50CC Scooters

[CheezWizHed]

I was thinking of buying my kids a 50cc scooter (so no motorcycle license needed). I was looking at Yamaha/Honda (mid-level cost) but wondering if anyone knows about Wolf brand scooters? Or any recommendations?

[owbc]

I had a Kymco Agility 50 for a few years when I was a college student in Madison. It was great for getting to my job on the west side without needing to own a car. I'm a tall guy and didn't fit comfortably on many of the Yamaha/Honda models.

 

A few thoughts...

 

1. You probably want a make/model that one of the local scooter places will service. Kymco makes nice scooters. I don't know anything about Wolf. You also need them to remove the restrictor or you will be limited to 25 mph. Without the restrictor I could get up to about 35 mph on flat ground (they do not accelerate quickly...). That is still way too slow for anything that isn't a dense urban neighborhood so keep that in mind.

 

2. They are really dangerous. Like motorcycles you are invisible to everyone and car drivers get really irritated when you are going too slow for them. People like to drive 35 mph in a 25 mph zone so they still wanted to pass me when I was at maximum speed. Any road with > 30 mph speed limit was a no-no unless it had a shoulder lane. And on an uphill I could barely hit 25 mph at full throttle. I never had any crashes although I nearly hit a pedestrian once when we were both sneaking between cars in a traffic jam.

 

I had that moped in 2008 but if I had to do it in 2019 I would buy an e-bike unless I really needed to commute somewhere without bicycling infrastructure. E-bikes are way more versatile that scooters because you don't have to deal with the DMV/licensing/insurance and you can ride them on bike paths and park them anywhere. Plus the nicer ones can go almost as fast as a moped.

[CheezWizHed]

Thanks for the advice. The main area I expected it to be used would be a rural road with a decent sized bike shoulder. I hadn't thought about e-bikes. I'll have to take a look at them.