Motor Scooters

According to the definition at Dictionary.com, a "scooter" or, to be more exact, a motor scooter is a: "A two-wheeled vehicle with small wheels and a low-powered gasoline engine geared to the rear wheel."

But scooters are a lot more than that! They are very practical gas saving vehicles and the means of transportation of millions of people across the globe. Their sales account for an important share of the big Japanese four and other motorcycle manufacturers. They are also associated with a style and way of life for certain people.

This section is devoted solely to scooters. Below you will find an introductory text from Wikipedia with some history and links to other interesting articles about this special vehicle.

As I write or find more articles about motor scooters I will post them here. If you own one and you want to share your story and/or picture go to the contact page and drop me a line.

Moto Scooters

A motor scooter is a motorcycle with a step-through frame in which the rider sits without straddling any part of the engine.

Most modern motor scooters have continuously variable transmissions and have wheels smaller in diameter, between 8 and 14 inches (20-35 cm), than other motorcycles.

The engine is usually found under the seat near the rear wheel or axle. It is typically smaller than engines on other motorcycles although some makers produce quite powerful scooters up to 650 cc such as the Suzuki Burgman 650, it has a top speed of over 170 km/h. Most modern motor scooters come with air cooled two-stroke cycle engines with automatic 2-stroke oil injection although some of the higher spec small ones and large ones are water cooled such as the Honda FC50 or the 2002 Yamaha YQ50s. Recent scooters have four stroke engines for better emissions. High powered electric road scooters are on the horizon now that small electric motorcycles like the Viento and the eGO have been released.

Road motor scooters are tremendously popular in Europe (especially Italy ), India , China , Japan , Taiwan and in many places in the world, however for some reason not in the United States . In many parts of the world, motor scooters are a popular form of urban transportation due to their size, fuel-efficiency, weight, and typically larger storage room than a motorcycle.

In many localities, certain road motor scooters are considered by law to be in the same class as mopeds or small motorcycles and therefore they have fewer restrictions than that of larger motorcycles. In North America the legal distinctions vary by state but usually refer to motorcycles with an engine displacement of 50 cc (cubic centimeters) or less as being in the moped class. Some states-- Maryland , for example--state that motor scooters must have a step-through design to distinguish them from mopeds and motorcycles.

In the UK from the 1960s, Mods and Skinheads rode customized Vespas and Lambrettas, adorned with many extra mirrors and chrome parts. The scene is still alive in the UK , and has spread to other countries as far away as Australia and the United States . All around the world people continue to gather their vintage scooters at rallys nearby, far & inbetween. Joe Pancho, an american entusiast, thew Hawaii 's 1st ever scooter rally in October of 2005.

The Vespa originally manufactured by Piaggio in post World War II Italy with aircraft materials and styling became the first of the road motor scooters and defined the vehicle type for three and a half decades. In the 1980s new versions of scooters began to be released and become popular, especially in Japan and Far-East Asia.

This styling of scooters began to reflect that of larger, sporty, higher-performance motorcycles of the time and the trend has continued to the current day. With the release of the Honda Ruckus, there may be a new trend towards dirt-bike scooters just beginning.

The classic styling of the Vespa has never lost its popularity, however and remains the most popular and most imitated scooter design. Almost all manufacturers now carry both a classic/retro model and a sporty/modern model.

Source of texts and pictures Wikipedia.com at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motor_scooter. All text is available
under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License (see Copyrights for details).

To learn more about scooters, click on the link below.

The Vectrix Electric Maxi-Scooter
The world's first high-performance electric two-wheel vehicle to offer all the benefits of a traditional gasoline-powered scooter but without the noise, pollution, expensive maintenance, frequent oil changes, and regular trips to the gas station. To learn more follow the link above.

Didn't find what you were looking for? Try Google.

	Web www.JapaneseMotorcyclesWorld.com

 

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