As opposed to riding round in a furry dog suit

I watched petrolheads recently (its a bike programme on discovery). The one I watched was about scooters.

There was a scooter expert on and when asked why a scooter, he came out with the Nato standard answer, which always seems to be the answer, whenever I used to ask a mod, why he rode the things. 'You can personalise them in a way, that you can't with a bike'.  :O This basically means, that you can make them look like a tart's handbag.  :devil:

I've ridden a vespa and can't see the big deal. I always felt about as stable as a stool with two legs.

You could always stick 36 mirrors on your bike, you could probably even grind them on most corners. Scooterists, try a bike, you'll never look back. (You don't kin need to with all them fecking mirrors.  :O )

Luckily, the mod thing, which had a mini revival in the 80's has died off.

Thank feck....


I needed to get that off me chest, sorry..  :laughcont:


Oh, If you want to see what you can do to a bike, look at blueballs' kwak. There seem to be plenty of options there and the thing will actually corner.

I've no doubt they are very pally. As DP said, I've had the pleasure  :sus: of riding a couple of vespas. After the bike, they seem to wobble all over the road and thats without mirrors.

The gears are a nightmare, I kept going from 1st into what seemed like 3rd. Very strange bikes indeed. Supposed you'd get used to it but couldn't do for it myself. The 'You can make them look good', covers up a lot of inadequacies with them, IMHO..

I had a runner 180 two storke.  It was the nuts.  Oversteered compared to a bike but stable when aclimatized to it and VERY quick - up to about fourty anyway which makes it a town slaughterer of bigger bikes.  Very tall though and every scoot, except a four hundred burger man, has given me the aforementioned 'sitting on a stool feeling'.

Them old fellas are murder.


Getting taught a lesson off of a scooter.  :blush: The very though!!!  :laughcont:

So did your Dad ride bikes or was he just a gutsy novice?

BD its all a lifestyle thing, Scooter types are renowned for sticking silly bits of apparel on to there scoots. Also sccot types are very well known for their social events and are probably the most social of all the two wheel mechanical deviced based groups.

Who on earth would do that?  :laughcont:  :laughcont:

Have you ever tried to change gear on one of those classic things?
For those of you who dont know, the gear change is part of the clutch assembley on the left handle bar.
pull clutch in & rotate down for 1st, up for 2nd, 3rd, 4th.
By the time you get to 4th, assuming you're still on it, you have to have double jointed wrists & elbows
I know this cos I've had to teach a couple of guys on them-I tried to get out of it on the grounds of taste, decency & total lack of street cred-but the boss was having none of it

Confession Time Guys!
I passed my test on a Scooter....a Vespa SS180 in fact.
And I looked cool!  :bowdown:
However this was 1971.....and things were slightly "different" then!
Ah....the sound of flares flapping in the breeze!  :cool:

That must be sh!te... sorry, I'll get my hat... and coat

The reason (apart from that bastard Hilts telling me he was doing his test!) I decided on getting a bike was a trip to Portugal with ma & pa!

Pa said, "Son, we're gonna rent some motorbikes... and I'm paying". Well, I got a dirt bike as I can ride them and he got a scooter thing. His 400, mine 250 I think.

Massive laugh! I've got Heather on the back of the trailie and we're heading up some hill with bends, the old chap in front. Anyhoo, heading into the bend I'm thinking well I may have to back off here... the old man, blood and thunder, doesn't... I can see him trying to lean the bloody thing over to get round but swinger wider and wider... Heather and I started to laugh (not sure why, not that funny) and he makes it round whilst I have to pull up in the hedge!

Ahh, scooters, can't beat 'em and you can't shoot the bastards either

I fancy a shot of one of those Tmax 500 jobs.  Seems easier to get a test ride on a 999!

very expensive though.

did you know that suzuki are launching the 650 burgervan and that gilera has plans for a 850 veetwin scoot?