Piaggio Hexagon GT250 Scooter Taxi

Piaggio Hexagon GT250 Scooter Taxi

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Piaggio Hexagon GT 250 TaxiScoot & FF taxiscoots

This is a photo of a prototype taxiscooter in central London, based on a Piaggio Hexagon GT250 which I rode in about 1999 and wrote about in Twist & Go a couple of years ago.
The passenger here is not a paying customer but Colin Pattison of Promark Public Relations who at the time was doing PR for Piaggio. The pilot, an Addison Lee Taxibike rider more used to Honda Pan Europeans, was pretty rude about the Hexagon and as far as I know it was never actually used for a paying punter.
Although the brakes were pretty poor, it could certainly have been used for the job, but the Taxibike lads were typically biased against scooters.
Having said that, the Suzuki Burger King 650 would be a much better tool for the job, especially the Executive model with its push-button retractable mirrors and now, push-button adjustable screen. Having been a Taxibike and Limobike rider myself, I think the Burger King's automatic transmission in many ways makes it more suitable for taxibike use than a conventional motorcycle. Back in 1991 I spent some time testing the Voyager FF demo machine with Rob Cave, the founder of the London Taxibike service, assessing its suitability for the job. As standard, the Voyager was far too cramped for a normal sized passenger, the first gear was ridiculously tall and the clutch hard work, but it definitely had taxibike potential.
Update, April 2005. There is now a firm in Paris using the Burger King 650 as a taxibike.
PNB