Maybe it’s the hunter/gatherer in us, but stalking the local listings for a perfect steal can be so gratifying. While saving money is the obvious advantage when it comes to buying used, there are other issues you may not have considered. Let’s take a look at them, shall we?
read more
50cc scooters are the entry level into the world of scooting. But is a 50cc scooter right for you? Avoid one of the biggest mistakes made by scooter newbies – buying a scooter that doesn’t have sufficient power for your needs. Here’s how to assess your needs fully so you can make an informed decision on the size of your new scoot.
read more
The availability of amenities, a reasonable level of safety, appropriate riding weather, and the presence of other scooters all contribute to a positive scooting environment.
Of course, it’s possible to be a safe and happy scooterist even if you’re the only one in town, there’s no designated scooter parking, and the nearest repair shop is a day’s drive away. But the more scooter-friendly the area where you live is, the easier and more fun owning and riding your scooter will be.
Here are some of the characteristics of a scooter friendly city. See how your town stacks up.
read more
Click led the Westenders on an awesome ride today. He even ordered sun for us and everything! What a guy.
read more
If you join a scooter club, and I recommend you do, you’ll eventually find yourself riding with some other scooterists. If you’re new to scooting or to group riding, tell the group leader and some of the other scooterists. We love to have newbies along for the ride, and notifying other folks allows them to keep an eye out for you and make sure you’re safe and enjoying yourself. And always show up for a ride with a full tank — you never know when you’ll be able to stop for fuel!
Group riding can be a blast – here are some guidelines to keep the experience safe and fun.
read more
The vast majority of scooter/car collisions happen at an intersection. Being vigilant at intersections and increasing your visibility to cars minimizes your chances of becoming a part of this statistic.
These days, you’re up against very distracted drivers. Text messaging, GPS displays, and mobile phone conversations all mean less attention placed on you. So it’s largely up to us as scooterists to save our own hide. It’s unfair, but we need to take total responsibility for our own safety.
A good rule of thumb: pretend you are invisible. At intersections, assume every car is going to turn in front of you. Riding in this way saves me, literally, on a daily basis.
Here are a few of the most common issues you can encounter at intersections when riding.
Most intersection collisions involving cycles are caused by a car in an oncoming lane turning left in front of you. If you assume that the cars don’t see you and will turn in front of you, you will be ready to react when they do.
There’s a strange phenomenon that happens with car drivers: even if the driver sees you and makes eye contact, they may still turn in front of you. Cars turn in front of scooters for a few different reasons:
Even if you’ve got the green light, slow down as you enter an intersection so you can stop quickly if needed. There is a fine line between slowing down so much that you encourage people to turn in front of you and keeping your speed in check so you can stop in an emergency. Be cautious, but don’t be hesitant.
The really dangerous left-turners are not the car you see, but the driver that turns right behind them, hoping to squeeze in behind the first car. They totally cannot see you and most of the time are just crossing their fingers as they speed through the intersection hoping to make it in time. You’ll see these troublemakers cutting you off at both green and red signals.
The city where I live has many four-way stops, and the right-of-way defaults to whomever got to the intersection first. I would estimate that nearly half the time, when it’s my turn to go, the cars at the intersection skip me. I can’t explain it, but it happens reliably. Because I’m expecting it, I can avoid this danger. I often use my horn in these circumstances. And sometimes a select finger.
The faster you are traveling, the less time you have to react. Other people on the road also have less time to react to you. Speed also affects your cornering. The faster you are going, the longer it takes to stop. Braking at high speed also increases your chances of a wipeout.
Keep to the speed limit, and less when necessary. Remember that speed limits are designed for cars and you may need to be traveling a little slower, especially in construction areas or twisty turns.
There are many ways to increase your visibility to other vehicles and decrease your likelihood of a collision. Correct lane position and brightly colored riding gear both make you more visible to traffic. For night time riding add reflective decals to your scooter and topcase, and upgrade to LED tail lights and halogen headlights if you don’t already have them.
The good news is that you can have an enormous impact on your safety by following these guidelines. Many dangerous situations you meet on the road can be prevented or avoided. So be vigilant at intersections and keep the rubber side down!
read more
Hey kids! Hope the year is going splendidly for you so far.
I’ve been away working mightily on a new scootering project. However, for a million reasons I won’t bore you with including technology like PHP mapping and SQL server queries, it’s turning into the biggest pain in the patootie ever. So despite the million hours I poured into it, I’ve been sweeping it under the rug.
Then a little lightbulb went off. If my theme for 2010 is “Simplicity,” why am I making this so much more complicated than it needs to be?
So I’ve decided, for now at least, to just bring all the extensive content I’ve written for that project over to Scooterlust.
My idea was to create a spot for folks new to scooters. If you already ride, you know that walking into a cafe or grocery store with a helmet can suddenly make you the Most Interesting Person in America. I get so many questions from people about parking, gas mileage, cost, weather, and how the $#*&% do you get your groceries home, anyway?
It’s obviously I’m psyched about scooters when I talk about them. But I always walk away wishing I had somewhere to send this person where they could get all their questions answered in one place.
They can’t possible retain the eager string of statistics I throw at them, or the myriad resources they need to check out. Cause I don’t know about you, but my short-term memory? Not so good. That summer spent huffing spraypaint in the garage while attempting to restore the Frankenstella is finally catching up with me.
That singular clearinghouse for scooter data is not readily available online — at least without a dose of anti-rice-burner, cooler-than-thou, alpha male pissing contests, or snarky cynicism. Or all of the above. I’m talking about a nice, friendly place to get some basic scooter info without getting a load of crap alongside.
So I made it. I wrote over 100 articles – from figuring out which scooter is the best for your particular lifestyle, to how many MPGs you can expect, to joining a club, to getting insurance. All those “grocery line” questions.
I’m going to revamp them slightly and post them here. Apologies if this information is too basic for you. But I’ll make it entertaining – I promise. And perhaps you can send one of your friends, coworkers or significant others here to fill their gourd so we can get them up and running on two wheels ASAP.
Plus I’ll definitely be posting other stuff in between.
Bringing this project over here will help me focus on seven things at a time instead of eight, which is fab for the ‘ol ADD. It will free up some time to spend hanging out here. Oh and riding my scooters.
Hope you can join me.
read more