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DEL.ICIO.USScooters looking better everyday
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
He started riding a scooter in 1955.
Then, Bill Scoggins was 13. Gas was cheap - 15 or 20 cents a gallon. The Atlanta native rode a Cushman scooter to school and to deliver The Atlanta Journal.
“Now gas is almost $4 a gallon, and I am still riding one,” said Scoggins, 66, who rides a scooter from his Lawrenceville home to his business, Scooter World. “I like them because you’re out in nature and you can smell the roses and enjoy the scenery.
“I am a 365-day rider.”
Scoggins has seen an uptick in customers at his shop off Grayson Highway in Lawrenceville. You know why. Gas prices. The shift from four wheels to two reflects a national trend. Some dealers have reported sales boosts as high as 30 percent when compared with this time last year.
And that’s what brought the Badie Tour to Scooter World. I wanted to talk to someone who knows scooters, maybe ride one.
Scoggins has sold motorcycles, scooters and mopeds since 1985. He recalls two other scooter surges. One was during the 1990 recession. The other was two years ago, when gas inched toward $3 a gallon. Neither period, though, compares to the current traffic flow in his service and sales shop.
“I have seen more people in three months - and that’s 90 days - seriously in the market to buy than I have the past 10 years,” he told me. “I’ve had quite a few sales. I see people every week come in here who are getting 15 or 20 miles per gallon in their vehicles. With a scooter, you can get from 80 miles per gallon on the little one to 60 on the bigger ones.”
Scoggins specializes in the more popular engines - the 49 cc (top speed is 35 miles per hour); the 150 cc (60 mph) and 300 cc engine (80 to 85 mph). More power equals a higher price tag. A new scooter with a 300 cc engine runs about $4,000. (You don’t have to have a tag or insurance to operate a 49 cc scooter. A tag, insurance and motorcycle license are required to operate anything bigger.”
How practical is it to ride a scooter in Gwinnett traffic?
Before answering that question, Scoggins told me what he usually tells customers: If you’ve never ridden a two-wheeler, or haven’t done so in months or years, take a safety course. At the very least, practice starting, braking and accelerating in a parking lot before hitting the streets.
“I can tell right off how skilled or unskilled a customer is,” he told me. “The main thing is balance. If you can ride a bike, you can ride a scooter. The only difference is you have a throttle for gas. You have to know when to give the gas and when to stop.”
As for scooting down Gwinnett roads, Scoggins does it all the time, weather permitting. He said only a seasoned driver should brave busy arteries like Ga. 316 and U.S. 78.
“I tell people you can go from Maine to Miami on secondary roads and never get on the interstate,” he said. “Highway-capacity scooters are ideal for secondary roads. If you are going on [U.S.] 78 or [Ga.] 316, I would drive with caution - unless you’re an expert driver.”
Scoggins and I didn’t navigate a busy road, but we did cruise through a nearby neighborhood. The view was panoramic. The breeze delightful. Fun ride.
Rick Badie’s column appears on Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. Contact him at 770-263-3875 or e-mail: rbadie@ajc.com.
Permalink | Comments (18) | Post your comment | Categories: Rick Badie
Comments
By Cindy
June 5, 2008 9:25 AM | Link to this
Where are those good smelling roses? Inside Kroger?
By Michael H. Smith
June 5, 2008 10:28 AM | Link to this
Did someone pave Cindy’s paradise and put up their parking lot, my, my?
Enjoy the parking lot while you can. Should this Lieberman-Warner cap and trade bill ever become our doom; in that old parking lot there will be plenty of room – even enough for Al Gore! Empty as it may stand, in the end only nature will have the last laugh. When dandelions and ragweed between the cracks in asphalt bloom, the carbon we once gave away, only they will for free consume. As carbon now becomes the stock and trade of corporate treasure, since our noble Congress made it taxable on our costly behave.
yada, yada, yada…
By LT5000
June 5, 2008 10:53 AM | Link to this
Badie on a scooter? That’s almost as dangerous as letting a licensed gun owner into an establishment that serves alcohol.
