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The Northwest Scooter Enthusiasts Max Out
Seattle’s Northwest Scooter Enthusiasts have opted to focus their
events and rides exclusively toward owners of maxi scooters.
The group grew from less than 100 riders in 2004 to close to 200 by
the summer of 2006. “This is a good sign for the local scooter
community in general” notes founding member Tom Mehren, “but for our
once little group it was more than we could handle.”
 The
Northwest Scooter Enthusiasts began in 1998 and all of its earliest
members have been maxi scooter owners since the beginning. In the
early days there wasn’t much interest in the group by owners of
smaller scooters, but as smaller scooters became more available and
grew in popularity the group ballooned. Mehren sites an event last
summer with 17 members trying to get seated and fed at a local
eatery. “It wasn’t fun trying to make it all work. After speaking
with a number of the core members we decided to scale the group back
and focus more on long rides rather than trying to run large social
functions” said Mehren. The group will still hold monthly gatherings
in and around Seattle, but attendance is expected to be more
manageable with the roster cut.
Photo: The scene in 2000 with six NWSE
members waiting for the ferry. All of them owned Honda Helix',
one of the only Maxi Scooters on the market at the time.'
The term ‘maxi scooters’ typically refers to larger
displacement scooters. The group has no specified displacement
cutoff point, but to partake in a ride a scooter must be able to
operate at highway speeds for long distances. The NWSE website was
recently updated to portray the maxi scooter emphasis of the group.
 By
focusing the group’s activities and rides specifically toward maxi
scooter owners the group will now have more freedom to plan all
their rides and events further out from the city. The change will
also allow them to focus on raising the profile and attendance of
their annual rally held the last week of August each summer at the
Skamania Fairgrounds in the Columbia River Gorge.
Photo: On a ride during the 2005 rally with Mt.
Adams in the background.
Smaller scoot owners aren’t left without a place to
go. Far from it. As the popularity of smaller scooters has grown, so
has the creation of more clubs that cater to those owners. While
Seattle has long played host to a number of Italian scooter driven
clubs, new clubs have sprouted such as the Meet Up group run by the
owners of the Scooter Gallery in the U-District. In all there are at
least a dozen clubs in the Northwest for owners of smaller scooters.
The 2007 schedule for the Northwest Scooter Enthusiast will be
posted online in early January. For more information about the group
visit their website at
www.soundrider.com/nwse
PT/Fall 2006
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