Scooter Good Points?

[Oldfart]

The design of a Vespa is interesting to me, mechanically very compact and innovative. The engine has a manual clutch, four speeds and a single sided support for the rear wheel without a pesky chain drive. The front end is a leading link setup again being single sided. The handling/power is hardly world beating but makes for a nippy handling pretty zippy machine round town and for the lager capacity one's even OK for highway speeds.
Any Lambretta riders out there to put the good points?
Any smaller machine is appealing these days to me, look at what the mad mob with postie bikes do. Those small Honda's seem to be unburstable, was it one of those pommy show's that had a Honda Cub on and tried to destroy it? Aren't they the highest selling motorcyle of all time?
Where is the line drawn between Scoots and motorcycles? I would say stepthough design not necessarily wheel size? Are stepthough Honda's and the like classed as Scooters?

[sharonvespagirl]

I believe the Honda Cub is indeed the biggest selling motorbike of all time, but it and postie bikes are not true scooters. Merely small lightweight motorcycles. It was "Top Gear" who threw one off a building, among the other tortures they inflicted upon it. And the motor still ran!

I am not a fan of the Lambretta, I reckon they are overrated, but apparently they made the first production two-wheeler with a disc brake. Apart from that, I don't like the presence of a chain in their motor setup. Just one more thing to faff about with. They had a complete lack of aesthetics until they copied the Vespa look and added full bodywork. But then, I'm biased.

There are big wheel scooters so it's not wheel size which defines a scooter. Often, "scooteriness" is in the eye of the beholder, and is a combination of various characteristics. We have had many discussions of this sort on scooter forums.

[rosco]

There are big wheel scooters so it's not wheel size which defines a scooter. Often, "scooteriness" is in the eye of the beholder, and is a combination of various characteristics.

It irks me that the magazines try to label the Honda DN01 as a scooter just because is doesn't have gears. Silly.

I think it's as you say, in the eye of the beholder.

[p38arover]

Dad used to ride a Lambretta back in the Sixties (a bit of a change from his Vincent ) - it was somewhat bigger than the Vespas of the time. I thought it looked Ok and fairly streamlined compared with the bulbous bum of the Vespa. It may have been a TV175 like that below - I shall have to ask him.



Heck, I got my first motor scooter, a Vespa 125, 50 years ago this year.

I think scooters are great in the city.

[Wingstar]

FWIW, as kids we always considered Cubs scooters. From memory more than 16 million have been sold.

[Bumblebeeman]

A few more than 16 million Wingstar. During 2009 production went past 60 million. It is the biggest selling vehicle of all time, and it is a motorcycle not a scooter. It has a clutch (albeit centrifugal), a manual gearbox and chain drive, and crucially, the engine does not form part of the swingarm, the generally accepted current definition of a scooter. In times past, however, that was not so, as the Triumph Tigress 250 I learned to ride on would show when the panels were stripped off. In all regards it was a faired motorcycle, but with single-sided suspension front and back! Much of the definition now rests with the styling, as CVT transmission makes its way over the motorcycles.

Long live the wee Cub. I have two, one of which will rise again, with an upgrade to a ground-pounding 72cc.

[NJS]

Twas not top gear, but a show on the top 10 motorcycles ever.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SLjnqkXNWJs

[Frog]

Twas not top gear, but a show on the top 10 motorcycles ever.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SLjnqkXNWJs

Could have sworn I seen it on Top Gear too, mind you I cant do the youtube link here at work to see if it is familiar.
I dont imagine it is the sort of thing only been done once. I have also been told that the Postie Runs they do are followed by a support vehicle and that the riders are contstantly begged to not hold them flat by the mechanics, of course they do and the motors do lunch themselves. Like any bike if they are set up (and serviced right) they can run for ever, run it lean and it will heat up and sieze.

[Webbo1]

There are big wheel scooters so it's not wheel size which defines a scooter. Often, "scooteriness" is in the eye of the beholder, and is a combination of various characteristics.

It irks me that the magazines try to label the Honda DN01 as a scooter just because is doesn't have gears. Silly.

I think it's as you say, in the eye of the beholder.

They also try to lable the dn01 as a cruiser ....wish they would make up their minds