GP1-209???

Mr Derbi's Derbi

Who did the importer of Derbi Australia turn to when it came time to do his own personal GP1?

Brendon Watson

For those not in the loop, the initial shipment of Derbi's brilliant GP1 250ie sold out way before expected, demand was so strong Simon, the importer of Derbi in Australia had to give up the GP1 250 he allocated for himself.

Fortunately he had bought in a GP1 125 for ADR compliance & evaluation. In Europe & other parts of the world there are big concessions for 125cc class scooters which is why many 125's outsells the 250cc variants in Europe despite a small price difference between the two. Scooters, especially the 125's are a here & now Low Emmission Vehicle (LEV). Unfortunately we don't get the same concessions for saving the planet & no real concessions exist for 125's in Australia so we bypass the 125 straight to the bigger capacity 250.

For those who don't know Simon he is one very competitive person, competing in the SPA 24 hour race can be listed amongst some of his many achievements. So competitive we often joke that when he rides occassionally he'll notice something really close & start to race it, only to discover after a long close tussle it was his shadow.

With the GP1 125 not being bought into Australia the sample was sitting around, we had a Malossi big bore kit. Guess what happened next?

published 26/11/2009