Originally Posted By: kb01
Does anyone know much about or have any experience with the 49 cc scooters? My wife has a very short commute and talked about buying a scooter for the 2 mile trip. I'm not terribly comfortable with the idea of her driving an underpowered motorcycle but am at least considering the notion.
How safe would a Honda or Yamaha (or any non-Chinese junk brand) be compared to just riding a bicycle? Could they take a 150 lbs woman up hill at any kind of a reasonable speed?
I don't know where you live but I had just read an article about an electric scooter.
What was interesting about it is that is not considered as a motocycle but as a bike (at least in Canada, and good luck explaining the difference to the police as it was written in the arcticle). Therefore, you are allowed in bicycle trails with it as you are part of the family (In Montreal, we have more and more specific bicycle trails in town, separated from the cars).
Depending on your location, it could be interesting as your wife will be separated from the cars but still able to ride to work without effort.
The bike in question was the
GIO 500W E-Scooter, a chinese brand (sorry), but the price is only $600CAD (+ shipping). Speed limited to 32KPH due to be in the bicycle category and range of 60kms fully charged.
They are probably better offers if you look on the web.