Im planning on bringing my moped into Boston this coming school year. Does anyone have experience riding in cities? I'm concerned with parking, and people stealing / damaging my moped. Any suggestions?
Im planning on bringing my moped into Boston this coming school year. Does anyone have experience riding in cities? I'm concerned with parking, and people stealing / damaging my moped. Any suggestions?
I ride every day in Toronto (which is fairly different than boston however) and parking isn't an issue usually - lots of places to tuck a moped behind dumpsters, behind barriers, etc. (Helps having a vehicle you can pick up and lift over things) As for security, a good lock will be a start - generally I go with two theories when finding a spot to put it... either maximumize the amount of people who see it, or minimize. In other words make it almost impossible for people to stumble across it (out of sight, out of mind) so they don't mess with it or if you can't do it, put it in the most public place possible so anyone trying to do things to it will (hopefully) get discouraged by the amount of people able to see what they are up to.
Ideally however you'd have a place to lock it up which is a little out of the way (Mine I keep inside a fenced courtyard outside my building and I haven't had an issue, mostly I suspect because it isn't visible at all from the street)
Main things with city traffic is to keep your eyes open ALL the time for what other drivers are doing (they will fail to see you, even when you think you are bloody obviously there and SHOULD be bloody obvious), keep an eye out for people pulling stunts like unsignalled turns, lane changed. Sudden unsignalled and illegal u-turns in front of you, pulling out from alleyways, passing FAR too closely to you (you have to keep peeking into your rear view mirrors to have an idea of whats behind you) Main thing is be aware of whats going on, because you can't rely on cagers to do the same.
Jamie
The main thing when riding in the city is to be extra careful. You probably won't have much trouble keeping up with traffic, since it's all stop and go, but people drive like idiots when they are in a lot of traffic...
As far as parking your ped....Boston may not be all that bad. In Cincy, there are lots and lots of ghetto kids, that like to steal peds. From what I have experienced in Beantown....It's mostly upper-middle class suburbanites. I still wouldn't recommend leaving a moped parked anywhere in any city though. If you can find a good populated spot on campus to chain it up, that would probably be your best bet...
I've ridden in Boston and NYC quite a bit...parking is usually easy being able to go on the sidewalks and chaining to a sign post or metal rail. Never had a ticket even parking overnight on the sidewalks.
other than that, I'd just avoid the ghetto neighborhoods of boston like Lynn or Roxbury....always feel like they're going to fling a slice of pizza or a half finished sub at me when I ride through.
-annie
Don't chain it to a dumpster.
I heard a story about a guy that chained his mc behind a trash dumpster and in the morning the truck came and picked it up to dump (with the bike hanging and a banging from it)
beat it all to hell,
ugly man.....fuggin ugly!
that makes sense to me.
If you are going to school IN the city and don't have secure (out of sight) place to store the moped, I would leave it at home. Riding anything in Boston's city traffic for anyone not familiar with the city or the bad drivng habits of it's residents is not recommended.
I lived in boston all of last year, only not with a moped. I just figured having a moped would grant me more freedom than relying on the T (which stops at 12:30am).
If i lost the moped it wouldn't be the end of the world, i only paid 200 dollars for it. I was just looking to some city savvy moped'ers for tips. Thanks for the advice, it was definitely helpful and made me feel a lot more comfortable bringing it in.
Dude, just do it. Park in plain site, on campus. Where everyone can see it and you will be fine. The more, out of the way it is, the more likely someone will try to steal it, if found. When driving just be careful. Danny, you can't live your life in fear dude.
And don't forget to drive in the line of vision of the guy behind you -- left side of whichever lane you choose.
when at home (apartment, whatever) keep it somewhat out of sight but accessible. use at least one u-lock to something very sturdy. if possible, use two-ulocks. one for each wheel. if you can, keep it in a garage/shed. even so, still use a u-lock or two.
when out about town, lock it to something like a bike rack or a street sign. you should be ok if you leave it there for a short bit. like on campus or outside a restaurant or something. if you can't find any place to lock it, put it someplace close to where you and other people will see it and lock through the back shocks/wheel. it'll prevent anyone from rolling away from it and anyone messing w/ it will look suspicious.
Want to post in this forum? We'd love to have you join the discussion, but first: