Why Are Scooters So Fun?

WHY ARE SCOOTERS SO FUN?
I believe I am qualified to answer that question, being that I gave up riding motorcycles to ride a ‘scooter’.

MY ‘SCOOTER’

BENELLI QUATTRONOVE – 70cc TWO STROKE – 50 MPH

This is not your little cousin’s ‘moped’. This 200 pound sport scooter is the size and rider fitment of a 600cc sport-bike motorcycle. A rider needs to be six foot tall to sit on this bike with feet flat on the ground.

WHY ARE SCOOTERS SO FUN?
The answer to this question is a science within itself.

THE MATH
I live in a cramped metropolitan city with 250,000 people crammed in to a 10 square mile area. The speed limits in this city range from 25-40 MPH, with 45-55 MPH zones on the outskirts of the city.
I rarely left the city when I owned a 120-150 MPH motorcycles. Like most street motorcyclists in this area, I cruise around town.

When I ride a motorcycle from one side of the city to the other, while concentrating on faster acceleration and riding 2 MPH above the speed limit, the GPS recorded average speed is 25 MPH. A more aggressive rider on the fastest motorcycle is only going to raise this number a few MPH.
No matter what you (legally) ride in this city, the bike spends most of it’s time going 20-30 MPH.

A bike that provides the highest amount of functionality, performance and thrills at 25 MPH, is going to be the best bike for this environment. The math does not lie.

HOOLIGAN HANDLING
The phrase ‘Hooligan Handling’ was coined many decades ago in the UK, to describe a lightweight motor-bike with fast steering and small turning radius. The term was often used to describe certain lightweight, sub 250cc, two stroke motorcycles and scooters. Called ‘Hooligan Handling’, because these bikes were the most proficient at escaping the police in city / urban areas.

For example; the scooter can turn around in a single lane of traffic, ride up the drive ramp, down the foot path and in to the grass field, before a car or common motorcycle can get turned around. If they dare to give chase, the scooter rider rides down in to the ditch, running next to the lightweight bike whilst throttling it up the other side of the ditch, before riding away whilst flying the middle finger. Thus why the term ‘Hooligan’ handling was so fitting.

Think of it this way. The common house fly has a top speed of only 15 MPH, but, it’s very hard to catch because it has hooligan handling.

NOTE: I do not advocate fleeing from the police on a scooter.

LESSON IN TRACTABILITY
A sport-bike motorcycle, or any motorcycle for that matter, is not designed to go around the common 90 degree street corner turn.
The most popular turn in street motorcycling is nearly a problematic chore. Most street motorcyclists spend the majority of riding time on the slower city streets, riding motorcycles designed for open roads and large race tracks.

The taller the wheel, the less revolutions of the wheel in the turn. The less revolutions of the wheel in the turn, the shorter the distance of travel in the turn. The shorter the distance of travel in the turn, the less lean angle on the bike in the turn. The less lean angle on the bike in the turn, the less speed of the bike in the turn.

The shorter the wheel, the more revolutions of the wheel in the turn. The more revolutions of the wheel in the turn, the longer the distance of travel in the turn. The longer the distance of travel in the turn, the more lean angle on the bike in the turn. The more lean angle on the bike in the turn, the faster the speed of the bike in the turn.

When a motorcycle goes around the common 90 degree street corner turn, it’s taller 17-21 inch wheels make the turn very short, therefore reducing lean angle and speed.

When a scooter goes around the common 90 degree street corner turn, it’s shorter 10-13 inch wheels make the turn quite long, therefore increasing lean angle and speed.

Ironically, scooters are faster than motorcycles, while riding around the most popular turn in motorcycling, the everyday 90 degree street corner turn.

Hypothetical. You claim your 150 MPH sport-bike motorcycle can beat my 50 MPH scooter in a race, “anytime anywhere”. I’ll take that bet. Meet me at the kart racing track. Don’t worry, your 150 MPH sport-bike can easily navigate all the turns on the track. Just be careful how you use all that ‘power’ and ‘top speed’.

The scooter passes the motorcycle in the turns as if the motorcycle is standing still. The straight portions of the track are too short for the sport-bike to make up the lost time by using it’s relative speed advantage.
The motorcycle gets clowned by a machine that many motorcyclist believe is clownish.

Nothing like having video proof of concept.

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The slower city streets are more like a kart race track than a motorcycle race track. The scooter technically owns the cramped city streets, while it lacks the straight line acceleration and top speed to impress the ego.

Similar circumstances play out at street rider track day at the motorcycle / sports car race track. They block off part of the straight portion(s) of the racetrack, keeping track speed under 80 MPH. Street riders on Ninja 250’s often do faster lap times than equally skilled street riders on 150+ MPH sport-bikes, because the more nimble, flick-able, lightweight 250’s provide a tractability advantage in the small track / amateur realm.

Here is some high tech proof of concept.

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As the video above showcased, the 60 horsepower 250cc Moto3 bikes are around 10 MPH faster than the 260 horsepower 1000cc MotoGP bikes, in some of the tighter corners.
These street is a much tighter environment than the racetrack. With that stated, a scooter is virtually faster than a motorcycle at every action other than going in a straight line.

THE FLICK-ABILITY FACTOR
To turn right you must briefly turn left. To turn left you must briefly turn right. On a motorcycle this is called counter steering. On a 200 pound sport scooter it’s called; flicking the bike in to a turn like a hand puppet.

