Experience report: the new S-Class

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Experience report: the new S-Class
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motorcycles

Experience report: the new S-Class

Experience report: the new S-Class
Quad erat demonstrandum

Not being allowed to drive faster than 45 km / h on two wheels is bad. On four wheels it becomes a test of patience, almost embarrassing: driving a quad with class S.

Michael Orth, Norbert Sorg

01/19/2005

It’s not all bad to ride a quad bike. No, these things are sure to be a lot of fun, really seriously. If, yes, if the chair doesn’t stall at a smooth 45 and then just doesn’t run a meter faster. Then driving a quad is no fun. Or, in order not to be unfair, it is only a little fun in very few situations. On snow-covered parking lots, for example, where it is easy to get even a quad with only four horsepower to drift. Or to stroll through the undergrowth in the forest, on muddy paths and even where there are none. But with that you are really bad, because you do things that you are not allowed to do. Besides, things that have nothing to do with getting around in traffic. They have to do with the fact that the device is used as a toy.
But there are cheaper toys that are also more entertaining. And: less embarrassing public appearances. A 1000-piece puzzle from Cologne Cathedral would be something like that. You don’t need a driver’s license for that, not even a class S.
This applies from February 1 of this year, and it enables young people over the age of 16 not only to drive 50s quads, but also minicars and three-wheeled transport vehicles, such as the Ape from Piaggio. Of course, all of them to the maximum
45 km / h throttled. For the sake of security and because more, because of a lack of maturity, the adolescent could not be trusted. For the bill of the new class, between 600 and 700 euros will have to be shelled out, which is roughly the same as for the class M rag.
It allows 16-year-olds to ride mopeds. They don’t have more than 50 cubic meters, and legally they don’t run faster than the quad either, but – and this is important now – they are much less in the way of others and are altogether more subtle, inconspicuous in their demeanor, the little two-wheelers. The quad just screams, is acoustically and visually simply loud, cannot be overheard, cannot be overlooked. Oops, here I come, but I can’t move and you – unlike scooters or mokick – can’t get past me. But neither do I about you. Where there is always a small gap on two wheels to cheat your way forward between the lines of cars at the traffic lights, the quad nicely joins the column at 53rd place, just wait another six red phases, and you’re ready to go. With the thumb throttle fully depressed, the four-wheeler, equipped with lots of soft plastic parts, trembles and vibrates in such a way that the slightly stacked teeth actually make the helmeted skull hum.
It could of course be just our quad, one Kymco MXer 50, so rumblart and that other models less
vibrate. However, a large number of other models are not yet available on the market. Because the important Japanese manufacturers hold back when it comes to the 50s quad. For example, Kawasaki stated: “We want to wait and see how the market develops. If there is a demand, we will react quickly. «So far only two-stroke engines from companies such as Kymco, MZ, Sachs, Dinli, Revo, Barossa and E-Ton are available. Specimens with the wildest imaginary names are also sold in hardware stores or on the Internet. They too can make the skull hum.
Incidentally, the one with the helmet doesn’t have to be (yet). Because the quad is officially not considered a motorcycle (exclamation mark), rather as a kind of car-related movement thing. So
is that with the kinship. You can’t choose them, and when you meet the mood often enough stays pretty meager. And the fact that quad and car meet in traffic cannot be avoided. If only because, as already mentioned, the vehicle does not come out of the quark, but is spreading. As a result, you will soon pull an endless line out of the car-
mobile, in it: disgruntled drivers, chasing after them. And everyone looks angry at you.
It’s different on the roadside. People don’t look angry there. They grin, some even laugh, and not because
they would be in a particularly good mood. Rather, it has to do with the fact that whoever creeps the street on such a quad looks like someone who once bought a very extravagant hospital elevator. The quads do not derive from hospital elevators at all, that is what the mini-cars do, which in the course of their evolution first received a rain cover made of plastic film and then a body.
However: the quad is not that far from the hospital elevator. Because it tips over all too easily due to the narrow track width and high center of gravity. In order to counteract the tipping, you have to do a spectacular hanging-off in the roundabout at 20 km / h. You can find that quickly and dynamically. Or just embarrassing and excessive. The ADAC has also overdone the quads. With praise for two-wheelers, which happens very rarely at this club: »The scooter is easier to maneuver than the quad and the light mobile. He also wins with the shortest braking distance ahead of mini cars and quads. “
The ADAC has already crashed mini cars. Because you always think there is something around you that can protect you in an emergency. If the biggest likely accident is a few raindrops, then yes. With everything that hits harder than rain, the light cars fail miserably. “It is a scandal that the EU has such vehicles on the
Road leaves «, is outraged Gerhard von Bressensdorf, who is chairman of the Federal Association of Driving Instructors’ Associations e.V. These carts look uncool and are overpriced at just under 10,000 euros anyway.
In contrast, the quad is clearly cheaper. There are branded devices around 2000, the fantasy cucumbers are sometimes no more than 700 euros. This leaves a few euros in your pocket, with which you can then diligently feed the parking meters. Because, of course, a quad cannot be parked anywhere and just like that. You already have to use one or the other smart mover to create a parking space.
The driving school does not prepare for such conflicts. If you want to have the new S-Class, you have to study twelve hours of theory and spend two hours dealing with the peculiarities of mini cars, quads and three-wheeled trucks (lots of fun). There are no fixed guidelines for practice. Driving instructors assume that there are usually eight to 20 hours to complete before the candidate is ready for the test.
Quad drivers are expected to have a certain degree of maturity so that they know how to deal with hostility on the one hand and ridicule on the other. Then yes
prefer to take the A1 straight away. With that you can drive 125cc. the
A1 is twice as expensive, but it is also twice as fast. In addition, the costs are put into perspective because the full A will later cost less.
What else should be said: It was the species and not the Kymco quad in particular that encouraged our reservations, because it worked fabulous, as fabulous as a 50s quad can work.

