Zooming Korea
Gestern Japan & USA, heute Deutschland und Korea, morgen: DIE WELT. Der Zoomer ist nicht zu stoppen, wie mir gerade eine Freundin mailt! ;)
http://www.expat-advisory.com/south-korea/seoul/scooters-seoul.php
Scooting in Seoul
Expat Advisory Services
Not so long ago, the west looked to Japan for the latest trends, impatiently waiting for the next underground revolution that would inevitably reach the mainstream.
But now the coolness of Harajuku is as evident in downtown Apgujeong as it is on the streets of Tokyo. Young Koreans with pockets of cash and attitude to boot roam this designer area on the look out for the next trend.
The latest trend to hit Korea is scooter culture where the more modified and kitted out, the better. The first scooter was designed in 1894 by the German duo Hildebrand and Wolfmuller as a motorized bicycle. This was followed by Fiat in 1938 but it was not until 1946 when Piaggio produced the Vespa did scooter culture really take off. The fact that more than 16 million Vespas have been sold in over 114 countries is testament to its iconic design.
Scooter popularity has ebbed and flowed over the years reaching its peak in the 1960s when rockers and mods popularized the appeal. Fast forward 25 years and the scooter has developed its own unique subculture in South Korea, an urban battleground for diehard youth craving speed and coolness on the omnipresent highways of Seoul.
Scooter kids look to the clean lines of the Honda Zoomer for industrial cool-hard-edged, bare boned tubes with modified exhausts and engines that take it way beyond its 50cc capability.
The Zoomer provides an opportunity to create your own identity, a road warrior willing to fight in the biggest battleground of all-peak rush hour Seoul traffic.
Feeling like Knight Rider on two wheels.
I wipe the sweat from my brow and merge into the dense Seoul traffic. This is survival of the fittest in every sense possible and if you're big enough you rule the road. There is no second chance and definitely no room for hesitation as impatient Seoulites hammer down the highways. My heart is thudding, little beads of sweat appear on the inside of my visor, bug eyed and increasingly aware of my every movement, I wait for the bus driver to make his move...
"Scooter kids look to the clean lines of the Honda Zoomer for industrial cool-hard-edged, bare boned tubes with modified exhausts and engines that take it way beyond its 50cc capability.
The Zoomer is tough, resilient and automatically provides me with street credibility. Young Korean boys and the odd courier drive up to look at my bike and ponder how a young Western woman is crazy enough to drive in their city. Most importantly, it's fun and an incredibly fast way to move around the streets.
The Honda Zoomer was created in Asaka, Japan by N Project a group of young, forward thinking designers. They simply wanted to create a bike that adapted to the varied lifestyles of today's youth. Each person is an individual and N Project wanted to acknowledge that. The extra wide tires and dual headlights give it the feeling that it could have been dropped out of an army helicopter, the designers wanted people to feel they could customize their own bike to show their own personality. The Zoomer was launched in Japan in 2001 and the trend is only just beginning in South Korea.
You only need to visit the campus of Yonsei University to see Nike hi-top and Diesel clad youth burning their Zoomers around the grounds.
The Zoomer is similar to the Apple IPod-a must have accessory for today's youth that can be customized to suit your interests and your lifestyle. For marketers these products provide a valuable lesson. Youth want to be able to make their own choices with success spreading through word of mouth credibility and sexy design not expensive marketing campaigns. In Asia where cheap copies can be made of everything it is innovation and design that provides the key to survival for many organizations.
If you are after power this isn't the bike. The Zoomer is a pleasure machine, quick and fast around the city it runs off a single-cylinder, 49cc four-stroke mill. There is no danger of speeding tickets with a meager five horsepower motor (3.6kW).
Yi-won Gyu has been tuning and dressing up bikes for 25 years. His store D-Shop in Chungmuro is where the cool kids come to have their mufflers messed up and their bike stripped back to bare bones. I mention that the Zoomer seems to be the most popular bike with Korean youth. Gyu nods knowingly.
