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About Josh

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this page is still in a bit of a draft mode.

I pursue ease, joy, and meaningfulness. Sometimes successfully.

some of this ease, joy, for me comes from being able to effortlessly move around the city I live in, parking literally whereever I want, always very close to my destination. I ride something a bit bigger than a bicycle, that is fairly fast, and powered by something other than my own legs, that is not a motorcycle.

scooters in denver

It’s a scooter, and you deserve to be warned that I’m going to low-key try to comvince you that it’s reasonable to buy yourself a scooter.

Here’s some scootering around Indonesia, riding on what was the largest road on this particular island:

Note how compact the parking lot is, at the beginning of the video.

Compared to something like:

schwab

Sometimes a scooter is best contrasted to a different vehicle like a bicycle, but sometimes it’s best contrasted to a vehicle like a car. I still maintain it’s a class unto itself, and maybe you’ll agree. I’m also terrified of motorcycle culture and fast vehicles in general.

A big part of this sort of vehicle usage in America is using it safely, especially given how american drivers sometimes treat bicyclists or pedestrians or other ‘vulnerable’ road users. With savvy, awareness, and skill one can traverse pretty much any environment unobtrusively, peacefully, quickly, even at night or in the cold, even if there is rush hour traffic.

Lastly, you’re right to find “other people also using the road” to be the most dangerous part of using a scooter. If it was just you and empty asphalt, it would feel and would be much, must more safe.

The danger is instantly multiplied when there are other users of the space, especially users inside of cars and car-like things. generally internal combustion engines and four tires, sometimes electric, sometimes six tires. You get the vibe. They weigh 3000-6000 lbs, can be very throttly, etc. We can talk about all of this, and it’s the part that stresses me out the most, and it’s rooted in supremacy in american institutions and the people who built them! Yay!

But this can all be navigated safely, and the bump in mobility one gets by having a scooter, even if “just” for 1-3 mile trips, is quite distinctive. It’s fun and engaging, very inexpensive, and is a close-enough full replacement for a vehicle that to depend on a car but not have the option of something like a scooter also feels uncomfortable to me, now.

I (and you!) can flow through traffic like water:

Alternatively, if you’re already scooter-curious, or you already ride a bike around the city, I think you’ve got the skills and the disposition to go make it happen, and I’ll try to help you down that path, too.

One of my favorite things about using a scooter in the USA, especially in cities, is how they can be parked anywhere, and in large numbers. If me and a few friends are meeting up for something, parking is virtually effortless, even in places otherwise full of cars:

click the links or previews to see some footage I took of myself while riding my scooter around Denver.

This is all on a 360 degree camera, it’s the coolest thing, I’ve got lots of scooter randomness. Often enough a video is quite experimental, or i’m “just” trying to see what comes up with the various rounds of editing that a given bit of footage goes through.

I believe scooters are a tremendous and convivial vehicle class, and those who do the work of learning how to safely and comfortably operate them in a certain range of conditions can unlock shocking ease and adventure for themselves.

In the time lapses, sometimes one can detect very conventional riding, and then less conventional, or more akin to a mountain bike than a car. (tiny u-turns, easing up and over a curb). Sometimes one can feel and perhaps be quite interesting, piecing together trips from place to place.

here’s a nighttime scoot in Denver:

network use norms #

Sometimes I’ve told people “I have Balinese scooter norms.”

Here’s what bali scooting looks like:

I’ve told this only to people in the USA. I’m trying to convey a sense of “every place has a distinctive way of doing something, some other places do things differently, sometimes its better”.

