A Lot of Smiles Per Gallon
By STUART F. BROWN
( This Kawasaki is made for YOU Ted! It's even 2k cheaper than the scooter.)
THE friendly wave to an oncoming rider is a familiar tradition among motorcyclists, a subtle acknowledgement of shared membership in a brotherhood of free spirits.
Why, then, did it surprise me when I was offered this greeting perhaps half a dozen times — by owners of heavyweight touring rigs, no less — while on a recent ride along Hudson Valley roads?
Simple: I was riding a Vespa.
That’s right, a motor scooter, which used to be considered — let’s not mince words here — a sissy among two-wheelers, so far as real motorcyclists were concerned.
It’s my best guess that the newfound cordiality had something to do with the scooter’s good fuel economy, something everyone is thinking about these days.
It didn’t hurt that the Vespa GTS 250 has an attractive retro design, streamlined in that particularly Italian way, and was shiny black.
My test of this $5,999 Vespa was part of an effort to identify some two-wheel commuter vehicles that would be fuel-efficient without being as dull as an econocar.
The GTS 250 passed the test. Its four-stroke engine (no more trails of blue smoke, like those that followed classic Vespas everywhere) had enough power to move out smartly when the light turned green and was good for about 75 miles an hour — the fastest Vespa ever, its advertisements say. The quick steering made it fun to thread through traffic, but best of all, it covered about 60 miles on each gallon of gas while I had it.
Like most scooters, the Vespa uses a continuously variable transmission, or C.V.T., a design that automatically adjusts the internal drive ratios according to the demands of the moment. No gear shifting is required.
A downside of scooters is that they have small wheels (the GTS’s are 12 inches in diameter), which can get snagged by deep potholes. The upside is that people turn their heads and smile when you whoosh by on a Vespa. It looks and feels cool. It makes you want to say “ciao” again and again.
Convenience matters, too. The Vespa has an electric starter and an ample storage bin under the seat (with a sticker that warns you not to carry pets there, because there’s a warm engine underneath).
The effortless twist-and-go riding style is a big part of a scooter’s appeal. But for riders who like wicking up the throttle and shifting through a 6-speed gearbox, something like the 2009 Kawasaki Ninja 250R, a full-size motorcycle with 17-inch wheels, might be a better match. With a racetrack-ready look and a list price of $3,999, the junior Ninja was the bargain among the bikes I tried.
In 550 miles of testing I rode the Ninja 250R from New York to Boston and back, about 420 miles, and spent the rest of the time on suburban roads and city streets. Ridden with conservation in mind, the Kawasaki delivered an impressive 71 m.p.g.; keeping up with traffic on the Massachusetts Turnpike — which seems to move at a minimum pace of 65 miles an hour — kept the Ninja’s 2-cylinder engine wailing at 7,500 to 9,000 r.p.m. and dropped the mileage to 49 m.p.g. Cycle World magazine recorded a top speed of 96 m.p.h.
Popular with new riders and the budget-minded, the recently redesigned Ninja 250R is Kawasaki’s best-selling model in the United States. The company thoughtfully neglected to paste a 250 decal anywhere on the machine, leaving onlookers to think it might be one of those speed-demon 600 cc or 1,000 cc Ninjas. A pedestrian at a red light in Boston gave me the thumbs-up and asked, “Is that the 750?” He seemed startled when I raised two fingers, then five, then made a zero with my thumb and forefinger and pulled away into the traffic.
Extracting highway-capable horsepower from a 250 cc engine (Cycle World measured it at 27 horsepower) requires spinning all the pieces at a furious pace; the redline is a lofty 12,500 r.p.m. The ability of these small engines to endure such stress, far beyond that encountered in a daily commute, is well documented.
They are even durable enough to cross the continent, as Jack Pitney learned in 1990 when he climbed aboard a 1988 Kawasaki 250 Ninja in Los Angeles and rode it to New York to visit friends and family.
“I had no route planned, other than to avoid Interstates and discover America,” said Mr. Pitney, who is now vice president for marketing and product development at BMW of North America. “This was an unlikely motorcycle for a 3,500-mile journey, but it was what I had. It cruised comfortably for hours at a time at 10,000 r.p.m. It used barely any oil and sipped gasoline.”
For those who find a scooter too lighthearted and a conventional motorcycle too serious, there is another alternative: single-cylinder dual-purpose bikes. Because they are so agile in cities, these on-road dirt bikes can make great commuters.
This has become an easy route to take, thanks to the supermoto phenomenon, which began in Europe. Dirt riders there began replacing the knobby off-road tires on their bikes with sticky pavement tires and carving a path through cities and towns on the lightweight, quick-steering machines.
Manufacturers took notice, and now you can buy an off-the-shelf bike like the Suzuki DR-Z400SM (SM stands for supermoto) and hit the streets. Derived from a rugged dirt bike, the $6,299 SM has a 400 cc engine with lots of torque, so you can idle it down in traffic and still pull away without downshifting. Riders commuting on Suzuki supermotos report that 60 m.p.g. is possible with a bit of restraint, and the long-travel suspension can negotiate horrible pavement without being overwhelmed. That’s where the dirt-bike heritage shines.
Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company |
