PerrydaSavage wrote on 12/31/69 at 16:00:06:....Watch 150-250cc scooter sales explode here in North America over the next 5 years ...
THAT I would like to see. I rode a '74 Yamaha DT175 dirt and street for over a dozen years, with different countershaft sprockets for dirt and street. The 175 was more than capable of any city duty short of hopping on freeway, and was freeway legal if I had an absolute need to do so and didn't mind hunkering down across the tank to cut wind drag.
The 150-250 range used to be considered to be mid-size bikes ideal for the city. You do not used a 10# sledge to drive tacks. Somewhere along the line we've gotten away from motorcycles as basic transportation, but I think it is starting to come back. Especially as more and more people watch bikes snake past them as they are stuck in a traffic jam.