COMPANY PROFILE:
Javaspeed Scooters
Owners: Patrick Engeman,
Christian Reeve, Gregory A. Woodbury
Type of Business: Scooter and
coffee shop
Location: 1284 North Main St.,
Providence
Employees: Three full time and three part time
Year founded: 2002
Annual revenue: WND
The scene is laid-back and friendly. A young guy in baggy clothes plays on a pinball machine in the middle of a showroom full of motor scooters of varying sizes and colors.
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At a counter 10 feet away, a few people drink coffee while chatting with a tall man with a goatee. The coffee’s scent mixes with the smell of engine oil coming from a service center in the next room. It’s “Cheers” meets “Orange County Choppers,” with coffee instead of beer.
Between the pinball machine and the coffee counter, Gregory A. “Woody” Woodbury explains how three friends came up with the marriage of two business concepts – a scooter dealership and a coffee shop – to create Javaspeed Scooters in 2002.
Woodbury had been working part time at a scooter shop in Massachusetts, and Christian Reeve worked at a local motorcycle garage, but both yearned for their own shops. Patrick Engeman, a friend and motorcyclist himself, wanted to open a café.
The three realized their separate goals with one business, and the concept has worked well, Woodbury said.
“The coffee shop gets a regular base of customers here,” Woodbury said. “The more time people spend here, the more they look at other bikes and talk to other customers, and it helps out with sales.”
Javaspeed has become the Providence hub for a motor scooter phenomenon sweeping the nation. In a country reeling from spiraling gasoline prices, motor scooters serve as a more environmentally friendly and economical mode of transportation.
While most SUVs get only 12 to 15 miles per gallon, scooters get up to 120 mpg, meaning that an everyday rider can go to the pumps once a week and pay for a fill with pocket change, Woodbury said. (Fuel tanks on motor scooters range in size from two to five gallons, and take regular gasoline.)
For decades, however, scooters had only a small following. They hit the mainstream, Woodbury said, when Vespa scooters were reintroduced to the U.S. market in 2001. After Vespas caught on, Asian auto manufacturers followed suit with a host of scooters for American consumers. Motor scooter sales in 2004 reached an estimated 86,000, double the number sold in 2000, according to the Motorcycle Industry Council.
Scooters are a relatively cheap investment, more in line with the price of big TVs than other automobiles. Javaspeed sells new models for $2,000 to $4,800. Also, auto insurance for a scooter costs about one-tenth of that of a car, according to Woodbury.
Though one can find scooters at motorcycle and used car dealerships, Javaspeed is the only business that sells only scooters, Woodbury said. Its service center provides everything from oil changes to complete remodeling of antique scooters. Woodbury added that Javaspeed’s focus saves scooter riders from the attitude he has faced at regular motorcycle shops, which regard scooters as secondary to the larger bikes.
Like motorcyclists, scooter enthusiasts in Providence have formed their own counterculture. Woodbury said he and his partners round up fellow scooter riders every Wednesday, and they often end up on Thayer Street or other popular hangouts. Their ranks are thin in the winter, he said, but swell to about 30 during the warmer months.
Scooter riders in the state also have their own message board on Yahoo.com, where they share updates on rider events and other happenings related to the bikes.
Lately, the Javaspeed owners have also found themselves lobbying on behalf of scooter riders. It began when, last year, the state Division of Motor Vehicles changed its rules and started requiring motor scooter riders to get motorcycle licenses. Previously a regular driver’s license was all they needed.
With the DMV’s prolonged licensing process, which includes a two-day safety course, sales growth at Javaspeed slowed, Woodbury said. Sales had doubled from 2003 to 2004, but in 2005 they held steady. (He declined to give specific figures.)
So Javaspeed got in touch with House Majority Leader Gordon Fox, D-Providence, who this month introduced a bill to no longer require scooter riders to have motorcycle licenses.
“In a day and age when we’re concerned about congestion and the environment, we should be encouraging people to ride scooters instead of bigger vehicles,” Fox said in a news release.
While the bill wends its way through the Legislature, Woodbury is using the winter to catch up on restoring antique scooters – his most recent project is a 1955 Vespa.
“It’s the best way to get around,” he said.
