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I am wondering what it is like owning/driving a scooter where you live? I am located in the upper midwest of the US. We are a small state population wise with just about 1 million total people. The city I live in is the states largest with just under 200,000 people.

Here it seems scooters are frowned upon. Motorcycles are king, with the young opting for the crotch rockets. Harleys are everywhere along with Gold Wings etc. We have a decent amount of scooterists here too, I just dont feel like they are given much notice.

The mentallity from other car owners is " Oh F***, I dont want to get behind the scooter" The motorcycle people think "Grow up and ride a real machine"

Sioux Falls is full of road rage and really is survival of the fittest. Horns, jestures, accidents are a daily occurance here.

So what is it like where you live and ride?

I also live in the Midwest, most small scooters here are driven by people who have lost their licenses for DUI. People don't seem to know what to make of scooters that require a motorcycle license to drive. Still, a scooter isn't a motorcycle and only motorcycles get respect. There is definitely an attitude that scooters are only for people who can't ride real motorcycles. Yet that attitude doesn't seem to apply to bikes like Hondamatics. I guess it has to look like a motorcycle, rather than look like a scooter.

Where I live its just great.
I get on my scooter, ride it, enjoy it and don't care a flying fuck what anyone else says or thinks about it.

gn2 wrote:Where I live its just great.
I get on my scooter, ride it, enjoy it and don't care a flying fuck what anyone else says or thinks about it.

Thats great and all, but I think you may have missed the point...? I mean I am the same way, I ride and the hell with the rest.

Nope, that is the point exactly.

gn2 wrote:Nope, that is the point exactly.

Thanks for sharing

Since I "date back" to the "Prehistoric Era" of Motorcycling (the 70s, when English Bikes and Harleys were all Anyone rode, then the Japanese Bike Invasion began), I'm one of the "1% Founding Fathers" in my Area. I started riding religiously in 1970 and building Custom Choppers, Bobbers, Insurance Wrecks, etc. at the time. I've led organized Motorcycle Rides since 1974. I've owned and ridden Motorcycles and Scooters for years, adding Scooter Ride organizing and leading since 2007. Having such a vast background in racing everything with Wheels all my Life, Scooters were accepted as pretty "cool" here after my Wife and I started riding Them about as much as Our Motorcycles.

I live in a "Motorcycle Mecca" that includes the Lynchburg, Tn, Monteagle Mountain, Cumberland Plateau, and the Smokies/The Dragon Riding Areas with Endless Twisties tying Them All together. We can leave Our Driveway and go all the way to The Dragon without ever using a main road.....Yep, They're acceptable here now....

I joined the local scooter club as the city I live in is also around 200,000. Its nice to meet and tour once a month with like minded folk. More scooters will appear as gas (petrol) prices rise. I still see most cages on my commute with just one person behind the wheel, then they have to pay for parking, whilst I park for free.

gn2 wrote:Where I live its just great.
I get on my scooter, ride it, enjoy it and don't care a flying fuck what anyone else says or thinks about it.

With GN2 on this. In the words of another great Scot "I've realised I'm not special after all"

I have only had problems with sportsbike riders, they usually act as though they have something to prove.
other than that alot of people comment and want to chat.Perth has lots of "stylish" vespas in the western suburbs, with well-off owners in singlets, shorts and boat-shoes as protection

Along the beach areas here in Delaware and Maryland there are tons of small scoots. Unfortunately the tourons kill several bicyclists and motorcyclists every summer. Get inland a couple of miles and it is mostly motorcycles. People here on Delmarva are much more laid back than the folks on the Western Shore in Baltimore & D.C. so almost all motorcyclists will wave or return a wave.

Don

GeezyRider wrote:Along the beach areas here in Delaware and Maryland there are tons of small scoots. Unfortunately the tourons kill several bicyclists and motorcyclists every summer. Get inland a couple of miles and it is mostly motorcycles. People here on Delmarva are much more laid back than the folks on the Western Shore in Baltimore & D.C. so almost all motorcyclists will wave or return a wave.

