Scooter, 50km/h, Road Licence

[p.dath]

I was driving in my cage yesterday and came up behind a scooter rider doing 35km/h who was wearing a pretty pink jacket, normal build, and hugging the left hand side of the road.

I was thinking. Perhaps scooter riders tend to hug the left because that is what it says to do in the road code when your doing your car licence. Perhaps because they haven't done any motorcycle training they simply don't know to own their lane.

But the other bit I don't get. Why only ride at 35km/h. I've never ridden a scooter, so have no experience in this area.
Do scooters have trouble have trouble going 50km/h? This was on flat road, and the rider was not overweight. It looked like a 50cc scooter to me.
Why not ride at the speed limit?

[NordieBoy]

Some just can't get to 50.

[The Baron]

I think it all comes back to no rider training.

They do not know the danger they put themselves in.

[crazyhorse]

Scooters are not the safest vehicles out there - and with their little tyres, tend to wobble all over the place. Best place for them is to the left of the lane - that way, cars can go around them safely.

You don't need a motorcycle license to drive them, only a car - therefore scooter riders have no real motorcycling sense (unless they are on the very big scooters you can buy)

[slofox]

Little old ladies and little old men driving mobile shopping baskets are just the fuckin' same...got stuck behind two lots of 'em this morning...bastards!

[SMOKEU]

My old 50cc scooter wouldn't go past 40kmh

[steve_t]

A number of scooters really struggle to hold 50km/h. Once they hit any kind of uphill gradient, they're getting passed by people on bicycles :bleh:
It's especially funny when you see a scooter take off from the lights and the rider uses their legs to help get the scooter up to speed :laugh:
Other scooters seem to have no worries getting up to about 70km/h. Guess it depends on which ones and, as you've said, how heavy the rider is

[p.dath]

I almost wonder if the minimum standard (and I assume one exists) needs to be raised for scooters.

Having a device on the road that can't even do 50 km/h doesn't sound that safe to me.

[klingon]

Scooters are not the safest vehicles out there - and with their little tyres, tend to wobble all over the place. Best place for them is to the left of the lane - that way, cars can go around them safely.

You don't need a motorcycle license to drive them, only a car - therefore scooter riders have no real motorcycling sense (unless they are on the very big scooters you can buy)

I strongly disagree that hugging the left is the safest place for them. It makes them hard to see, vulnerable to car doors being thrown open, people pulling out of driveways, pedestrians stepping out... and it doesn't make it easier for cars to safely overtake them. They're just more likely to push them off the road and into the gutter.

I've ridden a few 50cc scooters. Vespas and other decent brands can maintain 50kph even on some quite long hills (eg College Hill in Auckland). But I borrowed a friend's Li Fan scooter just for fun - and it was NOT fun. It couldn't maintain 50kph even on the flat (and yes, I'm a 'normal sized' person).

To make it worse, 50cc scooters don't need a warrant, so this one had a barely-working front brake and goodness knows what else wrong with it. There is no way it should have been on the road.

I agree with the comment that riders often have no idea of how to behave on the road. My friend who owned the Li Fan thought the safest place for him to ride was on the left, and that it didn't matter that the front brake didn't work because you don't need to use the front brake anyway.

He ended up replacing it with a 180cc Piaggio Hexagon which has no trouble maintaining 50kph - in fact it easily does 100kph on the motorway.

[Qkchk]

Must of been one of those 'bargin' plastic-engined chinese scooters.

[awayatc]

Little old ladies and little old men driving mobile shopping baskets are just the fuckin' same...got stuck behind two lots of 'em this morning...bastards!

driving into the supermarket again were you.....?:rolleyes:

[slofox]

driving into the supermarket again were you.....?:rolleyes:

Nah - driving back from Gilmours with a bootload of booze...was in a hurry too - excise men were on my tail...

[SMOKEU]

It's better for them to be on the left of the road if they can't maintain traffic speed (55kmh), otherwise they will be holding up traffic.

[Squiggles]

They ride them like they're bicycles, and stick to the left. Not safe for them, they need to own the road or they'll be pushed off of it.

[Ixion]

Scooters can have a top speed of 150kph+.

What you are talking about are mopeds.

By law, a moped must have an engine capacity of no more than 50cc, power output no more than 2KW (I think); and must not be capable of exceeding 50kph on the flat

So, any hill and a legal moped will be way under 50kph.

