h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Is a Scooter really a motorcycle?

no.
It's a scooter. Clue's in the name

Sorry, couldn't resist that.

And one of these days people might just realise how daft they look riding them. Even italiens don;t manage to look stylish while riding them, and they pretty much invented them.

ALthough I have to admit there isn't much of a difference really. You can get 400cc scooters that accelerate as quickly, if not more so, than sportsbikes. Althoughs that's only picking up on the long and honourable tradition of bodging 350LC motors onto poor unsuspecting italien rust piles.

Around here the word scooter is slang for motorcycle. Call 'em what you want. What really matters is how you feel riding it. If it is fun, then ride it and don't worry 'bout what it's called. And if someone else thinks it's too small or not 'spensive enough, well, they are invited to keep their thoughts to themselves.





YB

Ah, no, there's still a real difference round here. There seems to be some hangover, still, from the old mods and rockers days. Dunno why since neither social group really exists anymore.
But there are indications that scooter rallies are more welcoming to bikers and bike rallies are more welcoming to scooterists.
But every now and then there's still a bit of trouble.

Personaly I think there's two reasons why scooters are not regarded as "bikes",
Firstly there's the "girly" step through frame.
Then there's the limited (to say the least) engine size.

Of coures there's always the argument that it's nothing more than a toilet on casters.

the Honda Silverwing and Piaggio X9 and Gilera's Nexus are hardly limited by engine capacity.

No contest - scooters are not motorbikes. Don't know what it is (although many reasons given above!) but one of our Managers used to ask how my "scooter" was because he knew it would wind me up! O.k. so it's not a huge bike (Honda Hornet 600) but it's still a motorbike and NOT a scooter! Grrrrr

The style of motorbike affects how similarit is to a scooter too. While Cruisers, Sports Bikes, Uprights and Muscle Bikes are very different to scooters, the large scooters are often very similr to Tourers. The Silverwing is almost a mini version of the Goldwing

Now, y'see, to *me* a Silverwing is a CX500 with a barn door fairing.

Well yeah, it can be, but even then it's the GL500 so it's kind of a mini Goldwing. However I was refering to these beauties;
http://images.google.com/images?client=safari&rls=en&q=honda%20silver%20wing&oe=UTF-8&percentage_served=*:100&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wi

Oh I know, I was just musing over the re-use of bike names (and just cos it say GL on the side doesn;t mean I'm taken in! It's a plastic maggot with pretensions and nowt else!), and that moving the name from a bike to a scooter, well, its a bit different.

Most scooters are more like motorized bicycles i.e. motorcycles than most bikes which are now more like two wheeled cars.

Actually I'd have said it was the other way round, scooters, especially modern scooters, have gloveboxes, fairings and a footwell to protect you from the elements and a riding position much more like that of a car, where as most motorbikes tend to be barer and have a riding position more like that of a bicycle. When you take automatic cars into the equation aswell, well I don't know of any automatic 'Bikes'

There was a honda cb400 automatic from the late 70's and there were a few others. Think yamaha experimented too.
They were rare though, I've only ever seen 2

Honda made an automatic 400 twin and an automatic 750 four. They also made a scooter, not sold in the UK although one or two exist here, the Juno I think, with a 250 boxer engine driving an hydraulic pump with final drive via an hydraulic motor. Works fine on industrial diggers but not so well on scooters and improved materials technology meant the very old technology of the variable Vee belt drive could be used.

As for scooters. There are quite a few now appearing with 15 and 16 inch wheels. 16 inch was quite a common size for smaller motorcycles at one time so many new scooters are by any definition motorcycles.

I have not ridden an automatic scooter but of those who have everyone has said they are great. Evidently the automatic gear does not detract from enjoyable riding. As for the step through, well as the years move on swing ones leg over the seat does not get any easier.