Vamobility: Bi-Wheelers.📌

Here, Vamigré will apply our Four-R’s regimen: Review, rate, rank and recommend:

Motorcycles/Scooters.

Reviewing and rating, by Vamigré standards, two-wheel freewheelers for the speed freaks and faint of ride alike: from Peoples minis to Ducatis and Harleys. Plus VamoScooters that range from bare frame rentals to fully accessorized Vespas and other Italian jobs—to innovative Soul Ride, Gogoro iOneX, OJO electrics (foldable, BlueTooth and all).

Case in Point: Super Recycling in Sturgis…

8/7/21—With a battle cry of “Screw COVID, I’m goin’ to Sturgis!”, upwards of 700k cranky, die-hard motorcyclists are doing just that this week—largely maskless, many ‘vaccine free’.

Super, right? Proud, defiant bikers—gearheads, graybeards, vets, doctors preachers, accident chasers, ganger hell-raisers alike—have been rumbling into the Black Hills from every direction for the 81^st annual Sturgis  Motorcycle Rally—Fosgate console stereo speakers blaring Nashville to Motown, rigs flying freak flags, Old Glory, even the Stars & Bars.

“It’s the holy grail,” says one leather-clad piston pilgrim from Boise, all inked up. “The biker community thrives on freedom, and people want to escape all the lockdown bullshit and have a good time. I’m VAXxed, and not going to quit living my life.”

So thousands of sleek, saddlebagged Indians and full-dress Harleys cruise and line Main Street for the 10-day rally—one of the world’s largest—which brings some $800m in annual revenue to this western South Dakota town of 7,000. As ripped bikers and their motocickie mammas dismount their gleaming, muscular rides—parked wind deflector to fairing bra—they roll shoulder to shoulder into Sturgis’s country rock and honkey tonk bars, all-American eateries and manifold tattoo and body painting parlors. The lot of them hangin’ real loose, heavy on the suds and branch, macho staking claims and stoking pissin’ matches up and down the drag. “Just one big family atmosphere,” grinned a beefy Terre Haute batwingman, ruddy mug full of facial hair.

The Black Hills Classic was founded in 1938 by one Clarence “Pappy” Hoel and a group of Indian Motorcycle riders called Jackpine Gypsies. The rally held stunts and races back then, later adding hill climbs and motocross. Growing by the year, Sturgis eventually added a Buffalo Chip campground outside of town to handle the spillover crowds. Playing the party tunes have been bands the likes of Canned Heat, Country Joe, Black Oak Arkansas and Mitch Ryder of the Detroit Wheels.

…Or Super Spreader?

This year, Sturgis features more open-air bars, food stalls and seating, but COVID-19 and its variants aren’t much of a talking point here—no VAXxing or masks are mandated. Public health officials are offering COVID tests, masks and hand sanitizers, however, and local clinics do administer one-dose J&J vaccinations to the great unjabbed.

But some bikers mock the whole pandemic thing, copping an “if it happens, it happens, if we party or not” pose. Still, COVID cases are rising in South Dakota (68% Delta jump) as it is, with barely 40% of host Meade County residents being fully VAXxed. Local officials further note that 649 COVID-19 cases, out of 460k attendees, have been linked to the 2020 Sturgis rally. Freedom From vs. Freedom To?

So whether this yet larger 2021 gathering yields more coronavirus petri dishes or turns into another Provincetown/Fourth breakout will come into better focus down the road. Nevertheless, already stressed Rapid City hospitals are bracing for a surge. 

Since then, COVID/Delta has indeed backfired on Sturgis 2021 with a vengeance, filling South Dakota hospitals far beyond their max. Individual freedom and liberty are all well and good. But it must be hard to feel free on an ICU ventilator, with a breathing tube crammed down your throat.

Still, visiting bikers hit Sturgis’s hearty cafes and rowdy saloons after, say, a scenic Black Hills Run from Deadwood to Custer State Park. Picture a colorful parade of roaring Harley Electra Glides, Fat Boys, Indian Roadmaster Elites and the occasional bygone Victory—likely not a Ducati, Royal Enfield nor Vincent Black Shadow to be seen.

Now to some, the Sturgis recycle rally is fossil fueled, carbon burning hell on wheels; to others it is pure hog heaven. Of course y’all will be the judge of that. But no matter how you roll with it—just ride on, boldly, ride on. (MTC…)

Case in Point, Too: VamoScooters: Insurgency or Infestation?

Just pre-pandemic—Currently an emerging issue revolves around shared mobility and micro transport. That is, electric scooters, particularly those deploying publicly in metro areas such as San Francisco. 

