I'd like to buy a scooter/motorbike. The only thing that puts me off is being splattered all over the road or permanently maimed.
Also I guess another reason is that I'm worried if I park a Scooter/Motorbike at the Train Station, that it will get knocked off! Some of the lighter scooters weigh less than 100kgs, which would make it easy for bogans to pick it up and throw it the back of ute. $3-5k down the drain.

Is it worth the risk?

hihi nF :)

I think the more important question here is what kind of basket to get for the front of your scooter. Wire is practical and weather resistant but wicker is just so darling, especially when topped off with a ribbon.

Also make sure to invest in some practical pants because you don't want your skirt blowing all around the place

last edited by Hashy at 00:21:00 18/Aug/06

If the rest of the world was on scooters, probably

If you buy a scooter I will hurt you, get a 250cc bike, jacket, helmet, gloves and go to a motorcycle riding school. Don't be one of those jerks who gets a 50cc scooter because they have only have a car licence, lane split to the front of traffic, and go 10 below the limit.

Fyi, crashing on motorcycles isn't fun.

we've had some pretty damn fast scooters come into work, they'll do highway speeds. This one guy dissintegrates mufflers by constantly doing over 100 on his. I'd still rather a bike than a scooter if I was going to go that way though.

Fyi, crashing on motorcycles isn't fun.

it is when you land in a long pile of grass as I did :)

I would if I lived in a country where more people actually knew how to drive, and less people drove massive giant f***off 4wds (hi jim). I'd much rather drive a scooter around the place; cheaper to run, easier to park, I generally don't drive very far in a given trip. But I'm terrified of all the jerks on the road that nearly kill me even when I'm in a car.

cheaper to run, easier to park, I generally don't drive very far in a given trip. But I'm terrified of all the jerks on the road that nearly kill me even when I'm in a car.

same goes for a regular motorbike, except you can move at the same speed as everyone else which is probably a lot safer

Ok, then well whats a good cheap 250cc motorbike then? Something thats easy for learners like to me to ride?

I must admit Scooters are a bit more appealing to non-bike riders like myself as they are automatic.

I would guess a regular motorbike is probably safer in general if only because they're noisier.

edit: I'm using 'safer' in the relative sense, of course

I would guess a regular motorbike is probably safer in general if only because they're noisier.

never been a believer in that school of thought. Bikes arent that much noisier than most cars (if theyre legal anyway), so combine that with traffic noise/windows up/radio and it kinda negates the effect.

Chances are if someone isnt looking when theyre changing lanes, they arent listening either.

EDIT: Go to bed trog

ahah

there's heaps of cars that are bigger and scarier than my 4WD
take all the F250's for example

and less people drove massive giant f***off 4wds (hi jim).

Seen many F250's on the road? Now that is a giant f***off 4WD, same goes with those c***rag uber hiluxes.

I would guess a regular motorbike is probably safer in general if only because they're noisier.

People in cars with windows up and Radio don't even hear emegency vehicles, you ride as if no one can see you on a motorcycle.

I'm glad I got my motorcycle licence, having both the car and the bike as an option is fantastic.

last edited by scuzzy at 07:21:08 18/Aug/06

hiluxes are tiny

Scooters are great for short trips to areas with difficult parking. Just make sure you get at least some semi-decent protective gear and factor the price of all the gear into the total cost. Removing gravel from skin isn't pretty.

I'd much rather drive a scooter around the place; cheaper to run, easier to park, I generally don't drive very far in a given trip. But I'm terrified of all the jerks on the road that nearly kill me even when I'm in a car.

lols
girls have scooters

My GF is thinking about getting one for running down to the shops, to uni, etc.. if she did I would call it Sascha!

Scooters have sfa power, if you needed to get out of a possibly deadly situation quickly its gonna be a lot easier on a 250. Same applies to 250 - 400 - 600 - 1000 naturally but 50cc is pretty damn tiny and slow imo.

