Yeah it doesnt make any sense. Some of these scooters can go pretty fast, definately fast enough to kill you, and I've never seen a person wearing more than a helmet, if even that, while riding one.

 

IMHO scooters are more dangerous than motorcycles. Their short wheelbase and small wheels make them squirrely. In addition the small wheels have a harder time dealing with potholes and other irregularities in the road. I'd rather ride something like a Honda Trail 90 is just putting around town with great mileage was the objective. And yes, there is a common misaprehension that scooter are safer because they are smaller and generally slower than motorcycles, thus freeing the rider from having to wear gear or learning how to ride before starting their commute.

 

Italy is one exception.

 

LMAO, 40mph into a tree is stll 40mph no matter if your riding a scooter, race bike, or freakin magic carpet

 

The small wheels of a scooter scares me, that probably has something to do with accident rates too, no gyroscopes. Probably people just don't want to deal with or learnclutch and gears, that is why they buy scooters.

 

Wow this is a great thread, even more ammo to tell my soon to be wife why we shouldn't get a Vespa. Apparently me not wanting to do the up keep on it wasn't enough.

 

1st off, I like Scooters, I like Vespas & for a short couple of weeks, had to ride a Lambretta for work. The original brief for scooters came from them being used as quick & easy parking transport in cities, the seating position was different from a bike, so that men & women could wear wot ever clothes they liked (& being Italian, so that women did not have to straddle the seat, sexist pigs) & their clothes would not get covered in road crud. They have small wheels so that they could manouver quickly in & around traffic,They are brilliant in that environment & inovative with storage. As for being safer the bikes (wot a joke), this stems from that long held view, their smaller, slower so they must be safer. When I used to be a courier in Sydney, they armed the city cops with Vespas (for all the above reasons) They figured that if they had to pull someone over, being in traffic, they would not need speed to catch them. It was priceless looking at the these poor cops, done out in full motorcycle gear (& at the time used to wear those 'riding pants' that tucked into their way to tall boots) open face helmets & Raybans.
Anyway, scooters are a hoot to ride, with their auto clutches they throw great mono's & you can scrap the boards on the deck taking corners at full throttle, for maximum effect.

 

 

Scooters are dumb. If I want gas mileage, I will go and buy a Honda Shadow 750. They are rated pretty good.

 

lol i swear since gas prices have gone up ive got liek 7 scooters in my neighborhood now and on another note all the motorcycles have been sold out here in my town for 2 solid weeks now, its scares me cuz i know alot of people are buyign them to save on gas and arent taken the percautions for gear/msf/and just plain safety. im gettign kinda scared riding on the roads now with all the idiots and now the BADASS scooters everywhere, avg trip to work not kidding in anyway i see 20 scooters if not more. haha they wave to me when im riding my bike i throw my hands up like wtf face to them