mpgmotors.com Blog

Brotherly Love

Ok, so the point here is that efficiency goes beyond using less fuel. We put nine scooters and motorcycles in the same space as the MPG Motors F-150.

We only have so much space. Population densities continue to increase in SE Pennsylvania along with many other areas. Scooters and motorcycles take up a lot less space than my truck. Now, a lot of people drive a truck like my truck. I can put a lot of stuff in my truck and I can haul a trailer, a scooter and a bike on the back. It’s a great truck! But, it’s gotta be big so I can haul all that stuff. So we rolled out all these new Hyosung’s into the spot left after I moved my big truck. Nine, nine different vehicles fit in that spot for my truck.

Here’s what I’m after - and I need your help.

First, there are spots in the average parking garage and parking lot that aren’t big enough for your basic parking spot. They have a funny shape, aren’t the right size, you have to turn too sharp to get a car in. So, it’s wasted space and it isn’t getting used.

I want pictures people! I want some pictures of places where a scooter(s) or motorcycle(s) could be parked that isn’t being used. I need the address, owner (or municipality) and a nice digital image.

Next, I want some volunteers that are willing to see if we can’t convert some of this wasted space into better deals for bikers. If a bike doesn’t take the same space as a car, can said biker get a deal on the parking? It happens in other cities, it can happen here.

Second car? First bike!

Great customers (and we have a lot of them!) teach us as much as we pass on to them. One family stopped by recently and told us they needed another vehicle. They had a shared car but their work situation had changed and now they work in two different places - not close! They decided they needed another vehicle. What they did that was generally new, neat and different was that instead of looking for a second car, they went looking for a first motorcycle. Why did this make sense for them? It was more than just one reason…

First our customer had been a motorcyclist in the past and wanted to get back to riding. The ability, knowledge and desire to ride was already there.

Second, the bike will get much better gas mileage and was less expensive than a small used car. Insurance was very affordable and they suited up with the savings getting a DOT/Snell approved helmet to go along with the bike.

Finally, the couple had a fallback option, they planned ahead - when the weather prevents riding, they’re going to accept an increased commute time and take the car or the bus and get dropped off at work before heading off to the other work destination. This makes a long commute that day, but not an impossible situation.

The Hyosung GV250 motorcycle, the Hyosung MS3-250 scooter and the Genuine Scooter Company Buddy scooters are great deals that fit this role perfectly. The MS3-250 Scooter is the most expensive of the three. It lists for $4,300. The GV250 has a list price of $3,499 and the Buddy 125cc scooter sells for as little as $2,599. All of these vehicles return at least about 60mpg, have low insurance costs and can go pretty much anywhere in the Philadelphia area. I don’t recommend taking the Buddy out on the turnpikes and large highways. It’s top speed is just about the average speed out there ~65mph. But the two Hyosung’s can easily exceed that with reported top speeds of about 90mph - plenty of speed for your commute.

So, for just about what you would pay for an older used car, you can get a new bike/scooter, save money and have fun!

Speaking of fun, VespaUSA ran a contest and gave away prizes for the best customer-created video. I love the winning video and saw Rex Hermogino (http://www.rexnfx.com) perform it at the CycleWorld show in Manhattan at the end of December! See if this doesn’t dovetail with what our customers did themselves! Then see if Rex’s song doesn’t get stuck in your head!

Electric Bicycles - Illegal in Pennsylvania!

Folks, I thought when I opened MPG Motors we would at least be able to offer an electric scooter.

EgoVehicles (http://www.egovehicles.com) has two interesting electric scooters.

However, they have not registered as a vehicle manufacturer in Pennsylvania and consequently, as a licensed PA motorcycle dealership, we can’t sell their products. Nor, have we found another brand of electric scooters that has completed the required registrations in PA.

If you see one, please let us know!

Now electric scooters are different from electric bicycles. Electric scooters are not necessarily illegal in PA. They actually can be legal as long as a manufacturer of an DOT/EPA approved electric scooter completes the Pennsylvania State registration process. This vehicle would be registered in one of these categories as a motor vehicle in PA as defined in this document:

http://www.dmv.state.pa.us/pdotforms/fact_sheets/fs-momo.pdf 

This covers, at a high level, mopeds, motor-driven cycles and motorcycles. These are the classes of vehicles we have sold here. We have sold the Whizzer (a moped) and many motor-driven cycles and motorcycles.

Our experience with building a hybrid electric bicycle in 2004 showed us that we have plenty of roads in this area where an electric bicycle would work.

