Scooter dealer tries to get ahead in alternative market.

Steven Elliott sits astride the smart-looking silver and black scooter in the small warehouse that's the assembly point and service shop for his company Bigass Motors.

It's a bike that Elliott describes as the ultimate in simplicity.

"There's not a part on here that isn't needed," said Elliott, "and it's built to last."

The scooter is the latest in the lineup offered by Bigass as Elliott taps into a market seeking alternative forms of transportation at a time when gas costs well above $3 a gallon and appears to not be dropping anytime soon.

A U.S. Army veteran who worked in the entertainment industry before devoting himself full time to Bigass, Elliot finds the scooter is no longer just for the budget-conscious student or the retro-chic hipster making a statement but reaching a new audience with shifting priorities.

Durability has overtaken cost savings as a prime reason why people are stepping through to steer their scooter

"They came to the conclusion that whatever they were buying they are going to be living with for a long time," Elliott said. "They are looking for the Canary of motor scooters."

Statistics from an industry organization back up what Elliott sees in terms of sales.

According to the Motorcycle Industry Council, motorcycle and scooter sales topped 1 million for the third consecutive year in 2005. For the first six months of 2006, scooters sales revved up 19.7 percent compared to the first six months of 2005, the council said.

Just three scooter dealerships exist in the San Fernando Valley--Bigass Motors, NoHo Scooters, and Vespa of Sherman Oaks.

Elliott, however, takes the long view, foreseeing the day when there is much more retail competition.

When the ubiquity of scooter usage in the United States reaches the same level as in Europe and Asia, Elliott envisions having the infrastructure in place to assemble, sell, repair and customize the bikes.

"While the rest of the country is getting its head wrapped around selling scooters, I'm already thinking of what will be the trend in five years and get my hooks in that," Elliott said.

Jared Koons, 23, the service manager at NoHo Scooters, shares Elliott's long-term vision.

"We're just waiting for that day when people wake up and realize it's a lot more convenient and makes more sense to ride a scooter to work and back," Koons said. "The gas, the parking, the insurance is cheap--the bike itself is cheap."

Say the word "scooter" and the immediate image that comes to mind is that of the Vespa, the Italian two-wheeled conveyance considered to be the high-end of the market.

But Vespas are not made in Italy but in China. NoHo Scooters sells product from two Taiwanese companies. Bigass sells a scooter of German design manufactured in China and imported to the Valley through an American company.

Elliot works with companies virtually unknown in the U.S. market but that sell millions of bikes in their home countries. Bajaj, an Indian company, is the fourth largest manufacturer of two- and three-wheeled vehicles in the world.

So how did a company with a 2,500-square foot warehouse decorated with movie, television and anime posters in Northridge hook up with Bajaj--one of the 10 largest companies in India--to sell their scooters and three-wheeled vehicles?

Elliott credits it to Bigass being proportionate in size to Bajaj's market share in the U.S. A small company can handle a small number of sales.

"That is today but in a few years it may be 50 fold," Elliott said.

Elliott stakes much on the sale of the three-wheeled vehicle, which he said could be used by restaurants for food delivery, landscapers to haul water containers, and production companies and studios to move cameras and other equipment.

The gas-powered vehicles can be converted to use by propane or compressed natural gas.

BY MARK R. MADLER

Staff Reporter