Here’s some examples of the differences

  1. In taiwan, most intersections have a “box” painted on the ground, ahead of where the cars and large vehicles stop, where all the scooter riders collect. There is a scooter logo painted inside the box, it’s a ubiquitous feature of the environment. scooters filter to this box through stopped traffic, and then they can go in a blob when they light changes. I treat american intersections sometimes similarly.
  2. The red lights in Taiwan blink blink a few times before before they turn green. When the light starts blinking red (sorta a 3-2-1 countdown to the green light), the scooters go, then when it turns green, the large vehicles can go. I sometimes treat american intersections as if they’re equipped with the same feature. Because I sometimes am so close to the front of the intersection (see prior point) I can easily see long distances in both directions.
  3. In bali, because every function of mechanized society could be done easily on scooter, on roads or not on roads, if there was space for a scooter and someone wanted to use that space or go through it, they would. Food delivery, taxi, water delivery, construction materials, and more. Entire square km were fully serviceable by a road that was, the entire length, never wider than what two scooters would need to pass slowly in opposite directions, and sometimes narrow enough that a single scooter was only centimeters from places one didn’t want to go. (a narrow walled alley, in this case. There’s also the “you’ll fall into a rice field or something else devastating if your scooter wheels drift more than a few centimeters from the intended path.)

I find scooting all over the world, and even in the USA to be relaxing and peaceful, often enough.

I’d like to have some videos where I try to parse or explain some of how I move through junctions or road segments safely, but recording the video, audio, editing it all together, has thus far not really happened. I tried something like that here, and don’t love it.

I’ve traveled nearly every city block of shocking parts of the city. I’d spent years of my life hardly going beyond Golden, CO (limited to what was bikable) then got a scooter and all of denver opened up. Then I separated from my then partner, got divorced, moved a few times, my partner and child moved, i’ve done work in different places, I meander hard even on the best of days, and more. Zoom out, and appreciate how shocking it is, the amount of the city and front range I’ve travelled with this vehicle:

scooter

And that vehicle did this particular trip once too:

scooter a far way

There’s gaps on this map, but not many:

Josh’s mobility data, visualized open it and zoom out

not scooters, not cars #

I would love to follow a scooter rider around when I have my drone above them. I tried something similar with a group of people, some on regular bicycles, I think one on an e-bike, and maybe one on a scooter, riding along and chatting.

Here it is: take 1 take 0

This kind of movement pattern is extremely accessible on the scooter.

How I got into scooting, as a normal person #

Here’s a recap of my journey into scooting:

  1. As a kid, I had a mountain bike and rode adventurously in the neighborhood and surrounding areas. built little jumps and ramps and obstacles for myself and the other kids. I’m not skilled at all compared to some people, and I’m deeply skilled on a bicycle compared to others.
  2. Later, as a young adult, did bike commuting, while also using trains and busses, Got pretty good and aware at riding around a city with a bycycle, including knowing some paths/routes at all times of day/different conditions
  3. had a car, always a used sedan by honda or toyota, as an older adult
  4. got a city commuting bike when living in Golden, CO, late 20s/early 30s and spent a TON of time riding it around the city of Golden, CO, esp during Covid. Take a look here to see some of my biking (and walking/running) in Golden.
  5. eventually found myself a bit limited for getting around, especially if my destination was a bit outside of Golden, or there was nighttime or inclement weather to take into account
  6. didn’t feel great about an e-bike (quite expensive, and still limited to ‘bicycle stuff’), also didn’t feel good about a motorcycle, obviously.
  7. the first covid cancellation I had in february 2020 was my motorcycle riders training class. It was cancelled, I ended up not rescheduling for over a year.
  8. I finally took it, anyway, thought I might some day want a small motorcycle but really didn’t like the machines, even the little ones they had for the course. This was sometime in 2021
  9. at a bike event in Golden, found myself chatting with an emergency room doctor, talking about his really cool cargo e-bike, that was carrying many people and things. He loved it, and it was more expensive than any car I’d ever purchased. (It was $11k!) He agreed with me about not liking motorcycles, and he suggested I consider a scooter. At that point I hadn’t considered this, so this nudge was extremely helpful.
  10. I’d forgotten that I’d ridden a 50cc scooter in Greece once, as a rental to get around the island of Kalymnos for climbing, and hated how loud it was, and it didn’t feel safe, especially with a passenger and a hill and their bucket style helmets. Hated the noise and how slow it was, especially on steep hills. Greece has plenty of steep hills, but so does Golden.
  11. so, I drove myself to sportique scooters and rode a few scooters around. A few days later, I purchased a brand new Genunie Buddy 125. It looked identical to the Turquoise scooter in the picture earlier in this article.
  12. I rocked that scooter for a year or so and many miles, eventually started riding it to and from Denver once or twice a week, when I got a job at a company that had the option of using an office.
  13. Eventually it got stolen (sorta my fault) and recovered but not ridable. I replaced it with a larger scooter, and it was all over for me. This was the best vehicle I’d ever encountered, it unlocked an unbelievable amount of enjoyable experiences..

