TheScooterScoop

Ed kicked up a nice little scooter piece for the Kansas City Star. Worth the read. Here’s a sampler:

The love affair with motor scooters runs beyond gas mileage.
By EDWARD M. EVELD
The Kansas City Star

It could be a critical moment for motor scooters.

No doubt we’re buying the heck out of scooters compared with just a few years ago. Colorful and shiny Vespas and Kymcos buzz our boulevards.

So are we on our way to a new motoring look, all European and Asian?

Future gas prices could hold the answer. Or other less tangible issues might. Take the cool factor, for one.

Twenty-year-old Brenna Spurgeon zips to work on her black Vespa, never quite sure if the scene she’s creating is hip or dorky. Not that she cares. But people do smile. Are they laughing?

On a scooter, are you stylishly elegant or a goof who can’t afford regular transportation, like Terry the Toad from “American Graffiti”?

We talked to scooter buyers to see what they were thinking. As we suspected, motor vehicle purchases have to do with a lot of other stuff besides miles-per-gallon — style, psychology, personal history. Here are snippets from those conversations:

Click on the title link to see those snippets.