What do you love about scooters /scootering?

You can wash and polish them in a fraction of the time it takes to wash a bike. I thought about this whenever I was washing my Harley.

And I can have two.

Nowhere fast.

Travel, at 200cc or less, like journey by horseback, is a nineteenth century mode, how humankind spent most of its short existence going; saddlebags, tied bundles, well-cinched & checked often. Neglect the mount at your peril; fasteners, belts, fluids, fodder.

An automobile is a rocketing armored carapace of amentity and comfort, hurtling along, abstracting you from time and place, most you don't want to be: you are not there where you are, only an instant, for gas, food, latrine, then back behind the wide expanse of smoked glass, upholstery, stereo, a perfect cossetive climate.

The scooter puts you always there, in the weather, the heat, cold, the pelt & leak of rain, breeze, wind, sun, veering shoves of sudden gusts and shadow, seeing and smelling each place and feeling it, attentive to the surface of the road, the lift and drop of camber, the specific geography of inclines, uphills, downslopes, and curves. The same sensory awareness of the machine, the noises, heat of it, straining or smooth, and how it grips to the smallest shift of your body.

Aware and attentive: a shoulder edge, a bad low-bid macadam repair can throw you into a ditch and snap your leg or your neck like a carrot; a constant arithmetic of fuel use rate and time to night's shelter, a quiet fret over faithless maps and where gas really is, and will they be open.

When your get there, parsing a day, not gobbling it wholesale, you are there, not in-and-out, but a formal dismount, walkaround tugging, looking, press-gauging valve stems, hanging your helmet for the john, the lunch counter, undressing and dressing a bit, zipping and snapping, restuffing your shirt and smoothing out layers. You are there, and compelled to take the time to be there, and taking time over this and that, meet people, speak, talk, for there is different from where you were before and from where you started, and you cannot know this rich difference of places and people from an Interstate highway.

Along the Appalachian chain, up hill and down at dusk where the county roads or state highways veer close to the Interstate offramps, the brand motels and restaurants, you can get a nice room, a warm bed, a shower and make a deal to lock the bike inside a high barrier fence holding the hotel dumpster, that no one will fuck with your scoot, or steal your fuel bottles. The place will empty in 20 minutes at dawn, but you have to dawdle, stuff yourself with steam table eggs, biscuits, bacon, coffee, and take half an hour arranging and lashing soft baggage aboard.

And I guarantee that your fingers will be stiff and cold and that the sun will slant straight in your face for a time, but also that you will move through that time and that place to another and another, taking them all in, having been at each and every there, weaving them all together on small wheels and frame at a pace that cannot really be called speed.

Nicely said, Redhand! I think you captured it...

Phipsd nailed it pretty good:

That's bang on: you can swoop & zoom & lean, no matter how mundane the errand - groceries, haircut, colonoscopy - getting there and back on a scoot enhances life.

I ride my scooters like people ride in Thailand, etc. Its not insane, its appropriate and I am never rude or careless. In town or in traffic, I split lanes, yep, even on the right. (I know the risks on that one). I generally do not ride my (now) former (or in-between) motorcycles the same way I ride a scooter. It hasn't happened yet but I imagine for my riding style I'd be getting dirty looks or even words from a car driver (who is probably carrying less than me getting 1/5 the mileage). I already have a answer for them: "Scold me if you wish but if you were riding a scooter for a year you'd be doing the exact same thing".

Lots of stuff, but it applies only to smaller scooters. I decided I don't care for maxi scooters. They remind me of the mini bikes I had as a kid. They are so easy to just hop on and go (no, I don't use all the gear for short rides) I don't have to worry about an ego problem when on a scooter. Great gas mileage. 100 times more comfortable than a sportbike. Step through design. I have serious arthritis, and it is painful to throw my leg over a motorcycle seat. Automatic transmission. No constantly shifting up and down through the gears fro one light to another. And it is just a completely different experience than riding a motorcycle. A scooter does not have the power of a motorcycle, but I'm pretty sure it is quicker through traffic.

Two things I do not like about scooters is they are not freeway legal (though I'm not sure I'd want to ride a scooter on the freeway anyway, I have motorcycles for that) The automatic transmission (CVT) is a double edged sword. It's great in town and flat surfaces, but on a small scooter, does not have a low enough gear ratio for riding in the mountains. My 150cc manual shift Stella does not have that problem, but I don't trust it's reliability enough to go very far on it.

cheap to ride ,to buy and to fix. Most bikes till don't get as good MPG as scooters. 50 cc gets you over 100 MPG , 250cc gets you 60 MPG. 90 percent of trips are less then 20 min away from where a person lives. Scooter fit the bill for filling that roll.

small size, lightweight, great maneuverability, exciting to ride in an urban environment, 10-12in wheels and tires. like jerryh my idea of a scooter is something that is small with small wheels, not a maxi scoot or maybe even a "midrange" scoot. i understand about the design of it and all, what with a step through frame and engine location. but i have a hard time relating to something as big as a SW or Kymco People 300 or even a SYM CityCom as a scooter. when i first saw a Kymco People 150 my eyes averted for the big wheels. so when i say 'small, light, etc...' i really mean things not much if any bigger then my Agility 125. yes i would and may own and ride a "big" scooter one day. i would just have a bit of a hard time thinking it as one, exactly

so thats what i love about scooters. what do i love about scootering? well, i can ride the shit out of them. traffic congestion doesn't exist. i can slide around, whip around, and go in and out of cars with the greatest of ease while on the move. i tend to ride aggressively and WOT, and that helps the fun factor. but riders get to choose their own fun on a scoot. i could never be a casual, 40mph, flow with the traffic scooterist. thats not what its about for me. yet others love it for just that reason. some like the twisties, some like the beaches on a weekend or a nice back roads ride. i like to battle

like the good name of our good forum, here. mine are battle scooters. and they win every time

^ ^ ^

this. To be a tongue-out running dog among the sheep. Lo-level hooliganism, yeah.

