[Tristan7]

I'll admit it- I had a Yamaha Riva 80 scooter in high school and it was a blast! I'd seriously consider getting one as a commuter but the EPA's 50cc cutoff for 2 strokes is just too low. The 80 I had was a 2 stroke, and it would do 60-65 mph. There are some cool 250+ 4 stroke scoots coming out, but the damn things are like $5K!

 

[Damon]

Hey...my first first post. Yippee.



I want one. Cheap, bound to be stone reliable, the insurance is probably a whopping $300 a year. About a thousand miles per gallon. Good first bike maybe? I'l buy one for my own 225# carcass, and if it turns out to be too little, too late...I'll give it to mom.

 

[Tristan7]

Hey MO- if I pay to use this site, can you auto-edit the words "first post"? It's sooo played out!

It's good to be over 30- my insurance on a VTR1000 is well under $300/yr.

 

[Millencolin]

I was amazed to find out that my insurance was exactly $300 per year on a '96 CBR600. I was a 19 year old male!! I'm still only 20 and moved the policy to my 2000 Yamaha R6 and it's still the same price. I thought it would be much more than that, they may have made a mistake, but i'm sure as hell not gonna start asking questions! lol



I'm currently going to school at Oregon State Univ. and i think a scooter would be very cool to have. I almost bought one last summer but couldnt quite come up with the cash.

 

[stevecs]

These things are really cool looking, I saw it in black and dark red at the Seattle cycle show, It was probably the most impressive looking bike there! (to me anyway)

 

[El_Flaco]

The Vino has a really nice look to it. Very chic and practical at the same time. Scooters are cool, especially this one. You're right about the whole European fascination with scooters; I visited southern Spain last summer (many of the places Minime ventured to on the FZ-1 test!), and in all the cities, scooters ruled the roads. Lots of Aprilia scooters, wild racing paint schemes, loud racing pipes (!) and helmets were few and far between. Great area, nice people, beautiful weather, great roads, tons of bikes and the cities made me appreciate scooters all the more. I hope they catch on in US cities! Thanks for giving them some attention on the site... Any chance of seeing the Italjet Dragster 180 LC reviewed? That has to be one of the coolest scooters out there.

 

[brmplb]

I visited Taipei, Taiwan three times last year on business. It was the first time I had ever been to Asia. I think someone told me that Taipei has a population of about 7 million and about 6 million motor scooters. All I know is that I was just totally blown away by the number and variety of scooters. Imagine every sidewalk lined with scooters parked side by side and two deep. Imagine large parking lots filled with nothing but scooters. There are two stop lines at intersections. One for cars and one closer to the intersection for scooters. The scoots just filter through the chaotic yet relaxed traffic to the scooter line and get a great holeshot when the light turns green. I saw three people (two adults and a kid) riding at a time. I saw a guy in the computer shopping district carrying more boxes and stuff on his scoot than I can fit in my car. They ranged from new Yamaha Vinos (high end scoot) to old Vespas. Others popular makes were Kymco, Hyosung, and Honda. There were actually very few motorcycles. They have like a 250cc limit on scooters and motorcycles. The closest thing I saw to a sportbike were Ninja 250s. The medium to nicer scoots all had disc brakes. Inspired by how much fun it all looked, I started looking at them when I came back home and was appalled by the crappy selection, poor quality, and unbelievably high prices of scooters in the US. I ended up getting a Honda CBR600F4i instead. Go figure. Scoots rule.

 

[bigjames]

Now don't get me wrong, I really like the scooter. However, I would get arrested for motorcycle abuse if I ever sat on one. I like my bikes to be a lot bigger than me.



The point I want to mention is that this thing looks an awful lot like a toilet, with the seat up!

 

[IceWorm]

Very funny. Your comment reminds me of a famous Jack Valence quote that I will paraphrase here. I crap bigger than a Vino. If I wanted a scoot I would go with Aprilia and their direct injection technology. We are talking pollution and gas mileage figures equal to four strokes of equal displacement yet typical two stroke power. As far as I know the Japs have been too cheap to license this injection technology. So their scoots have more expensive four stoke engines. A direct injection 150 cc two stroke makes the same or more power as a typical four stroke 250 cc scooter engine and is much cheaper to produce. I would love to see the difference in gas mileage between the Aprilia 50 cc scoot with injection technology compared to the Vino without it.

 

[FunkyJunk]

You MO guys should do a story on the YSR50 racing movement in this country. These bikes haven't been made for ten years, and yet they're being raced competitively all across the U.S. and Canada. These 50cc sportbikes are a blast to ride, and there are loads of performance parts available for them. MO, please do a story on YSR racing!



