Scooter Tipping

[soccerbaybe]

I live in a great Scooter friendly hood on the north side of Chicago. I woke up this morning and looked out the window to do my scooter check and there it was...every scooter on the block (4) tipped over. They were parked in 2 groups so it didn't look like it was a parking tip. One of my neighrs said he was out walking the dog and heard the crashes looked up and saw a female hop into a silver Honda Civic and speed off.

No big damage done, a few scrapes is all. But it really peeved me. Why tip someone's scooter? We take up very little parking, we don't guzzle gas, and I have never witnessed a scooter stall blocking 2 lanes of traffic on the Edens.

[San Francisco]

I live in a great Scooter friendly hood on the north side of Chicago. I woke up this morning and looked out the window to do my scooter check and there it was...every scooter on the block (4) tipped over. They were parked in 2 groups so it didn't look like it was a parking tip. One of my neighbors said he was out walking the dog and heard the crashes looked up and saw a female hop into a silver Honda Civic and speed off.

No big damage done, a few scrapes is all. But it really peeved me. Why tip someone's scooter? We take up very little parking, we don't guzzle gas, and I have never witnessed a scooter stall blocking 2 lanes of traffic on the Edens.

There is no respect for scooters, fact of life and end of story.

Here in San Francisco every scooter that parks on the street has damaged
fenders and/or other areas. This is because cars back into them while
parking thereby knocking scooters on to their sides or denting them.

It's really a shame because some of those scooters are nice $5500 Vespas
or other expensive models. I have literally seen riders park their new
scooters on the street and observed them six months later with dents,
cracks and other damage.

Out in front of my place there is a curb just long enough for one car to
park. When a scooter parks in the middle taking up the whole spot [which
it has a right to do because it is a vehicle] I have seen low life pieces of
sheet lift the scooters and move them to the end of the curb so that
they can park the car. One time I watched this happen and heard the
scooter's plastic crack. [yes, I left a note on the scooter with the license
plate of the car].

Because of all this I never park on the street, I park on the sidewalk if I
am only going to be away from the scooter for an hour or so. Otherwise,
I park inside a large capacity private garage [that costs $75 monthly for
each scooter and motorcycle ].

I feel bad for all my fellow scooterists in the neighborhood whom have no
choice but to park on the street. It's just a matter of time before their
beautiful scoots get beaten up by the elements and cagers.

[JuliaGrace]

Ugh, seeing that always makes me sad.

I try to avoid parking on S.F. streets whenever possible, except in designated motorcycle parking. It just makes me nervous, for obvious reasons. Because of the street-parking shortages in this town, cagers get desperate and will attempt to squeeze in where they clearly do not fit (and damaging or knocking over two-wheeled vehicles), or resort to other asshole maneuvers such as moving the scoot out of their way.

When I see cagers trying to squeeze in next to scoots or motorcycles, I wait there next to the scoot/motorcycle, staring at them while they park. It makes them nervous, and often they give up and drive away.

At home I park on the sidewalk out front, but even then my scoot has been tampered with overnight (and I live in the relatively low-crime Richmond District) a couple of times. But, If I'm going to have to leave it out for longer than overnight (out of town trip, etc.) I park it in my $150/month parking garage space reserved for my cage.

- Julie

[sunshinen]

There is no respect for scooters, fact of life and end of story.

I disagree. By far and away the majority of people I encounter are delighted at seeing a scooter. Even the bikers love to chat about riding, how fast it goes, it's gas mileage, whatever.

Unfortunately, some people just have no respect for anything (including themselves), and they will take it out on cows, scooters ... whatever they can knock around with minimal chance it can fight back. The other day I saw a car with spray paint on it and an SUV with it's tires slashed. So try not to take it personal, people have lots of grudges and anger, and sometimes scooters serve as the "geeks" on a high school campus, easy to push over by someone who needs to blow some steam. I try to look at it as, I'd rather they take it out on a material object than someone and whatever they do to my possessions, my life is clearly a happier one than theirs, as long as I don't let it fester and bring me down.

