MOPED ARMY

That's for other states, only Texas required the special endorsement on top of a regular driver's license.

Screw You, We’re From Texas

I'm not sure of the demographics of new moped buyers, but I would imagine a sizable portion were already older than 15 and probably already even owned a car.

A moped would have been a handy tool during the gas crisis and I'm sure adults bought them.

But in Texas a regular adult driver's license wasn't enough and it would have been a tough sell compared to states where a regular license was enough or places where the moped sales were wide open (ie, Hardware, Drug, Grocery, Bicycle Shops) and it was legal with no license.

I think the mopeds in Texas were more regulated than guns and were stifled heavily by the extra license requirements and that killed the moped sales in Texas hence the "Moped Desert"

The distance between cities wouldn't have much of an effect on Moped sales as they weren't used to travel long distances. The distance between cities serves only to annoy any modern would be moped buyer stuck in the vast "Moped Desert" that is Texas. But it is not the cause of the moped shortage as there are just very few mopeds for sale period, between all the cities.

All things being equal the entire state of Texas should have had a metric fuckton of mopeds if the cities had an equal amount of mopeds sold compared to everywhere else. But even if you added up all of the cities and their mopeds in Texas it wouldn't equal a quarter of a decently populated moped area.

Just few mopeds and great distance between them.

This isn't a post intended to complain though, just to explain the Texas Moped Desert.

Here is a picture I took today, I'm worried the Cow will report me.

(edited)

Ya, lol when you're in the country you'll see 4 wheelers ripping on the streets too.

Another facet I want to explore is the effects of the fuel crisis itself on the state of texas. They may had access to fuel all along with restrictive moped laws it could have caused the desert situation.

look at those pictures though. low bars on one, a damn hankie tied around the other one. those were already owned by moped yuppies.

Very few mopeds have air conditioning. People in Texas freak out if they can't be cool at stoplights.

When I was a kid every bike shop sold mopeds, they were everywhere. Bicycles were everywhere too. My little hometown in Mystic, CT had 4 bike shops, selling peds and 10 speeds like crazy. In the early 80s they started clamping down on drunk drivers and mixed the loophole of no license reqd for a moped. That basically made them pretty scarce.

Im in Texas and cops dont bother us other than the common "Dang that thing is badass!" or we get thumbs up. We cruise from bar to bar in my town.

They do seem to get bothered by the suuuuper loud regular bikes with Amazon engines though. Might have to do with the trashy shirtless people riding them.

1980 - the beginning of the decline in mopeds because they were becoming the official DUI-mobile for folks who lost their license so regulations were being put in place to collar the activity.

(same way that today we have those 500w electric scooters/moped/bikes are the faves of active substance abusers for transportation as well as sources of low income for the theifed and rattled can "Craigslist no questions asked" cheapo deals)

Hey Kevin, coincidentally I just made a post about this on FB. I kept raising hell and the laws were revised October 2019, here is the link Moped laws

Regular drivers license, inspection, registration is what's needed now.

Texas is now moped friendly!! (edited)

I think the cows will let you slide! ;) I lived in an odd area, I didn't know one adult that bought a moped, except for those that bought them for their kids, the only adults with them I ever saw were Motorhome owners who had them to put around campgrounds, in other countries mopeds were serious transportation, in the US they were sold as an alternative to cars in the fuel crisis when the US had to accept that we were not paying nearly enough for the privilege of personal car ownership. Those that bought them for that soon realized they were not the end all they were sold as, you had to maintain them, work on them, you got wet in the rain etc, we as a society were spoiled even back then, after one winter left with the petcock "on" and the carb gumming up, most were shelved or foisted off on the kids to play with. The free use period was a big deal no dl insurance plates etc. If you needed that why would you have one when you could have a car, then gas got cheap again and yeah...mopeds faded. Just my 2 cents worth, every area was different.

Finally my hipster anger has done some good. . . I was PISSED after waiting in their crappy lines just to be rejected.

I posted about it here Moped army hipster anger link

It's funny because in my post I used the same link to their previous VDR Chart, except this time it's a complete 180.

It feels good to do something legit for the moped community since I never do any of meet ups etc

As you can see in this screenshot , from TxDPS it appeared that one could simply study the motorcycle test walk into the dmv pass it and get a moped endorsement. This led me to go to the horrible DMV with expectations of getting my moped endorsement. It was extra dumb because then their website had the conflicting VDR chart, which I have shown in the previous post.

It was pretty much a retarded, conflicting, oppressing shit show that led me to waste my time waiting at that horrible DMV - my wife was with me getting her license renewed and she hated being there too. Otherwise I may have been even more pissed if I had made that trip and had the horrible experience, and it all be a complete waste!!

Anyhow here is the current link (Notice the mention of moped endorsement completely absent now) Motorcycle License link

Now the shitshow is over! Future Texas Mopedders will never know the struggle. (edited)

CT DMV is bad, but this sounds worse.