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small town America ...




and I come out of the coffee shop, "Yo - hey, there's a scooter back there!"

Fish thinks: "you back over my scooter I'm gonna own your truck!"


No worries.


Fish

Looks like people honor the "do not park in front of fire hydrants" rule in your town.

God Bless America!

Old Grinner wrote:Looks like people honor the "do not park in front of fire hydrants" rule in your town.

God Bless America!

Well, yes. Except for the odd scooter rider.

Fish

I'm afraid that, here in my part of America, "odd" pretty much goes with "scooter rider". I think I can count on one hand the number of scooters I see during a riding season (with the exception of Portsmouth NH, where there seems to be a culture of the hopped-up Ruckus).

In my area the largest crowd on scooters seems to be those on the 49cc Chinese ones that have a problem climbing the inclines in the streets. They are dangerous because those "living rooms on 4 wheels" don't even slow down for them, and many of those scooters are ridden by high school kids going to their part time jobs.

...except in downtown Marietta, which seems to be "drunk cycle" heaven, or maybe they are just going to their court appearances. The courthouse and law enforcement buildings are there.

In Massachusetts, if you are convicted of DUI and loose your licence for x years, you are out of luck for legally riding anything motorized, even a 50 cc or a moped. If caught, its back to the slammer for you! If you can swing it financially, you could probably get away with an e-bike, but that is about all the assistance you are going to get.

That is supposed to be the law here as well, but the police here have more important things to deal with than chasing after drunks who are illegally riding around on 49cc scooters. You can usually tell which ones are riding around illegally on those littles scooters though. They usually still drink and ride, and many are blatant.

In fact, we had to call the police recently on one of them that was blocking traffic and making obscene gestures. What he (the rider) did not know was that we have a dashcam that caught his every move, and we knew where he lived because he pulled out from that street and cut off traffic. We showed the police the clip and we haven't seen that rider again, nor his little scooter.

GeorgeSK wrote:In Massachusetts, if you are convicted of DUI and loose your licence for x years, you are out of luck for legally riding anything motorized, even a 50 cc or a moped. If caught, its back to the slammer for you! If you can swing it financially, you could probably get away with an e-bike, but that is about all the assistance you are going to get.

After reading many Kymco 50cc posts - I am of the impression that a large % of owners are riding a 50cc due to loss of license following a DUI citation. And, of course, their first post is questions about big bore kits and more speed. One DUI'd fellow got his built two stroke 50cc LIKE up to an honest 60+mph --- before he crashed and quit the forum. DUI'ing again? Fortunately he didn't involve any one else when he wrecked.

Fish

I saw a guy on the street recently with a built up 50cc scooter and wasn't hard to tell that he was one of those who had lost his license. He was racing between cars, turning corners with no regard for other traffic or pedestrians, and generally disregarding traffic laws. His helmet was just sitting on his head, unwrapped and a bit too small for his head. I could only hope that the police would get him off of the street soon. However, since the 50cc scooters need no license plate or insurance, how do you report them?

The previous one that I had reported did not change his route, so the police only needed to wait for him to pull out into the main streets again...which he did, as well as continuing to ride aggressively, which was dumb. The police grabbed him and his scooter. They also ended up raiding his home, which turned out to be a meth den. I am not sure how the two were related (driving vs home). Maybe they were watching his house too. In any case, he is off the streets now, but that had to be luck because those little bikes aren't registered anywhere.