WORDS:
ROGER MORONEY
30KM/H, NO HELMET…
E-SCOOTERS ARE THE WILD WEST
OF PERSONAL TRANSPORT
TRANSPORT FOR THE MASSES?
have enjoyed encountering things on
two wheels (except for the traffic cop
that time back in ‘82) and through some
48 years since I first set sail on one I have
ridden a few.
A few hundred.
Decked a few as well… and when you deck a
bike belonging to someone else it’s all a tad
uneasy.
But hey, after a few beers and few apologies
she’s right. The most embarrassing moment
i had was on one of those little miniature
race bikes… about the size of a large loaf of
bread. One of the local dealers had one so
it was well used… up and down the footpath
outside.
It had a few bumps and scratches and I
added my marks to it after attempting to
do a U-turn at too much pace. Given the
wheelbase was shorter than the length of
my arm it wasn’t a fine handler and down we
went.
I ended up with a terrific spot of skin
tearing on my arse. It burned away at me for
days and the lads would not let me forget it.
Ahh, fun and games.
So yeah, I like two wheels a lot.
I’ve followed the evolution of them through
the decades with intrigue and followed the
racing exploits of a lot of fine and daring
riders… and met quite a few of them. Even
shared a race track with a couple on track
testing occasions and put it this way, if you
thought you were pretty flashed up in the
art of late braking then you soon got the
wake-up call.
There’s something about the power of finely
crafted motorcycles. The power and the
pace, and the sound. Ditto for cars, and ain’t
it fascinating that all the fast ones end with
an ‘i’.
Ferrari, Maserati, Lamborghini.
The mere name itself leaves you breathless
with automotive lust. Which is why I am
very uneasy about the development of
this electricity component. No issues with
batteries though. Need them.
But I just get uneasy about using about a
dozen or so of them to propel anything with
two wheels.
I am equally uneasy about the latest
addition to the landscape of two wheels.
The scooter… the e-scooter or whatever title
they have in the wake of having little electric
drive systems bolted aboard them.