Scooter School Pride: Get College Colors on your Ride

Scooters are popping up in urban areas all over the country, and college towns are no exception. Now, a company called CrossRunner has designed the ultimate college car: a scooter in your college colors.

Inexpensive and fuel efficient, these babies are just the thing to get you around campus in style. Models come in 150ccs and get 84 MPG. Prices start under $2Gs. Available through dealers or direct from the company. Check ‘em out online: http://www.crossrunner.net/

gas mileage update

Filled up my tank for the first time in ’09 this weekend. Total MPG is up to 111 miles per gallon! How’s that for fuel efficiency?

MPG Update

Odometer: 200.2

Had to fill my little tank for the second time today – yes, it’s actually been over two months since I had to get gas for my scooter despite all the running around I do – and I am pleased to report that Pete Lee still gets excellent gas mileage. And once again, the gas pump refused to give me a receipt. How strange. (Is this a discrimination trend against people who buy small increments of gas, I wonder?). But here are the facts:

• 83.1 miles driven since last fill-up
• 0.90 gallons of gas purchased, at a cost of $2.97
• Total MPG this fill-up: 92.5 MPG
• Overall MPG: 99.3 MPG

This is a quite a bit less than my first fill-up, but Jen noticed yesterday that my tire pressure is a bit low and that may account for some of the difference. Also, I’ve been making a lot more short trips (2 miles or less) and a lot fewer long drives – and we all know what that can do to your fuel efficiency. Still, I dare anyone out there to provide better results.

…. I’m waiting ….

First Fill-Up

Odometer: 92.5 miles

With 90+ miles on the old odometer, it was finally time to put gas in the scooter over the weekend. The gas tank on the Metropolitan is on the floor board, just next to where your feet go while you are riding. To open the tank, you press the button to pop open the lid, and then insert your key while turning to take off the gas cap. Apparently, Honda thinks that some thieves like the challenge of stealing gasoline one gallon at a time. So, thank heavens for the key lock!

Though I was told that filing the scooter would be like putting gas in a lawn mower, having never actually put gas in a lawn mower before I was uncertain whether the pump would automatically switch off like it does for a car or whether I would have to keep an eye on it. I ran my credit card and started pumping – lucky for me, it switched off automatically because it was full in a jiffy! At $3.89 per gallon, the total tab for my 92.5 miles came to $3.45. The gas pump clearly didn’t believe that I was finished, because it refused to give me a receipt. I guess in this day and age, the practice of “putting a few bucks in” at the pump is nearly impossible. Except on a scooter.

When I got home, I did the math:

$3.45 = 0.871 gallons = 106.1 miles per gallon

Holy cow! That’s even better than the 100 MPG that the salesman claimed. In my 19 MPG Ford Escape (not a hybrid, couldn’t stomach the extra $10K at the time), the same mileage would have run me 4.868 gallons, or nearly $19. Total cost savings so far: over 15 bucks. Not too shabby.