Modern Vespa

Oh cmon! live a little. A onesie makes for great sleepwear and if you have to use the facilities you've got a built in door.

Fine, I wouldn't wear one either but I do think they look cute on a woman. I had an ex that used to wear them on occasion when's she slept over. She also went to private girls school and still fit in the uniform. TMI??? :-\

As far as electric bikes... While I do not put them in the same category as those annoying e-bikes I'm not really a fan. If I'm going to exercise I have a tread climber at home and if I am going to commute I use one of my scooters or the motorcycle. I guess the advantages of an e-bike is you can park pretty much anywhere, use the bike lanes and go on roads restricted to metro vehicle traffic. The downside is they are expensive so you can't just park them on the street. Sure you can but I wouldn't risk it.

Pedal

Sure, as long as your able. For me assistance is the only way. The joy of riding with my 30-40 something young friends rather than watching from the sidelines.

As to trying or not, I suspect many an "adult" will i their lifetime convince ourselves we know, when it just might be more ego driven than knowledge. Maybe.

You folks who are presenting good reasons for an e-bike are just a bunch of cheaters. Go ahead and get your exercise while those who don't ride one make judgements. I'm going to put on my onesie and go for a ride.

Not so different from those who don't ride a scooter making a judgement about... riding a scooter. But really, who cares?

I think a bicycle by it's very design us supposed to be powered by you.

Call me a purist.

Bill x

OK, we hear you. Enough.

I totally agree.

I have always cycled but over the years have had two back operations which have finally caught up with me.

I bought a new Trek 7.4 FX in 2015 and since then have put a paltry 240 miles on it. The reason for this is purely that I am unable to put enough power into my legs to travel on anything other than flat ground.

A friend bought a Dutch E bike in 2017 and suggested that I tried it out but I told him that there was no way I would ride an E bike. A year later I did have a go on it and immediately bought a Focus Aventura Pro 2 in May 2018. Mine is limited in support to 15mph under UK law and is pedal assisted only.

Since then I have ridden 2500 miles on it and my usual trip distance is anywhere between 25-45 miles.

To this day my friend regularly reminds me of my reluctance in trying an E bike and to be fair we always end up chuckling on how obstinate and stubborn I can be usually to my own detriment.

E bikes, in my opinion, are absolutely fantastic if you have any kind of disability or frailty. Having said that my two stepsons, both ardent and highly competent mountain bikers have recently invested in E bikes.

My local bike shop has advised me that E bike sales are now matching traditional bike sales and may soon be outselling the latter.

Whatever suits you is the answer but I wish I had taken up my friend's offer to try his out a year earlier than I did.

somerset

that's pretty cool...especially since they can be folded and tossed in the trunk of a car...i wouldn't mind taking one of those for a rip...i wonder if they would have to be registered here as a moped...if not seems like a great option for around town...how long will they go for at 20mph before you have to start pedaling again?

OK, you're a purist.

Those of us with health issues see e-bikes as a practical means of resuming riding bicycles. Exertion is good only up to a point, after which the EMT's will need to step in. I work out regularly, including walking on a treadmill, and it is quite obvious that pushing beyond a certain point is a very bad idea.

If I was a young healthy man I wouldn't bother with a battery and motor. But, being old and infirm, the choice is, use a battery assist, or don't ride a bicycle. Up 'til now, I've been doing the latter.

I also have concerns about parking it on the street, and will be looking for tamperproof battery locks, and a heavy-duty bike lock. Mostly I envision trucking it to a trailhead, unloading and riding, and trucking it home, or doing short errands in the local neighborhood. There are some excellent rural trails here as well, and I look forward to exploring them.

youtu.be/-rAp15If1Uk

I will respectfully respect the Moderators request so I'll can no longer comment.

Sorry.

Bill x

Opinions aside, and let's leave them for now, but as electrically assisted bikes are close to the original topic and have been discussed often here too, this may interest many: facts make them highly recommendable for anyone to try out.

The same British study from which I borrowed the vid above, made by the University of Bristol recently, collected data from 17 other studies made all over the world. Based on this, they found reasonable evidence on the positive health impact of e-bikes. Interestingly, it seems that riding an e-bike is even better for health than walking.

In Finland another factor have been brought up: if one can replace any car trips by an e-bike, be it commuting or whatever, the CO2 impact is simply huge. Also compared to a fully electric car. Numbers depend of course on the energy sources used for electricity and vehicle production, but e.g. in Finland an e-bike is at minimum about 75 times (!) better in CO2 emissions compared to an electric car. Our energy generation, in the order of magnitude (2018) here is a mix of nuclear power, waste incineration and biomass, hydro, fossile fuels and wind.

