Where I live, scooter owners are generally regarded as "less worthy" by motorcycle owners.
Generally I do not mingle around motorcycle crowds, but a few times when I visited some biker club meetings, I even saw at the entrance the sign "Motorcycle riders to not pay entrance - scooters are not motorcycles".
This is usually written by people who ride their bikes from May to August when it is sunny, dry and warm and usually only to the biker's fest where they get wasted and then come back home and use their cages daily to go to work. Of course, they can speed only on straight parts of the road while bends are driven at 30 km/h.
When I said "beginner's bike", I meant the following: throughout Europe, you can drive 50 cc scooters when you are 14 y.o. and without any kind of additional license if you have a license for a car. In my town 90 % of 50 cc scooters is driven by elementary/high school kids.
This is why I said - beginner's bike. In fact, I never heard of someone seriously downgrading to 50 cc scooter as a single bike.
So far I had Kymco 50 cc scooter, Yamaha TW125, Kawasaki ZR-7S, Piaggio NRG 50 LC extreme, Piaggio Zenith 50 cc, Beverly 200.
Now I have Piaggio NRG mc2 50 cc, Kymco Agility 125, Kymco People 250 S and yesterday I bought a 200 cc quad.
I forgot Piaggio Grillo 50 cc that is not registered.
So, as a conclusion, I am the last person to speak badly about scooterists. In fact, I ride 365 days throughout the year under all conditions, in rain, in snow and in ice. I sold my car in 2002 and now when I need it - I rent it!
Thumbs up!