A 250cc two stroke Grand Prix racing motorcycle weighs only 250 pounds, yet produces 100+ horsepower. Some of the 500cc Grand Prix two strokes were pushing near 200 horsepower, while weighing less than a modern Kawasaki Ninja 300. The flick-ability of these lightweight machines is absolutely insane.
The common two stroke sport scooter gives one a taste of this insane flick-ability, without the power. Riding around every seemingly insignificant street corner gives one a racetrack like experience.

You can often push the limits on a scooter while remaining in the safe zone, while the same moves on a motorcycle can be quite risky.
No matter how challenging the turn is, a scooter essentially goes where you mentally point it, while it takes focus and skill to hold a challenging line on a motorcycle.

LESSON IN THRILL FACTOR (THE FEELINGS OF SPEED)
When you are riding a 175 MPH Hayabusa motorcycle 40 MPH, it feels as if you are riding 20 MPH. Even the Ninja 300 makes 40 MPH feel like 30 MPH. In an environment with 25-40 MPH speed limits, these motorcycles provide little or no thrill factor unless you are breaking the law.

When you are riding a 70cc two stroke scooter 40 MPH, you are getting the thrill factor of 60+ MPH. The rage is constant.

There is an old motorcycle adage that holds true to this day. ‘It’s more fun to ride a slow bike fast, than to ride a fast bike slow’.

At the end of the day, it’s a stack of cheap thrills that makes a good ride. The more cheap thrills you can stack, the better the ride.

THE ROLLER COASTER EFFECT
When you are riding most sport oriented motorcycles, your knees are down and your feet are back. You are leaning forward to some degree. In this common motorcycle body position, rapid acceleration often makes the rider feel as if they are part of the machine, rather than a feeling of needing to hold on.

When you are riding a scooter, your upper legs are horizontal and your feet are in front of you. This is a roller coaster like seating position. This seating position puts your body on the vertical balance point, which causes small amounts of acceleration to feel like extreme acceleration. The sensation of needing to hold on while accelerating. It’s equivalent to, ‘getting put back in your seat’ in a fast car.

THE GROM EFFECT
The Honda GROM is a 125cc motorcycle with 12 inch scooter wheels. The GROM uses the same size front and rear tires as my scooter.

GROM is a small motorcycle with sport scooter handling. Ironically, many riders are letting their bigger motorcycles collect dust, because they can not deny the hooligan thrills that GROM gives them on city streets.

For many GROM is all the ‘motorcycle’ they will ever need.
For many GROM is a way of life.

I walked in to a shop with a GROM parked out front. The middle aged clerk said, ‘nice scooter, I could tell that it is a two stroke’. I asked him if he owned the GROM parked out front. He told me that he traded in his GSXR 600 to get the GROM. I told him that I sold my Ninja 750 to buy the scooter.
This was one of those logical grown man moments. A logical grown man will abandon status and numbers, to obtain the secret hooligan recipe.

Make note, I would not ride a four stroke scooter. It would take a street legal, street tuned, two stroke super-moto to exceed the 2T sport scooter experience.

HEAT FREE RIDING
When you are riding a motorcycle on a hot day, the engine heat bakes you when you stop at traffic lights. This causes discomfort and frustration. It seriously degrades the city motorcycling experience.
Motorcycle engine heat in summer traffic causes many riders to wear less safety gear.

Engine heat on a scooter is virtually non existent.

FATIGUE FREE RIDING
When you ride a sport-bike with clip-ons and aggressive rear sets, you are leaning forward. This causes fatigue to the arms and lower back. This fatigue can set in as fast as thirty minutes. The negative side effects can be long term.

The scooter is a comfortable chair in comparison.

UNIVERSAL PARTS AND PLATFORM
When you buy a scooter from the Minarelli / Yamaha platform, there is a universal selection of parts for every component on the machine. One can select decent quality Chinese parts, good quality Japanese parts or high end European parts.
Some of the bearings and other parts on a scooter can be replaced with American replacements from your local auto parts store.

A scooter’s build quality is determined by it’s tuner. It’s a rolling hobby.

There are high end / racing parts for the same platform. A scooter gets insanely fast when you throw money at it.

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0-60 MPH in 4.5 seconds is on par with a Ninja 650 motorcycle or a 400 horsepower 2017 Chevy SS car. The scooter is likely faster from 0-45 MPH / stoplight to stoplight. This is enough acceleration to embarrass any 175 MPH sport-bike rider that has problems getting a decent launch.
Depending on set-up, top speed of a scooter like this is around 95 MPH.

Perhaps the most thrilling aspect of the powerful scooter, you can power wheelie bounce the front wheel up and down on command at low to medium speeds, like a turbo Hayabusa does at high speeds.

CONCLUSION
The 50-100cc scooter is not for everyone. It’s obviously not going to work on the expressway, highway or interstate. This is a matter of, ‘the right tool for the job’.

When I bought the scooter, I figured I would tinker with it for one season, before selling it to buy another motorcycle. Like any motorcycle experience, I expected the thrills to fade.
After a couple of riding seasons on the two stroke scooter, I have no desire to go back to motorcycles. The scooter thrills never fade.

This is more intense than a horror movie…