Pick it up tomorrow

[hippiebrian]

I pick up my new People 150 tomorrow.  I sold my car a year ago because I wanted to simplify my life and it's been cool with the bicycle and public transport so far.  I have been getting frustrated with the inability to just take off on a whim.  So much so that I almost bought a car.  Then I remembered how much fun those old Baha'i Chetaks were and how little gas they used so I started researching scooters and found the Kymcos were about the best out there.

I decided on the People 150 due to the 16 inch wheels and the motor size.  I've been riding motorcycles my whole life (I'm 50 now so that would be about 40 years).  The bigger wheels were the only things I thought would make the old scooters better.  At least more stable.  I always felt like I was riding a bowling ball on the Baha'i where I never did on the old Honda 70 scooters.

The 150 seems the perfect size for me as I won't be doing much freeway riding.  I am a big dude at 230 pounds so anything smaller is pretty much out of the question.

Now Colorado don't mean much to me but I have to say I pucker out.  The only Colorado on the lot (acctually they only had one available) was the black and cream.  What a nice looking ride!

Well I'll shut up now.  I have to say from everything I've read I'm looking forward to a lot of years of scootering!

[hippiebrian]

Okay the word recognition on my Kindle ducks!  I have no idea how the word color came out as Colorado or where the word pucker even came from!  Sorry all!

[Vivo]

sometimes our fingers have brains!!! welcome dude!!

[hippiebrian]

  

I've put on about 120 kilometers so far, and my impressions are good.  It has just enough power to get out of it's own way and to be fun at legal speeds (these days, full size bikes are boring at legal speeds and trust me, this is a bad thing!).  It took me a bit to get used to the cvt, but man does it make riding simple!  After a couple times diving into a corner and panicking because I "forgot to downshift" it has become natural and simple.

I really can't say enough about this scooter!  If it lasts as long as people say, it is definatelly the best bike I've owned, and I've owned a lot!  While i was wary about the twist and go thing, I don't think I'll ever shift a bike again.  I finally understand the maxi-scooter people!  If I get the itch to get a bigger bike again, it'll be a maxi for sure! 

[Vivo]

Nice to hear that bro! but why did you sell your car?, it's nice to have a car when other purposes arise...

[hippiebrian]

The lase year I owned a car, I drove it less than 1500 miles.  I just hate driving, hate paying for the gas, and hate giving the dmv so much money.  At 500 bucks a year for insurance, I was paying 33 cents a mile.  When you add dmv fees, gas, oil changes, etc., it makes absolutely no sense for me to own a car!  Then you add in the damage to the environment (seriously negligible on a 150 cc 4-stroke) and adding to our dependence on foreign oil (again, negligible on a 150 cc 4-stroke) I just couldn't justify it anymore.  If and when I need a car or truck, I can rent one cheaper than that!

[Vivo]

ok......just asking....




another question hippiebrain.... are you a genuine flower power hippie?

[hippiebrian]

Kind of...

[yoster]

The lase year I owned a car, I drove it less than 1500 miles.  I just hate driving, hate paying for the gas, and hate giving the dmv so much money.  At 500 bucks a year for insurance, I was paying 33 cents a mile.  When you add dmv fees, gas, oil changes, etc., it makes absolutely no sense for me to own a car!  Then you add in the damage to the environment (seriously negligible on a 150 cc 4-stroke) and adding to our dependence on foreign oil (again, negligible on a 150 cc 4-stroke) I just couldn't justify it anymore.  If and when I need a car or truck, I can rent one cheaper than that!

Well not to TOTALLY burst your bubble, most modern 4-cylinder cars actually put out less harmful emissions than our scooters believe it or not..

But, you're right on the gas mileage part

[Vivo]

Well not to TOTALLY burst your bubble, most modern 4-cylinder cars actually put out less harmful emissions than our scooters believe it or not..

But, you're right on the gas mileage part

Maybe because most scooters/bikes are not equipped with emission systems.

However, since emission testing is required here every year when registering your vehicle, one can see the level of harmful gases the vehicle emits and personally I usually see that bikes (4 stroke) have quite low levels of harmful gases.

[hippiebrian]

Well not to TOTALLY burst your bubble, most modern 4-cylinder cars actually put out less harmful emissions than our scooters believe it or not..

But, you're right on the gas mileage part

I think you are referring to two strokers, which are the worst things ever for polluting.  A four stroke scooter, with mandatory California emissions, puts out just a little more pollution gallon for gallon.  When you compare 75 mpg (what it appears I'm actually getting on my scooter) to 25 mpg (the average mileage for all cars out there, approximately) the scooter pollutes much less.

[Vivo]

the scooter pollutes much less.


Different story if there are more scooter than cars... Lol!

[MikeKymco]

I'd like to know which pollutes more.  Motorcycles (modern ones, in the U.S.) have catalytic converters, but I'm pretty sure scooters don't.  Without them, it's a matter of fewer molecules total being emitted by a scooter vs. the cleaner but more voluminous (and gasoline-consuming) emissions of a car.  I'd like to see some good data on the subject.

[Vivo]

I'd like to know which pollutes more.  Motorcycles (modern ones, in the U.S.) have catalytic converters, but I'm pretty sure scooters don't.  Without them, it's a matter of fewer molecules total being emitted by a scooter vs. the cleaner but more voluminous (and gasoline-consuming) emissions of a car.  I'd like to see some good data on the subject.

Emission testing is required every year here and I can surely say for a fact that cars with cats and emission systems still give off more harmful gases than a scooter with no cat.  I have 2 scoots (one with an open pipe) and the bad gas level is even lower than that of my cars. Some brands and models of small scoots have a very low level that our LTO (DMV in the U.S.) exempt these scoots from the required emission tests. However, the results are not given to us since these are their files.