Lets talk about them.

That was summer of 2020, and began a huge shift for my life.

Originally, I rode this 125cc scooter around Golden, exclusively. Mostly where I rode my bike. I figured out how to ride safely with traffic, and had a TON of fun finding all the places I could go with the scooter.

I subsequently got a job in Denver, and at least some times would ride my scooter from Golden, to Denver, and back.

That commute was where I really squared away a lot of details, a lot of beta, for getting a lot of usage out of this sort of vehicle.

Eventually, the scooter got stolen. Like a fool, I’d not locked the steering column when I left it outside a climbing gym, and someone had been driving by in a box truck, spotted it, parked, and simply rolled the scooter into the back of the van and drove off. I eventually recovered the vehicle, but it had been hotwired, the seat was broken open, and then the main problem was it was crashed, so the front forks were damaged.

I replaced it with a 170cc scooter with larger tires and a little more weight and suspension. This instantly made my commute from Golden to Denver much more comfortable and safe.

I eventually rode that 170cc scooter from Denver to Canada, then Seattle, and back.

That trip helped me get MUCH more beta about skilled scootering. Weather, distance, hammock camping, and more.

I then spent a bunch of time in different parts of Asia. (Bali, Taiwan, Thailand, Nepal) riding scooters in each country. I found it possible to be safe in all of the places I rode.

For instance:

@josh_exists

there are those who call themselves professionals, who deny at an existential level, the road networks like the ones common in Asia, even exist. The road Network in this particular video is so-so. The narrow streets at the end, are delightful. Thailand has been economically colonized by Western financial institutions, and Western financial debt instruments, which lead to pouring way too much concrete in order to make space for way too many pickup trucks and cars. But where the original road Network exists, it's delightful and adequate. But I keep coming off as a person detached from reality, because American planners find it inconvenient to acknowledge realities from other parts of the world.

♬ Mwaki - zoozee

I’ve got lots of timelapse footage floating around, and appreciate that when I post a big timelapse, it might look like I’m moving a lot faster than I actually am. My favorite speed is “never wanting or needing to go any faster than 30mph”.

Even among people who ride scooters a lot (very common in Asia) I’ve got some ‘street cred’ that makes me a suitable guide through this obviously real-life and serious series of decisions I’m advocating for.

For starters, look here

This is a banal intersection in Denver, Colorado. The lines represent my ‘paths’ I’ve taken, when I’ve walked around or been riding my scooter, and ‘recording’ my trip.

I use a certain phone application called Strava to record very acurately where I have travelled. The data can be quite accurate. I’ve been tracking my own location data in a ahem non-trivial fashion for a while, precisely to build the map you can look at above.

So, you can zoom out on that map link above, and see that I have travelled around rather a lot of the city of Denver, and beyond.

This page is ultimately aimed at trying to get you to consider buying this sort of vehicle for yourself, even if ‘just’ for occasional use. There’s a common sort of conversations about scooters, often comparing and contrasting them with either e-bikes, stand-up type e-scooters, motorcycles, and cars.

In each of these cases, I want to say, firmly, something like “Yes, I see what you are saying, but I still maintain that there is a fundamental mis-apprehension you have for how flexible and convenient this sort of vehicle is and can be.”

If you’re looking at this page, it’s possible you’ve seen my scooter parked somewhere, and indeed scanned the QR code on the side.

I plan on making a little complaints form on this page, so if something I’ve done with the scooter causes you consternation, I’d love to hear about it. It’s possible that I believe you, and or/I agree with you, and/or I care. Regardless, there’s only one way to know, so feel free to email me.

Balinese Scooter Norms #

I’ve had a few conversations with people, explaining something about how I ride my scooter, in which I said:

I generally ride according to Balinese scooter norms.

