Scooters

My friend thought about getting a Scooter to save some gas while driving to work. That was until a major storm rolled thru and that made him think twice.

That just goes with the riding. I ridden all my life and you learn to watch the weather

I am getting one within 2-3 weeks. My part time job is only 2.5 miles away and I' going to use that when weather is nice. Plus will use to go get the milk, bread, etc.

This Agility will get about 90 mpg. Nice way to save some gas and mileage on the car.

What is the max speed that you could get on the scooters?

as you can read in this post:

http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/26194

edit: Can you imagine riding a vespa at 100 mph+

Dad just picked up a Vespa for him, mom and lil sis to ride out on. It's great. Gas sipper.

I have been thinking about it for a couple months now and have been researching various models.

If you are looking at the 49cc & 50cc models, it would appear that the mid (neither premium nor cheap) brands tend to go for around $2k. This includes stuff like Honda, Yamaha, Kymco, Genuine, Piaggio, etc. and seem to be fairly good value for the money. Meaning you are more likely to find them sold through local dealers, can find parts and local mechanics to work on them.

More famous brands, like Vespa, tend to be the more premium scoots so you will pay more.

Then there seem to be what I will call the econo brands and then the junk brands.

The Junk brands tend to be the ones that are sub-$1000, can only be mail ordered, you will have to uncrate it, possibly assembly parts of it, etc. and tend to be cheaply made and may not last long.

The econo brands, in my own opinion, are those $1200-$1700 models that can save you hundreds over your standard mid-line brands and may not be a bad deal. These often have dealers, but the trick is do they have one near you (vs. something like Honda which is everywhere)? Some of the econo brands tend to be carried by general "small engine" shops to compliment their line of lawn mowers, snow mobiles, two stroke engine repair, etc. So while these dealers may not know much about scooter specifically, they are probably handy enough to hand engine repair and some basic maintenance on a scoot in a pinch.

The thing to keep in mind about scooters is that they are NOT bicycles. So unless you know a lot about repairing motorcycles, there is a lot of value of spending the extra, say, $500 to buy a $1500 scooter from a local dealer who can work on it when needed. As an example, say you blow your rear tire, say the tire is a tubeless model (like a car so very stiff around the bead). Now consider you have to often take apart the entire exhaust system and drive to get the back wheel off, then try and get the tubeless tire off, etc. As you can see, this isn't like changing an inner tube on your ten speed and you likely need very good tools, if not power tools, to remove and put back on a tubeless tire on a back rim.

One last thing to consider. Some dealers who do repairs have pick up service. Consider even the small 50cc scoots often weight in at 150-250 pounds and are too big to put in a car and may even be too large for a minivan. If your tire blows or you have engine trouble, how far do you think you can push a 200 pound scooter on a flat tire?

Best of luck with your research...

PT

If you are looking into scooters, pending which state you are in, many require a motorcycle license over 49cc. You should check your states requirements.

My Scooter is a few years old and a 250. Have had it 2 months and still on first tank of gas. I ride it to work and my wife and I go on errands as much as possible to save on gas. It's great. Always rode bigger bikes but when the hips went this was my option and its great with the gas and hips.

Have had it at 70 with no problems on interstate. Its really great around town and high is 50. It sure doesn't seem like your going 70 or even 50. Great for the gas problem and fun to ride. Get a cover seat does get hot. Arizona requires license but its no biggie.

I ride a Kymco Xciting 500 (500cc) scooter, it will do 90+ mph, but there is no reason for it to do that fast. 50+ mpg is much better than 16mpg I get in my van. I use a TomTom Rider 2nd edition on it, and I am pretty happy. The GPS does need a hood, and will be one of the editions I add to it when I get home from vacation.
Tom
(Scottsdale, AZ)

I have also been looking at scooters and doing some research. In CA, you need a license, helmet, insurance, etc. you can a learners permit by taking the written exam, and then you are allowed to ride only during the day and no passengers are allowed until you take the road test and get your license.

Are the insurance for these scooters more or less than automobiles ? Ok.. The Question mark Smiley doesn't work.

Most likely if you need to register it you need insurance, and a motorcycle license. It is usually really cheap since you are not going to cause damage if you hit somthing. But if you want medical for yourself is where the cost goes up. (Similar to a motorcycle). If you get the 49cc you probably have nothing to worry about but you can't go on highways. A lot depends on what state you live in. Just go to your states DMV and see what they say for what you are considering.

I called GEICO, where I have my car, and the cost for my scooter is $115 for the year. Since my scooter will be under 50cc, my drivers licence is fine, anything over 50cc then you have to get a bike licence, that's here in New York.

Insuring Motorcycles, Motor Scooters and Other Vehicles

Excerpt from the link below:
http://tinyurl.com/3gurck

Usually excluded from the standard auto insurance policy are motorcycles, mopeds, motorscooters, motor homes, snowmobiles, and most other recreational vehicles. Coverage can be obtained by purchasing a miscellaneous-type vehicle endorsement. However, a snowmobile requires a different endorsement. One primary difference between the personal auto policy and motorcycle coverage is that liability is not covered on a nonowned motorcycle, unless it is a temporary substitute. In this case, the insurance of the owner of the motorcycle would apply.