They also have tiny wheels and no ground clearance. I remember reading a thread on the ocau.mc forums a while back about a guy who had one and was travelling on the speed limit (so he said) and went over a dip in the road, scooter bottomed out onto the road and he ends up sliding along the road into the gutter. Came out with only some minor scrapes but still... coulda been a lot worse. He vowed never to ride one again after that :P


Some 250 4 stroke bikes to consider.
Faired -
* Yamaha FZR250
* Kawasaki ZXR250
* Kawasaki GPX250
* Kawasaki ZZR250
* Suzuki GSX250F Across
* Honda CBR250

Naked -
* Honda VT250 Spada
* Honda VTR250
* Suzuki GSF250 Bandit
* Honda CB250F Hornet
* Kawasaki ZR250 Balius

the only experience i have had with scooters was the honda c90 step-through i had when i was 14 as a paddock thrasher & a mate's vespa that he lent me when he went overseas.

the c90 was a good bike to learn on... it's not automatic transmittion... they have a centrifugally operated clutch & multi-sync gearbox. still very easy to learn. i personally wouldn't ride one on the road for the reasons people above have given.. they are too slow & the average road user will treat you like dirt. top speed was about 60kph.

my mate's vespa on the other hand was fiendishly hard to learn!$!$#@ to operate the clutch you roll one handgrip foward & to change the gear you roll the other grip backward. the throttle was a lever, where, on any normal bike, the front brake lever would be. it had pitiful acceleration, developed massive speed wobbles at about 80kph, bump steered like only phat tyred scooters can & was generally a piece of s***.

but then... being slaps_forehead... surely you'd want an electric eco-scooter! ;p most scooters afaik are 2 stroke... that means burning lots more dinosaurs & kill the enviroment stone dead. :D

everytime a guy rides one of these past a busstop they look embarassed to be on it

hiluxes are tiny

If I see another one again I'll try to remember the model on the back, but the new ones are xbox huge, no photo from the holden site does it justice.

When I move to coorparoo, I plan on buying a scooter. Approx. $4k off the bat, $200 p.a in rego and $6 a week in fuel. Currently, my rex costs me $600 p.a in rego, and $70 a week in fuel, so in a year and a half, the scooter has already paid for itself. Because I'll be keeping the rex too, it will more so pay itself off in 2 years.

I'm not gonna buy one because it is 'cool'. They are simply a practical form of transportation. The only thing that turns me off is the safety factor. I trust myself, but unfortunately I dont trust the other hundreds of thousands of drivers on the roads, and its so easy for one of them to not see you on a pissy little scooter, change lanes, and your under the wheels of the 3 cars following you.

everytime a guy rides one of these past a busstop they look embarassed to be on it

Thats sad really. Considering your wearing a helmet and more than likely a pair of sunnies, no one on the planet would ever notice you.

Hell get a postie bike, they'd be better than any scooter... maybe not an aprilia but they cost loads and you'd be better off buying a real bike for that much.

yeah even the new hiluxes are tiny
they try to have a big bonnet and look like an F-truck but they are tiny

also, what's the holden site have to do with it?! :D

Ha, wrong manufacturer, I've been working on dealership websites all morning :)

one tonne rodeo
there goes a one tonne rodeo
one tonne rodeeeeeeeeeeeeooooooooooooo

The new Hilux's only look big because the standard tyre size is about the same circumference as a 20c piece.
They just look big in comparison.

I was fairly against scooters (my gf wants one), but when i saw one cain past me on the story bridge doing 80k/hr, I shut the f*** up!

I have no problems with scooters as long as they can keep up with traffic and have a big f*** off horn to warn the dick drivers that try to merge on top of you.

Scooter posting in a thread about scooters!

thats a pretty small tyre Scooter

20 cent piece is exaggerating a bit
I'd say closer to a 30 cent piece

thatsu npossible a 30 cent piece is nonexiastand

More like captain stupid.

i see what we've all collectively done here

Would I ever buy a death on wheels um i mean a scooter?
No!

I'm very close to buying a scooter.

I'd probably rather sell my car and buy a bike, but it's such a pain to do that.

So it's either selling the car to get a bike, or keep the car and just fork out for a scooter...

large reason is i go to QUT so i wouldnt have to lineup for 20minutes and then pay $2 an hour parking. Adds up. And my car uses a f***load of fuel and costs the balls to service.

Word of day: Balls

I plan on buying a scooter. Approx. $4k off the bat, $200 p.a in rego and $6 a week in fuel.

Back in the day i paid 3.5k for my FZR250 and was regged as a single seater so it cost me about $180 pa rego and ~$10-15 a week in fuel.

The difference? It actually had some nuts.

When some knob jockey cage driver tries to come into your lane and you give your scooter a burst of that raw combustable power only to end up with tyre marks on your functional yet stylish skid lid I bet you're going to wish that you had a real bike so you could have dropped it down a cog or 6 and actually got out of that situation.

The point is - bikes and scooters make you equally vulnerable but without having that power to get out of sticky situations you're a sitting duck.

I certainly felt safer on my CBR250R than on a 100cc scooter. Having said that my CBR250R could get me in a lot more trouble.

