Oh bummer. Hopefully public transport or taxis filled your needs and you still have a great time!
I didn’t want to be too negative before. There is no way in hell I would get on one of those. Those roads are not for those who are inexperienced
Experience is what you get when you don’t get what you want.
We’re back home. We actually left a day early to avoid TS Philippe, we didn’t want to risk getting stuck on the island for an extended time.
So of my 3 original concerns, it was zero experience on a motorized 2 wheel vehicle that did me in. The training is non-existent - they quickly show you how to start it, where the throttle & brakes are, and you take a quick ride up and down a residential street, then they send you off. I don’t know if it’s the way things are on all scooters or was particular to this one, but the throttle had a very small range between nothing and pretty damn fast. My first right turn out of the parking lot onto a street I shot forward, saw I was going to hit the curb on the opposite side, pulled on the brakes, hit the curb anyway and landed on my left side. I had some scrapes on my left leg including a pretty big gouge right below my kneecap, bruises on my foot (didn’t even notice that until the next day), and the left side of my chest where I landed on the edge of the curb felt sore and bruised.
I think the problem was that I had no time/opportunity to develop proper reflexes. I may very well have been continuing to hold the throttle open while trying to slow down with the brakes as well. Even 30-60 minutes just driving around an empty parking lot to get used to it and get some reflexes down would have helped a lot.
It didn’t ruin our vacation or anything (I still went scuba diving the next morning), but it certainly put a damper on it - it was painful anytime I had to stretch the left side of my body, my knee got sore a few days in, and I had trouble sleeping. We wound up using buses & taxis for the rest of the trip, which is probably what we would have done at night anyway. We also rented a Twizy for one day (the bottom one in the picture) which was fine - there was no problem dealing with traffic & winding roads in that.
My wife also said she thinks they used actual mopeds when she was in Bermuda 30 years ago. That would have been a lot easier & safer I think, since I already know how to ride a bicycle.
So my advice would be absolutely do not rent a scooter on vacation if that’s going to be your first experience on one.
There’s an issue that surprises many a first-time scooter or motorcycle rider. With the traditional right-side twist grip throttle, rotating your hand and wrist downwards (= “towards you”) increases engine power.
Given the typical way you grip the throttle at idle, that means that as the bike accelerates and your upright body is pulled rearward by inertia, your right hand naturally cranks the throttle even higher. Instant positive feedback loop leading to an out-of-control acceleration until you can figure out what happened and adjust the throttle and your grip on it.
Given 100+ feet of obstacle-free straight-ahead run that can be learned to avoid / overcome pretty quickly. But will remain a risk for the first day or riding or more. But if your very first moves towards full speed and working within traffic start with an obstacle close ahead, there’s a good chance of exactly what happened to you.
And, to add insult to literal injury, I see that the rental company charged us for the scooters anyway.
Hawaii, about a year and a half ago my. Wife plans the vacations and excursions. Fine with me, It’s always fun. She does a great job. Snorkeling with Manta Rays at night is probably the most memorable thing that we have done. Beautiful, gentle creatures. And huge. You really can understand just how big they are until they swim within 6 inches of you.
One was a downhill bike trip. Coasting the whole way. While I can jump on a motorcycle no problem, I hadn’t been on a bicycle in 25 years.
This down the mountain trip meant going 20~30mph. I thought it was going to be a leisurely coast at jogging speed. My Wife is a bike rider. Ironman, so it was probably slow for her.
My thought was “I wonder what the hospitals are like around here?”
I did convince my Wife to get her SCUBA cert 20 years ago. Dived the Blue hole. Lots of sharks there. And just a number of your basic dives. Now in our early 60’s we are trying less dangerous vacations.
History. Local culture. Things like that. We do a big vacation every 3 years or so.
Next up - Iceland, Norway and the British Isles. My Wife will probably sign us up for sheep herding in Scotland or something. 