Scooter-tastic

[Matt Cartney]

Hello all,

Long story short - my arthritic hip prevents me riding my motorbike due to the seating position forcing my knees apart. Riding for just half an hour hurts for days. Being, at heart, a two wheeled soul, driving a car to work is driving me nuts, so I start thinking about a scooter - riding knees together and all that.

One thing leads to another and I start wondering about the potential for travelling on a scooter. I know it can be done - I've seen the blogs and photos. I'm just wondering what its like? I'm one of those perverse people that loves the idea of doing things differently. The judicious application of inappropriate tools. Using a banana to crack a nut, if you like.

Thinking of buying a Yamaha BWs 125 and commuting on it - and taking it to Europe. Any tips on travel for the novice scooterist?

MAtt

[vlt1]

Hi Matt

I can't quote makes and models, but there a good number of step thru scooters made now. That push the term "scooter" to new limits, larger size and weight and horse power than grand mothers scooter.

[pecha72]

I´ve had a 115cc Yamaha Nouvo in Thailand, did many trips with it, and it is in many ways a very funny&good choice for touring SE Asia.

Europe sure is a bit different area, with its fast motorways, but all in all, I see no reason, why you could not tour on a scooter here, too! The backroads are often the places you want to be exploring anyway, so unless you want to play you´re a GP-racer in the alpine roads, or need to get from Copenhagen to Gibraltar in 2 days, it can do more or less everything a big bike does. You can find large-capacity scooters these days, too (and you could probably reach Gibraltar in 2 days with one, if you like!)

Actually I recently made a web-site about the trips&scooters (well, sort of - it´s my 1st ever, will probably make any proper web-designer laugh, and it was only a school exercise, which I´d like to finish some day, but not sure if I find the time!)... well, anyway, it is at:

Chicken Chasers

[henryuk]

Matt - sorry to hear about your hip but don't depair - scooters are still great fun!

My first bike was a 750 but I still didn't learn to ride hard on tarmac until I worked for Pizza Hut and got a 50cc company moped. Probably the most fun I've had on two wheels but severely limited by a top speed of 30. I'm planning a big off road trip on some old 125 scooters soon and am sure it will be fine.

As far as I can tell there is not a huge amount of information about travelling on scooters but the new generation of Burgmans etc shouldn't have any trouble at motorway speed, with arguably a much more comfortable position than a 'proper' motorbike and better wind protection.

You going to Ripley this year? I hope to have an 'overlanding scooter'.

[Matt Cartney]

Thanks for the replies guys.

I think I'd like to stick to 125 max. As far as I can see, the whole point of a scooter is light, underpowered fun. The bigger a scooter the more it is going to feel like grandad's motorbike, rather than the thing Mario takes girls to the beach on. I did think about going 50cc, but that seems to be a bit too hardcore for me! I'd like to be able to overtake tractors.

I like your scooter gang Pecha! Nice website too!

Where are you off to on Scooters Henry? Sounds intrigueging.

Probably not going to Ripley (although I might if I have bought myself a scooter!). Would be interested to see an overlanding scooter! Post some pics if you have them!

I was thinking a smallish peli-case topbox and a dry bag. If I was going to be really fancy I'd get some of those Australian throw-overs the name of which escapes me for the moment. Having said that, fast and light is probably the way to travel.

It would be fun to rig up a scooter with lots of BMW1200gs/helicopter gunship accesories. Loads of cnc'd aluminium and alloy boxes and carbon fibre GPS mounts. An expensive gag though...

[henryuk]

We are off to the Sahara Matt, Morocco, Mauritania, Mali and Senegal. Start in Sheffield (obviously) but then to Budapest where the start of the Great African run is. We will be doing the return trip on our own but I wanted to see if I could compete against a few GSAs and KTMs on a 125.

I will post some pics as soon as I have the bikes - so far we have just got the support vehicle (325 quid off e-bay!) which we are going to refit as an ambulance and donate to a hospital in either Bamako or Bissau.

I asked Touratech and they're not up for developing a range of overlanding scooter accessories. Rather than using CNC machined alloy we have a load of old pizza trays to fabricate bash plates/brake reservoir guards etc out of. They're some kind of alloy and the ones for the 'thin-base' are full of small holes already. It's like they designed them for the job! One good thing about old pizza bikes is they have a MASSIVE (but admittedly rather weak) 'top-box'.....

[Matt Cartney]

Sounds fantastic Henry! Nice idea on the support vehicle too! Have you got a Pizza company to sponsor you?

I tell you, this whole having a normal job thing sucks. I've basically allocated all my leave for this year to a) a honeymoon (aye, gettin married!) and b) a week camping in the western isles with the (by then) wife. Very nice holidays and all that but not much left for adventures! I have just a week of leave left, which I'm going to use for something semi-adventurous. Top of the list at the mo' is a scooter trip to Colditz. Would really like to go on up to Tallin, but it would be a bit of a push to get there and back in a week!

Matt

[henryuk]

Congratulations on the engagement!!

We are in discussion with one of the major Pizza companies but I'd better not name any names until we have the bikes in the bag. If they don't come through we will have to get some secondhand ones but they come up for sale fairly regularly as Cat C stolen/recovered write offs. So far we have only one equipment sponsor - Yorkshire Tea are giving us the brews. After all a cuppa is the number one requirement when things are going tits up.

[henryuk]

P.S. the 'other' company use 50cc peds which won't be able to get up a dune, let alone show a larger bike a clean pair of knobblies. I used to work for them and managed to write off several in Sheffield due to potholes/ice etc so I don't think they would survive the trip to Budapest let alone anything harder.....

[Matt Cartney]

Aargh! Just been looking at a map of Europe. If only I had two weeks, instead of one! The potential is enormous!

[Matt Cartney]

Cool! At least you've got the tea sorted!

Good luck with it. Have you got a blog/website set up?

[henryuk]

Bamako or Bust - Home

The site is using 'InstantSite' from 123-reg. Which is more like 'InstantShite' - I will be moving it over to another platform soon but you get the idea....

[henryuk]

We are also on Twitter (groan) @HalfBakedPizza

[Matt Cartney]

Cool. Notice you are looking for kit. I have a slightly scruffy dirt bike helmet, which I think is 59cm. Its black and in reasonable condition. You can have it if you want. I also have a Coleman Sportster Stove that runs on unleaded. Could possibly do with a service but it seems to work fine. I have upgraded to the slightly smaller, lighter version, so you can have that if it will help with brew ups!

Will have a look and see if I have any other spare kit which might be of use.

Matt

[henryuk]

Fantastic! I have a 5 year old Arai Tour X that's only been down the road a few times - I'll be using that but team members 2 and 3 are looking to source some off-road helmets - I will go and measure their heads!

The stove would be a great help!