Anyone own a motor scooter?

If so, what brand, and how fast does it go, and does it have cruise control? Anything else spiffy I should be aware of?

The reason I'm asking is that I'm researching on getting one for my wife so she can scoot to work and back (her work is only under a mile from here)

no need for gas, can go both ways several times on a single charge. Edited to add, I bought an electric bike from Target a couple yrs ago, but it only goes about 12 miles on a charge so is hard to get around for me.

I don't own a car so the scooter is my primary mode of transport. I live 15 miles from work and ride my scooter every day.

I LOVE MY SCOOTER!!!


I've also ridden my scooter from St Louis to my mom's place in Springfield IL which is approx 115 from my apartment to her door. No problems. I took the back roads. The scooter can keep at 60 mph.

I love it! (I am a woman btw.)

Right now I am driving a 1985 Honda Elite 150cc. After all my experience with scooters, I have come to the following conclusions:

Don't buy a shitty little 50cc model -- they may be cute and zippy, but they don't have a lot of serious guts and don't handle the road well at ALL in windy conditions. I was driving one of those home for a friend and I was literally pushed into the other lane of traffic from one good gust.

Buy a model where you don't have to mix the gas and oil.

Scooters are like tanks -- they are tough and go forever without major problems. In all my years and all my scooters I have had one major repair that cost me $500.

Pulling up and putting 1 gallon of gas into your tank -- and knowing it will last a week -- is a wonderfully satisfying feeling.

Get the right safety gear and use it. I have had two pretty healthy spills in my time -- one I broke an arm and the other I gave my head a serious conk -- thankfully, I was wearing my helmet at the time. Never, ever drive without it.



I can't recommend a scooter enough. They are engery efficient, there is no such thing as "no parking" in crowded neighborhoods, and there is nothing like driving around on a scooter on a beautiful day.

I think your wife will enjoy it! :hi:

and can't ride a scooter. Most I've tried have been too small for me, which doesn't help, but I think a lot has to with the fact that it's very disconcerting not to have a gas tank to grip between my knees. The gas tank thing is more than just strange to someone like me, it's also one reason why scooters are inherently less stable (and, therefore, more dangerous) than motorcycles. I've seen some new scooters that seemed a lot better engineered, including a 650cc monster ( :o ), but traditional scooters or step-throughs (the classic 'Honda 50' type) don't handle anywhere as well as motorcycles.

A further factor in my hatred of scooters, at least as personal transportation for myself, is that infernal automatic clutch -- cars should be automatic, in my opinion (here I betray the fact that I'm not really into cars and see them more as practical transport than as means for going fast and being all sporty), but motorcycles should have a clutch lever, dammit, even if riding in LA freeway traffic gives you carpal tunnel syndrome as a result. Anyway, the upshot of the automatic clutch on a scooter or stepthrough is that I've done more wheelies on stepthroughs than ever on a motorcycle, and none intentionally. I've even been left behind on the road a couple of times when riding pillion on a roommate's stepthrough -- big wheelie every time the auto clutch changed gear, twice resulting in me being deposited on the road...thank goodness the thing was so overburdened with two of us aboard that I came off at running speed and landed on my feet. Take it easy with the throttle, basically, and this shouldn't be a problem (in my case, the size incompatibility that forces me to sit too far back on the seat of most scooters made me even more prone to wheelies 'cos my center of gravity was so far back).

Another problem I have with scooters is that most have small wheels. Tiny wheels. The old stepthroughs, at least, had wheels of more regular size, and handled better as a result. The thing about small wheels is that they track badly -- they'll follow a line in the pavement, or a small rut, and that can be a Very Bad Thing -- and they generally impair handling. More than anything else, the tentative feel of those tiny wheels has freaked me out when I've ridden a scooter. Bad design. But widespread for what I can only assume is cosmetic purpose, or for remaining true to the tradition of the Mods and their Vespas.

I say all this not because I believe that scooters are a scourge that needs to be purged from the world's streets but because (a) some of these things are inherently very dangerous and (b) too many people buy them and do not appreciate the fact that they are a serious motor vehicle, capable of getting the rider into big trouble (even killed) if they ever treat it, the road, or other riders lightly. Scooters have most of the drawbacks of motorcycles (other drivers out to kill you, sand or oil or ice or whatever on corners, exposure and sliding through traffic in the event of a spill, etc) but are missing some of the benefits (acceleration, although often good, typically no match for that of a motorcycle and therefore not much use in getting you out of trouble, sucky brakes on all but some of the new ones, etc). To be honest, the thought of being on a scooter in heavy traffic scares the hell out of me, but that may partly be a result of the handling issues I've experienced.

That 650cc scooter was a Honda -- don't know if it comes in smaller displacements -- and seemed pretty good. I didn't ride it, but the dude who owned it rode bikes for a long time and told me it's not at all like other scooters in terms of handling. Honda's a great company, anyway, so no particular surprise that they may have finally fixed the Scooter Problem. Other scooters I've had experience with that were leagues ahead of the herd were those by BMW and Peugot, though I don't know if either is available in the US.

Anyway, I guess my main point is that your wife needs to be very, very aware that she is riding a serious piece of machinery and that she is more vulnerable than ever before in traffic (unless she's ridden a bicycle a lot, of course). Here in Nevada, an inane law allows scooter riders to not wear helmets -- motorcyclists have to, but not people on scooters -- but there is no way your wife shoudl be out there without one...in fact, she should really follow the exact same guidelines a prudent motorcyclist would: full-face helmet (ideally...if not, a 3/4 open-face style with visor), leather reinforced gloves, sturdy footwear, leather or otherwise very durable jacket, and at least jeans. If I rode a scooter, I'd probably wear the same head-to-toe armored leather I wear on my motorcycle, and tell anyone who voices an opinion as to how ridiculous I look that they can just f*** off and die, post haste. A relative of mine here has toyed with the idea of getting a scooter for 'just local running about.' She wouldn't listen to anything I had to say regarding safety gear, because she's too many times already criticized my black leather for not being 'cool' and asking why I can't just ride around in T-shirt and shorts like "everybody else out there" (first, that's not true -- I'm not the only rider around here suffering through summer in leather -- and, second, those people she wants to pressure me into forming a peer group with are f***wits). She also doesn'e beleive me -- with 30 years of experience in riding -- that "quick trips locally" are when most accidents happen, and that they're liable to be worse because a car will more often than not be involved. And she won't wear a helmet, if she gets a scooter, because she doesn't want to mess up her hair and she thinks it looks weird. It's perhaps worth mentioning that she's also voiced a desire to one day soon buy a Harley Davidson motorcycle -- not because she likes bikes, or anything like that (she's never ridden one and will undoubtedly be one of those idiots who goes from nothing to some 800-cc monstrosity), but because it fits an image she wants to project. She is, unfortuantely, too typical. Typical not only in using motorcycles as toys or fashion accessories (Harley Davidson would, seriously, be once-and-for-all bankrupt if that wasn't the norm in this country) but typical in not taking seriously their considerable potential for hurting or even killing their riders, biker's fault or not, a potential greatly increased by attitudes like hers.

Please ensure that your wife is protected in every conceivable way. It is f***ing scary out there on two wheels.