Don

Tourons?

you you wrote:Tourons?

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I guess it means "stupid tourist" (tourist + moron).

It could also be a misspelling (Volkswagen Touran).

Its not all bad here, I had a guy on a Harley pull up next to me at the drive thru at my bank. He was interested and wanted to chat. Of course he had to turn his bike off in order to do so...

Yeah Tourons = Tourists. Apparently normal driving rules and laws do not apply when one is on vacation or holiday.

GeezyRider wrote:Yeah Tourons = Tourists. Apparently normal driving rules and laws do not apply when one is on vacation or holiday.

Normally, Tourons' vehicles are not equipped with turn signals....

Our area has one BIG city, and that is Atlanta. Population is in the millions. Recently, within the last year, scooters have been showing up all over the city and on the freeways. We had been looking at scooters long before that. I retired as of Christmas of 2011. I had a large file on scooters prior to that, and I knew that I was going to buy a Burgman 400. At that time the PCX 150 had not even been introduced. We purchased the Burgman in July of last year. While it was in the shop we looked at other scooters. Then, in August the dealer got in the PCX 150. We thought that it would not be able to keep up with my 400 but the dealer said that we would be surprised, so we bought it. You can't test ride motorcycles around here, so it was bought on trust. Since that time we have had the best fun we have had in a long time, and now the streets are starting to fill with motorcycles and scooters. We laugh when we see the 49cc scooters trying to climb the hills, but there are other scooters that are in our range and they are becoming common. Maybe it is because it is summer, or maybe it is because the gas prices are getting out of hand. Many people are looking at the cost of trading in their SUV or truck, but since ours are paid for it was much cheaper to go this route....and much more fun too.

I live right near Mel, scooters are definitely becoming more prevalent here.

We do have 3 local scooter clubs, one is totally chill, one is full of hipsters, and the other is a bit snobbish towards Vespas. They're all cool folks though. I ride with each club several times a year -- most of them know and recognize my dog from her riding with me.

We have LOTS of CPCs around here, aka Chinese Pieces of Crap. Lots of folks import them and sell them for $700ish, and many more ghetto-types ride them around, giving the rest of us scooterists a bad name. Anything under 49ccs doesn't require registration or insurance, so lots of shady folks ride those...

Cars and trucks around here are nuts. It's a rat race, so you have to ride VERY defensively. Everyone's always trying to race to the next red light, and all the cagers consider a scooter going around them "cutting in line," so lane filtering or splitting is COMPLETELY unsafe. I've had people try to hit me with their door before. Lots of riders around here add extra lighting for more visibility, I'm planning on adding more to mine when I get a chance. People around here will just merge into your lane with you in it, so you have to always stay alert. I MUCH prefer riding up in Skuuter's area, which is about 3 hours North of where I live. I make weekend trips out there often, the roads and scenery out there is absolutely beautiful.

Finland is full of idiots and rode rage is rampant. Anything resembling a motor scooter gets harassed and intimidated by cagers. That's why everybody gets a big bike just to be safe. Even the bikers have no respect for scooters. If one tries to split the lane with them, they get nervous and try to speed off aggressively. Filtering is a big no-no and hardly anybody does it. When I'm filtering, the cagers try to close the gaps, blow their horns or open doors.

Basically Finland is like this scene from the UK:

http://youtu.be/DOmsYRsRS1s

Here in Romania scooters are also considered way worse than motorcyles, and bikes in general don't get a decent treatment. Even the bikers consider scooters a different race, and they don't get saluted. But there is a reason.
Most of the scooters in Romania are under 49cc. Until this year, every one could get a permit for that without any exams or courses. This combined with being cheap encouraged only the low class of the population to use scooters. Don't get me wrong, I'm not racist. It's just that they never had a car, can't drive well and they have no clue about the rules. Some of them can't read. So they get involved in many accidents and sometimes hinder the traffic.
I'm hoping this will change now that everyone needs a permit. But this will take at least 5 years to get into practice, because if you have a permit and it's not expired, they can't force you to change it.