I just submitted the first Scooter POI file. "Vespa". I think it is hard and sporadic to locate and make a file for the less expensive scooters.

Thank goodness we traded our gas drinking saturn suv for a used prius last year. It has saved us a ton of gas and we love it.

I have been looking for a scooter to use for local trips to keep the mileage down on the Prius and just for the fun factor. Used to ride a motorcycle and kept that endorsement on the license.

Here are the Scooter POI's.

Vespa
http://www.poi-factory.com/node/15420

Scooters and Mopeds
http://www.poi-factory.com/node/15423

For safety reasons, buy a scooter that has enough power to EASILY keep up with the flow of city traffic. Fitting in with the flow of traffic is much safer than a slow scooter that has to hug the curb and let all the traffic whiz by.

Look at the roads you would be riding. Be sure to get something that will easily keep up with traffic, being a slower irver is dangerous. I had a 250 when I moved to FL and the road to my job is 60,ph, with most traffic at about 70. I could go that fast but the engine was wound pretty tight. I traded for an 100. Get 45 mpg, and can go anywhere with confidence.

The 49cc scooters are OK, f you never need to be faster than 30.

In FL insurance is not required by law, but only a fool would ride that way.

gives me great pause to think, if you go out and buy a "gas saving" car here in California, it would take 7-10 years, and maybe much longer to recoup the difference that you would save as apposed to keeping what you have and suffering the "lower" gas mileage.

As a financial advisor, I advise my clients that if they need to replace their car, by all means, get the car that gets you the best gas mileage, but to go out and spend over $20,000 for a new car to save $20.00 every week makes absolutely no economic sense at all, unless you are rolling in the green stuff that is. As for a motorcycle, out here, enough said!

Just an opinion after 34 years of doing what I do...

I agree with you. I have a 94 GMC Yukon and get 17 to 18 mpg paid for and runs great now. Had to replace the EGA valve which put me to 10 mpg. was thinking of getting something new but we only fill it up once every month and a half so can't see making payment on a new one for that.

I just can't see the wisdom in doing otherwise, as your Yukon is a great vehicle, and all paid up, I'll bet!

yes it is and so is the jeep and I only get 15 17 mpg but won't get read of it either. I also tow it with the mh and get 7 mpg can't see trading it for a diesel either.

Well the thing about scooters is that people often get them for the high gas mileage, but over the long run, like a motorcycle, the gas savings ends up being a fringe benefit and the "fun factor" is what becomes the main draw.

If you want to buy a scooter for commuting and around town to save gas, be sure that you are really being it first and foremost for the fun factor. As pointed out, it can take a long time to get payback for your investment in gas savings.

As an example, assuming you are not buying the $1000 disposable model and assuming you are not buying a $3500+ Vespa or other "premium" model, you can expect to pay around $2000-$2400 for a decent basic 50cc model (price based on 50cc models offered by Yamaha, Honda, Genuine, Kymco, and other reputable scooter manufacturers).

Let's say your car gets a fairly decent 24 miles to the gallon. And let's say gas stays at $4.20 a gallon on average (which may be a low estimate over the coming years). Your car costs you 17.5-cents per mile you drive in gasoline.

Let's say a 50cc scooter is giving you 80 mpg (some models claim over 100 MPG but those might be optimistic specs). At the same $4.20 a gallon, it costs you 5.25-cents per mile you ride in gasoline.

Which means for every mile you ride the scooter instead of driving your car, you save 17.5 - 5.25 = 12.25 cents! Not bad. On a single 24 mile round trip to work, that is almost $3 saved.

But say you paid $2200 for your scooter, this means you have to ride the scooter just about 18,000 miles and those miles would have to be one where you would have taken your car (pleasure scooting doesn't count) in order to break even on the scooter cost.

Although certainly a much lower cost to get into a Yamaha Zuma scooter than it is for a Prius (you can by about ten Zumas for the price of ONE Prius).

Anyway, heck ya, get the scooter if you want to have fun *AND* same some money on your work commute. But don't get the scooter ONLY to save on gas as it will take you many YEARS to ride that many miles to and from work and the store to break even.

PT

You're exactly right.

If someone buys a scooter just for the savings in gas, they're going to have to wait a looooong time to realize the savings. If you already own a scooter or motorcycle, then you'll get an immediate savings by riding it more often.

I ride a motorcycle because I like it...the savings in gas is just an added bonus.

Good point you made in cost calculations. I never calculated out my cross over to two wheels. I'll have to look into that.

I had bought a motorcycle a few years ago specifically for commuting in CA. I get in the 50's for mileage, able to use the HOV lanes, lane sharing in congested areas and fun to ride. The best was when people were sitting at a traffic light and you could just split the lane and ride up to be the first in line. And when traffic is going 5mph on the highway and you can split between them. The CA police actually support lane splitting but I think they may be the only state that allows it.