[ericalm]

It's really a shame because some of those scooters are nice $5500 Vespas
or other expensive models. I have literally seen riders park their new
scooters on the street and observed them six months later with dents,
cracks and other damage.

Yup, this happened to my Vespa 3 months after I bought it. I was parked on a fairly quiet residential street off Ventura Blvd. in Sherman Oaks. A black Volvo SUV had backed into it and pushed it a couple of feet before speeding off. When I discovered it someone had been nice enough to pick it up and leave a note. Fuh. I was almost in tears—my new, pristine scoot all banged up!

I'm now a lot pickier about where I park, often tucking away in behind poles or places where a car couldn't back into the scoot.

Fortunately, Buddy panels are pretty inexpensive to replace. But should this happen to you, be sure to check thoroughly for leaking fluids and any other damage to mechanical parts on both sides of the Bud. If your warranty is still intact, you may want to take advantage of roadside assistance and have your dealer/mech check it out. Common problems include broken brake levers, damage to wheels & brakes, transmission case (if it landed on kickstand), front out of alignment if your wheel was locked, various parts knocked loose (which may not be apparent until later) and so on...

[soccerbaybe]

This was no parking error...someone ran down th block and pushed them over hopped in a car and sped off. Unbelievable.

[soccerbaybe]

Update..1 broken Left brake lever...bent and inoperable.

[San Francisco]

There is no respect for scooters, fact of life and end of story.

I disagree. By far and away the majority of people I encounter are delighted at seeing a scooter....

Maybe in Camelot, but not here in San Francisco.

[ellen]

Well, I guess if people actually go cow tipping, they would have no problem going scooter tipping.
Hell, I don't think theres a mail box aound here which hasn't been bashed in during a game of mail box baseball.

Don't people have anything better to do at night?

[sunshinen]

Soccerbaybe, I'm sorry such a random act of destruction knocked out your brake lever. Having had my scooter unceremoniously dumped over by the wind, twice, IMHO it's a lot easier to deal with the frustration if you don't take it personally or take it to mean everyone is out to get us and our scooters. Of course, it's easy not to take it personally when it's the wind and not someone speeding off in a getaway car.

Here's to a speedy scooter recovery!

[soccerbaybe]

The busted brake is on my squeeze's perfect red buddy - she has a grand total of 13 miles on it.

I am more frustrated with the busted brake than with the act itself. Trying to get it fixed on the first good weekend of weather in Chiago is going to be a feat. We had planned to go on a long ride with our friend's this Sunday. Looks like one of us may be riding "bitch" if we cant get it fixed.

[Keys]

Ellen beat me to it. I was gonna say the go scooter tipping because they aren't strong enough to move a cow...

--Keys

[Elm Creek Smith]

It sounds like someone with a scooter seriously p.o.ed the girl in the silver Honda. No excuse for it, of course, but that's just too weird.

ECS

[Rippinyarn]

Vandalism is a downer every time it happens. Karma can be a wonderful equalizer - this is unrelated to tipping scoots, but shows that yes, sometimes the long arm of the law does reach out and touch someone. This happened a couple of months ago in Royal Oak, Michigan. At a local high school undergoing rebuilding into a regional middle school, some late teens decided to set a fire in the gym. The fire caused $4.5m of damages. One of the two teens boasted of the deed to his girlfriend and both offenders were soon captured. The first one's trial just got finished and he was sentenced to (get this) 9 to 15 years in prison and when he gets out, he will begin paying the $4.5m back. Sentencing on his parter in the crime happens soon.
It sucks when someone commits vandalism, so always be on the lookout for descriptions and license plate numbers that you can discretely provide to the police at a later time. Let's look out for each other out there

Edit: Hey first post!

Ron in Royal Oak