Moped Army

Just about when I got to wondering when someone was going to come up with a really good genuine moped (that could be peddaled as well as powered) along comes china to the rescue again... probably not for the better in our case.

I saw a guy last month buzzing down the street on a powered mountain bike and I waved him down. He had a kit slapped on the frame that he said was recommended by a pal. He got it offa the net. It's fifty (he said 80???) cc little black totally naked weed trimmer two stroke with a blatty little 10 inch sausage muffler jutting off the side. Kit comes with chain, a galvanized (that can't be chrome) plate with teeth (oh yeah, that's a sproket) for the back wheel, and some sort of handlebar lever clutch to engage things while moving to start the engine. Couple of hundred bucks. Could have done it for twenty bucks any night of the week with an old trimmer and bicycle parts, but that's not the point.

It's a month later now and holy shit are these things catching on. I saw three separate examples buzzing by on washington (main) street yesterday. The package makes it so damn easy for jr. to kit his bicycle that it's gonna force the hand of the local cops a lot sooner than any of us were anticipating.

Two of the ones I saw yesterday were pulling skateboarders down the street and otherwise jumping curbs and circling around in pedestrian ways.

Oh well. It was fun while it lasted. Next summer I expect to end up as taxed, plated, and restricted as the motorcycles.
Part of the reason will be the drooling insurance lobby, and secretaries of state seeing all of that revenue/loot riding blissfully by their grasping tentacles. The other reason though will surely be the local cops barking to their superiors to get rules in hand to put a lid on the 12yr olds on motorized bicycles. Guess what 'army' is gonna get caught up in the sweep?