Of course many (most?) bikes registered as mopeds are capable of a lot more than 2KW and more than 50kph (and sometimes more than 50cc too). Some are legal, they're the slow ones.

That's because until this month the law made no provision for checking them. You rolled into LTSA, said "I've got a moped to register" and they took your word it was according to the rules . That changed last month. now if you want to register a moped you'll have to prove it complies (NB register, not licence)

BTW if we agree that mopeds should not left hug despite being incapable of 50kph, for lots of god reasons, should not the same logic apply to pushbikes?

[p.dath]

Ahh, a Moped, not a scooter. Just checked the LTSA web site, and it says this:

http://www.ltsa.govt.nz/factsheets/43.html
You must ride on the road – you can't ride on the footpath or a cycle path. Keep as far left as you can. You may use bus lanes, as long as there isn't a sign forbidding this.

So they are told by the LSTA to keep to the left.

[p.dath]

Does anyone know of any stats relating the moped accidents in NZ?

[WuZards-Eugene]

That changed last month. now if you want to register a moped you'll have to prove it complies (NB register, not licence)


nnooooooooo, they cant change the rules, thats not fair. Ohh well, hopefully they dont check the power output.

[slofox]

now if you want to register a moped you'll have to prove it complies (NB register, not licence)



Shit. Does this mean the SV650S can't be a moped any more..? :Pokey:

[Mully]

Does anyone know of any stats relating the moped accidents in NZ?

No, because the ACC bastards lump them in with motorcycle stats. Then talk about how the costs of motorcycle accidents keeps rising (because scooterati don't like wearing gear.


Shit. Does this mean the SV650S can't be a moped any more..? :Pokey:

Nah, as long as it's registered as one, you can re-licence it.

[steve_t]

Scooters can have a top speed of 150kph+.

What you are talking about are mopeds.

By law, a moped must have an engine capacity of no more than 50cc, power output no more than 2KW (I think); and must not be capable of exceeding 50kph on the flat

So, any hill and a legal moped will be way under 50kph.

Of course many (most?) bikes registered as mopeds are capable of a lot more than 2KW and more than 50kph (and sometimes more than 50cc too). Some are legal, they're the slow ones.

That's because until this month the law made no provision for checking them. You rolled into LTSA, said "I've got a moped to register" and they took your word it was according to the rules . That changed last month. now if you want to register a moped you'll have to prove it complies (NB register, not licence)

BTW if we agree that mopeds should not left hug despite being incapable of 50kph, for lots of god reasons, should not the same logic apply to pushbikes?

Your knowledge and wisdom prevail again, Ixion :headbang:

[NZDan.gsxr]

Forgive me for not reading this entire thing but I have an electric scooter at home, and my sister on occasion rides it, it looks like a normal 50cc scooter but its electric and absolutely SLOW!!!! I cruise about 30 on it, but my sis is lighter, has a pink jacket... yeah.

Then again, maybe not.

But it could be one of those

[Aaron_newrider]

I used to (4 yrs ago) have a cheap chinese 50cc scooter, dad brought it for me to get to the bus stop in as we lived in the wop wops.

It went about 65kph max. Would scream at 65 though so only when I was feeling adventurous. That was my first "crash" on a "bike" took a corner to sharp and WOOP it went out from under me. Lucky I was ok, found some grass and a big bush on the side of that road.

[Slicksta]

The Jog 50 I been riding round on does 80kph on the flat its funny passing cars :) eats all them commy scooters with ease

[MarkH]

Lol at those that think a scooter travelling at 35kph should be riding in the right wheel track. By law any vehicle travelling slower than the flow of traffic must drive as far to the left as practicable. Of course a faster bike that can travel fast enough to not hold up the other traffic should 'own their lane', but riding slowly with a queue of pissed off car drivers behind you is not necessarily the best way to go.

Getting a motorcycle license and buying a 125cc scooter is a good option since you can buy a 125cc for not much more than a 50cc - but the arseholes at ACC have whacked up the levies (again) and it costs much more per year to register a 125cc scooter.

[retro asian]

First thing to do on a 50cc scooter is change the exhaust, or drill out the baffling...
Then its usually comfortable to go 50-60 on the straights, and ride in any position (center/right/left) which gets you "seen" by cars (behind, in front and at intersections etc).

Chances are it will still suck on hills. More mods would be required to combat this (best mod is trading up for a real bike).

Moving to the left when cars approach from behind is the courteous thing to do IMO.