I’ve never been on one. Learning to ride also seemed a bit of a deterrent (I don’t even ride a bicycle). A motorcycle course sounds like a good idea.

Based on nothing but the vicarious thrill it would give me, I say go for it.

I don’t.

Pause for scooter excitement frenzy.

Now, what was your question? Oh yes, scooters. Yes, I have been on one and yes, I would like to own one. OHMYGOODNESSINEEDASCOOTER.

Did that answer your question?

Michele sent me.

I love music and cats!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Nadia

I started my motorcycle phase with my grampa’s 1972 Honda Trail 90, which is vaguely trail-bike shaped but is really a 90cc scooter. Because I thought it would be really embarrassing to kill myself with something wimpier than your average lawn mower, I took the 1-800-CCRIDER training course and learned how to ride real motorcycles. Following suit is a requirement of our friendship, Kimberly–it’s a fantastic course and only fools would attempt to ride without it.

Then I proceeded to ride my Trail90, then got hooked on a Honda 650 HawkGT a friend lent me, and then had to force myself to ride the Trail90 occasionally.

Here’s the deal. You’re necessarily going to go slower on a scooter, and you’re going to be limited to city streets. Even if yours has enough CCs for a bit of highway use to be legal, it would be insane to attempt it. So, in a falsely reassuring way, a scooter will seem the safer choice, and at first I did feel safer on the Trail90 than on the HawkGT. However, within a week, I knew the Hawk was the safer bike, and the Trail90 was a death trap, because a real bike has (a) loads of pickup, to squirt you to safety on short notice (speeding up into the direction of safety, by the way, is the most effective way to get out of most kinds of trouble), (b) incredibly powerful brakes, to halt you to safety on short notice, (c) incredible turning power, to swerve you to safety on short notice, (d) enough weight to provide gyroscopic stability even at 5mph on a bumpy road, (e) enough street cred to earn you some tiny bit of respect from the morons in SUVs, (f) enough power to intimidate you into riding conservatively.

Scooters, by contrast, have less pick up than most wimpy cars, meaning that you will have to learn a whole new rhythm for moving in traffic. Their stopping distance is comparable to (or greater than) most cars. They’re wobbly even at high speed and feel horrible on a bumpy surface. They’re hard to steer hard. People in SUVs will never, ever see you nor take you into account in their traffic decisions.

Yes, scooters are cute, and they make a fun little buzzy sound, and they seem vaguely ladylike, and you’d think their wimpiness would be a built-in hedge against aggressive riding. Since you already know I take a more aggressive approach to traffic than you do, ask some other scooter riders who don’t seem like me how long their wimpiness lasted. Most people who get scooters become a little throttle happy after a short time, because at first they do feel “safe,” and they proceed to ride beyond the braking and steering limits of their bikes. It’s nearly impossible to ride beyond the braking and steering limits of even a tiny motorcycle.

With all that in mind, I say, by all means go for it. Riding is a blast, and it’s a wonderful, sensible, and fun a way to get around a city. Take the course first. You’ll learn on their small motorcycles, i.e., make your mistakes and break off little bits and pieces of THEIR bikes, not yours. After you pass, if you’re still into the whole idea, ask to borrow a friend’s real small motorcycle for a little practice on a parking lot, and then borrow a friend’s scooter for the same. Be sure to try all those hard swerving, braking, and braking-in-a-turn maneuvers you learned to pass the riding test, and then you be the judge. I’d lay odds on your choosing a small motorcycle instead, and I’ll be thrilled to help you pick something out!

I still miss my Hawk GT. Maybe someday I’ll get that VFR800 I’ve been drooling over…