Curious about scooters

[Curious_AJ]

Hey guys,
I was just made able to post (thanks to my gorgeous BF pulling some strings)
and i just wanted to say that i'm curious about taking up riding a scooter and maybe moving onto a motorbike. Once i have my car restricted i plan on looking more into it.

Any advice you can give to a complete newbie (other than one lesson on a bike that was WAY too tall for me), on the subject??

thanks
~AJ~

[Grub]

OK, scooters are great but they do have limitations.

Tell us about where you'll ride, how far are you from work, do you have any experience, do you have a licence of any kind and what is it.

That information helps get an idea of what might be the best thing for you to do

Cheers
Brett

[bobsmith]

More specifics would be great (such as what you're looking to getting out of riding).

I first started off a 125cc chinese scooter (lifan) which was way too under powered for anything. my fiancee kept that scooter and I moved onto bikes from there.

My fiancee while being able to ride bikes (well I think she can she feels that she needs more practice to ride in auckland rush hour traffic though) just recently sold that scooter to her brother and bought a taiwanese 150cc sccoter which is happy at motorway speeds so that she can commute easier across the harbour bridge everyday. We would have gotten faster scooters but scooter get very expensive as they get faster (about 6700 for gilera runner 250 and around 9000 for a vespa gt250ie) If you want to go fast and take joy in taking fast sweeping corners you'll probably find more joy in motorbikes. (generally bikes with the same speeds as a scooter are much cheaper)

but if you enjoy pulling in/out of busy city traffic and being a complete hoon around the city, you can't beat a small scooter with decent engine. I couldn't begin to tell you how much fun with my fiancee's scooter in auckland while I was there. sure it tops out at about 110-115km/hr but it was a small scooter with short wheelbase and fast pickup from the lights...

However her scooter did cost slightly over 4000 new... on the other hand, you can get decent second hand 250cc inline four around that price which will do 180km/hr... You wouldn't find them as fun as scooter for getting around the city though.

Hmmm I seem to be just rambling on now....

[Meanie]

Welcome to the mad house Curious
Practice practice and more practice

[Drum]

Step away from the scooter!

Oh and welcome to the site Curious.

[Disco Dan]

WELCOME

[Chisanga]

WELCOME

Lol Dan

[Curious_AJ]

well, i want to get started really, looking for something to get me around places without having the stupid bulk of a car, i currently have a learners in my car but im going to get my restricted in a couple of weeks if all goes well!!

im also looking at the smaller bikes etc.. but a few months ago i was dreaming about biking etc but was waaay too scared to do anything about it!!
now that ive had a few little pushes in this direction, i took the step.

my bf recommended a GN250... but it looks scary lol...

anyways, in short.. what i want is something to zip through traffic and get about with ease and then looking to move onto a bit more .

btw thanks all for the welcome!!

[Disco Dan]

well, i want to get started really, looking for something to get me around places without having the stupid bulk of a car, i currently have a learners in my car but im going to get my restricted in a couple of weeks if all goes well!!

im also looking at the smaller bikes etc.. but a few months ago i was dreaming about biking etc but was waaay too scared to do anything about it!!
now that ive had a few little pushes in this direction, i took the step.

my bf recommended a GN250... but it looks scary lol...

anyways, in short.. what i want is something to zip through traffic and get about with ease and then looking to move onto a bit more .

btw thats all for the welcome!!

OK, seriously now... where abouts in aucks are you?

why dont you come along to AWNMR tomorrow night? (LINKY HERE) You can go pillion with a very experienced rider on a short trip to see if its what you want? You may even be able to sit on a few dif learner bikes to see if you like the feel?

Dan.

[Curious_AJ]

im in the northshore, i'd love to come tomorrow night but im going to be working (damn baby factory and their stocktake) so i dont even know when ill be let go.

Ill check it out anyway for further reference though.

[NighthawkNZ:Me]

Hey guys,
I was just made able to post (thanks to my gorgeous BF pulling some strings)
and i just wanted to say that i'm curious about taking up riding a scooter and maybe moving onto a motorbike. Once i have my car restricted i plan on looking more into it.

Any advice you can give to a complete newbie (other than one lesson on a bike that was WAY too tall for me), on the subject??

Welcome to the local nut house...

Scooters have there own sense of fun and require different skills, the are lower centre of gravity, shorter wheel base, and smaller wheels, they are very low powered.

So like every one else has said, what are you wanting the scooter for, where do you live and how far are you going to travel... what roads... motorway?...

