I was a little bit concerned looking at the photographs Peter supplied, it would appear that as in many cities around the globe… Italian ones especially… scooters are ridden without a lot of respect to the large meat and bone objects perched atop them. In other words, the riders don’t tend to pay a lot of heed to protective clothing. Shorts, Tee shirts and sandals appear to be the sum total of protective gear. I suspect this lends itself to relatively unpleasant crash damage statistics as you see in Italy. I can see how this becomes the culture, with short journeys and balmy weather it seems a waste to put on ballistic armour, I would however recommend a little more protection to visiting scooter riders.

The local geography and architecture all lend themselves to slow meanderings. This is true not just in Madrid but in all of Spain and it’s surrounds. This beauty leads people to do incredibly interesting things… like ride to Portugal on a 50cc Honda Today. From what I have seen both in videos and photographs Madrid is high on my list of places to do some scooter touring. If you find yourself there, rent a scooter, go for a ride and soak in the atmosphere you will not regret it.

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written by Knut (integral) , July 08, 2008

I drive around here in Vienna (Austria) with my Italjet, and in 3 years I think I have seen only one or two persons without a helm. But I guess the police is different in Spain...
But then again I have seen some nasty motorcycle accidents, amd would not even drive with a jet-helm.

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