Motorcycle And Scooter News

[sc00ter]

My helmet story. When I was 14 I had a moped. A pedal start 49cc. A bunch of us moped owners used to meet up and do death races thru neighborhoods at night, with check points and pre-mapped routes. These mopeds only hit around 35mph max but that was plenty fast. Best part? Helmets on mopeds were not required. No plates/tags either. So my helmet story:

Five of us are blasting thru this 'hood at night and go screaming into a blind turn. One friend hit a patch of pine needles and went down. I see sparks as his moped slides down the road while the rest of us are trying to avoid it. I turn back to find Stinky (his street name) and he's out cold with blood on his head. This was well before cell phones but we banged on a random door and the homeowner called the paramedics. Stinky was in the hospital for a month with brain swelling! I bought a used glitter blue open face at a yard sale the next day on the way home from school. That was our wake-up call for helmet use. And yes, Stinky made a full recovery.

[kz1000st]

I have always worn a helmet when I ride. My Dad always did and he impressed it on us. I raced dirt bikes in my youth and was glad several times I had one on. I get the personal choice mantra but I won't ride anywhere without one.

[kz1000st]

Pretty compelling stuff.

https://www.revzilla.com/common-trea...%7C%20Combined

[kz1000st]

Interesting article but there are other considerations. What you want to do with it for one.

https://www.motorcycle.com/features/...pros-cons.html

Consider this.

"I do 95% of my riding WOT. My commute is over a mountain highway (okay downhill throttle is only open enough to keep oil flowing) and other than that it's mostly big chunks of I5. I love getting to places and having people go "wait you drove that from WHERE?" but it's also hard on the poor thing. I wear through the 'consumables' fast. Not helped by being a heavier rider. Spending so much time on the interstate I am starting to look at 600-800cc rides longingly."

https://modernvespa.com/forum/topic190428

Years ago I commuted heavily on a 1000cc motorcycle on a parkway on Long Island. The motorcycle went though "consumables" regularly but wasn't straining doing it. It was used more like a car than a motorcycle in that way. I had big saddlebags and big diameter tires but things wore through that surprised me. It lasted 125,000 miles for me with oil changes and some maintenance but I wasn't overly zealous about it.

Compare that to my 250cc scooter. I used that for a while pretty heavily but mostly on State Highways. Rear tires almost annually and, since it only holds a quart of oil, changes every 1,000 miles. Not to mention belt changes every 9k miles. Side by side with my late Wife's Honda Rebel the scooter was a maintenance headache. If I had the need or the option which to use as a heavy commuter the Rebel would have been the winner.

Around town or for less serious use the scooter was a Champ.