Eager commuters hop on scooters

For commuters sick of high gas prices, the phrase "140 miles a gallon" can be quite a come-on.

Salesman Danny Hoag repeated those words over and over Saturday morning to shoppers who stopped by Scooterz Inc. in Raleigh to run their fingers over the shiny two-wheelers that are becoming a sought-after alternative to cars.

The 140 mpg stat Hoag gave is an extreme. One new scooter owner reported fuel mileage closer to 95. But with gas prices just backing away from $4 a gallon, 100 mpg and 70 mpg -- Hoag's estimates for other makes -- sound almost as sweet.

Some local dealers say scooters are such a hot ride these days that they can't keep the two-wheelers in stock.

Sentell Williams, sales manager at Triangle Cycles in Durham, said he has been in the industry for 15 years and has never experienced anything like the recent run on scooters.

Williams said his shop sold out of scooters in June and won't have more until September.

In spring, customers started a run on motorcycles and scooters at Matison Motorsports in Raleigh.

Sales manager Chris Lynds said he sold out of the least expensive motorcycles a few months ago and is putting customers on waiting lists and taking deposits.

"None of the manufacturers could guess any of those would have been cleaned out," Lynds said. "Nobody could have guessed it."

Johnny Edwards, Scooterz owner, said there is no typical scooter buyer. Parents buy scooters for children going off to college, and working adults are looking for an inexpensive ride to the office, Edwards said.

"It's a great business to be in right now," he said. "With everything else going down, this is one business that's going up."

U.S. scooter sales were up 65.7 percent in the first half of this year, according to Motorcycle Industry Council figures reported by Reuters.

That's why Joe Kennedy of Benson decided to start selling scooters at his new shop, Badlands Cycles in Raleigh, while he gets the main part of the motorcycle sales business running.

"Everybody else is doing them," he said of scooter sales.

Barbara Keller, 61, bought a scooter about three months ago. She brought it in for a 300-kilometer tune-up Saturday.

"I wanted a scooter for years," said Keller, who used to own a motorcycle. Gas prices "kind of pushed me over the edge."

Keller, who lives in Cary, said she feels safe on her short commute to work but is careful of cars.

"I am aware that people in cars do not see people on two wheels, ever," she said. "You have to ride like you're invisible."

Diana Boos and Jim Tock of Raleigh, both 51, left the shop thinking about whether they could use a smaller machine, or whether they needed something that could go highway speeds.

Boos said she could use a scooter for her 7-mile commute to work and for trips to the grocery store.

They planned to come back when Hoag had a rental scooter available they could use.