Posted on 07/22/2008 9:37:16 AM PDT by decimon
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Record gasoline prices are fueling a boom in sales of fuel-efficient scooters across the United States, as commuters ditch their gas-guzzlers and don helmets and goggles to beat high prices at the pump.
U.S. scooter sales have risen 65.7 percent in the first half of 2008, according to the Motorcycle Industry Council, making the industry one of the biggest beneficiaries of a more than 30 percent spike in oil prices this year.
"They are just flying out of here," said Steve Travers, who manages a scooter and motorcycle dealership in midtown Manhattan. "Consumers want to escape gas prices, they can't afford to drive their cars and they want an inexpensive way to get around."
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
I don't doubt this. It's mainly for back and forth to work and home.
It works for what I bought it for. That's all I care about.
With a 60 mile round trip every day I'm saving gas and money.
I’m looking forward to a motorcycle engine on a small tubular steel car frame. It should go fast, corner, stop quick and carry groceries, tools, whatever. 2+2 seating and licensed for the road would make it FUN AND economical.
Something like a sand buggy, legal for the streets will do just fine. I don’t want no “crumple zone”. I want a frame around my bod.
If they want to cut back on gas use. This will do it. Instead of widening freeways and roads, they could narrow the lanes on existing ones.
Cars NEVER win in a contest with a Big Rig!
That's good news but I think it will take a trend of reduced demand to get the price of gas down to whatever it should be. Down for a time, that is.
In the sixties, 250cc ws regarded as midsized. Now it is small, but with the changes in engine tchnology it apears that it will do just fine for me. What I do not want is a bike with a car engine in it. Meaning, I want a bike that I can work on, not something I have to take into the dealer every time it hiccups. Carbeurated, air cooled if possible, just a simple bike that is reliable.
After I spend a year or so on that bike I’ll know whether I need a 750. Would probably be a Honda Aero, a cool machine.
I have owned a SSE492 (car with 492cc) and have ridden around in other cars of about 850cc. So my predilection for something a bit smaller than many would like.
Can’t tell you howm any times I have stripped down, cleaned and repaired a carbeurator my sports cars. For about 40 bucks.
A Rebel 450:
Reading the comments for that video, I watched it more carefully and it does look like the scooter passed the truck on the right and then cut in front of it.
Darwin to the max.
The problem with a 250 isn’t the power, even a Nighthawk 250 will stomp most cars in a stoplight drag, but the noise and vibration at highway speeds. At modern highway speeds, just about all 250s are screaming their heads off and are uncomfortable to ride.
Also, most of the smaller bikes are still carbureted, so you’re set there, if you insist - but bike fuel injection systems are very simple and often go 100,000 miles without needing any attention whatsoever. Likewise liquid cooling - they’re pretty much trouble-free now - and if you’re ever stuck in a traffic jam where you can’t move for a while, the liquid cooling will keep your bike from overheating and dying.
Finally, just about everything but the big tourers or sportbikes are still easy to work on at home. Well, unless you buy a BMW, then you’re screwed.
And Big Rigs never win in a contest with a train.
Therefore, we should all drive trains. :P
Hard to say when you can't expect to survive the first mile.
I dunno, you could use some sort of vectored-thrust system to control it... but you’d want a parachute for when the fuel ran out.
The motorcycle engine on a small car frame works as I have had a car that had 492cc and was made entirely of steel tube, box spars and fiberglass.
In looking through the data and instructions published by the Motorcycle Safety Foundation it struck me that driving a motorcycle is a great deal like flying an aircraft. If you drive a cycle with that in mind you should be entirely safe.
In the video you provided, they just don't realize this occurs every single day in this country, often multiple times per day.
I have other video that is so horrible, so graphic I would not post it here.
Jus’ li’ dat, if it’s street legal!!!
You don’t drive a train.
It's even American made. (click the pic)
Well, that is what I am going to find out. I tend to drive like an old farmer and 55 is my usual upper limit. Sometimes sixty. My wife recently asked me whether I have claustrophbia in way of commenting on the large distance I keep between myself and other cars on the highway. I don’t, I used to spelunk.
I drive a lot of miles every year so the ease of working on the bike is of paramount interest.
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