terminator movie made its debut in 1984, the mega-budget franchise has been the showcase for amazing action, and ground-breaking special effects. There have also been some first rate chase scenes—our favorite being a young John Conner (Edward Furlong) racing his dirt bike through the L.A. River in T2—which isn’t likely to change for the latest installment, Terminator Salvation.
 
Set to debut in May of 2009, and starring new action hero Christian Bale, the new movie joins Conner in his struggles against the nefarious Skynet after the nuclear holocaust. In this apocalyptic setting “the machines” are taking a much bigger role, and far more interesting forms than in the previous three movies.

Production director Martin Laing was responsible for envisioning some of the near-future killing devices, and has created (among a lot of other scary looking metal) this Moto-Terminator motorcycle. The bike seems to be the chilling Terminator character we know and love in motorcycle form (note the signature red “eyes”), replete with plenty of new mean toys attached.  Have a look at more images in our gallery above.

+ Quiet Earth: Take a better look at Martin Laing's TERMINATOR SALVATION production art

Iconoclastic motorcycle builder Confederate is offering up its C120 Renaissance Fighter for 45 shoppers of the Neiman Marcus Christmas Book this year, an utterly singular motorcycle in both design and execution.

Build largely from unadorned aircraft billet aluminum—with titanium used for parts of the chassis and suspension and wheels constructed from carbon fiber—the Fighter is no ordinary American made bike, despite its use of a big 1966cc V-twin for its motive force. That engine has had considerable attention paid to it as well, with forged alloy pistons, billet aluminum heads, and a dual counter-shaft balance system all in play. And the price of such two-wheeled glory? A cool $110,000, thanks for asking.

Confederate has also drafted a press release that is almost as idiosyncratic as its motorcycle. (We especially like, “The Fighter clarifies opaqueness and nullifies hype with straight-forward true to concept certitude.”) Read the full release, along with the Fighter specs below.