WemonAde.com When Life Gives You…

There is a serious sense of freedom when driving a moped. I remember the first time I sat on one, it was well before the time of the compulsory bike test, at the age of 17 you could potentially ride a pretty powerful bicycle with just a provisional driving licence.

Maybe it is the size of the vehicle, or even the design, or the very basic character of the controls, but riding mopeds is rather a different sensation to motoring along on a street bike.

The engines on modern mopeds seem a lot more efficient than they were back 3 decades ago, a 50CC moped, when unrestricted is now probably capable of more than forty mph, where as most 125CC mopeds are capable of speeds of over 60 mph.

It’s easy to imagine that the smaller engined 50CC moped has got to be little more secure, however that actually isn’t the case.

I started off on a 250 Yamaha myself, and believed that the step down to a 50CC would be easy: how wrong I was.

You see the problem is, when you are riding at under thirty-five mph, other road users just expect you to get out of their way. In fact, you will spend the majority of your time riding in the gutter, I know that was the situation when I rode an underpowered bike.

50CC motorbikes are fine for riding around your local neighbourhood, but when you get onto the open road you are a burden to other motorists, and you’ll be overtaken and marginalised literally and metaphorically.

Driving the gutter isn’t any fun, there is a lot of debris, and the possibility of pedestrians stepping on and off the road.

I recently bought a UK 125CC moped as a good weather “run around”. In comparison to my larger motorbikes and my cars, it truly is a saving on fuel and maintenance costs.

Driving a moped isn’t for everyone, however getting yourself a half way decent powered motorbike and making for the open road for the very first time is a sense of freedom I won’t forget.