Too bad this story was on the radio last week. Does Badie have an original thought in his head?
LT5000
By Jais AAA Duluth
June 5, 2008 11:36 AM | Link to this
LT5000 as usual, astute observation. I’ve been prodding his bosses to replace him asap.
SCOOTERS! what can I say about scooters, though. Not enough good things for the most part. We are all going to start seeing alot of alternative vehicles on the road, and In a few years I imagine this country will seem like italy- people riding vespas straight onto elevators at work and parking them next to their cubicles, guys stowing mopeds on those bike racks on the MARTA bus bumpers, whole sidewalks converted into motobike lanes…and I think it’s a good thing. A 2-stroke moped still creates less pollution than a hybrid car of any kind over it’s lifespan. I myself have always been an advocate of two wheels, and it looks like this is where we are headed.
I would also like to shed light on certain japanese vehicles that are available to us, such as yamaha’s three-wheel fully closed motorbike, which gets like 60mpg, the old BMW hatch-front, seen driven by steve irkel in a popular sit-com, original austin minicoupes, the new $2000 car from india, the ‘runabout’, basically an open-air 4-wheeled scooter, and privately engineere vehicles such as the porch-swing-like ‘big wheel’ solar-powered vehicle seen on discovery channel’s ‘going green’ special. The vehicle was indeed insured and street legal inside the city.
let’s also not forget about the old favorites that still work: VOLKSWAGEN BEETLE- these cars are still built brand-new in mexico. They are legendarily reliable and easily maintained. My old ‘70 super-beetle could do 100mph all day long and still got an average of 70mpg with an overpully system on a 1200cc engine. It was excellent in handling and you only had to fill it up every couple weeks. I couldn;t even imagine what today’s technology could do with that car. I remember replacing the engine on that car with three wrenches and a skateboard. Talk about pinching a penny.
By jimmy
June 5, 2008 11:46 AM | Link to this
I have two problems with any two wheel vehicle. They are very uncomfortable in rain and snow for one and secondly, when in an accident with a four wheel vehicle, the two-wheel driver loses.
So I will wait for better four-wheel solutions to come along.
By rj
June 5, 2008 12:16 PM | Link to this
Rick, You ever seen a black guy with some bad pavement rash? It’s nasty looking. Scooters might work out fine in Europe but they are not suited to the majority of American cities.
Jais, your memory has failed you.
By Bruce Wilcox
June 5, 2008 2:04 PM | Link to this
True rj, they respect scooters in Europe, I wouldn’t want to drive one around here. Gas in Europe has always been much higher than here they adapted decades ago. Scooters and small cars rule in Europe.
By MJK
June 5, 2008 3:49 PM | Link to this
They’ve been driving scooters and small cars in Europe for decades. Here in the US we’ve been spoiled by cheap gas for so long everyone bought land yachts and got in the habit of driving 90 MPH.
I know I did.
I hope scooters start to become more prevalent.
Maybe tax incentives to encourage them?
By Jais
June 5, 2008 4:48 PM | Link to this
No rj, my memory serves me fine. Four bolts hold the damn thing in, the rest can be done with a socket wrench and an adjustable wrench and drop it with a skateboard.
By rj
June 5, 2008 9:57 PM | Link to this
Jais, I’m talking about the 100mph bs and the 70 mpg bs. The last 1200cc VW motor was built in 1964 :rolleyes:
By Katie
June 6, 2008 6:06 AM | Link to this
Jais, I have a 77 beetle, less than 70,000 original miles, all OE and in immaculate condition. It does NOT get 70 mpg. What did you do to yours to get that kind of gas mileage???
By Gandalf, the Grey
June 6, 2008 3:25 PM | Link to this
Katie, he just smokes the wacky pipe and remembers funny, 24-26mpg maybe, 100mph? maybe…70 mpg? Crackhead.
