Buying A Scooter For Spring? Here Are Some Handie Newbie Tips.

Why a scooter? They’re fun, they’re not as expensive as a motorcycle and certainly not as dangerous. You can also park them almost anywhere. Since the pandemic, sales have skyrocketed. Here are some things for first-time buyers to know.

*Start with well-known brands

No offense to start-ups but I’ve had great luck with Yamaha, Piaggio, Honda and Suzuki over the 21 years I’ve been riding scooters. They’re easier to get parts for and to service, most people know exactly who you’re talking about when you bring them up, and their well-known names make it easier to resell them when the time comes.

*Don’t be in a rush

The customer in a hurry is always a salesperson’s best opportunity. Take it slow and try a whole bunch of scooters before making a decision because A) What a scooter looks like doesn’t inform how it accelerates, handles and stops and B) You may find vast differences in scoots – they aren’t all the same.

*Decide what size you want, and your price.

Some scooters can top 60 MPH, and you can take them on highways, carefully. Others are polite little machines that timidly reach 35 MPH, and get 100 miles to the gallon. What lights your fire? The little ones are great for doing a whole bunch of errands at once, like the grocery store, the post office, the gym, perhaps, and they’re much easier to park.

The big guys, naturally, slake any thirst for relative speed you have, but they’re also far more expensive. Narrow it down to, say, three choices, and pick from there.

You’ll hear salespeople talk about CCs, or displacement. You don’t have to be a mechanic to understand, but small scooters will be around 50cc, midsize anywhere from 125-170cc, and large will be around 250ccs. The more CCs, the more power.

*Be prepared to visit the D.M.V. to insure your scooter.

You have to license a scooter if it goes faster than 35 MPH in my state. Check the rules where you live and get the proper certification and insurance after you buy so your rig doesn’t get impounded in the unlikely event that you’re pulled over. (The only time I was ever stopped on a scooter was in Pune, India, where the officer demanded a license and $50 right then and there, cash. I’d been warned beforehand about these shakedowns, though, and I just started the scooter and drove away.) Don’t drive away if it happens in America, though.

*Figure out where it’s going to live before you take it home.

You may be tempted to show off your new jewel to the neighbors or friends, but there are some nefarious characters in most neighborhoods who make it their business to watch for new scooters buzzing around, follow their owners home, and use two guys to lift it up into a van.

A closed garage is the best place to store a scooter, but you should also invest in a heavy-duty chain and lock, winding the chain through both tires and attaching the unit to something that can’t be moved.

Don’t just park in front of where you live, lock the front fork and think that’s the end of it. There’s no bigger bummer than to come out of where you live and find your ride is gone. You want to park out of the way, out of sight, hopefully with some kind of cover. Either that or arrange a garage.

*Consider joining a club in your area

Unlike the motorcycle world, which unfairly suffers from the stereotypical outlaw/rebel image, scooters attract an overall tamer crowd, from artists to businesspeople to homemakers, and the list goes on. Find a club on line, ride with them and you’ll learn a lot more, a lot faster, about your scooter and the cool places to ride near where you live.

*Buy and wear a helmet, please.

They aren’t much fun, but neither are condoms.