Interview with Gerhard von Bressensdorf, Federal Association of Driving Instructors Associations.

Gerhard von Bressensdorf, Federal-
Association of Driving Instructors’ Associations.

What is the driving instructor association’s position on the new driving license class S.?
We viewed them as completely superfluous from the start and are now suffering from the pressure that this EU regulation has placed on us as driving instructors.
How do you suffer?
Because we have another senseless split in driving licenses for 16-year-olds with now five classes. And with the S we not only get quads, but also extremely dangerous light cars and trucks that do not belong on the road at all for reasons of road safety.
How big will the rush for the S class be?
We don’t feel any demand nationwide; The parents are more likely to perceive distance and rejection than support for the perfectly understandable desire for mobility among the young people.
Whoever makes the certificate in a mini car is also allowed to drive a quad and vice versa?
Yes, and that is one of the biggest problems. We even have three categories that we cover with a driver’s license, because there are also mini trucks, also on three wheels. And we have three different types of drive: electric, gasoline and diesel engines. The quads are sure to be the biggest for young people
Find approval. But due to the narrow track width and the high center of gravity, one often underestimates the risk inherent in these vehicles.
Is a young person safer on two or four wheels??
Definitely on two wheels.

This is how Ride now works! 2005 – That’s how it works in 2005

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Around 1500 euros for the A1 driver’s license is a lot of money. What if it’s not fun afterwards, driving around on the motorcycle? What if you bought the wrong machine and a picky one
Equipment anyway? So: avoid as much as possible. As? With Ride Now! MOTORRAD is expanding the 2005 campaign, which already went very well last year.
During 15 events, some of them at trade fairs and rock festivals, a total of 800 newcomers will have the opportunity to ride their first meters of motorcycle. Under the guidance of savvy and even nice instructors. Simply register on the Internet at www.ridenow.de or register at the major events on site and keep your fingers crossed for yourself. Because of the rush, the participants will be drawn by lot. And there will be another lottery among the participants. Because at each of the action-
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All of them can be found on the website mentioned above
Dates of the action. The first three, the measurement alliances
So to speak, it has already been decided: Munich, IMOT, January 21st to 23rd; Hamburg, HMT, January 28-29, and Berlin, BMT, February 11-13.
Even those who are not admitted by lottery or on site can use Ride Now! benefit. Because there will soon be a lot of information and tips on getting started at www.ridenow.de, as well as a forum for exchanging experiences from around April / May.
So who, in view of this offer, does not himself
riding is your own fault.

Bressensdorf, Gerhard von: Interview – short cuts

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