Do you really need more than 150cc's ??

[Stig / Major Tom]

If you don't want to, or need to, ride more than 50mph (or ride double) - IS there any reason to own more than a 150cc scooter?

A 279cc Honda Forza weighs in at 170 odd pounds more than a 260lb. LIKE200i.
The Burgman 400 at nearly 489 lbs.
etc.
My point is that whatever you gain in HP is given back in weight - which is handy for highway stability but awkward in the city.

In a 3/4 city block drag race I think both of my 150 cc scoots can show well against these big heavy scooters.


(I was cruising along at 40mph on a country lane this morning - wondering why anyone would need more than these 163cc's under me?)

To a limited extent I've been there, done that - now I'm back here.


And if you need more than 50mph - fine, I'll wave you on by.

Stig

[mcdcfc3]

You make a good point Tom. For me living in the Peak District of the UK the hills are a killer for a 125cc engine (150cc is rare here). Its difficult to maintain 50mph quite often and you can end up with a queue of traffic right up behind your rear end


Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

[Tromper]

I'll second mcdcfc3 regarding the hills.  Around here if you're not going up you're going down it seems like.
Beyond that the additional couple ponies the HD has vs. my old S (carb'd version of your Like motor) give me quicker acceleration in addition the that extra pop for the hills.
Both of those can be handy in the hilly urban/suburban environment, all consideration of a better top end aside.

[CROSSBOLT]

Depends on what you do most and where you do it. Flat Ohio with short hills (that I recall) coupled with mostly local trips, 150 cc is fine. I would definitely demand my DT300I if I was back in Denver with a 6000' elevation variation and wonderful roads all over! I was happy with a 50 cc until I was bitten (again!) with wanderlust. The Yager was great with 173 cc and would not have changed until the wheels came off, but wife insisted! Like we said in the Power Transmission business, depends on application.

[Viper254]

You make a good point Tom. For me living in the Peak District of the UK the hills are a killer for a 125cc engine (150cc is rare here). Its difficult to maintain 50mph quite often and you can end up with a queue of traffic right up behind your rear end

MCDCFC3 is right. For me, I would have continued riding my 110 everywhere but I needed those extra CCs for the hills around the peaks; Rocester, Cubley, sometimes Ashbourne and Belper etc. for my commute to Nottingham.

Sometimes I catch myself thinking that a 250 would be nice. But I'm sure that if I had a 250, I'd probably want a 400. In reality, the 163cc gets me up hills and over to work at about 90KMH; it's cheap motoring.

I have had my share of big bikes - I just don't enjoy them in the same way.

[EvilTessmacher]

Down here in the south, those reflective white signs with the big black numbers are there to tell the nearly-illiterate, self-centered cagers the minimum they should be traveling. They're not an upper limit as the sign actually indicates, but the floor-speed at which someone should be traveling else they get run over, have things thrown at them, get shot at, or otherwise suffer induced-wrath things from idiots who want to punish everyone else for their own poor time-management skills.

I was perfectly satisfied with the 153cc of the Honda, until I realized that I was the only one who thought those big white signs with the big black numbers really were an upper limit, not the base floor speed of travel. You literally can get a ticket for both reckless driving and impeding the flow of traffic (both misdemeanors, but when combined are a low-level felony here) if you're driving while obeying traffic laws, operating safely, and doing nothing other than being in the way of soccer moms in their black Denali SUVs while on the phone.

Given the roads I have to drive in order to get to work, something with a bit more "get up and go" eventually became a dire necessity. Not to mention the fact that if I ever wanted to go anywhere other than to work, I'd need to be able to travel in the 60-75 range in order to do it, without running the risk of being run off the road.

A case in point: (and possibly for the Riders Code thread) yesterday, on the way to visit a friend of mine to meet for lunch, I was traveling on a 55mph limit road, but going right at 63-64mph. Not one, but two sets of rednecks in jacked-up trucks with 6' diameter tires flew by me at over 80mph estimated, screaming out the window "get that &%@#! moped off the roads" The second of the two cut over in front of me so sharply that I literally reached out and touched his fender as he swept by. I immediately changed lanes, as I anticipated he would slam on brakes, which he did. I went right on by as he nearly came to a stop, and then he had to try to catch up to me to show me who was boss. I managed to skirt through a changing traffic light, where he was just too far back to not run the red, and I left him sitting there stopped and probably fuming that I was a lot faster than he thought I was.

So yes, I do need more than 150cc. And pepper spray.

[jeeves]

Down here in the south, those reflective white signs with the big black numbers are there to tell the nearly-illiterate, self-centered cagers the minimum they should be traveling. They're not an upper limit as the sign actually indicates, but the floor-speed at which someone should be traveling else they get run over, have things thrown at them, get shot at, or otherwise suffer induced-wrath things from idiots who want to punish everyone else for their own poor time-management skills.

I was perfectly satisfied with the 153cc of the Honda, until I realized that I was the only one who thought those big white signs with the big black numbers really were an upper limit, not the base floor speed of travel. You literally can get a ticket for both reckless driving and impeding the flow of traffic (both misdemeanors, but when combined are a low-level felony here) if you're driving while obeying traffic laws, operating safely, and doing nothing other than being in the way of soccer moms in their black Denali SUVs while on the phone.

Given the roads I have to drive in order to get to work, something with a bit more "get up and go" eventually became a dire necessity. Not to mention the fact that if I ever wanted to go anywhere other than to work, I'd need to be able to travel in the 60-75 range in order to do it, without running the risk of being run off the road.

