Anyone use scooters? (Zuma, Vespa, etc..)
I was just wondering if anyone uses a scooter when they travel and what that experience is like. I bought a class c last year we currently dont use a tow vehicle. I dont really want to tow a car but w...
Forum Discussion
I've been riding scooters and small motorcycles (50-125cc) since the late 1950s, when they became legal for me at age 14 (and maybe a few adventures a year or two before that). My last was a 125cc Sundiro, bought at age 55 for commuting in a small city.
I quit riding that one in 2008, age 63, when I started to realize that my traffic skills, riding skills (with 50+ years experience?) were no longer adequate for the 21st century traffic environment (where more than half the people driving cages have their heads stuck where ever it is that they keep their mobile phones/pocket computers).
You need to understand that a scooter, whatever size, is a motorcycle, and to survive you need motorcycle riding skills and situational awareness. While licensing rules vary state to state, allowing you to duck some licensing requirements if the motorcycle is small enough, you need to understand that there is little reciprocity on this issue, and the 50cc scooter you might ride in one state with no license at all might require a drivers license with motorcycle endorsement in the next state you visit. So target that licensing and skill level, and you should have no trouble with where you can ride it, you are driving a licensed motor vehicle with an appropriate operator's license.
That some states relax licensing and training requirements for really small motorcycles is a bad joke. Underpowered bikes and scooters that can't keep up with traffic are much more dangerous than powerful motorcycles.
I suggest you take the Motorcycle Safety Foundations beginner's riding course before making any purchasing decision, if you have no motorcycle riding experience. This course builds basic survival skills, riding skills, and an awareness of the risks of riding in traffic. It is worth the necessary day or two, and whatever the fee. As an aging high experience rider, I learned a lot. Most importantly, I learned to how to balance risks and skills, so that I knew when I reached the age and deterioration of skills that said "I must quit."
When you get out into urban or suburban traffic in an underpowered motorcycle, the experience is best described as exciting (as at age 14-20). At 55 it was exhilarating with occasional moments of fear. Pushing past 65, for me, it moved toward mostly terrifying, so that I had to decide "do I get a more powerful bike that can outrun all this crazy traffic, or do I hang up the helmet?" I hung up the helmet.
My same-age cousin still rides. But he doesn't ride an underpowered scooter in traffic, he rides a sport tourer on the open highway, and that is a different experience.
I quit riding that one in 2008, age 63, when I started to realize that my traffic skills, riding skills (with 50+ years experience?) were no longer adequate for the 21st century traffic environment (where more than half the people driving cages have their heads stuck where ever it is that they keep their mobile phones/pocket computers).
You need to understand that a scooter, whatever size, is a motorcycle, and to survive you need motorcycle riding skills and situational awareness. While licensing rules vary state to state, allowing you to duck some licensing requirements if the motorcycle is small enough, you need to understand that there is little reciprocity on this issue, and the 50cc scooter you might ride in one state with no license at all might require a drivers license with motorcycle endorsement in the next state you visit. So target that licensing and skill level, and you should have no trouble with where you can ride it, you are driving a licensed motor vehicle with an appropriate operator's license.
That some states relax licensing and training requirements for really small motorcycles is a bad joke. Underpowered bikes and scooters that can't keep up with traffic are much more dangerous than powerful motorcycles.
I suggest you take the Motorcycle Safety Foundations beginner's riding course before making any purchasing decision, if you have no motorcycle riding experience. This course builds basic survival skills, riding skills, and an awareness of the risks of riding in traffic. It is worth the necessary day or two, and whatever the fee. As an aging high experience rider, I learned a lot. Most importantly, I learned to how to balance risks and skills, so that I knew when I reached the age and deterioration of skills that said "I must quit."
When you get out into urban or suburban traffic in an underpowered motorcycle, the experience is best described as exciting (as at age 14-20). At 55 it was exhilarating with occasional moments of fear. Pushing past 65, for me, it moved toward mostly terrifying, so that I had to decide "do I get a more powerful bike that can outrun all this crazy traffic, or do I hang up the helmet?" I hung up the helmet.
My same-age cousin still rides. But he doesn't ride an underpowered scooter in traffic, he rides a sport tourer on the open highway, and that is a different experience.
