Scooter or motorcycle?

By James R. Healey, USA TODAY

The dividing line between motor scooters and motorcycles is a "debate that's been going on for years," reports Casey Earls of San Francisco, co-founder and managing editor of Scoot! Quarterly, a 4-year-old magazine for scooter enthusiasts.

The feature that she and other scooter buffs agree on: Scooters have a "step-through" design that lets the rider sit with legs together. Motorcycles require the rider to swing a leg over a center portion.

Times past, scooters also were characterized by tiny engines and by obviously different styling. These days, some scooters are nearly indistinguishable from motorcycles, and scooter engines are getting bigger.

Regulations vary by state, but mainly, scooters with engines smaller than 50 cubic centimeters displacement, or rated less than either 2 horsepower or 5 horsepower, and which go no faster than 30 or 40 miles an hour, are considered mopeds, or motorized bicycles. They are loosely regulated, if at all.

Scooters with larger engines, often capable of 70 mph, typically are considered motorcycles and require special motorcycle-operator's licenses, a full array of lights and turn signals, and helmets for riders.

There's a loophole.

The small-engine, low-powered scooters can be hopped up.

"With a programmable cartridge, much like a Game Boy cartridge, a dealer can reprogram it from 2 (horsepower) to 5 hp or 7 hp if the customer wants — and the state allows it," says Tom McDonald, head of Aprilia's North American sales.

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