Our "little" two wheel friends

Maybe it is good that there are so many haters. One thing i love about the scoot is being able to just leave it wherever and it much less likely to get stolen. If people wanted them this might change.

Depends how many hipsters are around.

Here all of them are liquer cicles here in southern VA , mostly black men or white trash that have lost there licenses . Dealers have popped up in about every small town and you them every where .

Don't diss the Scooter!

I've been riding for 40 yrs. I've owned dozens of bikes. I am still a competitive "B" Enduro rider. I have a penchant for small displacement bikes (won my class in 2011 on a 125).

I recently bought a SYM Citycom 300i and LOVE IT!

Gets 75mpg will cruise 75mph all day. Tops out at 85mph.

It is hands down the most comfortable bike I have ever owned including some big bore bikes. Zero vibration...comfy seat...the best weather protection this side of a Gold Wing.

I can carry tons of junk in the trunk and grocery hook is handy too. Reliable as a falling brick.

This afternoon I am riding it 100 miles to our weekend place. I take my tools, clothes, water, tire pump, a couple gallons of paint, bag of groceries...you get the picture.

Yes, a 300 NINJA handles better, has better brakes, will smoke it in a drag race etc.....however you cannot even store your jacket in stop and go traffic....and God forbid you are tooling around at 3-4k rpm and need to move right now! Twist the throttle 2 gears too high and you go nowhere fast. The scooter has full accelleration available at any time. The CV trans spins the motor to a 6k rpm torque peak immediately and off you go. Also if it rains on the NINJA you gotta stop on the scoot you tuck in and ride

Yes the bike has a much higher level of performace but how many speeding tickets go I really need to get. Do I really need to ride 90mph on the street. I rather race in the woods.

Also, it is more engaging to ride a bike with limited power fast. How hard is it to pass traffic on a GSXR? Try to make time on a 21 hp 400lb machine. What will happen to your manhood when someone passes you on a scooter?

Around here the traffic and speed limits are so bad you could not challenge a GSXR no matter how hard you tried without going to jail or dying in the process.

For $4k you can't beat the utility of a scooter.

Try it....you'll like it!

In Europe, if it is a sunny +30°C day, you can see the big tough motorcycle guys hanging around the pubs and ice cream parlours.
They make much noise and wear coloured fancy dresses, you will easily spot them.

But autumn comes and they will soon hibernate again in their tempered caves.
The little scooter guys (+girls!) remain. No matter if in cold fog or snow.
I like the winter, the silence and grey scale gives him a serious appearance.

If you happen to meet a motorcycle rider in winter times, he is propably from former GDR (or even more easterly).
(Where you had to wait for buying a car for about 10 years - if you were granted a qualification certificate by the single political party.
But 2-wheelers have always been on the free market.)

You gotta be really comfortable with your sexuality and manhood to ride a freaking moped. not that im not comfortable or thing with mine but thats besides the point. only reason people ride mopeds in my home state indiana is because theyre either broke, a pedophile, a convict, a drunk, or just a complete shitbag and cant get a car.
i only ride motorcycles. currently dont own a car.



troll finished

i hate hippies with every strand of DNA/RNA or anything other form of dna in my entire body. freaking scurge of the earth.

Between this post and your sig line, I must admit I have a little bit of a boner. You're a certified badass!

Cracks me up the stereo types here. Sure there are a bunch of 50cc junk scooter riders who are totally clueless but not so many in Texas because you have to a full m/c license. If you aren't grandfathered in because you've had a license for years and MSF course is mandatory before you legally ride anything that isn't restricted to less than 30mph. We don't have liqourcycles though it used to be possible to get a moped license but its a serious ticket if you ride faster than 30mph on one of those and you'll have to take the MSF course as a consequence of your ticket. I've seen the guy who had done nothing more than pass the MSF course drop his brand new chromed out Harley before he got out of the dealer's lot (almost $40k out the door according to the friend who sold it to him). The SQUID on the sports bike wearing black jeans, black t-shirt, no helmet pulling a wheelie on the causeway from Galveston so dumb ass riding isn't limited to the person who picked up a $500 scooter over on Harwin (cheap Chinese importers in Houston) riding in flipflops, shorts and t-shirt without a helmet.

