Oddly enough, the whole argument is about what FEELS safer as most have not had a serious crash in both. I feel safer behind a scoot body but it wont help cause you go flying OFF regardless of what ur ON. So really it’s both bollox. Bikes are probs more dangerous due to the speed capable but if we’re all going about our business at 30mph, I’d rather be on a big bike which can out brake and accelerate a scoot
just my thoughts 
I’ve always felt mopeds were intrinsically less safe simply because they’re under powered and get swamped/barged/pushed about by other traffic.
They also have zero road presence and no other road user respects them.
I believe in a metropolis they have their uses, but as a serious form of transport forget it!
Last Moped I had I went down a pot hole in the road and bent both wheels on it…Crap…
Most people think its the going fast at speed that kills but it tends to be the sudden stop at the end that gets you.:w00t:
50s are underpowered which can make them dangerous, but like any machine, you need to ride it in the way that is suitable for it. After all, a 50 is less underpowered than a bicycle and has better brakes.
However, if you do have a crash scooters have major advantages which minimise injury over conventional motorcycles, all established by accident statistics.
Scooter riders sit within the vehicle not on top of it so are less likely to depart from the vehicle so less likely to suffer head and upper limb injury. Scooter riders sit feet first meaning that in a head on crash they don’t fly head first off the bike and headbutt another vehicle or the ground. Scooters provide leg protection. Having your legs between an engine and a road in an accident as motorcyclists do leads to very nasty leg injuries. Scooters have no engine where the feet and legs go and rarely cause lower limb amputation injuries.
actually, if you read the lastest London statistics for accidents, more fatal and serious scooter accidents than motorbikes.
true, i thought of that before but apart from that everything else is the same. i don’t know what brakes are like on a scooter but they were pretty shit on a 125…
couldn’t agree more, i feel much safer on a 1000cc plus bike ,not just for speed , better road presence, better tyres/wheels, better weight distribution, i wouldn’t get on a scooter.
That statistic isn’t adjusted for relevant factors. It is like saying learner car drivers are far safer than drivers who have passed their test as almost no learner car drivers are KSI. My comments are about what happens when you hit something.
Bollocks
It’s the stopping that hurts…
As for safety on a moped ? they’re generally less stable than a proper bike, don’t have enough go to get you out of trouble if you need to and have very little road presence - and I have been over the bars on one straight into the back of a bus, circa 1986.
I’ve crashed mopeds and bikes, and they both hurt.
My Peugeot 250 has power-assisted, linked, anti lock brakes. The 125 version of has the same. But then Peugeot has been doing ABS on 125 and above scoots since 2002.
What is very annoying is that there are a good number of scooters available with ABS etc but the UK importers tend only to import the versions without - the Vespa 250, Yamaha Tmax 500, Honda S-Wing 125, and Kymco Downtown 300 come immediately to mind.
Can we just clear something up, please?
Mopeds - restricted to 30mph and very low power. Can be both scooter style and “real bike” style. Can have either manual or CVT gearboxes.
Scooter - a form of motorbike where the engine is generally mounted low down in the body and often attached to the rear wheel assembly such that the engine moves with the wheel, not the bike frame. Some scooters are small wheeled (ie Vespa) others can be big wheeled (ie Honda Sh300) like “real bikes”. Can be either manual or CVT gearboxes, but most nowadays are CVT. Engines range from 50cc moped up to the the Gilera GP800 (839cc).
I know it’s pedantic, but I just had to post the difference.
If I may…
Its not what you ride, its how you ride it.
So, you can be on a scooter doing 20mph, nice. But if your weaving through traffic, not looking where you going, cutting me up on my 650, then your as dangerous as they come.
Buy yourself a Ducati Monster if you want, but please, learn how to read the road.
Better for you and me that way.
i think i ride better on a bike than my old scoot
Re Pug’s comment above, it winds me up no end whenever I Pop into Metropolis for parts, tell them which model it is, tell them I want something innocuous like a light bulb or a washer, and the brainless moron always looks at the computer and says “Is it the ABS version?” To which I always answer. “Of course it bloody isn’t as dealers like you never imported any did you?”
