Sometimes a story is so easy to write…
Pics: Black Rock Studio
For some obscure reason, we’ve battled to get hold of any of the Italjet scoots to review – no fault of the importers or dealers, it’s just a case of never getting around to it all. When we were invited along to the launch of their new 700 dragster in a months time, we figured that we’d better remedy that, spend some saddle time and learn a bit more about the Italjet brand.
To this end, we were pointed in the direction of Clints Scoots inside the Bavarian premises in Centurion where a 300 Dragster was prepped and waiting.
The shop has the whole Italian flair scooter thing going on, with retro gear, fine coffee and some damn gorgeous little machines on the showroom floor.
Just have a look.
All about Italjet:
Forget about what you assume a scooter should look like, these guys have built a reputation on thinking out of the box.
Italjet Moto SpA is an Italian manufacturer of motorcycles, headquartered in Castel Guelfo di Bologna, in Bologna, Italy. The company was officially founded as Italemmezeta on 4 February 1960 by Leopoldo Tartarini. A family run affair, it is today an international institution led by Massimo Tartarini.
Unless you live under a rock, you’ll know that they are also involved in MotoGP.
The Italjet Gresini Moto2 team races with Albert Arenas and our own Darryn Binder in the saddle.
Cool huh!
But we digress, this story is about the rolling work of technical innovation that is the Italjet Dragster 300.
A little bit about the bike.
This is one of those machines where you look, then look again and again because you keep seeing bits that you might have missed. Once again – just look at this thing.
It boasts a Chromolly frame – in bright red with die-cast aluminum plates.
Independent steering System: we know, we looked long and hard and the design is seriously cool. In a nutshell, the independent steering system separates the steering and shock absorbing action.
Out back, you’ll find a single shock absorber, combined with the effectiveness of the i.s.s.
Powering the bike is a four-stroke 278cc liquid cooled engine. That’s mated to a fully automatic drive system. Simple get-on and go!
This one was delivered with a raunchy Malossi Pipe.
Brembo double piston brake calipers take care of stopping duties – and those are channeled through an ABS system.
Extra flair is delivered by the minimalistic plastics, the sharp LED lighting system, the sculpted mags… should we continue?
Malossi has a catalogue of extras for these machines, and Clint upgraded the transmission and all sorts on this one. The sky is the limit, they stock everything from clutch upgrade kits to trick CDI boxed, down draft wings to full carbon body kits.
We even saw one in the shop with Stegosaurus fins out back. The limits to customising a dragster as only limited by your imagination.
Under the well shaped seat there is a neat little cubby for bits like your wallet and sunnies and as expected, the scoot also has a charging port.
Info is transmitted to the rider by a neat digital display mounted just above the cast handlebar. Those in turn have lever protectors that house the very cool front indicators.
Cool huh!
Tickle the starter and she rumbles to life – that pipe is going to grab some attention… open the throttle…
Man!
Ergonomically, the bike looks racy but it’s actually really comfortable – just as a scooter should be.
This thing is fun! We blitzed the suburbs heading out of Centurion, easily overtaking all the traffic as we hit the freeway. That caused a stir as peeps stuck their heads out of moving car windows to get a better look at the bike. Traffic lights and stop streets were treated as race starts as more than one bigger capacity bike decided to have a go at this noisy Italian upstart.
We hit the quiet roads up on the hills and had a lot of fun flinging the Dragster through corners, scaring the hell out of spandex clad cyclists and having a great time.
It’s simple, quick, good looking, rides like a million bucks and turns heads at every corner.
The suspension easily copes with any angle of lean and we are happy to report that the Brembo brakes did a sterling job every time we forgot about those pesky suburban speed bumps…
Returning the bike, we stopped in at a fast food joint to refuel the body and parked in between all of the traditional delivery bikes.
The riders were blown away and spent time gawping at her and asking all kinds of questions – the most important of which was:
“Boss, how fast is it?”
The bigger riders for the day quickly got to a top speed of 140KPH, the skinnier, 145KPH before he ran out of road – but that’s not what this bike is about.
The correct question to ask is how it makes you feel getting up to those speeds.
The answer is – very, very cool!
Starts from R160K