A case in point: (and possibly for the Riders Code thread) yesterday, on the way to visit a friend of mine to meet for lunch, I was traveling on a 55mph limit road, but going right at 63-64mph. Not one, but two sets of rednecks in jacked-up trucks with 6' diameter tires flew by me at over 80mph estimated, screaming out the window "get that &%@#! moped off the roads" The second of the two cut over in front of me so sharply that I literally reached out and touched his fender as he swept by. I immediately changed lanes, as I anticipated he would slam on brakes, which he did. I went right on by as he nearly came to a stop, and then he had to try to catch up to me to show me who was boss. I managed to skirt through a changing traffic light, where he was just too far back to not run the red, and I left him sitting there stopped and probably fuming that I was a lot faster than he thought I was.

So yes, I do need more than 150cc. And pepper spray.

[emoji50][emoji35]
That should be treated as a murder attempt.
Probably would be good to have a GoPro type camera for those kind of idiots as evidence.

[Gnzbrg]

My first bike was a '65 Honda 150 Dream.  On the day I graduated high school I  blew the motor, stretched out "Rollie Free" style trying to break 60mph down the biggest hill in Delaware...  So yeah, even then I wanted more power.  Now I have four bikes ranging from 49 to 1470cc.  They all have their uses, but I find myself riding the scooters most often.  There's something very satisfying about using the smaller bikes to get around.

[hypophthalmus]

The Forza is unusually heavy for its class. I've never ridden anything that heavy, so I don't actually know how cumbersome it is.

My People 250 wasn't awkward in town at all, and isn't the lightest 250 either.

When I had a Vino 125 (top speed of 55mph), I was frequently at full throttle, and that frequently wasn't enough. Hills could drop the the top speed by 20mph. And the top speed was frequently just not fast enough anyways on flat ground.

In rural Texas, it wouldn't have been fast enough to go anywhere. The highways (non-interstate) have travel speeds of 80mph. My People 250 was never not enough, but anything smaller would have been too small.

Here in the Ozarks, the travel speed is typically as high as 60mph (the speed limits are almost always disregarded). If you aren't climbing a hill, chances are you're going down one. Maybe you could get away with driving a Like 200i here, but I think it would be pretty marginal. 250cc is a very comfortable size.

[Tiny]

I do love my Movie 150 but at times I do feel that 180-250cc engine in it would suit me better. Yes there are quite a few flat spots in my neck of the woods but the hills when they do appear can be steep and numerous. The extra cc's would help lower my RPMs on the back road where vehicles are going over 80+KPH on a regular basis and staying at over 80KPH raises my fuel consumption and lowers my range.
 So a scooter with my Movies size/weight about 113KG/250lbs with a 200cc engine would be best

[ScooterWolf]

I really do miss my Yager 200i. It was light, and agile and a good bike for my interstate commute, but it was only on the edge of being fast enough on the short stretches of highways I needed to get from Jersey to Philly. I lot of times I was tailgated even though I was doing a 65 in a 45.

My Downtown opened an entirely new world for me. I could take the back roads and the interstates. Now the idea of really traveling and seeing the world by scooter was possible. Over the past three years I've travel to Canada (going back again in September), up and down the Jersey shore, through NE Pennsylvania, and Central and NW New Jersey. I feel like I'm only scratching the surface.

The DT for me is light enough to get around in the city with no weight problems, even with a passenger, and powerful enough to run with the big boys.
I do miss my smaller scooter and in all honesty I've been jonesing to get another smaller bike. A lot of the rallies in my area are only open to small bikes and classic scooters. It's been frustrating to be on the outside looking in.

- Wolf

[Tromper]

Strange how most folks, when being tailgated speed up.
That's buying into what the idiot behind ya wants, & he'll just push you faster.
If being tailgated, you go slower.  That is in defensive driving 102.  In the end get gator wants to go faster and will go around ya.
https://www.defensivedriving.com/blog/rules-of-the-road-dont-give-in-to-tailgaters/

I'l note that when I point out the reasoning on this to most folks they'll argue that their situation is special and somehow different.
Really it's not.  The gator's going to drive up your butt regardless of speed.  If you slow down to the point where their distance is safe they'll either have gotten around ya or the bump in your heine will be less of an issue. (in a car, that'd never good on a bike, but still better at 5mph than 50).

Slowing techniques are another lesson and more circumstantial, but either way I'll allow this works even in aggressive Seattle traffic.

[EvilTessmacher]

Strange how most folks, when being tailgated speed up.
That's buying into what the idiot behind ya wants, & he'll just push you faster.
If being tailgated, you go slower.  That is in defensive driving 102.  In the end get gator wants to go faster and will go around ya.
https://www.defensivedriving.com/blog/rules-of-the-road-dont-give-in-to-tailgaters/

Down here in the deep south, that will get you rear-ended, run off the road, shot at, or all of the above. No lie.

My best friend used to work for one of the local ambulance companies here, and I've been regaled with dozens of stories of motorcyclists being run off the road by the seasoned EMTs who have attended the cases. If some redneck in a jacked-up Silverado will run a Ninja or a CBR off the road, what makes you think that me, on a 400cc scoot is going to be safer by slowing down in front of them? It would make it just that much easier for them to hit me.

[CROSSBOLT]

Evil, I am sure you said but I'm still old and foget, where in the deep south?

[Chris0381]

So yes, I do need more than 150cc. And pepper spray.

You need James Bond flippable plate with oil slick.