Already, The City’s Board of Supervisors is grappling with the proliferation of Bird, Spin, LimeRide and bright orange Jump scooterish bikes. They are docklessly scattered randomly about higher traffic public walkways, ready to drive/ride with the download of an app, punch in of a PIN. Quick, convenient and easy, the latest innovative disruptor tech advancements aiming to ease automobile congestion and pollution.

Wheel away on a rolling tour, grab one for a local errand: These singular stand-up scooters also afford a handy, sustainable footprint (or tire track) alternative to ride share services like Lyft and Uber—to where the latter is actually buying up the Jump fleet.

Still, regulation looms of these free-range operations. Should the e-scooters be prohibited from sidewalk utilization, restricted to street and bike lanes? Or banned from public sidewalks altogether? Are their $1 ante + .15/per minute rates too steep? Better that helmets be mandatory? Is licensing inevitable? And how and by whom is location/trip data to be safeguarded?

e-Scooter Backspin.

San Francisco, for one, is already tapping some heavy scooter brakes on a transit tide run amok. Scores of abandoned e-scooter stock, inept or incautious riders, collisions and near misses by speeding units along crowded sidewalks, in zebra crosswalks: the city that knows how has begun pulling the plugs on operations like Bird Rides, Spin and LimeBike.

Faced with a torrent of public complaints, City Hall has started confiscating stray, clogging two-wheelers by the score, requiring permits for rental scooters, and capping the number of operators (five) and total number of units allowed in San Francisco overall. Those surviving fleets must also keep sidewalks clear of idle scooters, provide insurance and affordable discount rates, submit trip data to the SFMTA and guard the privacy and phone data of its users. A ‘regulatory framework’ and short circuiting that promises to be open for current and future review as the e-scooter craze spins ever onward. Indeed, the latest is ganging e-scooters into a barricade to make a political statement.

Update: But The City has now acted, ordering the removal of all e-scooters from San Francisco streets and sidewalks until proper permits have been issued and further regulations are met. This, as Bird Rides is successfully raising another investor tranche of some $2oom, after a $150m opening round, toward a $1bn valuation. Indeed, while San Francisco and Denver wrestle with the permitting details, e-scooter fleets are  being deployed in other cities throughout the U.S. and worldwide—save for recalcitrant New York City.

Regarding San Francisco, the verdict is now in: The City has issued e-scooter permits for operators, Scoot and Skip (635 scooter for six months beginning in October, allowing for 2,500 each after that). But pilot program applications for Bird, Spin and Lime have been denied, possible reason: The nearly 2,000 complaints lodged after these start-up firms dumped their e-scooters all over the city without official permission, blocking sidewalks, abandoned and prompting ‘unsafe riding’ in public rights-of-way—no forgiveness at the onset. But it appears Lime might be given a second chance, for good behavior ever since.

As it happens, San Francisco has since in fact granted Lime, Jump and Spin new life, levying a fee of $75 per scooter, with the requirement that the companies report any and all operating speed and scooter-on-sidewalk violations.

Bird, Lime, Lyft and Jump fared better in Santa Monica, however, allowed to launch 750 units each, for a combined fleet of 1,000 e-bikes and 2,000 scooters. While freewheeling Oakland is now experiencing its share of helmet, sidewalk safety issues, with scooters of all sorts scattered all over town. We’ll see where public policy on these uniquely handy new conveyances goes elsewhere in coming months.

Scooting Right Along:

Wheeling into year two of the ‘micro-mobility revolution’, some 30 e-scooter start-ups are operating in 150 markets worldwide. More than 25 states now have these e-scooter sharing operations, nearly 40 of the 100 largest U.S. cities utilizing these scooter sharing services, which are clearly filling a newly realized inexpensive transportation need. For the leading services, revenues are reaching upwards of $600,000 @ $3.50 or more per ride, representing a 70-cent profit after unit charging and maintenance costs.

That translates to big business in a mobility space that is still rolling through ‘Wild, Wild West’ territory. But with such disruptive successes come the growing and groaning pains. Among the issues hitting e-scooter-sharing head on are those revolving around safety. Namely, how can helmet requirements be met given the footloose spontaneity of the whole dockless scooter concept? Can these two-wheeled devices traveling 15 mph be safely operated on public sidewalks, much less by rowdy and/or reckless underagers? What about all the units placed and abandoned all over town—many irreparably vandalized or drowned in local waters?

