I was rolling through a parking lot last evening after loading up my jug with peach flavored green tea when a skater dude commented, "Nice moped!" I smiled and kept on going but what I really wanted to do was correct the misguided fool who would be sufficiently ignorant not to know the difference between a scooter and a moped. His timing was somewhat ironic because earlier when I was cruising along Wyoming Avenue, a long stretch that links various small communities on the other side of the Susquehanna River, and wondering as I was getting the wave from the many bikers who were out enjoying the balmy evening, if the average bear on the street knew the difference between a motorcycle and a scooter. Apparently, he does, except he thinks that a scooter is a bloody, little moped!
Do a Google image search on "moped" and see how many pictures of scooters you get. Worse yet, the description of "moped scooter" listed below some of the images would further confuse the poor slob to whom the distinction isn't critical as it is to us, the scooter riding public.
Even news professionals, most likely akin to the same individuals who misspell "accordion" at every turn, don't always bother to educate themselves as to the proper categorization of two wheeled vehicles as evidenced by this report from the Dallas / Fort Worth Pegasus News. (You can click for a more legible view.)
God bless Clay who took the time to post this comment on the article.
Worse than that? Perhaps dealers who don't even make the distinction when they're hawking their wares.
Check this one out from some dinky dot com. "Motorcycle Moped" even! Sheesh!
We're fighting an uphill battle, fellow scooterists. If I had money to burn I'd start a billboard campaign to teach the teeming masses the important distinction between scooters and mopeds. We could even include motorcycles for good measure. Let's see... Harry Truman on a heavyweight Harley cruiser with "Motorcycle" written below, George W. poised on a big Silverwing with "Scooter" underneath, and Obama on a Schwinn with a lawnmower engine labeled "Moped" should do it!
If you haven't dropped by to wish Jim at Premeditated Scooting well after his recent scooter accident, take a minute to hop over and cheer him up!
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