[ul]
[li]How?[/li][li]What?[/li][li]When?[/li][li]Good?[/li][li]Bad?[/li][li]Commuting?[/li][li]Repair?[/li][li]Maintainence?[/li][li]Insurance?[/li][li]Risks on the road?[/li][li]Best/Worst brands?[/li][li]Used?[/li][/ul]
Any Doper who has owned a motor scooter, please offer input.
I started this thread last week:
I’ve never ridden a scooter, but I think it would be fun to have one.
I have two motorcycles, a 1994 Yamaha XJ600 and a 2003 Yamaha YZF-R1. THe 600 gets about 50 mpg, and the R1 gets about 40 mpg. I have talked to people with small scooters (i.e., ‘around town’ scooters as opposed to large-displacement highway-going scooters) who say they get around 70 mpg. YMMV. For around town, it sounds as if a small scooter will be more economical. As for commuting, I think they would be good for in-town commutes over short distances. For longer commutes at higher speeds, better to get a full-sized motorcycle.
Economy comes at a price. You don’t have the power you would have on a motorcycle. But around town, you don’t really need that much power because speeds are generally low. The smallest scooters use 2-stroke engines. This is good and bad. It’s good because 2-strokes make more power per cc than 4-strokes of the same size. They’re lighter and simpler. But they also must have oil mixed into the fuel. My first motorcycles had ‘oil injection’. That is, you put the 2-stroke oil into a separate tank and it would be added to the fuel automatically. The bike I learned on used pre-mix. Pre-mix is gasoline that is mixed with oil before putting it into the fuel tank. A bit of a hassle. I think (but am not sure) that modern 2-stroke scooters use the oil-injection method, so you just have to remember to keep the oil tank filled. Two-stroke engines pollute more than 4-strokes, which is why you haven’t been able to get a 2-stroke motorcycle larger than a certain size for the last couple of decades. They also get poorer mileage than 4-strokes. For example, my 250cc Enduro only got about 35 mpg. When I was looking at boat engines, 2-strokes burnt more gallons per hour than 4-strokes. But if you’re getting excellent mileage, then losing some mpg in exchange for more power in a small engine is a good tradeoff.
My motorcycle insurance is significantly less than my auto insurance – and includes a 1000cc sportbike. Scooters will have lower insurance still. As they should; it’s unlikely that in a car vs. scooter collision, the scooter will cause much damage.
Scooters have the same risks as motorcycles. I wonder about their stability though. A motorcycle has a couple of rather large gyroscopic stabilisers, while a scooter has small ones. The pegs on a motorcycle are set so that the rider can easily impart a low CG. Not sure about scooters, where you sit up on a perch. (Again, I can’t speak from personal experience.) Scooters tend to be smaller than motorcycles, which I think would exacerbate the ‘I didn’t see the motorcycle’ problem.
I like the classic looks of the Vespa, but I think it’s overpriced. I’ve heard people complain that for some reason the tires wear out too quickly. But there are a lot of Europeans who use Vespas every day, and have done for about a half a century. I like the looks of the Yamaha Vino. It resembles a Vespa and has the typical Japanese reliability.
What about 49cc engines, like the Vino’s?
There was an AP article about scooters just yesterday.
How? Your jacket’s gotta be cut slim and checked, with a touch of seersucker with an open neck.
What? A G.S. scooter with your hair cut neat.
When? (Wear a wartime coat) in the wind and the sleet.
ok, ok…
Good? They’re all very maneuverable, especially at low speeds.
Bad? Scooters go down fast. There’s not much time to recover when they lose traction.
Commuting?
Repair?
Maintainence? I used to ride an old-ish Vespa. The basic machine was reliable, but I had to do some minor repair or another every month or two.
Insurance? Liability is cheap. Considering the relatively low cost and depreciation, comprehensive probably be won’t worth bothering with.
Risks on the road?
Best/Worst brands? Best: Lambrettas Worst: I don’t know if Yamaha ever improved them, but the 125cc Rivas used to have a belt drive that would burn out belts in a few thousand miles and take out the rest of the driveline when it happened.
Used? It’s the best way to get a Lambretta. 
Oh yeah,
Bad? It is ridiculously easy to crack the plastic on a scooter in subfreezing weather. I learned this when a car gently bumped a scooter I was riding on a 10[sup]o[/sup]F morning. I was doing the final test ride on someone’s Christmas gift, the buyer was already at the showroom and the bump caused a four inch crack in the front shield.
…Comprehensive… probably… ISN’T… worth… the… HASSLE!!! :smack:
[/stammer]
That’s rather the point. Scooters are meant for in-town driving, not for American freeways. And they’re made for moving around on a small amount of fuel. Rufus’s quote cites 80 mpg for some of them, which is very useful in Europe where gas prices are much higher than here. If I lived in a crowded city and my circuit was in the neighbourhood of around ten miles, a scooter would be better than a car or motorcycle. I live in a seaside holiday community that’s over 20 miles from the nearest city of any size (and it’s still a small city). Given the distance, a real motorcycle makes more sense. It’s all about the mission.
How about 35 miles each way?
On a non-interstate?
It depends on the type of roads and speeds you reach but for a 35 mile commute, I think you’d be better off with a real motorcycle. Unless you really don’t want to learn how to shift (it’s not hard) or have some hangup about motorcycles being only for “bad” people (a lot of non-riders do), I’d look at a motorcycle instead for a commute of that length. I commute daily on a Suzuki V-Strom 650, and I’m averaging 48-50 mpg, on regular gas. You don’t need to get a massive Harley or race-replica sportbike. There are some nice, inexpensive, docile bikes in the 500-650 cc range that make great commuters. The Suzuki SV650 and GS500e are a couple, for example.
A coworker at my last job was looking at scooters (the Yamaha Vino 125 in particular) for commuting to work. However, he ended up looking for a motorcycle instead. For the same price, he found he could get a proper motorcycle that’s more versatile than a scooter.
Here’s another thing to consider. Scooters are not any safer than a motorcycle. In fact, the opposite is probably true. The biggest safety feature of a motorcycle is that just about any cycle can out-accelerate just about any car. A twist of the wrist can get you quickly away from many dangerous situations. With the smaller scooters, you lose that power reserve.
BTW, you may want to look into licensing requirements. In most states, scooters with engines 50cc and up are classified as motorcycles and require a motorcycle license to operate. If you’re going to get the license anyway, might as well get a motorcycle. Otherwise, you will be limiting yourself to scooters that are too small to be suited to the length of commute you have.
I was in Salt Lake City last week on business and I saw a lot there. That’s the kind of environment they are meant for - city streets with relatively low top speeds (~40 mph or so). I am thinking about getting a scooter for my wife. She teaches at the local community college and her commute is about 4 miles on 35 mph residential roads, and she doesn’t want to bother with shifting. That’s the sort of ride they are good at. Otherwise, I’d go with a motorcycle.