2-Wheeled Allies

I don't understand the hate between bicyclists and scooterists and motorcyclists. Motorcyclists, some of them, will allow Scooterists but many are contemptuous of their slower brethren. And bicyclists are really snobby towards scooterists, which seems to be jealousy over the fact the scooterist can wear more normal clothes and not breathe hard despite going faster than the bicyclist and making a little noise. All of them are using far less gasoline than a car does, in far greener vehicles than a Prius. So why the hate?

 

If you are on two wheels, you are brothers. Deal with it. You are each hard to see by distracted motorists, and each have issues with motorists not sharing the road, and with other bikers/cyclists behaving badly and smearing all the well-behaved ones like you.

 

Just because slot riding (lane splitting) is legal doesn't mean you should do it. It startles drivers and causes accidents, ones where the cyclist gets hurt most of the time.

 

Finally, just because cycling is easy on the flatland doesn't mean you have the right to be disrespectful to those, like me, living in seriously steep terrain where pedaling a bike is for masochists and the suicidal. There are 500 foot hills all over these two towns. Picture climbing three of those on a single ride, then try to work at a job afterwards. Realistically, a scooter or small displacement motorcycle is a better idea and far safer on twisty mountain roads with blind turns.

 

Finally, I can totally see the value in bubble cars, motorcycles with a sidecar, and even the new Elio Motors trailing delta Trike. That has a future here, I am sure. I would like to see it with a taller stance, however, since the roads tend to be humped in the middle and might scrape the bottom of the car driving over them. Small wheel scooters, likewise, are a bad idea here since potholes are 3 inches deep and would throw a scooter into an uncontrolled wreck hitting one with those tiny 10 inch wheels. Since the wheel hub is only 5 inches off the pavement, a 3 inch deep pothole gets that hub town to 2 inches off the road surface when the 1.4 inch suspension is completely compressed under the bike weight just when it needs to compress upward 3 inches. That vector translates to flipping the bike over the front wheel at anything close to 30 mph or more. Or bending the front fork, something I have seen online. A bad deal. Thus the importance of good street repair and paying attention when your ride. And having at least 3 inches of suspension travel to spare. This is why so many local motorcyclists are on Enduro bikes. Those go to 11. Inches, I mean.

I suppose one of these MP3 Piaggio bikes would work, but they cost as much as the Elio motors car, so why bother?