-nicker-

RE:
“…electric starters are just a passing fad just like overhead valve engines…”

Ya, like who needs OHV when ya got a Blower………..

-nicker-

These pedals are very cool…i like the ole bicycle pedal myself!

RE:
“… Don’t need …”
“… but no need …”

Kinda makes ya wonder if this isn’t the symptom of a much larger problem that’s been developing all along.

Why are insurance rates skyrocketing?
Why is onerous legislation increasing?
Why is community animosity increasing?

How about this:
We’ve simply made it way too easy to hop on a scooter and ride away.

There was a time when starting your scoot was sort-a like a mini ritual.
And we each had our own strategy (style, if you like).
Executed with poise and precision, as though for an olympic judge awarding points,
the exercise was undertaken like a virtuoso performance.
Properly executed it was a thing of beauty and grace, it exuding techno-sophistication.
Moreover, once successfully completed it obviating any need for further macho bravado.

Ah sweet dejavu.
Due to it’s very upright position, the starting-ritual for my candy tangerine chop,
required standing on the same side as the kick-starter, turning the motor with the outside leg, while
swinging the inside leg way back, then down. The maneuver resembling an elaborate figure skating jump.
Damn! if that scooter didn’t have flat cams i’d go out to the shop and fire it right now!
But i digress….

Fast forward to the ubiquitous electric started era.
That “Nya-ya-ya-ya” sound ya get while cranking a poorly tuned motor translates into enough “kicking”
to make the most athletic scooter jock suck wind (or give us older guys cardiac arrest).

So i’m think-n, maybe if operating a scooter was more difficult, like for instance ya had to kick
the damned thing to life before any of the loud-pipe-revving, smokey burnouts, and wheelies could
begin, maybe people would have time to think before they jumped into “stupidity mode.”

And maybe just be satisfied with their own starting ritual.

As always, IMHO ….

-nicker-