I'm looking at buying a scooter in the next week or so I think :)

60s Vespa, hilarious. Nobody can accuse me of trying to be trendy either.

I'd probably rather sell my car and buy a bike, but it's such a pain to do that.

It is possible to live on a bike alone, but to go without a car can be kinda sucky.

Yeah well i have access to cars i could use when i need them.

Scooters are so gay but i am tempted for practicality reasons.

Screw scooters, as it has been said many times already, you need that extra power to get out of trouble. If I had been on a scooter the times that a car has not looked an nearly hit me, I would have been hit. Braking doesnt always work, sometimes a high powered forward charge will get you out when breaking wont.

oh yeah? well maybe us careless drivers will just issue a high powered forward charge and put you right back where we wanted you

i dunno what kinda incidents you guys are getting into but i've never thought "oh crap that accident would have been easier to avoid if i had MORE RAW POWER AT THE WHEELS GRUNT GRUNT GRUNT GRUNT"

i dunno what kinda incidents you guys are getting into but i've never thought "oh crap that accident would have been easier to avoid if i had MORE RAW POWER AT THE WHEELS GRUNT GRUNT GRUNT GRUNT"

Passing a long semi trailer that "doesn't see you" and decides to change lanes on you. You've got a much better chance with a vehicle that has a decent amount of acceleration to get outta there. Sure you could try to brake as mentioned above but thats not a guarantee either.

I sure wouldn't like to try and ride a scooter on the freeway... I got buffeted around enough on a faired 250 passing big trucks. Up past the airport on a windy day wasn't real friendly either :)

heh, my reputation as an eHippy is growing :)

But, seriously, I only need a scooter to get me to the train station or the local shops. I would use my pushy but its very hilly where I live.

You guys have made very good points about:

a) Scooters being homosexual - duh no s***, sherlock.

b) Scooters on a freeway = Death - Again, I only need it to travel through suburban backstreets.

hi slaps

^ hi mate, sup

here is an electric scooter for ya ;D this vectrix company say they will have a prototype electric roadbike by 2008 that looks pretty cool... can't fins an image on the net but i saw a pic in the latest amcn.

Don't get a scooter, the points the guys here made are correct, from the height off the road, to the lack of power. Another reason is the short wheel base, makes for some seriously bad driving, and the fact everybody I ever see with one has a open faced helmet and drives like a idiot (Hello Southbank scooters, I hope you die!).

I have been in a few situations where a bit of power has helped me get out of a issue. A couple of times I've launched a car into the emergency side lane to avoid being hit by an idiot who didn't leave "sufficent stopping distance" either that or they are playing with the !@#&ing radio (I'm looking at you teenage female!). Might seem odd I see these things coming, but after 4 rear end accidents in 6 years (none where I was driving and we were stopped at red lights for periods on at least 30 seconds), I constantly check my rear vision mirror.

A bit of power at the wheels is a good thing, it's just knowing how and when to apply it. Sure you can get yourself into trouble on your higher powered bike, but you do that by choice, but having the choice to escape an accident is something I want.

I give my props to Honda 250cc road bikes for first year riders, naked or not. Personally Honda CBR250RR is my choice, but there are plenty of decent bikes, just remember to look at things such as maintence, tyres, parts (price of parts varies between models) and GEAR! Gear is totally important! Personally spent $600 on a helmet alone (Shoei TZ-R with graphics) and I'm glad I did (haven't needed to use it, but it's safe, comfy to wear and looks hot.

Get yourself a 250 bike and proper gear (make sure it has some bright colours and ride with your lights on at all times). You'll love it :)

Some links:

Learner booklet in PDF form, learn your rules and take the advice given. Test is 5 questions if you already have your license and is simple. Read the motorbike section once and got 5 out of 5.
http://www.transport.qld.gov.au/qt/LTASinfo.nsf/index/learningtodrive_yourkeys

Details on Learning to ride a bike, like everybody else says, Q-ride is the way to go. Most places supply you with everything except for a pair of jeans to wear (they suggest you bring your own), personally I bought my own gear. Nothing better then learning on somebody elses bike that is fully insured.
http://www.transport.qld.gov.au/qt/LTASinfo.nsf/index/learningtodrive_motorbikes

Team moto, bikes and gear. Good to check on the RRP for gear and they do have a decent selection of bikes at varios prices.
http://www.teammoto.com.au

Morgan and Wacker. Similar to team moto but more of a harley style and has q-ride training, as well as extra training courses (should do as many courses as you can find).
http://www.morganandwacker.com.au

Enjoy!