It all started in 1910, when
little gas engine started to be reliable enough, the first
Gas Scooter’s appeared. A scooter boom suddenly appeared.
“The idea for
an inexpensive runabout for one caused a miniature furore” -The Motor Cycle, 1935.
The Autoped (see picture below) was the first
good produced on large scale by the Autoped Company from New
York, other countries and brands soon followed, and gas scooter
were to be found in UK, France, Germany.
It last for the next 10 years until the
car by its multiple advantage and comfort took it over. Legislation
and supply of petrol were not a problem at the time.
Another attempt was made during the World War 2, it was to
be used then as a light (and cheap)means of transportation
for parachutists to improve their speed of progression on
the invaded territories. It was then develloped in the UK,
USA, and Italia.
The two most develloped projects were the Italian Volugrafo,
and the British Excelsior Welbike.
The Volugrafo had a 125cc 2stroke engine with a 2 speed gearbox.
It had a tubular frame in which gas was stocked, and its weight
was around 30kg.
The Volugrafo was produced in 2000 units until 1944 (production
started early 1943),and most of these models were taken away
by the germans in 09/43 to be used in their own aeroported units.
The Excelsior Welbike was in the same
range of weight and used a 98cc 2 stroke engine.
Such scooters were to be found still long time after the war,
specially in the US by the Cushman Company
It stays a DIY project that was to be
found in magazine for kid for the rest of the century, until
in early 1985, Steve Patmont recreated what would be called
a “ Personal Transport Device” (the road book
term) in his garage. He began building scooter only for friends
and family, but four years later he launched Go-Ped, the first
modern company producing motorized scooter. In the following
years the market exploded in California, and 5 years later
gas scooter were knew all over America as “Go-Ped”.
His first model, the Sport is now a cult
in the industry.
In the meantime many brands were created by enthusiastic challengers
and soon started to concurrence the leader on its position.
As the number of scooter sold rose, so did the number of models,
proposing many different features for different practice from
Street Freestyle, to Off-Road Race, and simple cruising. People
started to modify their scooter from scratches to gain loads
of power.
Hence companies such as ADA started to sell
aftermarket accessories to boost you little scooter from 1.2hp
to 6hp. Some of these little machine can sometime worth up
to more than 2000$ in parts
Since 1999 divers
association such as the USSRL, or the SCOOTERCROSS, were created
to host the different races organises every year. They even
have a national and world championship (“World championship”
being a bit biased as all of the courses are organised in
the US).
On such races professional
team with mechanics and dedicated professional racers are
racing on 150m long lap with artificial obstacles (jumps,
turn…). The race in average lasts 10 to 15minutes. Models
raced are Goped Bigfoot and GSR, Boxer NS1, NS2, and Bladez
Moby (all with air tire, low weight, and heavily modified
engine).
Some of the contender there have modified there scooter to
accept pocket bikes engine, which develop up to 13 horsepower
(on a 15 to 20kg machine) and give speeds up to 60mph.
Recently
contest of freestyle have seen racer doing back flip,
“Superman” (jumping and holding the scooter
only by the hands while your body is in the same position
as superman while flying), “Heel-clickers”
(holding the scooter by the hand and taping your heels
against each others) or jumps over 45 feet gaps.
Apart
from freestyle speed contest have also seen the Team Rockzilla
from Portland breaking the 95Mph barrier with a 30hp engine!