"Scooter" by its very design was used at least 50 years before Vespa made their first scooter... and was human powered. (More currently known as a kick scooter since there are powered scooters, internal combustion engine and electric.) I only mention this to make the point that: each of these conveyances (scooter, kick scooter, mobility scooter, medical scooter [for those with an issue below the knee], bike, bicycle, e-bike, electric motorcycle, etc) has a legit use. None would be "cheating" in any sense of the word.

I try not to get hung up on an opinion that differs from mine, and often learn something during an intelligent conversation. As we come up on the American holiday of Thanksgiving tomorrow, I have much to be thankful for... this forum, for example. I live in a part of the country where scooters are a bit of a rarity and Vespas even more so. I appreciate the fine folks on this forum, the info exchanged here, the appreciation for Vespa/Piaggio (even those who ride a different brand), and the bit of international feel here.

I did ride my e-bike today (good exercise) and got a short outing on the Vespa. The "onesie" comment was a joke... nobody wants to see that.

I am enjoying the discussion of electric scooters and motorcycles (and bicycles) here.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Hi Jim - the battery in the e-bikes we have lock in place. Easy to remove with a key, but I would imagine near impossible to get it off without ruining it without the key. You mentioned your height and weight - this particular model has a weight capacity of 280 pounds, with an adjustable seat height of way more than my legs could reach. Other than my twice-daily exercise with the bike, we use it the way you envision: taking with us when traveling to use on some great bike paths and trails. We each carry a cable and padlock for the occasion we go into a store or restaurant. At this point, we only remove the battery when putting the bikes into the SUV, onto a bike rack, or to charge them; each battery weighs about 8 pounds and has a handle on it, making it easy to carry. With the seat, rear rack, and battery on it, the weight is about 55 pounds, so these aren't a lightweight.

Regarding the fat tires: if you are only using a bike on pavement, they just make for more rolling resistance. But, on a trail where you might come across sand, gravel, or loose dirt, they really add stability and grip. A more typical mountain bike tire would be great, too.

There are a lot more options now for e-bikes than when we bought ours. Last time I was in a bike shop, to get a replacement brake lever (unintended get off), the guy in service said there was definitely more interest and sales of electric bikes compared to what he called "acoustic bikes" (using the electric and acoustic guitar analogy).

I like that description.

All this discussion of e-bikes, e-scooter, electric two-wheelers, etc reminded me of my foray into scooters. I've been riding M/C since I was 16 but stopped when I was about 24/25. Then I got back into riding powered two-wheelers about 10 years later. It started with an electric scooter called eGo. I used it for my 10-mile roundtrip commute. I loved it but it had lots of problems with the motor and batteries. I finally sold it back to the shop that sold it to me. After that, I moved into ICE scooters starting with a Honda Metropolitan 50cc and have had several ICE bikes since then. But the eGo was the gateway drug for me. I'm guessing the quality is better now.

Best
Miguel

In 1997, I bought my first e-scooter...



It was made by Mase, an Italian manufacturer of marine generators. It had a short sales lifetime in North America, promoted to the yacht and RV crowd. It would fold up (the length of the scooter, only the seat and handlebars folded down), weighed about 100 pounds. It had an 8 mile range and a top speed of 8 mph. Not cheap, and at the time, there wasn't anything else like it. 8 mph on that felt like you were moving right along.

I used it for several years; it was not happy in a marine environment. Ate 12v electric wheelchair batteries. Hard to even find any information about them these days - obviously not a sales success. I guess it was technically my "first scooter" (though absolutely not street legal); we were riding full dress Harleys or Goldwings during those years.

The technology had to start somewhere. A blast from the past.

I chose to go with this instead of buying another bike.
The geo orbital wheel. Battery pack and motor is all within the wheel. Nothing else to do but clamp the throttle with controller to the handlebars. Just named by Time magazine as one of the 100 best inventions of 2019. I've been looking for one for about a year. Converts any bicycle into an e bike in one minute by simply swapping this with your front wheel. Top speed is 20 MPH, and it's range is 12 miles, but will take you further if you pedal assist.

In Italy:

This list is a selection of scooters of the main brands:

https://www.vaielettrico.it/moto-e-scooter-elettrici-il-listino-facile/

The price is net of registration costs (ex dealer). Models marked with an asterisk are at ex-factory price or ex-distributor, those with two asterisks are key in hand. I remember that in Italy the ecobonus is in force for the purchase of scooters and electric motorcycles. The discount reaches 30% of the list price (with a ceiling of 3 thousand euros). But there is only in case of scrapping of a motorcycle, a scooter or a moped. Initially the bonuses were provided exclusively for vehicles with power up to 11kW, with the obligation to scrap only vehicles up to 2 Euro to get the benefits. With the changes introduced under the Growth Decree, the possibility of obtaining incentives also on motorcycles greater than 11 kW of power was extended; the obligation to scrap a vehicle of the same category as the one purchased disappears, as well as scrapping motorcycles belonging to the Euro 3 class - provided they have been in possession for at least one year; not only two wheels, but also microcars and three wheels will be affected, provided they weigh less than, respectively, 350 and 400 kg, without battery. Finally, it is possible to obtain the ecobonus by scrapping a vehicle in the possession of a cohabiting family member.

