Bloody hell , I sure started something with my first post !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sorry fella, caught me on a bad day

In officialdom "Scooter" is a "body type".
This is an accepted classification of visual appearance, It has no legislative, taxation or licencing significance or entitlement.
If your V5 is more than a few months old it will be shown in the body type box or body type/vehicle description. It is being phased out so if your vehcle is on the new P categories it will be motorcycle on your V5.
Body types aren't random words, they are very specific.

There are numerous international agreements and documents about this, they aren't universal and they have changed over time, ISO 3833 is probably the best known international vehicle classification standard. If you ever registered or imported a vehicle in the UK you might have the old version V355/1-5 (instructions for completing V55) lying around which has the body types on it and points you at the available definition. It won't show up on google now because the new P codes have come in. The DVLA staff (or DOT etc depending on how far we go back) and manufacturers also needed to know when to use "scooter" so documents were issued to them at various times defining body types, shouldn't be hard to find one.

Then there are alpha numeric codes for the body type used by various allied countries and manufacturers, designating "scooter" as a body type and accepted wording for homologation agreements etc.

All these things vary in detail but the one constant is that the scooter body type does not have a direct structural link between the seat base and headstock ie it has a "step-through", even if you can't actually use it to step through (underbone isn't recognised as a bodytype). Some mention engine and transmission or foot supports, some don't but they all mention the frame layout.

What about the exceptions?
Not my job to worry about them any more so I don't care - I said there was an official definition, I didn't say it was right or that I agreed with it......... However:

The word "headstock" isn't being used in the generic way that google throws up first, I'm pretty sure Irev knows that already and was just being playful.
Body type is a visual category so how direct is direct? What about non-standard body forms?
What about them - it isn't black and white and somewhere one type has to take over from another and it isn't going to be clear cut every time.
Its a bit like saying somebody is a man or a woman, some people aren't either, or they are both. It works as a general rule but not every single time.

"Scooter" was used as a body type for historic reasons and it is sometimes anachronistic, it is also subject to change or abandonment, just as the "jeep" body style got dropped when copyright issues popped up.

"non-standard body forms"....?

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I daren't look

Non-standard body forms can use a catch-all classification of "experimental".
Often prototypes, which is what got me involved to start with (I didn't learn about Carver etc through Irev despite his claim, I work all around the world)
For a tandem two wheeler, motorcycle/moped covers most contraptions.

Irev must be a slow reader, I'll go back to the other questions.

Yes Simon our paths have crossed a few times but I was design team, you were promotions.
You've also written about designs I worked on and once explained one of my own designs to me which was quite funny.
If I'd needed a spill kit recently, you would have been the first guy I'd come to.

MJW, sorry you got caught up in that nonsense.

I promised you an answer.
An industry or official term doesn't always corespond with a word in day to day conversation .
Plus a classification isn't the same as "being " something
So the industry/official terms might be less use than you'd hoped

What your manufacturer thinks it is might be more useful
Look at your frame number, digits 4 to 9 are vehicle descriptor codes, yours is a Yamaha so there will be an S for Scooter as the 5th number (I think, its been a while), Honda will be an F . On a Suzuki there will be a C as the fourth digit if it is a scooter etc etc.

As far as the official/industry body type codes go:

Your documents might show your bike as:
colour = black
That means the colour is black, but you wouldn't say "this is my black"
The paint might be black with flecks of another colour and some other bits won't be black at all.
There is a definition for black but it is being appled as a generalisation
Black is a quick sum up of how it looks, black(ish)

Body type = Scooter is the same
Going back to Irevs comments about testing/licencing: asking for a seperate test for "scooter" is the same as asking for a sepeate test for "black". It doesn't make sense to somebody in the bike industry or officialdome.
It would sound perfectly reasonable in the bike marketing industry because they only need day-to-day language.


With your pics - You don't need to break the bike down to the frame to apply the definition and you would go for the most useful, or fall back to "motorcyle" because as GN2 reminded us - scooter is a sub-category of motorcycle

There is another complication because manufacturers might use the same frame on 2 vehicles and one is more scooter-like than the other. When they go through all the regulations and testing it is easier for them to group them together and call them both scooters even though they are visually different. It keeps their VDS codes tidy etc but that is getting into detail I don't think anybody is interested in.

What you decide is a scooter is up to you, I tend to do it the industry way because I'm used to it