I’ll let that hang in the air for a while. If I’m asked to expand upon the statemenet, something like:

In Bali, your scooter flows sort of like a liquid, through the landscape, sort of a ‘if it fits, it goes’ mentality, and sometimes sort of treat stop lights as stop signs.

I am highly risk averse, and teach others to be the same!

Various reasons josh likes scooters #

They are cheap. My first scooter, a Genuine Buddy Kick, 125 was $3500, new. This is not cheap. My bicycle cost me $130, but that was pre-covid. I know people that spend $3000 on a bike, or much more.

It got stolen, and I replaced it with a Lance Cabo 200i also for $3500. It was a huge upgrade, with larger tires and displacement, doing better with passengers, gear, and higher speeds.

Insurance is cheap. (I’ve got State Farm, full, comprehensive coverage, for like $50/month)

A tank of gas is $4.50, and gets close to 100mpg.

I can park it almost anywhere. Including sidewalks, and scooter friends can as well, so even going to something like a night market or park event or convention or concert or Red Rocks, I can zip right to the closest spot to the door/entrance, and find a place to park.

Free use of parking garages. You can ride around the gate or through a pedestrian access point.

Scooters are vastly safer than bicycles #

I’ll also mention motorcycle comparisons sometimes too, as

  • all forms of signaling to other road users on a bicycle is challenging. sometimes it’s nice to have a brake light and turn signals. on a bicycle, if I’m slowing and making a right-hand turn, I cannot signal to anyone else that I am slowing down, and I have to remove a hand from the handlebar and the brake lever, to wave about what direction I’m turning, and then I have to do the turn.
  • on a scooter, I can toggle the turn signal with my thumb, which stays on until I turn off the turn signal. I have automatically activated brake lights, like a car. I can signal braking and turning to everyone around without taking a hand off the handlebar, or even thinking about it, and it’s extremely visible, during the entire turn, to people ahead of me and behind me, what I am doing.
  • Scooters have a low center of gravity and more mass than a bycycle, so adding another person to a scooter feels much less challenging than a person on a bicycle.
  • Scooters have built in headlights and high beams, and built in power systems for those lights, and they are not removable, so there’s no theft risk of leaving the lights on your scooter when not at the scooter, and there’s never a time when you might want to use the vehicle but won’t have lights with you.
  • Scooters can get up to speed and take space in a lane that mimics a motorcycle, and cars don’t even consider trying to overtake a scooter, like is common on a bicycle.
  • Scooters have incredible stability, really hard to appreciate until riding one around and then a bicycle in short order
  • Scooters have no shifting, it’s simpler than riding a bike with gears. No peddling, either. All of your attention can go to easily navigating the environment, vs the complication of dealing with shifting. Motorcycle shifting is notoriously challenging (there’s memes around trying to know what gear you’re in, and getting it wrong), and involves three mechanisms (clutch, shifter, throttle) that need to be used in careful coordination, and getting it wrong can negatively affect your safety and comfort.
  • Scooters carry most added weight low (backpack on floor boards, for instance), next to 12” tires, instead of high, like above the seat on 26” tires.
  • Scooters allow for both feet to easily be placed on the ground when stationary, and you can begin applying throttle while feet are still on the ground (again, unlike a bicycle)

Scooters are vastly safer than motorcycles #

Scooters have a continuous variable transmission, that is operated exclusively by a twist throttle on the right hand. There’s no clutch, there’s no shifting mechanism, there’s no shifting up or down.

Scooters have a very low center of gravity compared to a motorcycle. This is particularly relevant when pushing around on the scooter on legs, while getting in and out of parking spots and such.

Never does one ‘speed down a highway’ on a scooter on an American highway. It’s unenjoyable to go above 55 mph on the size scooters I’ve ridden, and even that is way faster than I usually prefer.

When I first started riding my scooter, it was an upgrade from my regular leg-powered bycycle, and so I rode it on the same paths and places as I rode my bicycle. I always look for things like bike infrastructure, or quiet and peaceful roads to operate my vehicle on.

Again, riding a scooter in America is a very different, much worse experience than riding a scooter in say Taipei or a city in Bali.

Scooters are light and don’t need to be driven quickly. The seating position is very comfortable.

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