An electric bicycle from a Federal perspective, when designed to operate within certain restrictions, is an electric bicycle and not a motor vehicle. This Public Law was signed in 2002 creating this rule

http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=107_cong_public_laws&docid=f:publ319.107

So, products like those offered by IZip (http://www.izipusa.com/) would seem to be allowed across the US. People that wouldn’t consider ever riding a scooter or motorcycle (they are out there!) might consider an E-Bike. States however, have the ability to further restrict the types of vehicles used on their roads and that is what occurs in Pennsylvania.

Some time ago, I approached Pennsylvania State Senator Greenleaf and in 2006 I asked my representative, Senator Chuck McIllhinney to get a reading on E-Bikes for us. I also later contacted Governor Rendell’s office. Both McIllhinney’s office and the state confirmed that E-Bikes are, in fact, currently illegal for us in Pennsylvania.

Remember, I like to ride big, fast motorcycles too! But in the middle of my town, Doylestown, you can’t go that fast and that is where an E-Bike makes a lot of sense. There are many towns with low speed roads just like Doylestown in SE Pennsylvania. Not that many people are riding scooters or motorcycles yet - we’re working on that! But, most people will use a car instead. When most people jump in cars to get from here to there - even when “there” is a mile away, it just clogs up the roads.

MPG Motors would like to see Pennsylvania law modified to allow electric bikes (E-Bikes). We have followed this about as far as we can for now but I would encourage anyone interested to contact their state representatives to move the ball forward. We know they work, we built one and tested it. But we’re not going to sell you one until we know you won’t get in trouble riding it!

The Blended Gas Mileage Spreadsheet

We get the full gamut of concerns or non-concerns about gas mileage with our products. MPG Motors, to some, stands for Miles Per Gallon Motors. To others, MPG Motors stands for Motorsports Performance Group where miles per gallon is their last concern. Honestly, both areas are interesting to me - fast and efficient.

Having said that, I’m also a big believer in doing both things (going quickly as possible as efficiently as possible) and not just talking about them. If you’re concerned about saving gas, save gas. If you want to go fast, go fast. If you want to do both you should at least consider a scooter or motorcycle - almost any scooter or motorcycle. Even large motorcyles average well above the cars most of us drive. The Honda GL1100 Goldwing I am using as a daily driver gets 41 mpg. The Hyosung GV and GT250’s can get up to 70 mpg in commuting service. Granted, the big fuel economy advantage of most scooters and motorcycles pale when you fill a five passenger car with five people when it can get 25 mpg. But (and this is a big BUT in my experience) almost no one drives with their cars full. Carpooling is not well supported even in areas where there are special incentives in an attempt to drive acceptance. Truth be told, I’ve never been able to work carpooling into my life. Hats off to the folks that can carpool, but I’ve never had a job in my life where rigid work hours would work for me.

No, most of us drive a car or truck all the time by ourselves and wish we had a better answer. Now, at MPG Motors we try to offer solutions that aren’t slow and do improve efficiency. I get just as excited when a customer walks in the door and tells me they live in a town, work nearby (but too far to walk) and the roads they travel support travel on a 50cc scooter. I get as fired up helping this customer as I do with a person that wants our biggest bikes. When their mission fits a 50cc profile, that means to me that the top average speed of the other traffic is somewhere in the 25-35 mph range without significant hills. We have a number of towns like these in the area - Doylestown, Quakertown, Dublin, Lansdale - yep fill in your town. Transportation requirements like these allow the smallest scooters to meet the requirement to move one person to their destination and preclude the speed difference that we see with bicycles on shared roads.

MPG Motors did the Great Doylestown Gas Mileage Test back in 2006 to show the folks in Doylestown and towns like Doylestown how small scooters work in our area. They work great but that may also not be your situation. So, one of my customers said I needed a spreadsheet to quantify the gas savings in dollars from using a scooter or motorcycle to *sorta* to *almost* replace their current vehicle. Some people use their bikes *a lot*. Jan Wieck used his TN’G Verona like that. We documented his usage last year here. Other folks are more summertime only riders. But, if you get even a little better mileage and you drive the scooter or motorcycle a little, you are still using less gas than you would have otherwise. And, this is a finer point, if your focus is just not using gas (as opposed to saving money) even driving a higher efficiency vehicle a little helps.

Now there are many articles (I read one tonight) talking negatively about the long payback period of higher efficiency vehicles due to the higher purchase prices of hybrid vehicles. While not free, scooters and motorcycles present a much less expensive form of high-efficiency vehicles than the current crop of hybrid cars. How much cheaper? I made a spreadsheet that you can get here.

You’ll need to know and change to your situation the following:

• The average price of gas (I set it to $3.00)
• The number of miles you drive in a year (I put in 12,500 - the accepted average)
• The gas mileage of your current vehicle and a motorcycle or scooter

Hammer those numbers over the ones there and see what your blended gas mileage cost would be and what you would save over continuing to use one vehicle for everything.