Freudian slip.
Once the infrastructure’s in place, a scooter would make the perfect plug-in electric, which solves the pollution problem.
??? Maybe the localized pollution problem, but definately not the pollution problem. He goes into great detail about the pollution produced from manufacturing cars and bikes, yet says this. Besides the small percentage of wind,solar,hydroelectric, and nuclear power producing sources, making electricity is a very “dirty” business. I don’t have my source to quote, by I’ve recently read an article (pro nuclear) touting that with today’s current methods, making a switch to electric for automobiles would present a huge demand switch onto the electric sector and would actually cause more pollution meeting that demand than your average car and truck commuter. Also, I’m pretty sure they were not taking into consideration the amount of pollution of pumping,transporting, and refining oil into gas. Electricity is renewable in an abundance of methods which is great, but if people are truly concerned with the environment, we need to vastly improve the way we do it rather than stating electric is green and bash on all the petroleum based energies.
Hmmm, that’s entering into Japanese territory. I was a sucker for the Honda Big Ruckus, but they don’t sell it over here anymore. Er, and it cost $5500, which might explain why. That is only a couple more years of payments to get me on a base Sportster. The regular 50cc Ruckus is only a couple grand, but I’m too fat to expect it to be practical.
Yeah, I was influenced by seeing a stripped “motocross” Vespa decades ago.
There was a push by the Feds to classify any electric scooter 750W or lower as a bicycle. This would put people on scoots up to about 10 or 15 MPH for up to an hour. Unfortunately, Illinois has ignored it and my epileptic daughter, who would benefit from the additional mobility but who is unlikely to get a drivers license for some years, cannot take advantage of it.
In my experience, this is not true. About 99.9% of scooters in Saigon have four stroke engines. A few people (mostly foreigners) like the vintage Vespas and other Piaggios, but those are the only two stroke engines left. I don’t like them. It’s harder to refuel them and they smell bad.
On my Honda Wave S, I got about 100 km to a liter of gas. I have to believe I was producing much less pollution and definitely less carbon than a car would have, especially since cars in Vietnam aren’t bound to the same pollution controls as in other countries.
Glad to hear that.
This is a fairly good write up by Cecil, but I’m a little disappointed he only chose to go with the Federal emission standards as an estimate for how much scooters, um, emit.
It’s worth mentioning that California’s emission standards are much stricter, requiring scooter emissions three to five times stricter than the Federal standards. Cite. Other countries also have stricter rules about emissions, and any scooter or motorcycle manufacturer who wishes to sell bikes in these regions must build to comply.
Consequently, most vehicles in this class are do far, far better than federal standards require.
FYI, I have an 06 Yamahi Vino 125. My 06 was $2500, now they are about $2900. I’m 6ft 200lbs and it will do 60mph and get 80mpg. Physically I am a little tall for it, but it has no problem with my weight.
Me on a scoot is in “amusing You Tube video” territory. So I guess I’m stuck thinking about a Harley. <–(frown is because thinking is as close as I will get)
I got a nice HD camera. If you’re near Los Angeles, let me know and we’ll see what we can do…