Clone
From scoot.net
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What are "clone" scooters?
As exists in many industries, there has developed a tendency among some scooter makers, especially when first getting started, of copying popular designs from better known companies. When these are so nearly identical and obvious that people notice, we call them "clones" of the scooters they copy. An obvious example would be Bajaj. Once an official licensed producer of Vespa scooters in India, when the agreement ended in the 60s, Bajaj just kept producing the same scooters anyway. Piaggio sued to stop them, but lost, and so Bajaj to this day produces classic scooters clearly based on older Vespa designs. PGO has also produced Vespa clones, as have several other companies. Currently several Asian companies, like Daelim in Korea, produce Honda and Yamaha scooter clones. Generally, the home country protects the right of their local producers to build these cloned scooters, leaving the object of this attention powerless, except to point out typical deficiencies in quality compared with the original.[1]
Clones are a recent phenomenon in the USA, most of them appearing after 2001.
Models
Some common original models to clone include:
Yamaha Vino
Brands of Clones
Argo USA - former importer of the Bajaj line
Engines
Many clones use the GY6 engine.
Identifying Clones
Here is a page on identifying clones
