Topic: Rant about scooter drivers

[neudl]

As I drive to and from work each day, I see numerous scooter drivers, and am always astounded at the lack of concern they have for their own safety.  As opposed to the motorcycle riders, who generally act like they are driving a motor vehicle, tend to obey traffic laws, and take the necessary safety precautions (with notable exceptions like the guy on a crotch rocket I saw driving at 80+ mph, and exit the freeway while pulling a wheelie the entire time), the scooter drivers invariably are wearing shorts/skirts, flip flops, t-shirts, and drive like they are on a bicycle, weaving in and out of traffic, zipping around traffic. etc.  Here in WA, for anything less that 50cc, no motorcycle endorsement is needed, so I am sure most of these kids have never taken a safety course, and it shows.  No hard statistics to back this up, but given the general attitude of scooter v. motorcycle drivers, I have to think scooters are far more dangerous.

[75modrat]

It had been a while since I had last seen a scooter. That changed Memorial Weekend. I saw a ton of them. And what you say is true. To top it off though, almost all of the scooters were riding on the side walk. I couldn't believe a cop didn't pull them over. Most of them were not even wearing helmets. I couldn't believe it. It is a motor vehicle. I mean, I am all for not wearing a helmet if it is legal. But it isn't in MI. It was the most ridiculous thing I have seen in a long time.

[Gordon]

They're basically marketed as little more than motorized bicycles (at least the 49cc ones), so it's no surprise to me that many of the people riding them treat them that way.  The main selling point I always see in advertisements for them is that you don't need a license or insurance to ride one.  Doesn't exactly instill a lot of confidence.   

[dusterdude]

i think the no helmet thing is bull#$%*.if they can go 35 mph without a helmet then why cant i.

[neudl]

The helmet laws here apply to scooters as well as motorcycles, and are strictly enforced, so they all at least wear helmets

[andy750]

Yeah those scooter drives are just a bunch of mods




But then they werent made like motorcycles



and dont ride like motorcyles...oh look the passenger is wearing a skirt with bare legs! Oh no, watch out!! 



But seriously its a sad day when bikers have to rant about scooter drivers  who are you going to pick on next? The little old lady who goes shopping on her scooter wearing sandals?

Get a life! 

[eldar]

While I sometimes laugh at scooter riders, I look at it this way: the more riders out there, the more exposure we get. People in cars may hopefully be more aware of what is around them.

[Klark Kent]

what is it with handicapped people always hogging the best parking spots?  seriously, get someone to go to the supermarket for you, because if you can't walk more than 30 feet to the door then you are going to hate the miles of isles that grocery shopping demands.  

and what is up with kittens?  they are just small cats but everyone goes all cutesy wootsy when they see one.  i think they should all be stuffed in a bag and lit on fire.  

then we can throw the lit bag at the handicapped and tell em to give us back our primo spots.

ranting is fun!

But seriously its a sad day when bikers have to rant about scooter drivers  who are you going to pick on next? The little old lady who goes shopping on her scooter wearing sandals?

Get a life! 

[Gordon]

KK,

Have you ever considered ranting professionally?

[Bob Wessner]

Most of them were not even wearing helmets. I couldn't believe it. It is a motor vehicle. I mean, I am all for not wearing a helmet if it is legal.

This seems contradictory.

[loonymoon]

 

I'm a scooter rider albeit a 250cc scooter rider, I wear all the gear, all the time, I figure that falling off at 70+mph on the scooter is going to hurt just as much as falling of the bike at 70+mph. I am a member of several scooter forums and the riders of larger cc machines are generally very sensible, often doing advanced training etc.

 Here in the UK the laws apply to 50cc scooters and mopeds the same way as motorcycles so they all have to be taxed and insured and before they can go on the road they have to do Compulsory Basic Training (CBT) like any motorcyclist who wants to get a licence does. At 16 you can ONLY ride up to 50cc and restricted to 30mph - in the UK you can't drive a car until you're 17 so a fair few kids do this do get wheels. Though I know a lot of kids illegally derestrict their mopeds, thus invalidating their insurance - which really gets on my nerves.

A lot of the smaller scooter riders do take stupid risks, the police run special "scootersafe" courses in London as statistically riders of machines less than 200cc (mostly scooters) are more likely than any other 2 wheeled user to end up in a serious accident in London.

Having said that I often see motorcyclists take stupid risks - riding between lanes of traffic on the motorway at 90mph when the traffic's doing 70, overtaking on blind bends etc. And then you get the "power rangers", who come out only when the sun's shining in their brand new, hardly worn leathers, with their flash sportsbikes, to go really fast on the straights and then wobble round the corners, and then sneer down their noses as the rider of a scooter who rides in all weathers, all year and can probably corner a lot faster and safer than them.  And then there's harley riders, and BMW riders and Honda riders.. I mean they're the worst.... what am I saying!! You can rant about pretty much any type or rider really can't you

[UnCrash]

what is it with handicapped people always hogging the best parking spots?  seriously, get someone to go to the supermarket for you, because if you can't walk more than 30 feet to the door then you are going to hate the miles of isles that grocery shopping demands. 

and what is up with kittens?  they are just small cats but everyone goes all cutesy wootsy when they see one.  i think they should all be stuffed in a bag and lit on fire. 

then we can throw the lit bag at the handicapped and tell em to give us back our primo spots.

ranting is fun!

Thanks a LOT KK, my laughing outburst got a lot of attention from the other cubicle dwellers.  Hella Rant~!  FTW!

[333]

First of all, KK- This is a scooter rant.  If you want to rant about kittens or the disabled(notice the PC!!)start your own thread.  Besides, with people who are allergic to cats, the only way one can torment a cat is when they are kittens.  Kittens don't have the dander yet.