Last year I put over 12,000 miles on my scooters. Yeah, that scooter's plural. My primary in-town scoot is a Vespa GTS 250 which I adore because I can park it places where the Triumph would get a ticket. Cops smile at it while they write a ticket for the m/c parked next to it. Never mind that the reason the two are parked together is because we've been riding the last 2 hours including a stint on the freeway at 85 (gps verified) before stopping for a bite to eat.

However most of the miles were put on the bigger scoots - Aprilia Scarabeo 500 from Houston to Washington DC in the spring going up Natchez Trace over to play around Deals Gap then up the Blue Ridge up to Gettysburg then through the Appalachians in West Virginia (gotta love those logging trucks - NOT!) finally back down the Ozarks. 3,700 miles ridden in 9 days and everything from 94f in Texas to 60f in the pouring rain in Virginia for the highs, 40 for the low.

Took the Piaggio BV 500 from Breckenridge, CO up through Rocky Mountain National Park, Crazy Horse, Mt. Rushmore, Sturgis, Badlands over to Lake Geneva for Amerivespa. Found it amusing that as I'd come up on a group of motorcycle riders heading east on I-90 from Walls, SD I'd see the inverted V coming down acknowledging my approach. When I pulled even some of them would jerk their hand back when they realized they were being passed by a woman on a scooter. After Amerivespa I went around the southern part of Lake Michigan. I'd have gone all the way around except that I didn't have enough time so took the Lake Express Ferry back to Wisconsin picking up N.D. then down to Yellowstone, Grand Tetons back to Breckenridge for another 4,400 miles. I'd put some photos in but I haven't gotten around to updating my blog with all of the trip photos.

Mostly I ride in full gear though it doesn't always look like motorcycle gear. My ride back from California on my son's Aprilia Sports City in March of this year was done wearing Nolan N43 Trilogy helmet (love that helmet with its large viewport but still full face), GoGo Gear armored hoodie or trench which I can wear into a business meeting, kevelar riding jeans and TCX Riding shoes that look like hightop sneakers but are armored and waterproof. I will admit that if I'm taking 30mph streets over to the pool for my 1.5 mile swim I may wear non-armored pants/shirt/jacket, running shoes and helmet (never ride without a helmet) but hey you could go almost as fast on a bicycle which is what many folks take from where I live to the pool.

FWIW, I ride a scooter by choice not because I can't shift a motorcycle. Houston in the summer is not when you want a hot engine between your legs. As klaviator they handle well in the twsities when I ride with my brother on his BMW and his friends on assorted other bikes. Sure if you want to go far into triple digits they will leave me in the dust but that's why I don't ride a sports bike - I don't need the tickets even if I do keep eyeing a couple of the Aprilia bikes and a Ducati they had last time I took the Aprilia Scarabeo in for service. In town the Vespa has them beat and on the road the Scarabeo is a far better tourer than a sports bike.

Here's what happens when you trash talk our scooters:

All that, except maybe #1, could be said of motorcycle riders here in Illinois. many do have "cool" bandanas & sandals for protection, however.

My wife and I ride our Aprilia SR50 scooters every day we can here in south florida, last weekend we took them to key west and road around the island . We are both over 45 and just love to get on them and go. I raced 410ci & 358ci sprintcars in Pa for 25 plus years, raced motocross a couple years in Pa so I no longer need to fly around the roads..we just putter around, my wife is more throttle happy than I am

We put over 5000 miles on so far this year

I get a kick out of the fullsizers looking down there noses at us, never wave. I had one guy pull up at a stop light and tell me to get a real bike...LOL I laughed

Not quite all.

In SW Va. when the opportunity presents itself I stop and talk to those liquor cycle pilots and their overwhelming summation is that they are having a blast getting around on 2 wheels. I'd go as far as to say they are passionate about riding. Lets hope they are not as judgmental of your passion as you are of theirs.

Member of the PA Posse? Remember Weichart Meat's 29?

Hmm. Sounds like some of the cycle riders in those parts may be wearing sheets instead of armor.

Be Big,
AMAC

Why do you ride a girl's BMW, then? Why not ride the REAL man's GS1200?

ha! hang 'em high, Klav

What sort of Pirate uniform goes with that get up?

I was going to ask that (800GS, LOL. Nice bike, Nancy.), but I was afraid he'd ride all the way over here and beat me up. Did you not see his sig line?!