When I was a kid I took the baffle out of my motorcycle because I thought it would make it go faster.

Now I am more mature (old) and I am taking another look at the exhaust system of motorcycles and what they actually do beside directing exhaust gasses and sounding cool. I am starting to realize that designing an exhaust system is kind of an art. Every part of the bike is like a puzzle that fits together and engineers have designed the exhaust system to go with the motor it is attached to.

The following article comes from "The Essential Guide to Motorcycle Maintenance" by Mark Zimmerman:

Last Saturday, my daughter called me from her cell phone and told me that there were 3 Kymco on the road near our shop.  At the stop light Candace (my daughter) invited them to our shop.  One of the scooter riders needed some accessories for her Kymco.  Once they were in my shop I had the wonderful pleasure of meeting 3 of the most phenomenal and incredible ladies that I've ever met. 

Waste in Vehicular Transportation.  The vast bulk of energy used in vehicles is wasted! Public transportation entirely aside the private vehicle transportation of people from one location to another could be accomplished using only a few percent of the fuel expenditure generally used to accomplish this in the US. This waste stems primarily from two causes:

1. How much extraneous and unnecessary weight we choose to shunt about (much too much).
2. What we do with the kinetic energy once it a vehicle is put in motion (we simply throw it away).

The second of these can only be solved with a fundamental change in fuels and braking design. The first on the other hand is something solvable to a large extent by the use of lighter more efficient vehicles motor scooters for example.br Every cruising SUV or minivan driven by a single driver involves repeatedly accelerating thousands of pounds of steel and sundry other materials in order to convey its 100-300 lb. driver from point A to point B. The 10 (plus or minus) miles per gallon common to such vehicles is only finally causing consternation in some after gasoline in the US topped 3 a gallon.

The Superior Scooter Ratio A scooter on the other hand commonly weighs less than its driver certainly less than its driver and a passenger and gets probably something in excess of 80 miles per gallon  (Reducing fuel usage by nearly a factor of 10 is a very significant savings in natural resources and emissions as well as cost (Besides -- they're cute). Scooter Safetybr Safety is always an issue but scooters have some significant advantages relative to motorcycles.