Yeah, maybe a different kind of fun. The taxonomy has not kept pace with the technology. Maxis: are they scooters at all? Is “automatic motorcycle” more accurate? Maybe.

The genesis of maxi-scoots; of need, to use the high-speed, straight line character of the big post-WWII highway systems? I owned a maxi-scooter once; well, almost a maxi, more of an intermediate-sized thing, a Honda PS250 Big Ruckus, modded for top end. It didn’t look like a typical maxi; it looked like a plumber’s truck. Anyhow, it's my personal reference point.

Looking back, I think that the defining difference is this: how the thing had to be ridden and how it tracked through a whole riding day defined it as a motorcycle. The track, handling, and ride that made it so, not like a scooter at all. Those are functions of weight and wheelbase length.

It was fun, but more a 'motorcycle' sort of fun. Just seems like when people talk about scooters and fun, they mean small wheels, short wheelbase, littl'uns. Just a thought.

Scooters defy the tyranny of engine size and speed that dominate motorcycles. And they incorporate advanced design and comfort usually reserved for high end bikes. My last motorcycle had chain drive and no fairing, and would go 80 mph. I found an old scooter with enclosed final drive, legshield and windshield, large luggage rack and a flat floor that would go 57 mph to be generally preferable. It is roomy and fends off the cold and wet. Only a large touring motorcycle would give the kind of comfort my scooter offers. On a long trip, what matters is the quality of the 'chair' you are in, not the horsepower that moves you. What I have lost is the high cruising speed which was unpleasant anyway.

My scooter brings back the days of my youth, at 16 with a shiny new MC license in hand, hopping on my CB125 and tearing off to wreak havoc in my little town. It lets me feel like that again, diving into corners, zooming in and out of traffic and parking lots, WOT and feeling like I'm flying... good times.

Making the most of the scooter and barely breaking the speed limit.

Of course a Citycom is a scooter, just not your kind of scooter. What would be the fun if we all liked the same thing?
To me some motorcycle DNA mixed in with the scooter is ideal. It gives me stability and high speed handling along with an ability to more easily handle high gusty winds. I'm six four and a half and I still have the riding position and room to slide foreword on my seat in extreme conditions to multiply the bikes stability.

The difference in handling when I do so is remarkable. If I was mainly an urban animal it wouldn't matter but I can do 500 km in a day riding in mountain winds. 125 cc and 12 inch wheels and a shorter wheelbase wouldn't cut it.

I am a rural rider too. I have several times driven hundreds of miles in a day and arrived still relatively comfortable, even in strong winds. A longer than average wheelbase helps a lot. But my ride is unmistakably a scooter. The sound of a small displacement single in perfect tune near redline all day is not to be missed.

That's bang on: you can swoop & zoom & lean, no matter how mundane the errand - groceries, haircut, colonoscopy - getting there and back on a scoot enhances life.[/QUOTE]


Love to lean in the corners at slow and fast speed.... Love the sound my scooter makes. Can not describe it and I have always loved engine/motors singing along. Twins at speed , a Formula 1 screaming, a thumping V-8, a sportbike pinned,
flathead v8's I respond like most people do to music. I love motors running. But there is something unique about how quiet the motor sounds. The sound this single makes zipping along at 50 or 60 mph is hard to describe

Also love to go to a store and see how much I can carry. So far I have hit $67 with groceries. GVWR is shocking compared to motorcycles. Mine is 650 lbs. + for a 150cc.

Love the body work; the way it rolls and bends.....

So much of it is something that can not be explained but must be experienced. I get teased a lot about it at work but i reply that I am secure in my manhood.

Love to lean in the corners at slow and fast speed.... Love the sound my scooter makes. Can not describe it and I have always loved engine/motors singing along. Twins at speed , a Formula 1 screaming, a thumping V-8, a sportbike pinned,
flathead v8's I respond like most people do to music. I love motors running. But there is something unique about how quiet the motor sounds. The sound this single makes zipping along at 50 or 60 mph is hard to describe

Also love to go to a store and see how much I can carry. So far I have hit $67 with groceries. GVWR is shocking compared to motorcycles. Mine is 650 lbs. + for a 150cc.

Love the body work; the way it rolls and bends.....

So much of it is something that can not be explained but must be experienced. I get teased a lot about it at work but i reply that I am secure in my manhood.[/QUOTE]

A motorcycle or scooter is more than a motor vehicle. It is a lawn decoration and, most significantly, a musical instrument.

A motorcycle or scooter is more than a motor vehicle. It is a lawn decoration and, most significantly, a musical instrument.[/QUOTE]

My scooter makes noise like a turkey when the belt slips, does that count?