Red_Liner740

I'm in Thailand right now on a small island off the coast and i spent literally an entire day looking for an actual bike to rent and not a scooter...

i want GEARS to bang! finally found a Honda Storm 125cc, gotta give it respect, for 125cc's it hauls ***! i can wheelie it in first and second but only clutching it up... anyways back to scooters....the island is covered in them! everyone has one....gear? what gear? everyone rides barefoot or in flip flops shorts and a t-shirt here.....i ride in what i can, i brought my alpinestar gloves with me...nobody takes 2 wheeling here seriously....rules of the road are considered suggestions only. You can actually see who's ridden before and who hasnt just by how they handle the scooter/bike....the whole clutch burning/riding the friction point, looking down at the shifter to figure out how it works....lol and lets not forget the drunken weaving as they try to maintain balance.

i dont think scooting will ever hit big in US as its popular in Europe or Asia....North Americans have way too much pride in general to be caught on one...

AJG101

Not sure about the law elsewhere but here in the UK any little idiot can ride a 50cc or less scooter at the age of 16. Granted, it's the minority that give the rest of the riders a bad reputation but something needs to be done here. If you want to ride a scooter then you have to complete a CBT (compulsory basic training). This consists of 30mins going round a car park and then once around the block to make sure you can keep your balance. What a joke! You're then sent off to mingle with the traffic and take your chances. In the summer I've seen guys with just a lid on (Only because it's law in the UK) and a pair of shorts, taking corners like Rossi wannabe's, with no regard for anyone. These KIDS have no road sense and swarm together, often 4 wide, in a single lane. Insurance is compulsory here too and I often think it makes them feel invincible. Funnily enough injury and death are not un-common. Don't get me wrong, I started on a scooter and then progressed to larger bikes but surely there has to be some kind of comprehensive test? Doesn't matter if it's a 50cc moped or a 1000cc superbike, you can break the law on both and it still hurts like hell if you come off! Can we really justify sending these people out un-educated? Could that be the problem?

Truckinduc

I actually work as a scooter mechanic part time, mostly vintage 2 stroke rebuilds. I ride a trashed one that i stripped down. Its alright for city riding.

Dont get me started on most of the people that ride them. The shop i work at carries lots and lots of gear, alot of it in leather. Most scooter people are CLUELESS.

oahu hawk

a streetfighter scooter no less...

Barch

My best friend lives about a block away and rides a Yamaha 125 Vino. We're both 40, and he spent the '80's riding Honda Elites while I was on Secas and Viragos. He's got all the right safety gear and knows the roads as well as any cycle rider. We ride together all the time, and, in 45mph traffic, there's nothing -legally- I can do that he can't. He's a great technical rider, and I would put him on his Vino up against a number of sportbike riders on a twisty, flat road. The difference is that he's a lost cause on even the slightest hills, and he rides it at its absolute limits with no room for error. He would take any bike to its limit, so I know better than to try to talk him into something bigger. Even he admits he shouldn't get a motorcycle because he wouldn't be able to keep it sane.
Likewise, there's a guy who works at the local CycleGear who claims he can hang with his sportbike friends anyday on his 200 scooter -his main ride is a 1400 Ninja.
I've ridden his Vino around the neighborhood and taken my kids out on it. My 45lb son slows it down considerably. It's a fun ride, but comparing it to my Hawk is like comparing a go-cart to a car. 50 mph is terrifying with no margin for error, you sit straight up and fully exposed to the elements, and there's no safety zone for breaking or acceleration in traffic. Its low center of gravity is a real plus at 25 mph curves, but that's the extent of the 10inch wheel advantage. Besides, even my loving, all-accepting wife claims scooters are "faggy." But if that works for my friend, then I'll ride with him anytime. -When my decked-out GS1200 Adv. riding buddy joins us, we get a hell of a lot of stares and a decent number of laughs.
But I have to agree with the majority of the posters when I add that my friend is in a very small minority here. This last season, it seemed like everyday I was seeing new levels of stupidity on scooters. Whether it was scooters held together with duct tape or three non-helmetted teens going 35 in trafic on one scooter, like some National Geographic photo spread on third-world transportation, -and the cops didn't seem to care! I can understand if an older scooter is all you can afford, but common sense costs nothing.
I respect a good number of safety-conscious, smart, scooter riders here in my city. Unfortunately, they are a minority in their own town.
-Brian

VTRsurfer

In 1986 my best friend and I, both divorced and single at the time, decided we had to surf Hawaii, since we would be turning 40 that year. We flew to Oahu in the 2nd week of June expecting to meet vacationing women looking for a fun time.

What greeted us was hundreds of vacationing recently graduated HIGH SCHOOL students...so much for romance, at least the waves were fun. But there were 17 and 18 year olds on RENTED SCOOTERS everywhere.

By the end of the week we were seeing high school grads in casts gimping around Honolulu.

txrb182sc

My mother in law wants to buy a scooter, it's just because that fad that's going around I think, I'm trying to talk her into getting a 250 ninja. That way she'll at least look the part of a real rider; I've seen a few females on Honda Rebels and the like, that's not a bad deal either if you're a female looking for some cheap, practical two-wheeled transportation.

What I don't get is why you would go out of your way to ride something so goofy as a scooter when a real bike is just as easy to get. Here is where some scooter riders have something in common with harley riders; they both bought their impractical vehicles so they could be with the "in" crowd and fit into a certain group. The scooter clique, "cute and eco-conscious"; and the harley clique, "I'm not very sure of my masculinity so I need to buy $15,000 fashion accessory so everyone will know that I'm 'Manly'."