Scomadi scooters, the revival of the famed Italian scooter brand that is not Vespa, today opened the Scomadi Kuala Lumpur 3S Concept Centre in Setapak. The brain-child of Frank Sanderson and Paul Melici, performance scooter specialists from 30-plus years ago, Scomadi their take on an up-dated Lambretta of the sixties.
Under the auspices of V Power Motor, the concept centre provides sales, service and accessories for Scomadi’s current range of two models in Malaysia. These are the Turismo Leggera TL125 standard (RM9,095) and SE (RM9,625), both of which are powered by a 125 cc air-cooled single-cylinder, two-valve engine.
Mounted in standard scooter fashion as part of the swing-arm underneath the rear body-work, the Scomadi Turismo Leggera TL125 has 9.39 hp at 6,500 rpm and 8.90 Nm of torque t 7,200 rpm available, pushing 100 kg of weight. While not sounding like much, Sanderson and Melici point out that Scomadi is more about the lifestyle and image than outright performance.
“Scomadi is a lifestyle machine. It is more about the image, about belonging to a group, getting together with like-minded riders,” said Sanderson. “But that is not to say Scomadi scooters can’t perform. The chassis was developed over 10 to 15 years, with Scomadi founded in 2006,” added Melici.
A new production facility in Thailand is expected to come on-line within the next 12 months, and will produce between 400 to 500 scooters a week. Scomadi is currently working on making its scooters Euro4 compliant, and also showed a 250 cc, six-speed, manual twist-shift performance scooter in 2015, which will be shown again at Cologne, Germany later this year.
“We’re also working on a 400 cc concept scooter which we hope to have ready by 2018,” Melici said. Sanderson added, “a 200 cc liquid-cooled engine is also in the works, which should be ready for testing soon.” Both Sanderson and Melici have a long history with performance scooters and scooter racing going back decades, with Sanderson having a hand in the development of a rather infamous RD350LC YPVS engine-powered scooter in the 80s.
Designed by Sanderson and Melici, made in China and Taiwan, and assembled for the Malaysian market in a plant in Tampoi, Johor, Scomadi scooters have embarked on an aggressive expansion plan, focusing on South-East Asia as the world’s largest market for scooters. This has been proven in the market reception of the Turismo Leggera TL125, which has pleasantly surprised Sanderson and Melici.
This UK-driving license friendly scooter has gained popularity over there, with over 1,000 units sold in the first six months of operation. Scomadi have sold between 5,000 to 6,000 units worldwide, with Malaysia seeing 600 Turismo Leggeras sold since November 2015.
The Scomadi Turismo Leggera TL125 comes in two versions, the standard and SE. The standard retails for RM9,095 including GST, and comes in Magma Red, Onyx Black, Ocean Blue and Ocean Blue/Magma Red. The SE model goes for RM9,625 including GST, and comes in Matte Grey and a limited edition Chrome.