Then come the state and local governments tapping the brakes harder on this micro-mobility disruption. Initially overwhelmed by the overnight e-scooter blitz, legislatures are playing catch-up with regulations addressing these safety and dumping concerns. More than a dozen statehouses have e-scooter/bike bills on their upcoming dockets, some of these and others citing laws already on the books that apparently outlaw the devices altogether. Variously, California has recently passed specific e-scooter legislation; L.A. now has a class-action lawsuit claiming ‘gross negligence’ against scooter service pioneers Bird and Lime Ride for wantonly dumping units around the city without warning or approval. While Florida is leaving any regulations to local officials, Pennsylvania is looking at a law that classifies e-scooters and the like in motor vehicle categories to be licensed, inspected and insured.

Common to most all however, seems to be the goal not to suppress the fledgling industry, but to make it safer. Yet per-year and per-unit registration fees are being established by some municipalities—even per-meter for parking. Beyond revenue, cities are demanding access to the services’ detailed data on everything from usage mapping and income to mishaps, maintenance and vandalism.

Dockless scooter and bike operators fear that the prospect of such data being made public can only be deleterious to their investment and marketing efforts; some also seeking clarity to “outdated, onerous” laws and looming litigation that can hinder their deployment. Other growth pains (from niche novelty to transportation necessity) include elemental seasonality, namely scooting in harsh rain, ice and snow, which has the more resourceful operations migrating their scooter/bike fleets to warmer climes for the winter in the face of slumping revenue.

Moreover, such services are stifled by the slow-lane supply of scooters themselves. A company called Ninebot/Segway is said to have a preponderant hold on the pipeline, as it is manufactures the bulk of these devices, and suffers recurring production bottlenecks struggling to meet fleet-level demand. Exacerbating this problem is the unexpectedly short lifespan of scooters designed to last a full year each, with overuse and vandalism cutting it in may cases to but 2-4 months. A new player is entering the scooter market, however, as M Scooter Pro introduces a longer life and range alternative. Only time will tell if this added supply will satisfy the needs of so many start-up services, going into micro-mobility’s competition-charged new year. Or whether these dockless e-scooters prove to be economically sustainable operations, whether the scooters themselves stand up to increasing rider usage and abuse over the long haul.

Clearly, such emerging services and resulting issues/blowback are, and will remain (such as Uber’s gobbling up of Jump and Ford’s taking a Spin), right in Vamigré’s monitoring wheelhouse…

Similarly, Vamotorcycles will encompass starter and shorter rides to gonzo Harley Sportsters and Rallying Ducatis (w/Manx Grand Prix and fabled, ferocious Isle of Man TT), Aprilia Tuono 1100 V4s, to full-dress Hogs, legendary Indians for long-road excursions and expeditions. Also explored will be the likes of BMW’s RnineT Scrambler and all electric ZDSR—as ‘clean cycles’ more substantially emerge—in the abiding spirit of ‘Zen and the Art…’

VamoScooters will range from jaunty two-wheel wonders like handy little Scoots and Buddys up to fully accessorized Vespa Deluxes. For the more adventurous, BMW’s c650 Sport and/or GT super scooters. 

Tri’s/Quads/Carts/ATVs.

Motorized tricycles, paddlers and Go-Kars best designed for around-town toolin’, to the most rugged of off-roads that deliver us unto more or less accessible environs and wilds.

VamosQuads feature innovative Tres, Quads, carts and ATVs, and there is no snubbing Segways and motorized boards.  Yah, also adding in motorized skateboards…

Bicycles: Casual to Competition.

Quality bikes for cruising, killer bikes for coursing–one-speed Huffy or Schwinn and fixies up to the hottest, most techno-advanced gran tour/criterion racers (yikes, no snubbing Razers and Segways)…

VamoCycles:  Casual to Competition. Myriad pedal pushing marvels—quality bicycles for easy, breezy coursing/cruising (one-speed Huffy, Schwinn, more stylish Public Bikes, etc.), for around town or shares—such as Ford Go Bikes to local indie faves like LimeBike, Bike & Roll or Blazing Saddles… minus the vandalism, to be sure. And, yes, even cargo bikes or hybrid ‘e-bikes’, with their Powerbike internal motors, ranging from Eco tour speed to IZIP E3 Zumas and URB-E Pro GTs to even friskier sport and turbo. 

What’s more, check out purist, hard pumping competitive fixies. Or up to the hottest, most techno-advanced racing bikes (esp. French and Italian) fresh from the Tour de France to Tour d’ California, etc.

No lie—with all the extras and accessories to ride along…