British Attitude to Scooters

[Bluebottle]

Dancing, dancing, dance the Trolls away
To the Leo Sayer tune

[Liam]

Stop this and try and be serious!!

Re my concept of ingrained brainwashing and tribes, see above post for evidence...

i don't understand your concept of brainwashing. Who by?
In my youth, I hardly ever saw a scooter in my area, except in scrapyards. There must have been some about but I only used my Lambretta for going to school and the odd local trip.
i did see plenty of motorbikes and I read motorcycle news, motor cycle mechanics and the rest.
The only people who tried to brainwash me were the motorcycle press, who reported on how great the FS1E, RD350 etc were to ride.
i ignored them , continued to buy and run cheap Lambrettas and then bought my first Vespa in the mid 70's.
I will admit that I have been influenced by the anti scooter feelings I have met. Both in the press and on the road. But I feel it's more me being reactionary and defensive against 'brainwashing'

I do see your point about tribes. But the world has always been tribalist. In times of war,, or donning your club colours at football,, and when I started doing scooter rallies from about 1976, wearing a parka.

Even your country men gn2!
The Scots (also the Irish) have been the biggest exponents of tribalism.

But I wouldn't go as far as wearing a skirt to show my loyalty

[SpikeOne]

I always refer to it as "the bike" and leave it at that.
If I do get involved in a conversation about it with anyone, they usually ask me how big the engine is and when I tell then that it's 300, they almost always say "Wow!". After which I have to point out that it's a maxiscooter which will return a blank look. Then I have to explain that it's not really a scooter in the conventional sense and it has a small engine for the style, pointing out that they can go up to best part of a litre. This baffles them completely and usually by now I've given up.
It doesn't normally bother me - the only time I can be infuriated is when someone calls my bike a "ped", which is a phrase I hate anyway, because it's a stupid word that only saves two letters and born out of thick teenage kids.

[Earl]

I'm confused (which doesn't take much) what are myself, ZZG, and Wolf then? I come from a scootering background ie Lammy's and Vespas, I had one of the first italjet Dragsters on the rallys and was an original member of the 'Darkside' when there was only about 12 members up and down the country. I've always loved bikes especially the street fighter style but have never been able to get my head/foot/hand round the gears even in a car I can't do gears, don't ask me why. Back to topic the only bikers that discriminate against scooters are your power rangers who I personally don't regard as bikers, I went to 'Rat & Survival' rallies on my Dragster and 'Chopper Club' rallys on my nexus and no one batted an eyelid or took the piss, infact they were all intreagued with the dragster because of the single sided swingarm on the front. The general feeling I've experienced is 'You're on 2 wheels who gives a shit what it's classed as' Sorry probably gone way off topic here but I'm posting anyway lol

[Earl]

See now I have a pre-concieved vision of what gn2 looks like. But I'm sure it's way off, I don't think he has purple hair at all.

[ridinhigh]

What the hell are Power Rangers?

[Lou]

What the hells PTW?

[Bluebottle]

I think most people are reasonable but there is a minority with a negative prejudice toward scooters in this country and it splits neatly in two:

One stems from not knowing that scooters can be capable and powewrful, they may change their minds

The other group will not change their minds and will come out with garbage like
"scooters are for gays"
"...idiots who don't know what they are talking about"
No different to "Electric scooters are for sandal wearing lentil munching treehuggers"

Which means "please. please take my side and prove me right. I can't reason it out but you don't want people thinking your a poof/idiot/treehugger do you? "
It is looking for validation

[gn2]

Powered Two Wheeler

[Deeping]

power rangers, some also have a go faster rucksack

power rangers.jpg