Not to belabor the point, but the e-bike saved me from getting bit this morning...

https://captnjim.blogspot.com/2019/11/another-good-reason.html

Good story and wow what a bad dog owner.

Quite a story, good that the dog missed you!

I've been once in a similar situation with a motorcycle. That time there was no dog owner visible, just a loose dog standing at the end of a driveway to a house. I rode past, even slowed down a bit not to scare the dog. Darn if it didn't just jump towards me when I was coming closer to the spot!

I also lifted my leg, but was a bit slow. It bit me first, then I shook my boot. Luckily I had long riding boots on. The fangs punched visible dents to the leather, some almost went through. But no signs in my leg, not even a bruise. While shaking my feet, I also twisted the throttle like a maniac and got away.

The dog looked okey, but didn't even try to chase me, I'll guess it was just guarding his (hers?) home turf. Not that I liked to get bitten, but it is a bit risky too to jump towards a moving motorcycle...

Changing speed works well, squirting with your water bottle is the best technique (the look on the dogs face after a perfect shot is priceless). But perhaps stopping to chat with the lady trying to keep her robe on would have been the best thing to do in this case.

A new winter bike should be here this month for ice fishing adventures and review.
Commuter version specs. An amazing set of components!

https://wattwagons.com/products/ultimate_commuter_pro

Perhaps at the other end of quality specs (?) :

A nod towards the classic Honda CT70... Skyteam's Elmax

I've always been a fan of the original CT70, but now I'm speechles.

that's cool...i have always wanted a ct70 as well...

https://www.technologicvehicles.com/en/details/1072/skyteam-elmax-prix-et-fiche-technique#.Xep5IJNKiUk

Last week I had an American pit bull come flying at me while I was riding my electric unicycle. I was in the park and I'm normally fine with dogs but my guess was it must of been some high pitched noise generated by the motor that had set the animal off. I jumped off and hit the cut off switch and the dog immediately calmed down. The lady owner ran up at that point and was very apologetic ... then opened a gate to go into a no-dogs children's area! I quietly pointed out that the area wasn't for dogs but she assured me he was fine - so I let go off the cut off switch and off the dog went again. She led the dog out and didn't say anything more. It made me smile anyway. That's the only time I've had any reaction from dogs towards my electric unicycle.

PS I'm about 10 days into learning to ride the thing and feel stable(ish). I'm now going for fairly long rides on local roads, pavements and paths and exploring areas I haven't been to before. I'm not immune to falling but I tend to stay on board for most of my rides now. I'm quite enjoying learning something new.

new segway electric dirt bike...46mph (31mph) + 75mi (40mi) range for $5k ($3k) for the bigger one (smaller one)...but don't think they are street legal...and i assume they aren't able to ride on bicycle paths either so you pretty much have to ride where they allow dirt bikes...
https://ww.electrek.co/2019/11/05/segway-unveils-electric-dirt-bike-sur-ron/

... but they are consider hybrid scooters? Piaggio tried it with the MP3 Hybrid but I think the time was not ripe ...

From the Piaggio dealer in my area there is a brand new MP3 Hybrid (but old because never sold) ... nobody wants it.

i don't think you can plate one of these and there are no pedals so i'm not sure if they are street legal technically

Segway dirt bikes - they look like they could actually work... but the smaller model, with that price & features I might rather opt. a bicycle with an electric motor.

The larger model looks well like it could do everything my late VanVan did at the forest paths and then some more. But yeah, it would need those plates to first get to the forest, couldn't bother towing it there. Althought VanVan was a quiet bike, I often thought how cool it would be to ride in the woods with even a more quiet bike.....

But also with a cross or trial type electric motorcycle; I often think of a 50 cc scooter built by Aprilia in the 1990s: the Rally 50 LC which had a sports chassis and clawed wheels.
Here ... having an electric one would be a good idea to make an ecological road / off-road scooter, could anyone think of it? But no ... you see so many weird ideas, lack the courage to dare.

