Everyone is allowed to have an opinion.
It's just that yours is stupid.
Taken from an article located on motorcycledaily.com This is just an excerpt from the comments found below the article. The comments are sometimes interesting, yet annoying and predictable. Usually I skip them. I have heard them all before. So I am going out riding while the nice fall weather holds here...
Enjoy the pageantry:
ziggy says:
The only difference between these pigs and a real ride
now is skill, commitment and training.
As for a city scoot–I’ll take a drz or something
comparable any day.
Ruefus says:
Spoken like one
who’s spent next to no time on one but thinks they ‘know best’.
I assume you
still have a horse and carriage as your main source of transportation then? No?
Engines
and the vehicles they propel are so dirty and lets face it, don’t take as much
skill, commitment and training to operate.
ziggy says:Nope. Spoken
like someone who has spent countless hours in the saddle riding and racing on
and off road. I’ve had lots of training, many certs, and broken enough laws to
know that maxi scoots and their ilk are nothing but the dumbing-down and
sissification of motorcycling.
ANYONE ride them, and they make the “perfect
city scoot” from the cafe to the mall and back…hooray!
Sorry chum but not my
kind of riding!
Ruefus says:
That’s a different tone than your original post, and
one I can understand. The first implied scooters were somehow less valid. The
second basically says different strokes for different folks. That’s fine. Most
riders haven’t the level of expertise you do and don’t want it.
The whole POINT
of a scooter is to not have to focus on gear selection, rev range, clutch
brake, throttle…..etc.
Yes. They take less training to ride. For a myriad
number of reasons, that’s the point. Much the same way automatic transmissions
in cars are popular. It’s simpler. But having ridden several types of large
scooters (Honda, Yamaha, Suzuki, Aprilia, Kymko….you name it…..used to sell
them), I can tell you that the ride is entirely different. It’s not ‘dumbed
down’ so much as it is a different experience. Much like a Gold Wing, a Burgman
650 disappears beneath you after achieving walking pace.
You still have to hit
the apex right to grab throttle on exit. Have to be very wary of lean angle, as
the wheelbase requires more roll to effect a turn. You can’t move your body as
much to compensate when you cock up a line, so don’t.
As for riding a DRZ as a
commuter, while you’re either strapping on your backpack or properly loading
your saddle bags…..the inexperienced scooter rider indiscriminately shoves
their bag and whatever else under the centralized underseat storage, steps on
and disappears before you or I have thumbed the starter.
Like I say….diffn’t
strokes…..
ziggy says: I’d say my
message in long form is the same as what I wrote in short form. I also contend
that the least skilled and most dangerous riders I’ve seen are scooter pilots.
The
whole point of riding a motorcyle is to be totally involved in the experience,
at all levels, with complete focus and concentration untill the world melts
away and you feel like you are flying.
The whole point of a scooter is to sit
up like you’re at the breakfast table and toodle around from stop to stop.
If
I am going to commute, it is going to be rip-roaring fun and believe me, it’ll
be on a DS. If I’m going to run errands that require toodling around, I’ll do
it in my car.
There’s very little difference in terms of price and experience
between scooting around on a maxi and driving around in a smart car or base
model econobox. So if that’s the selling point, I’ll take the econobox to bring
home my groceries, thank you!
Bikes are fun. Econoboxes are practical. Scooters
occupy a netherworld between the two where fun and passion are greatly
diminished, and practicality only modestly upgraded.
My sense is North
Americans are just too red blooded to fall for this crap.
Ruefus says: I agree on two things.
Motorcycles are about the experience. Scooter pilots are, by and large, less well-trained.
So?
Scooters
are about simplicity and transportation. And the experience on a maxi-scooter
is nowhere close to that of a smart car or econobox. Wwwaaayyyy different.
Horses
for courses….but if I owned this I guarantee the Aprilia logo down low would
end up needing pucks…..
