What do you love about scooters /scootering?

During my work Christmas Party the other night, a few buddies were laughing joking about me having a scooter. And my scooter don't like poeple laughing; he gets the crazy idea poeple are laughing at him. So fast forward to today. My boss asks how fast my scooter goes, "29-30 mph?" he says. When I told him 80, the look on his face was priceless. It's those remarks along with my wife saying "It's big" when I first showed it to her , that make scootering fun. Oh, and riding too

I often describe scooting as the inverse of my sportbiking. The former being 90/10: 90% pleasant mindless humming along enjoying the sights not a care about the speed limit, and maybe only 10% focused, exhilarating technical maneuvering. Whereas sportbiking, for me, was almost always the opposite. Neither is better, because for me they're very different activities.

I like that they're simpler to work on than my "real" motorcycles. I worry less about them, and am more inclined to creative wrenching, fastener swaps, decorating them, etc. Scootering is so much more care free for me, not worrying over every bug splatter, polishing every chain link, or what kind of wax I'll use on the bodywork...Sometimes it's nice to ride something where all I'm thinking about is getting in my full tuck position and seeing how fast I can cover 150 miles of scenic back country roads. I love wearing my 1-piece racing leathers, dragging a knee doing 35mph, leaned over on the scooter, dragging the pitiful drum brakes to the apex, looking like an idiot to the rest of traffic, grinning like one too, under my helmet as I revel in the absolute raucous sense of freedom I get from hooning about on my little "toy" as some people call it.

Like my sticker says, "Guaranteed more fun per gallon than your car " !!

I like wrenching on them almost more than my sportbike, too. The feeling of having breathed life into a 25 year old motor, porting, polishing, grinding, sealing, conditioning, raising it from toy status to something far more, and it feels so rewarding to think "Yesterday it was a pile of parts, and now I'm doing 60mph, getting 80mpg, and laughing my head off as I pass traffic, all while listening to the well ordered pitter patter of a tuned, small displacement motor.

It also helps keep me a little more sane, and helps me to appreciate going to the track on my big bike, that much more. 170mph is a thrill every single time, after I've been scooting around at 50 for weeks on end. Running about at WOT on the big bike simply isn't practical, safe, or much fun around town, but you can do it on the scooter with ease, and virtually no concern for getting in trouble (within reason, obv.)

This is so true. The sounds are such a huge part of the whole experience!

That's it for me... My zuma, flat out and pinned WOT will do about 35-40. But it feels like I'm breaking the law the whole time.

Plus, you can't beat a little scoot for exploring places off the beaten path. It's quiet, and zips in and out of places quickly and with great stealth. I feel like I am a kid again, riding my Z50 all over the neighborhood, having adventures only a mile or two from my house!

It fufills my inner child. Every launch is full throttle. Every braking event is at the maximum. Every turn is as sharp as I dare. It makes me giggle like a little schoolgirl when I wave at a Harley rider and he starts to wave, but pulls his hand back in. I like to pull up next to the biggest SUV at the gas station and comment, "these gas prices are ridiculous. It's gonna cost me almost four bucks to fill this thing." I park on sidewalks. I split lanes. I put my daughters in front and let them steer while I wave like a prom queen. In short, I act like an ill-behaved 11 year-old.

Well first off why do I like scooters rather than motorcycles? I dont really, basically for no other reason then why my car was an automatic vs a manual.

Now, why do I like two wheels?
It brings you closer to the experience of what you are doing instead of what you are doing it with.

materialistically minimal to maxium life experience ratio is the best there is out there of just about anything I can think of. Father you can get away from ownership of objects and the closer you can get to experience of life the better.

The reoccurring theme seems to be that scooters are a lot of fun.

+1

I have an old friend in Canada who has a couple of scooters and a BMW tourer. He wrote an article about his 1958 Heinkel, and said it was the last bike he would give up. And his wife preferred the back seat of the old scooter to any other.

That's awesome! Sounds like he found a keeper of a wife, too!

Those of us who live in California get to lane split on the freeway. The joy of puttering through stopped traffic on my $500 wonder scooter, passing 100's of very expensive vehicles, just can't be beat.

