It seems as if a lot of folks are considering a scooter, and that a lot of them also would never consider a motorcycle. Is is because scooters have a more friendly image than motorcycles?…. Anyway….I am also considering a scooter, just because I have always wanted one. In my lifetime I have also owned four motorcycles, (Yamaha, Honda, BMW and Harley) but do not have one now.

Some advise I would offer to a new rider:

1. Take a safety course.
2. Stay away from the 49cc jobs and get one that CAN get out of it’s own way if need be.
3. On a nice day they are fun to ride…..on the other days they suck.
4. Never-Ever-Ever forget that you are invisible to people driving cars.
5. Because of the fact that your whole body cannot fit into the helmet, there are no minor accidents on a motorcycle or scooter.

In response to the question Heybuddy asked about plating a 49cc scooter. The answer is, “yes, you can!” You can find information regarding this on the St. Louis Scooter Club forum at http://stlscooterclub.com/forum. I, as are many others who have posted responses on this topic, am a member of the club and have found the club’s forum a valuable research for riding safety and recommendations for safety gear, state regulations and general scooter and brand specific information. I became involved in the club in late March. At that time, the club had just reached 100 members (the club had been active for approx. a year). Today the 186th member joined! This rate of membership growth is in direct relation to the increase in the number of scooters that have hit the streets. And, this is not the only club in the Stl metro area. The SLSC is in constant contact with the other clubs and new clubs throughout the area have also formed (i.e. St. Charles Scooter Club).

Your mode of transportation is certainly your choice, we scooter owners have also weighed our options for travel. So, we chose a machine that some may not be comfortable riding - does it mean we deserve any less respect on the road? As others on this blog have pointed out, if someone is driving crazy they will do it regardless if they travel by 2 or more wheels. Truth be told, most scooter owners I know still own cars or trucks or SUVs; but choose to save those vehicles for inclement weather days. And when they do drive their cages, they have a higher level of respect for all other motorists due to the fact that they have an increased sense of safety awareness that they carry with them when they move from the two wheels to four.

It’s pretty obvious scooters aren’t for everyone. I am an owner of a 500cc scooter, averaging about 30 miles a day. My other car is a mini van. I bought the scooter because I hated driving around all day by myself in the van when all the kids were at school.

I find myself much more tolerant of others, taking the long way around town and I enjoy life more. Scooterists are good people. They are by and large outgoing, friendly, and quick to help.

Safety is always a concern. I ride with full safety gear and a full face helmet. As other riders have stated, I ride as i’m invisible to the cars around me.

Peace everyone. Please be nice to each other.

I am amazed at the racist and sexist ranting on this topic. Scooters are not unsafe necessarily, bad drivers of automobiles and other vehicles are.

My wife wants to buy a scooter for her 34 mile round-trip commute to work. It would save us a lot of money and, if our circumstances were better, I would be all for it. What kills it is this: we just went through a big thread about truckers, Missouri roads, and driving. I don’t feel comfortable driving on the poorly maintained lettered state roads in a car, let alone having her be on a Devo special tooling down a narrow roller coaster roadway and then parts of the Interstate with vehicles trying to pass her or run her off the road. That completely negates the idea for us. It’s not that we think the scooters are unsafe or are not a pleasant ride, but it’s those factors we can’t control.

I wouldn’t be opposed to a scooter if the streets were wider and better lit, if she didn’t have to drive the Interstate part-ways, if speed limits and traffic laws were well enforced, and if the locals would not speed by in pickup trucks throwing their empty beer cans at her and mooning her as they passed. Perhaps someone will market one with Gatling guns. That may level the field a bit. Perhaps we’ll reconsider when more scooters are travelling a similar route out this-a-way and we see that scooter parts are not strewn across the drainage ditches. Until then, forget about it!

I have read every post. I have learned lots about motorcycling and Scootering from the owners and users. While I wouldn’t ever agree to use any scooter or motorcycles to ride for 10 miles and get it FREE, many of you have different opinions and different reasons why you like them. Go for it.

Don’t worry about me running over you while you are on either. When I drive a car, I know where every vehicle around me is, and what they are doing. I am not on a cell phone, drunk, shaving, reading the paper, drinking coffee, listening the radio. I am driving. I have never had a ticket, an accident, but I have had lots of close calls caused by other motorists…..but not one close call caused by a scooterist or a motorcyclist.

As a long-time advocate of - and religious user of - the safety features built into automobiles, it saddens me to see so many people simply abandon the wonderful safety afforded by airbags, energy-absorbing crush zones, collapsing steering columns, side-impact door beams, and - of course - seat and shoulder belts. All for a few bucks!

Well, your survivors will be able to afford a nicer funeral for you, I guess.

As for the counter-argument that “I’m safety conscious and alert at all times!” - unhappily, that means absolutely nothing when you are run over by the “other” driver. And regardless of whether the driver who runs you over was eating a big mac, talking on the cellphone, and changing lanes in his/her SUV at the instant of the collision with you, or was a hyper-vigilant safety-conscious Prius driver in whose blind-spot you happened to be, the outcome is the same: you lose, horrifically.

Police agencies report that the number one statement by the “other” driver - by far - is “I didn’t see him/her!” No amount of self-awareness or alertness on your part will overcome that…or overcome the physics of the resultant collision.

You are selling your safety for a reduced fuel bill. R.I.P.

I think scooters wouldn’t have been so de-’rided’ up to this point in this country — and, as a result, been pooh-poohed as quaint, Euro-toys — if it hadn’t been for the legal hijinks of ‘Scooter’ Libby! Thanks for holding back the Vespa in the U.S., and by default, continuing to promote gas-guzzling SUVs and Hummers! What a jerk!

Scott,

You and the guy riding the scooter pay the same for gas. Unless, maybe, if he owns a gas station, an oil company, did his homework on who’s selling gas cheaper, siphoned gas out of someone else’s vehicle, has a $2-off coupon for gas at Shell and you don’t, et. al.

Somehow I can’t picture myself on a scooter seeing that I nearly took out a car and banged up my body the last time I tried to ride a bike a few years back. How do you forget how to ride a bike? So in order to preserve my life and the lives of all other living creatures I will stick to my car and the high gas prices.