Only use the car for picking up large items, big shopping trips and rain. I've rode in 34 degree weather to 95. My new temp range is 42-85 for comfort. In a 20 mile commute, I have found that with riding gloves, helmet and a jacket, below 42 becomes to cold for my fingers and above 88 gets too hot for jacket and FULL helmet when you stop at a traffic light. Over 45mph you want the protection!

If you take gas right out of the equation and list the other plus points, I think the HOV lane, no emissions testing, fun riding, parking almost anywhere and convenience factors are great. My 60 minute commute became 20 minutes everyday as I just drove past everyone stuck in traffic. That was worth it by itself to me and not being all pumped up ready for a fight from all the frustraion of inching forward.

And here I was considering a Harley...... Hey, I've heard many a Harley referred to as "my scooter".....

One should consider the safety factor into the saving equation.

I got off... On a hot day in So Cal I almost put my helmet on the back, with my leather jacket, but I didn't or I wouldn't be writing this... and that was before the helmet law....

The only way I could have avoided the subsequent accident was to be somewhere else..

Haven't gotten back on since...

Thought about dying when thinking about buying a bike. When will I ever get over the fear?

Well first off, I will say I am not a motorcycle rider so I can not speak from personal experiences. I have been looking into getting a scooter. Anyway...

Yes there is an elevated chance of getting killed on a motorcycle over an automobile, but statistically it is not huge. You might die driving your car to work tomorrow as well. Are you now going to stop driving your car? I wonder if staring at your GPS increases the chances of getting killed in your car?

But to give you some food for thought, quickly collected from several articles and sites after a quick web search...

According to U.S. Secretary of Transportation Mary E. Peters in early 2007, riders 50 and older accident rates have gone up over 400%. Another article attributes this to a lot of older guys with more disposable income with much larger more powerful bikes and being older being less physically able with less dexterity and slower reaction times.

Also according to Peters, only 58% of riders are wearing safety helmets. Which means over 40% are NOT!

Sports bike (Crotch rockets) have the highest death rates of all motorcycle types. They make up only 10% of the motorcycles out there but result in 25% of the deaths. Many of those deaths are attributed to excessive speed and/or alcohol use.

It kind of makes you wonder if a large part of the death rate of motorcycles can be attributed to no helmets, overly powerful bikes, youthful recklessness, drinking, old folks, speeding, etc. and of course any combination of those that are often put together.

So basically, don't speed, don't drink & ride, be alert and wear your helmet and my guess is the chances of you getting killed is probably not a lot more for most people than it is for driving a car.

PT

You have to ride defensively and it takes a while to learn that...

Many years ago I had a small (200 CC) Honda that I rode to work frequently. The only accident I had was when someone else came around a curve on my side of the road and ran me off into a ditch. I wasn't going very fast and I was smart enough to curl as I came off of the bike. Even though I hadn't been traveling faster than 25 - 30 mph, I rolled and bounced for a LONG way and then lay in the middle of the road on a blind curve waiting for someone to run me over. After a bit I was able to get up and drag the bike out of the ditch. I kicked the bent pegs sort of into position and rode on home. The next day I HURT. A lot. Everywhere.

I'm well aware that it takes very little to get injured on a motorcycle. The last accident I got into was in a full sized pickup. I was stopped in traffic and got rear-ended hard enough to knock me out without even hitting my head. It took 3 years of hassling to get the insurance to pay for the surgery so I could use my right arm for much of anything. If I had been on a bike I would have been a large spatter of goo.

I have to totally agree that riding defensively is key with motorcycles. I also agree with the folks who talk about older guys with slower reaction times. These are the reasons I have only "thought about" getting a bike rather than actually getting one. If I do end up getting a bike it will be something I use around town and on short trips and I will definitely be paranoid of the other idiots on the road.

Let's not forget how everyone always claims they never saw the motorcycle. Did you ever have one of those Harleys come near you and it was so loud it was deafening so you couldn't hear your own radio turned up really loud or had to pause your phone conversation? Congratulations, you now noticed there was a motorcycle and know why there muffs are so loud.

Motorcycle Mama what's your take on this?

No, they are that loud because they are Arse-orifices. They use the "safety" claim in order to make them way too loud.

PT

I love it. I'll be using it as my commuting vehicle. It goes 65 MPH max but I just stick to surface streets. As for using GPS, I set the destination first, plug in headphones and follow the prompts. Works pretty well.

The best part about having the scooter is that my wife can have the option to take the car whenever she wants and we don't need another car. Insurance is also great!

New or used? What kind?

It does not pay to invest in new vehicles when you have good running ones. Best of all they are paid for.

Ray

I scoot for my commute whenever possible. I do save money on gas but I spend money on riding gear and the bike. My insurance for the year is about $150 USD, the registration is about the same.

The gas is nice to save on... 50-60 MPH scooter vs 13 MPH truck. I save 35%-75% of my commute time, don't wait in traffic and smile when I fill up for $6.00 (for about 120 mile tank)

It's the fun that keeps you riding.

As for accidents... there are two types. The ones I cause by speeding, being drunk or acting dumb; I can control. The other accidents, caused by factors outside of my control, I can only deal with them when they happen and control the factors I am in control of.