I love that the town of 1500 poeple, just 10 miles from my house, which I would never visit, suddenly becomes a destination because if I take the scenic route (15 miles now) it takes me along narrow farm roads that parallel the river for about 30% of the trip. As a bonus, the Sierra Nevada's are capped with snow for me to see the whole return journey.

same thing for motorbikes with me its the freedom of just getting out there, i do miss my little scoot so much it only did 55mph but i would do that everywhere for now i run a supermoto until the summer and a 400cc sportsbike it will be for me i will one day have another scooter to enjoy the joys of owning such a great package on two wheels.

Kennon

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8343/8243988259_4817c83676_b.jpg

If by chance it stops running, I fix it right there.

There are lots of things I love about scootering! I have a 50cc Zuma and it is great. Ideally I would like to have a 150-250cc scooter for the extra range/speed but my Zuma does the job!

The first and greatest thing would have to be the convenience! It is just so easy to jump on my scooter and go. I don't really have to warm it up, just the time it takes to put my helmet on. I park it anywhere, side walk, grass...

It is cheap to operate, insure, tag...

It is really fun to blast around on!!!

I can carry a lot of stuff between my legs!

I would always like to have a scooter in my garage!

This is one of the best threads ever. I have a 150cc CSC (aka a California Scooter). It is actually a motorcycle, but it is scooter sized. I think a lot of what makes it fun is its small size. I rode mine to Cabo and back (2200 miles). There are just a lot of things about small bikes that make them fun. My take is this (and a lot of this is repeating what has been said above):

• Maneuverability.
• Using 100% of what the engine has to give.
• Thinking ahead about taking hills (it's all about momentum).
• Fuel economy.
• 5-minute oil changes using 1 quart of oil.
• Light weight.
• 10-minute valve adjustments without removing any bodywork, using no shims, and not needing a calculator.
• Lane splitting.
• The music a single makes at full tilt.
• Its ability to start conversations wherever I go.
• Its ability to make me smile.
• Its abiliity to draw a crowd away from a Harley.
• The overall coolness of it.

My scoot...(and apologies in advance to those of you who wish to point out that it is not truly a scooter...)

You and me both , I hate shifting so many times at every traffic light . TheReaper!

Oh my , I like that !!!

Says scooter right on it.

I write the blog for CSC, and I put a lot of miles on my California Scooter to get the material. Sometimes I ride with other motorcycles (although that doesn't happen too often with the preponderance of monster-displacement engines the motorcycle world seems to love) and sometimes I ride with other scooterists. The best part has been the exposure to other areas of the two-wheeled world I would not have otherwise known about, and in particular, the scooter community and the original Mustang crowd. We ride with the 909 Scooter Club on occasion, and those guys and gals are a hoot. No doubt about it - scooter people are a lot more fun. Less ego, more riding fun, and way more relaxed. Motorcycle people are fun, too. But scooter people, in my opinion, are more so.

Riding with the 909 Scooter Club...






We also get some exposure to folks in the original Mustang world, the bike from which the CSC takes its styling cues. I have an article in Motorcycle Classics magazine this month about the vintage Mustangs, and writing it was a lot of fun. Al Simmons has one of the world's premiere original Mustang collections, and I visited with him in Connecticut while researching the Mustang. That story is here: http://www.motorcycleclassics.com/classic-american-motorcycles/mustang-motorcycles-zmkz13jfzbea.aspx

Al Simmons with a few of his many Mustangs...


Another story that I think is pretty cool is our ride to Cabo and back when we were wringing out the CSC design. It is here: http://motofoto.cc/california_scooters_conquer_baja!.htm. Simon Gandolfi, the UK novelist and motorcycle adventure rider who has ridden all over the world on small bikes (and written about it in his excellent books and on the ADVRider site) joined us on that ride, and it was really fun. I've done Baja several times on big street bikes; doing it on 150cc bikes was far more interesting.

Simon Gandolfi somewhere in Baja...


There's just something about small bikes that has a "smell the roses" feeling about it. I feel like I am taking in a lot more of the world around me when I'm on a small bike, and I connect with my surroundings far more than I do when I'm on a big roadburner. It makes me feel good. I started on a 90cc Honda Super 90 and the sound of a single singing its heart out seeps into your soul and stays there. When I'm on a small bike, I'm a teenager again (a 62-year-old teenager, but a teenager nonetheless).

Great write up !!

Book marked it for future reference.

How much do those CSC bikes cost ??