alt Hacker NewsDid someone actually think scooters were new? We had them growing up, I thought it was common knowledge the only thing novel about e-bikes and e-scooters were the lithium ion batteries and electric motors giving adequate runtime and performance.
You could drive a moped on city streets before you turned 16 which got a lot of teenagers in my hometown to work and sports in the summer when their parents couldn’t.
But they were slow, noisy, and smelly compared to a modern ebike.
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When I was a kid my cousin had an old moped from, I think, the early 70s.
We rode the hell out of it all over our weird, empty, pre-planned city.
If I remember it got just over 100mpg. The grown ups didn't even mind buying us gas.
I’ve seen the original of the main photo before which is the only reason I know that two-stroke ICE engine powered standup scooters like that existed.
So, yes. Things do get invented so it’s not surprising. Luggage with wheels is a pretty recent invention considering when luggage and wheels were invented.
When I was a kid in the 80s scooters weren't a thing in my country, I never saw one, but they did appear in the comics I read (from the 50s-60s). I remember asking my parents about them, and they telling me that they were toys from their time but no longer existed.
Now of course they're very common, my son has one.