I saw this gang just west of where your photo was taken as I was headed home via bicycle in the opposite direction. Rather obnoxious, I’d have to agree. At least they’d be quieter if they rode fixed gear bikes. But this too shall pass.

Apparently the new hiptard thing is old Honda Passports/any old mo-ped. Think of it was the “new” fixie. Every low powered mo-ped in the world has now been snapped up by trendy pre-packaged cool losers in LA.

Thursday night I heard first then saw a couple subsets of the rolling sewing machines, one small group was ninging up Virgil and another was ninging it west on Sunset. Perhaps they converged and ninged it elsewhere.

As a proponent of group night rides utilizing two-wheeled transport I’ll refrain from judgment. At least until they start ninging past me in the bike lane.

Those kids must think they are soooooo cool.

“As a proponent of group night rides utilizing two-wheeled transport I’ll refrain from judgment. At least until they start ninging past me in the bike lane”

As you well know, I am a proponent of such things also, but at least part of my negative judgement comes from having that very experience of being buzzed in the bike lane by one of these infernal machines.

Until they get hurt or get too many complaints I don’t think the police will be harassing them. The mini-motor scooter craze was squashed because too many kids were getting hurt.

Since kids can’t afford cars these days I guess they have to use all sorts of transportation.

Supposedly on some bike paths all motorized bicycles and scooters are not allowed there. I suppose street bike paths usually need that sign posted to ban motorized vehicles on bike paths.

Gah! We ran across several staggered swarms of these on Sunset this morning/afternoon.

They were loud & left a filthy stinky haze.

I read somewhere that driving one of these old mopeds for one hour was like driving an car for a year.

(I couldn’t find a source for this, but did find this http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/display.php?id=36938 )

There was a moped convention downtown this weekend. Seriously. They apparently all drove down from various parts of the west coast, slept on the floor at Little Radio at its new downtown location, & had some rally or something last night.

Reduction of traffic mass.
Creative reuse of obsolete machinery.
Breaking the monotony of HonToyNissaHyunBeemerChevyPorCedes LA vehicular culture…

And all you’ve got is “get off my lawn?” Bummer.

Also, fwiw, scooter != moped, and yes, they are required to be legally licensed.

Yeah, worrying about pollution and safety is so-o-o 2008.

what’s worse in terms of pollution, cars or mopeds/scooters/whatever these are? i’m guessing it’s the cars…

benjamin – you guessed wrong. It’s the mopeds … they actually burn oil and gasoline. From the link I provided above:

“Here are the federal standards for four wheels versus two:

Cars and light-duty trucks (including SUVs): Maximum CO emissions: 7.5 pounds per thousand miles; unburned hydrocarbons: 0.154 pounds; NOx: 0.154 pounds.

Scooters and small motorcycles: Maximum CO: 42.57 pounds; unburned hydrocarbons: 3.55 pounds; NOx: no limit.”

Only in a two-stroke engine, Cybele. Most modern scooters are four-stroke, and note that the bit you’re quoting only observes what scooters are allowed to emit by regulation rather than measuring what they actually emit in practice. It also ignores both the issues of mileage and manufacturing emissions, which the linked article points out are significantly less than vehicles: “Any way you slice it, scooters are less resource-intensive than cars.”

Spencer – true, huge difference between allowed and actual.

But, these weren’t modern.

I’m pretty sure bicycles are less resource intensive. And you might be able to carry on a conversation while riding.