"Favorite modifications include flame painted handle bars at 65,000 won, the Yoshimura muffler at 350,000 won, add in a bare frame for 250,000 won and an air cleaner to give you more grunt and your bike can end up costing close to 5 million won."
"What makes the Zoomer so popular is you can dress it up. Kids can follow the latest trends and have their own individual bike" explained Gyu, whose team of mechanics spends 80 percent of their time customizing bikes. Gyu laughs when he describes kids saving up to have their handlebars changed and mufflers fitted.
What starts out as a reasonable priced bike at close to 3 million won, with second hand models doing the rounds between 2 and 2.5 million won can end up very expensive.
Favorite modifications include flame painted handle bars at 65,000 won, the Yoshimura muffler at 350,000 won, add in a bare frame for 250,000 won and an air cleaner to give you more grunt and your bike can end up costing close to 5 million won.
Gyu and his team love the Zoomer so much they have created a show model. This chrome machine cost over 10 million won to build and was a labor of love. The bike reaches a top speed of 80km (you would be lucky to reach 50km with the standard model) and is the talk of Seoul at bike shows and exhibitions. It appears to have given D-Shop street credibility as the cool kids come here to emulate Gyu's bikes.
International Zoomer fans (badged Ruckus in the US) have gone one step further with Play stations under the console, surfboard racks custom paint jobs and neon lights. Does it make you go faster? Well, that remains to be seen.
It's not only boys who have embraced street culture, increasingly girls are taking an interest too. Underground sports that grew from the street, such as skateboarding and surfing, were initially driven by males, but now girls hold their own and the same goes for scooters. Scooting through fashion conscious Apgujeong I see girls dressed like the comic book heroine Scooter Girl.
In Chynna Clugston-Majors' best selling comic book she is sexy, stylish and a man magnet.
The comparison cannot help but be seen when the cool Korean girls pull up at the lights. Counterfeit Louis Vuitton, Burberry and Christian Dior helmets have already hit the street. These brands are so ubiquitous in South Korea that it is only a matter of time before the designers embrace the trend and emerge with their own take on modern scooter outfits.
So next time you are crossing the street, take note of the kitted up bikes with cool Korean kids. It is a sign of things to come. In a culture of conservatism individuality is rising from the streets.
http://www.expat-advisory.com/south-korea/seoul/scooters-seoul.php
Scooting in Seoul
Expat Advisory Services
Not so long ago, the west looked to Japan for the latest trends, impatiently waiting for the next underground revolution that would inevitably reach the mainstream.
But now the coolness of Harajuku is as evident in downtown Apgujeong as it is on the streets of Tokyo. Young Koreans with pockets of cash and attitude to boot roam this designer area on the look out for the next trend.
The latest trend to hit Korea is scooter culture where the more modified and kitted out, the better. The first scooter was designed in 1894 by the German duo Hildebrand and Wolfmuller as a motorized bicycle. This was followed by Fiat in 1938 but it was not until 1946 when Piaggio produced the Vespa did scooter culture really take off. The fact that more than 16 million Vespas have been sold in over 114 countries is testament to its iconic design.
Scooter popularity has ebbed and flowed over the years reaching its peak in the 1960s when rockers and mods popularized the appeal. Fast forward 25 years and the scooter has developed its own unique subculture in South Korea, an urban battleground for diehard youth craving speed and coolness on the omnipresent highways of Seoul.
Scooter kids look to the clean lines of the Honda Zoomer for industrial cool-hard-edged, bare boned tubes with modified exhausts and engines that take it way beyond its 50cc capability.
The Zoomer provides an opportunity to create your own identity, a road warrior willing to fight in the biggest battleground of all-peak rush hour Seoul traffic.
Feeling like Knight Rider on two wheels.
I wipe the sweat from my brow and merge into the dense Seoul traffic. This is survival of the fittest in every sense possible and if you're big enough you rule the road. There is no second chance and definitely no room for hesitation as impatient Seoulites hammer down the highways. My heart is thudding, little beads of sweat appear on the inside of my visor, bug eyed and increasingly aware of my every movement, I wait for the bus driver to make his move...
