I've only once ridden a scooter, and I was in fear of my life! How the hell do you corner on those things?
When you say Scooter, what do you mean ?? people will try and tell you 10" wheels are inherently unstable, I can assure you that's bollox.
My ill fated 400cc twist and go commuter scooter was good for almost 100MPH and felt solid as a rock, many a tunned Vespa or Lambretta will top 90MPH easily, more exotic stuff will get into 3 figures.
Mine is an old Lambretta Series 2 and has quite wide floor boards so ground clearance isnt great, the centre stand feet grind down first but I have it geared down a bit so it will fully rev out in top at a bit over 70MPH. It's got decent modern tyres on it and corners at speed with no drama, the people I ride with don't do mirrors and lights and all run tuned engines of some sort.
Disc brake and suspension upgrades become a necessity when you push the power, I'm making do with very well maintained and setup drums and sticky tyres ATM but a front disc is next, all the electrics, ignition, exhaust, manifolds, carb, main bearings, crank, cylinder, piston and a heap of together stuff is uprated. It spends more time on the lift in my garage in bits than it does being ridden !
Since the late 80s when someone came up with the idea and tried to sell some (they are still going as a business) a fairly common modification is to for an RD350YPVS engine into a Lambretta. Done well you can get the panels on and hide the radiator leaving only the twin exhaust as an obvious give away, properly setup with a steering damper 120MPH is possible ...if you have the nerve.
On the continent (Germany mostly) they prefer their Vespas, I read an article on a demonstrator from a custom tuning shop that was making 50BHP by grafting a motocross barrell onto a much modified Vespa bottom end, estimated top end 125MPH and that was detuned for road use FFS.
I still like big bikes but R1s etc have no character just huge performance which is far beyond what almost all riders could use and just the same as the next one. Little beats the feeling of pulling up next to a car at the lights on my very ..not shiny old lambretta and pulling away in a cloud of 2 stroke smoke and a waling exhaust and deafening carb induction noise with the front wheel just lifting before kicking it up a gear.
Is it reliable....err no...has it got great brakes....err no....is cornering it at 60 a heart stopping experience ....yep ....flat out could it let go or a major part fall off....yes :D
I'm done with commuting on 2 wheels for now and I'm not sure my left leg is up to a foot gear change or supporting a big bike and having just got back on 2 wheels I building back up slowly, a weekend spin in the sunshine is good enough for me at the mo
FTR it's currently on the lift in the garage whilst I have to totally refit the new exhaust after the manifold came loose caused it to run lean and almost cease at about 65 !...more unrated parts ordered to prevent a repeat of the failure but half the thing has to come to bits to get at it due to nothing involved being as the factory intended