To the rant at hand.  Scooters are inherently more dangerous.  I'll explain.  When the sport bike phenom was just starting out, there was a fair amount of experimentation with the right size tires.  And before that, the norm was 19" fronts.  They started reducing the size to "quicken" the handling.  In the end, the norm for sport bikes is mostly 17", but not before they tried 16 & 15.  These smaller sizes were "too quick", so you can imagine how much "quicker"(read "too quicker?") a 10" scooter tire is.  And anyone who has seriously ridden one will know you can't make any quick moves without a good chance of losing control.

[loonymoon]

10" wheels are small even by scooter standards these days, mostly confined to older and smaller scooters. My 250 has 12" which is still small as most larger scooters have 14 or 15" wheels, and some "big wheeled" scooters have 16" or more - at the expense of some scooter practicality though as you loose some underseat storage space to the bigger wheels.

My little 12" wheels only really feel unstable when at high speeds on bumpy surfaces where the bigger wheels on the Nexus 500 scooter I rode felt much smoother, on normal surfaces and at slower speeds though it's fine. My scooter is an Aprilia and must have a pretty decent chassis because out of all the scooters I've ridden (and I have ridden a few) it  and the gilera Nexus (which is set up with a different suspension arrangement specifically to make it one of the finest handling scoots around) are easily the best handling scooters I've ridden. The gilera has 15" front and 14" rear wheels. The speed of direction change enabled by the smaller wheels makes it brilliant for commuting in heavy traffic and in town where high top speeds are irrelevant- which lets face it is what scooters are mostly used for.

[firecracker]

Just dropping in from the Shameless thread with two questions:

Would you like egg, bacon, wheels and sausage
or
wheels, wheels, wheels, wheels, baked beans, wheels, wheels and wheels?

Also, are those African or European wheels?

Sorry, can't stick around.  Back to being shameless (elsewhere).

 

[Steve F]

While I sometimes laugh at scooter riders, I look at it this way: the more riders out there, the more exposure we get. People in cars may hopefully be more aware of what is around them.

And they piss off alot of cage drivers in the process with the way they just fly around through traffic and all, thinking that if they can fit there, they can go there.  Sidewalks, lane splitting, WRONG WAY on the street (yes I've seen that too), park where ever the hell they feel like it......the list goes on.  I guess that they're trying to make up time because they're sooooooooooo slooooooooooooooow! 

[Jonesy]

KK,

Have you ever considered ranting professionally?

Doesn't George Carlin do that already? 

(Doesn't mean the torch can be passed along, though!)

[Steve F]

KK,

Have you ever considered ranting professionally?

Doesn't George Carlin do that already? 

(Doesn't mean the torch can be passed along, though!)

I think only Carlin can hold the torch and get away with it 

[Gregorymoto]

I have never taken a safety course. Hell i've only totaled 2 motorcycles in 21 years.
Not bad.......

[Gordon]

I have never taken a safety course. Hell i've only totaled 2 motorcycles in 21 years.
Not bad.......

Only?

[754]

Steve F ,
 Parking whrever you want is half the point of riding a scooter or moped..

not like it is realy worth waming up a sohc to go for coffee from my shop..3  or 4 min ride..

[kach_me]

Steve F ,
 Parking whrever you want is half the point of riding a scooter or moped..

not like it is realy worth waming up a sohc to go for coffee from my shop..3  or 4 min ride..

Are you kidding?  Can't think of any better reason to get on the dern thing... have some coffee, then go for a longer ride after. 

I did have to laugh this morning when, at the local coffee house, there was a line of harley's parked out front.  Picture the next "tough guy" movie with someone walking into a coffee house and nothing but "bikers" in front.  Man have things changed.

[number13]

OK, just visiting this thread and I have to say one thing, that is scooter drivers are
no different than any of us. There are good and bad and what I am seeing these days
is a LOT of bad scooter drivers. The reason, IMHO, is that the price of gas has made scooters seem
like a great alternative to cars, and they are. The problem lies in the fact that most new scooter riders
have never ridden any kind of motorized 2 wheel vehicle before. They think that because a scooter is smaller
than a MC, that injuries will be smaller also. Too bad the laws of physics don't agree with them.
As we all know too well, falling of a Rune at 30MH will hurt just as much as falling off a skateboard at 30 MPH.
And that is what makes the hordes of new scooter riders dangerous.
Let's just try to keep an eye out for the little fellas, mkay?

[nickjtc]

Would you like egg, bacon, wheels and sausage
orwheels, wheels, wheels, wheels, baked beans, wheels, wheels and wheels?
Also, are those African or European wheels?

It always reverts back to the Python-isms, doesn't it? I'd like Spam with that, actually.

Here in BC a person can ride a 'limited speed vehicle' (aka a 50cc two wheeled conveyance) on their car licence, without having to go through the motorcycle licencing process. So the average rider of these things is out there because 1) they go for miles/kilometres on an eggcupfull of fuel and b) they are cheap as.....whatever. So we should not be surprised if we see people operating them who do not conform to our way of thinking.

Remember, boys and girls: Two wheels GOOD, four wheels BAD (to paraphrase and bastardise a statement by G.Orwell.

[toycollector10]

I was fortunate enough to pull up next to a schoolboy on a scooter. He was wearing jandals (thongs) on his feet, and short pants and a short sleeve shirt. I wound down the window and yelled out to him that, Mate,  he "needed to get some proper gear on and on top of that, jandals on a motorcycle was a "bad look"    

He gave me the fingers and yelled something back, which I didn't hear properly but which was probably something like "Mind your own f*&king business, old man". But I don't care.  

I do that sort of thing now and again, it's a sort of hit and run mini lesson in pain control that they will either reflect on or completely ignore. But like I said, I don't really care what they think.