If we could convince manufacturers that there is still a market for these smaller bikes, we may end up seeing an increase in the variety sold here. The same has happened for naked retro bikes - now let's lobby for scooters and mini-sportbikes!



(and yes, I do own and race a YSR so I'm biased :^P )

 

[Patrick-of-the-Hills]

The trendy kids at my suburban Minneapolis high school in the late '80s all had scooters (Razzes, Elites) before they were old enough for full licenses. Vespas have always had that Mod/Beat/Eurocore thing going for them. Unfortunately, if you have to do any highway work at all, they're ironically impractical (except for a comparative whale like a Helix, which is really more a motorcycle than a scooter). Scooters are nice for the Hamptons (Martha has one, for God's sake!) but some of us have to pass in favor of real motorcycles, small or otherwise. Yeah, it's a heartbreaker....

 

[TBones]

I'll be damned. I play this smug little game before I look at the reader feedback for any particular article, and guess the main theme or themes for the posts. For this, I picked "Why would you idiots at MO waste my time on a damned SCOOTER article when you can't even do a decent REAL bike review."



Thanks for making me so wrong! I'm glad to see an open discussion about something other than "My bike's faster than your's, and by the way, Harley's suck."



I've never been on a scooter (I've had a blast on a moped though), but they do seem very practicle for 'round town, not to mention an actual fun way to run errands. Thanks for the review, MO. Interesting reading.



-Tom

 

[NickdaBrick]

I just checked on e-bay and found a '79 CBX for less than $1600. Slightly cheaper was an '85 Yamaha Virago 1000 with less than 10,000 miles for under $1300, both of which ask the question: Who would buy a dinky tiddler when, for less money, you can get a real bike that is more practical everywhere except a few inner city neighborhoods, can carry more than one person, and blow most cars into the weeds? The difference in purchase price alone can pay for an awful lot of gas. The Vino will be a tough sell in the states, and likely shall remain a fringe product cheifly appealing to the wealthy who already own a fat SUV for trips to the drycleaners.

 

[lexs]

IceWorm, just a note on direct injection. I don't think it is quite as simple as the Japanese being "too cheap", direct injection has had plenty of problems. Most motorcyclist know about the Bimota fiasco, I understand problems with the orbital system just about bankrupted OMC (an American outboard boat motor company) and most of the outboard manufacturers have given up on it, they are building four-strokes. Also, the cost difference between a high pressure direct injection two stroke and simple four stroke isn't a much as you would think. The advantages of the two stroke (more power from a given size and weight) as important as cost in the argument for DI. I would like to see more about the Aprilia system, is it really clean? Would it work on larger engines? The last is based on my understanding that one of the problems with DI is surging, not a problem on 100 CC scooter (two modes, full throttle and closed throttle) but it would be a problem as the engine gets bigger. While I would like to see clean two strokes there are problems, don't hold your breath.

 

[lexs]

Nick, You are probably right about the Vino not selling in the US but FWIW, I bet you could run the scooter for six months for the price of a valve adjustment on the CBX.;-)

 

[TBones]

There are a lot of folks who don't WANT a Virago 1000. Vehicles, especially the two-wheeled kind, appeal to people for far more reasons than horsepower. I think sales for these things will do okay. Not great, but okay.



-Tom

 

[ducatirdr]

Re: 50cc is fun

When my Ducati dealer started carrying Aprilia scooters I thought he was crazy, but they are selling.

I got to take an Aprilia RS50 for a test ride and I plan on buying one when I have an extra 3k. That bike is FUN. You're in full race mode when riding it anywhere as you are constantly on the pipe winding it out and planning your next move. The thing handles like a 125 GP bike. One of the guys put an 80cc kit on his and now he has to watch for cops.

It's all about having fun

 

[056]

Ha!

I rode my Vespa P200E from San Francisco to New Orleans and back, and it wasn't bad at all.

Not the best way to travel, but not the worst, either. Scooters rule!

 

[056]

Virago=I have no taste!

You couldn't PAY me $1300 to ride a Virago. I have nothing against obese lesbians, but I don't want to be associated with them.

Some folks just feel a motorcycle is to big a commitment. A scooter is just transportation, but a person with a Virago or a CBX, well, they probably have some kind of bizzare agenda, like Jay Leno's turbine bike, only more affordable.

 

[SB8RC]

Big deal yamaha if it was a two stroke it would be cool. I only pay 86 dollars a year on my 1999 cbr600f4. Yeah I still might buy it but I would put a smoke bellowing chain saw sounding 2 stroke engine in it. It would definately be over 50 cc. Merry Christmas.