Scooters: efficient, and just plain fun

Jim Donoughe walked into the Sportique scooter store in downtown Colorado Springs in 2005.

He’d been intrigued by the colorful little machines for a couple of years. But Donoughe, in his 40s, wasn’t the hip 20-something most folks associate with the scooter life.

Aw, to heck with it, he finally thought. His kids were grown and out of the house, and life is just too short to deny yourself a bit of fun. He bought a new scooter, similar to the one featured prominently in the 1953 romantic comedy “Roman Holiday.”

Two years later, Donoughe has put 7,000 miles on the scooter, much of it from a 10-mile commute from work to his home in Rockrimmon.

He also has a bad monkey on his back: There are now six other machines in his garage, mostly classic Lambretta models.

Yeah, he admits, he became “obsessed.”

Mike Loop, sales manager at Sportique, said Donoughe’s headlong plunge into scooter life isn’t unusual.

“It’s like an addiction,” he said. Loop himself shares a garage with his wife, Brandi, that contains six scooters and three motorcycles.

Loop said his store, one of four in the Sportique chain, opened nearly five years ago in a restored storefront on Pikes Peak Avenue. The first couple of years were kind of slow. Then gas hit $3 a gallon and interest in the petrol-sipping machines blossomed.

“We’re not driving Mercedes-Benz or anything,” he said. But interest has been high and sales have been steady.

He said most folks think it’s mostly college students plopped atop scooters. Actually, he said, he sells few scoots to students.

His customers are more diverse. Many of them are “workingclass people” in their 20s to 40s who want cheap, dependable transportation. He also sells a lot of scooters to older, retired folks who are “looking for a bit of fun.” RV owners also are buying scooters to use in camp.

He said that modern scooters have electric starters and front disc brakes, and that most have automatic transmissions.

The smallest scooters — 49cc and below — are classified as motorized bicycles and don’t require a motorcycle license or a license plate. The little engines can’t keep up with highway traffic, so they’re used mostly to putt around town. The upside? The machines get 70 to 90 miles per gallon.

From there, the machines grow in size and cost, but all of them get great gas mileage: 125cc to 150 cc get 80 to 90 mpg; 250cc get 60 to 70 mpg; and 500cc get 50 to 60 mpg.

He recommends folks who are intrigued visit some scooter stores that sell and service quality Taiwanese and Italian machines, talk over their needs and take some test rides.

Loop and Donoughe said scooters are light, maneuverable and generally ridden at relatively safe speeds. Treated with respect, the scooters can be a year-round alternative to that hunk of iron in the garage.

And, they said, they’re a blast.

“When I bought mine in ’05, I never saw scooters on the road,” Donoughe said. “This year, I see them all over the place.

“They’re just fun.”

Tell me your commuter tales: 636-0197 or bill.mckeown@gazette.com.