"Scooter kids look to the clean lines of the Honda Zoomer for industrial cool-hard-edged, bare boned tubes with modified exhausts and engines that take it way beyond its 50cc capability.
The Zoomer is tough, resilient and automatically provides me with street credibility. Young Korean boys and the odd courier drive up to look at my bike and ponder how a young Western woman is crazy enough to drive in their city. Most importantly, it's fun and an incredibly fast way to move around the streets.
The Honda Zoomer was created in Asaka, Japan by N Project a group of young, forward thinking designers. They simply wanted to create a bike that adapted to the varied lifestyles of today's youth. Each person is an individual and N Project wanted to acknowledge that. The extra wide tires and dual headlights give it the feeling that it could have been dropped out of an army helicopter, the designers wanted people to feel they could customize their own bike to show their own personality. The Zoomer was launched in Japan in 2001 and the trend is only just beginning in South Korea.
You only need to visit the campus of Yonsei University to see Nike hi-top and Diesel clad youth burning their Zoomers around the grounds.
The Zoomer is similar to the Apple IPod-a must have accessory for today's youth that can be customized to suit your interests and your lifestyle. For marketers these products provide a valuable lesson. Youth want to be able to make their own choices with success spreading through word of mouth credibility and sexy design not expensive marketing campaigns. In Asia where cheap copies can be made of everything it is innovation and design that provides the key to survival for many organizations.
If you are after power this isn't the bike. The Zoomer is a pleasure machine, quick and fast around the city it runs off a single-cylinder, 49cc four-stroke mill. There is no danger of speeding tickets with a meager five horsepower motor (3.6kW).
Yi-won Gyu has been tuning and dressing up bikes for 25 years. His store D-Shop in Chungmuro is where the cool kids come to have their mufflers messed up and their bike stripped back to bare bones. I mention that the Zoomer seems to be the most popular bike with Korean youth. Gyu nods knowingly.
"Favorite modifications include flame painted handle bars at 65,000 won, the Yoshimura muffler at 350,000 won, add in a bare frame for 250,000 won and an air cleaner to give you more grunt and your bike can end up costing close to 5 million won."
"What makes the Zoomer so popular is you can dress it up. Kids can follow the latest trends and have their own individual bike" explained Gyu, whose team of mechanics spends 80 percent of their time customizing bikes. Gyu laughs when he describes kids saving up to have their handlebars changed and mufflers fitted.
What starts out as a reasonable priced bike at close to 3 million won, with second hand models doing the rounds between 2 and 2.5 million won can end up very expensive.
Favorite modifications include flame painted handle bars at 65,000 won, the Yoshimura muffler at 350,000 won, add in a bare frame for 250,000 won and an air cleaner to give you more grunt and your bike can end up costing close to 5 million won.
Gyu and his team love the Zoomer so much they have created a show model. This chrome machine cost over 10 million won to build and was a labor of love. The bike reaches a top speed of 80km (you would be lucky to reach 50km with the standard model) and is the talk of Seoul at bike shows and exhibitions. It appears to have given D-Shop street credibility as the cool kids come here to emulate Gyu's bikes.
International Zoomer fans (badged Ruckus in the US) have gone one step further with Play stations under the console, surfboard racks custom paint jobs and neon lights. Does it make you go faster? Well, that remains to be seen.
It's not only boys who have embraced street culture, increasingly girls are taking an interest too. Underground sports that grew from the street, such as skateboarding and surfing, were initially driven by males, but now girls hold their own and the same goes for scooters. Scooting through fashion conscious Apgujeong I see girls dressed like the comic book heroine Scooter Girl.
In Chynna Clugston-Majors' best selling comic book she is sexy, stylish and a man magnet.
The comparison cannot help but be seen when the cool Korean girls pull up at the lights. Counterfeit Louis Vuitton, Burberry and Christian Dior helmets have already hit the street. These brands are so ubiquitous in South Korea that it is only a matter of time before the designers embrace the trend and emerge with their own take on modern scooter outfits.
So next time you are crossing the street, take note of the kitted up bikes with cool Korean kids. It is a sign of things to come. In a culture of conservatism individuality is rising from the streets.
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