Regarding the electric single skates, a recent Italian law has regulated:
Micromobility: what the Highway Code says

the Italian Highway Code, issued in 1992 (hence 27 years ago), did not provide for them. However, in Article 190 there are provisions that regulate the behavior of pedestrians. Paragraph 8 states that circulation by means of boards, skids or gait accelerators is prohibited on the roadway. Also in paragraph 9 there is a reference to pace accelerators: it is forbidden to move with boards, skids or gait accelerators on areas reserved for pedestrians (sidewalks and pedestrian zones). As you can see, there is no precise reference to electric scooters (or hoverboards and the like) in the Highway Code, but, from what can also be seen from subsequent legislative provisions, electric scooters with a maximum speed of less than 6 km / h may be assimilated to gait accelerators. Therefore in fact it would be forbidden to use it on the roadway.
The testing of micro-mobility vehicles, which may start once the Municipalities have decided, will allow these vehicles not circulated in the Code and therefore so far prohibited to circulate in the city. It is established that electric scooters, hoverboards, segways and monowheels will be able to circulate in urban areas, subject to municipal deliberation, on pedestrian areas, pedestrian and cycle paths, cycle lanes on their own and on reserved lanes, areas at 30 km / h and roads with a limit of speed of 30 km / h. Experimentation must be requested by the individual cities.
All means allowed for experimentation

Only electric scooters are allowed to experiment; the segways, personal transport devices that take advantage of an innovative combination of IT, electronics and mechanics; monowheels, unicycles with a single wheel similar to the unicycle, in which the driver generally places his feet between the two wheels; and the hoverboards, two-wheel parallel vehicles that, through gyroscopic sensors and appropriate on-board electronics, are able to maintain a horizontal balance with people on board without the need for additional supports.
Vehicle lighting and engine power

These micro-mobility vehicles must be equipped with an audible warning device and an electric motor with a maximum rated power not exceeding 500watts. It is essential that the micro-vehicles are equipped with lighting: from half an hour after sunset, during the night and during the day, when the weather conditions require lighting, the vehicles lacking in white or yellow fixed light and rear red reflectors or fixed red light, they cannot be used but only carried or carried by hand. In other words, circulation in the dark and during the day in the event of poor visibility due to the lack of lights will be prohibited. Furthermore, if you are driving on the road or on a cycle path, there will be a requirement to have a high visibility vest or reflective evening and night straps for the segway and the electric scooter.
Electric scooters: new speed rules

Devices capable of developing speeds in excess of 20 km / h must be equipped with a speed regulator, while in order to be used in urban areas, they cannot exceed 6 km / h through the regulator. Furthermore, in the protected cycle paths, in the reserved lanes and in the zones 30 the transit is allowed only to scooters (in a range between 6 and 20 km per hour), but not to monowheel and hoverboard. All devices must be CE marked, in accordance with the European directive 2006/42 / EC
Who will be able to drive vehicles for micro-mobility

All electric micro-mobility vehicles can only be driven by drivers aged over 18, unless the minor is in possession of an AM license (the license required for the 50 cc scooter).

i just wonder how they ride..for something like this for me it would come down to the weight and how it's carried...i had a tw200 which is basically the same as a vanvan...it was fun but it didn't have a ton of punch...i would imagine these electric bikes have a little more i wanted to see that honda city adventure scooter concept as an electric version

That's right, this is one of the ways ...

https://youtu.be/k9nIUM2L-0M

A highly ambitious concept:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/billroberson/2019/07/29/tech-startup-damon-wants-to-bring-shape-shifting-and-crash-avoidance-to-motorcycles-which-need-it-asap/#1ec63fd37da1

Of course, when your target date is 10 years in the future, I guess you can afford to be.

It's good to have those with ambition too: one of my favourite stories is this Rimac.
It's a Croatian electric car component/partner company, based on one guy's very practical ambition to electric vehicles. Their own concept and race cars are "hypercars", not supercars and foor a good reason...

Nowadays includes Investors like Hyundai, Kia and Porche....

https://www.rimac-automobili.com/en/

Damon guys seem to have many interesting ideas, so who knows....

In addition to the safety features, the adjustable ergos sound good, if a bit complicated = expensive technologically. I could take even manually adjustable ones... still can't understand why adjustable foot pegs - seat-handle bars are so rare, although it would not be too difficult technically. Adjustable seats are common of course, but they just feel a bit stupid if you can't adjust the pegs at the same time....and handlebars, well, at least there is something to discuss whenever a new motorcycle model is introduced, typically "risers" is among the most common topics in many forums

The latest edition from Piaggio - the Ape E-City!

https://ww.electrek.co/2019/12/19/piaggio-ape-e-city-electric-tuk-tuk/

Oh, be still my heart!

No emissions standards to meet, wonder if they can be imported????
Would be like buying an electric bike

Doesn't look like a comfy seat.
https://www.cycleworld.com/cake-launches-new-osa-electric-model-at-eicma/