By Jais
June 6, 2008 8:10 PM | Link to this
What a bunch of stupids. let me enlighten you d*******.
Standard sleeve 1200cc volkswagen boxer opposed 4-cyl engine. Top speed stock: around 70mph. 4th gear. My super beetle was modified with: 2:80 overdrive pulleys (greater rpm), 1960 Porsche heads, single pump bosche carburator with a high-tube intake and an aftermarket transmission with 5 gears.
YES it did around 107 top speed with the pedal to the floor and was air-cooled so it could sustain it with no problem. I filled the measly 10 gallon tank once every few weeks and it easily got 70mpg. I drove maybe 100k miles in that car, i think I have a better idea of what one will do than you, rj.
Beetles were well-known for getting better than 65mpg in city driving. Fuel injected ones and modded ones like mine were even more efficient than they were stock. You seem to forget that hitler had these cars designed for one purpose: to save fuel. Germany had limited fuel at the time, like we do now except they had a lot less of it. They still produce new beetles in mexico and some even have water cooling and a/c. They were also well-known for being a car so well engineered that it would float if crashed into water. Mine didn’t have a single rattle anywhere in the car and it got better gas mileage than my motorcycle.
Just do me a favor do your own homework before you just up and tell someone their memory is bad. Basically you’re saying I’m stupid or a liar, and everything I said is supported by cold hard fact that can be verified in a few minutes. Sheesh.
By Jais
June 6, 2008 8:29 PM | Link to this
Katie-
Yours gets around 35 if I’m correct, that’s because yours is all OE and its a normal-carbed 1600cc with stock drive pulleys and tranny. you will need:
12-volt system (easy) 2:80 or higher overdrive pulleys 12 volt racing ignition coil hi-yield generator or porche dynamo better heads, ported and polished for efficiency and valves adjusted to spec. crankshaft has to be chamfered and checked for endplay my a machinist racing-prepped distrubutor larger, lighter wheels, like 16’s with low pro tires aftermarket transmission from a kharman ghia OR a highway gear to replace your 4th gear.
The 1600 SB engine will never get milage like a 993, a 1100 or a 1200, but with a setup like this it will get around 60. Set up like this the motor will seem alot smoother and also be able to rev much higher. It won’t really be much better on acceleration, but hey. That’s a boxer for you.
engines like the one i described are commonly seen on ultralight aircraft and some power equipment. New subaru cars have a remarkably similar engine design as well. Some guys I’ve seen also have stuff like this on those hobbied trike-bikes and dune buggies as well. They even once produced a 900 or so cc engine that if done like this I’m sure could top it. Then we have those aftermarket sleeve and supercharger kits, fuel injection kits, turbo kits and gas-electric kits, which hell those get upwards of 100 miles on a gallon.
By Bruce Wilcox
June 7, 2008 6:56 AM | Link to this
Jais ease up a little, maybe everyone doesn’t read the manual’s, give it break.
By rj
June 7, 2008 8:04 AM | Link to this
Jais, when you are in a hole over your head you should quit digging. 2.80 pulleys ? Only the generator/cooling fan is pulley driven. 5 speeds aren’t super effective on aircooled engines. If you have a tall od 5th gear then the cooling fan is turning slow and the motor overheats.
I don’t think Bosch made carbs.
The Beetle was designed by some pretty smart men . I doubt some knucklehead using a skateboard for an engine dolly is going to be able to improve their work.
Also, spending a large sum of money to save a small sum of money is a fools game. Common, but foolish. So Katie, keep your bug in good tune but don’t spend thousands of dollars to increase the mileage a few percent.
By Katie
June 7, 2008 11:03 AM | Link to this
Actually, my bug is fuel injected. Does that make a difference?
By rj
June 7, 2008 1:47 PM | Link to this
Katie, as long as all the sensors are functioning properly you should be fine. It is possible fine tune the stock FI but it takes someone with intimate knowledge of the OEM FI system and those people are rare.
Just keep the sparkplugs and ignition system in good repair and enjoy your bug.