What size scooter are you looking at... a nifty 50??? (which you can ride on a car license if it is under 50cc) anything over a 50cc you must have a bike license. top speed of a nifty is probably 55km going down hill witha tail wind and you probably get speed wobbles...

I use to ride my partners nifty... was fun and handy just to go around the corner dairy and quick trips in to town etc... was cheap to run very low maintenance, and realiable... but very limited what you can do on it...

[Curious_AJ]

yeah, i was looking at something more than 50cc, hence i knew i would need the bike licence, as i have been talking to a friend and my bf about it as well.

i live a few kms away from where i work at the moment, but it would be nice to beable to ride over the bridge to UNITEC as well (where i am studying)

~AJ~

[Grub]

Cool Aj, now we know a bit more here's some more thoughts. Scooters are great but "nipping in and out of traffic" is not! That gets you run down by people in cars who can't see you.

I would say a scooter is ok if you're just buzzing around the Shore or if you lived in Mt Eden and workled in town for example. As soon as you start talking about motorways and the bridge, things change. You have to start thinking small motorbikes. Scooters aren't that stable, especially at motorway speeds and more so in side winds like you get on the bridge.

At the moment for you, just the idea of getting on two wheels is exciting and enough to fulfil your lust for the freedom. But every day after you start you'll be expanding your horizons every time you go out. Sooner than you think you'll want to go further, go exploring, make a trip. A scooter will clip your wings because they just don't take your to far or interesting places.

My partner Nasty(on KB) wanted a scooter, *really* wanted a scooter. Really really. We live 30km down the motorway from her work. I used all the above arguments because I didn't think the scooter was the right choice for the motorway and I knew how compulsive the riding bug is. She got a Suzuki FXR150 instead. Now look at her! She has a 500cc cruiser and we have been all over the country and ride to distant places at least once a week and its not even a year since she got the FXR. I was able to ride the FXR from Gisborne to Wellington and it handled the motorway with stability and safety (even if it didn't handle the headwinds that well).

The ultimate decision is yours of course, all I can say is that we probably can see further into your motorcycling future than you at this point ... lol

Brett

[xwhatsit]

Scooters are great! Much easier to learn to ride than a bike -- for a start, no gears or clutch. Hillstarts become much easier when you don't have to worry about holding the clutch in as well as the brake while grabbing the throttle -- you get the hang of those basic parts of riding a bike quickly enough, but on a scooter it's completely straightforward. Cornering is easy and lots of fun. And, most importantly, you're on two wheels, so then you're on your way to transportation nirvana

One thing about scooters... I don't know about you, but I have no arse -- and for that reason I find scooters very uncomfortable for anything more than the shortest ride. On a bike, the weight is spread out around your thighs and legs, whereas on a scooter every bump just goes straight up your arse and I find it quite uncomfortable. But that might just be me.

Yeah, go for it! After you ride one of those around, bikes won't look so scary anymore anyway, and you might be tempted onto one of those after a while -- but scooters have their own je ne sais quoi and you might be having too much of a ball on one to want to leave it.

[crash harry]

Hi AJ (good initials by the way...)

I've just been doing the "first bike" excersize with 2 of my friends and we came to some conclusions that may be of help to you.

1) Scooters are scooters, bikes are bikes. Riding a scooter is quite a lot easier than riding a bike, although it may not be a bad first step. Think of it as being somewhat like learning to drive in an automatic. You still don't know how to drive a manual properly, but you know some of it.

2) Friends don't let friends buy GN250s. I know heaps of people ride them and think that they like them, but seriously, if you try something else, anything else, you will prefer it. The FXR150 on the other hand is so much fun, I couldn't believe it.

3) Look at heaps of different models of bike. If you don't know much about bikes/engines have someone who does come with you, but tell them that you only want their opinion about the condition of the bikes. It's important that you make up your own mind what style of bike (Sport bike, scooter, cruiser, etc) suits you. No-one else can make that decision for you, but most experienced bikers will have a fairly strong opinion about what is "best" or "worst" (for example see my previous comments about GNs...).

4)Despite what you may read on KB, hondas are not inherantly gay. Mostly. Well not all of them anyway.

Lastly, if you go here and search under "News and Reviews" -> "Bike Reviews Search" for the word "Commuter" or "Scooter" you'll find a few reviews of some models you may be interested in, particularly the Vespa models.

Good luck in finding something you like!
AJ