Once you've had scooter, you'll never go back.
If you ask Dayni Staddon whether she judges her fledgling business successful, she'll throw her arms up into the wide, gray-swathed sky and exclaim, "Well I've ended the drought, haven't I?" It's true that since iScoot's June 17 inception, the rains have not relented. Of course, zipping through the centuries-old, single-lane, labyrinthine downtown streets or up winding mountain roads to watch the Aspens don their autumnal golds on a motor scooter has only the most
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peripheral influence on weather, but it can incite joy enough to propel the most reluctant passenger into the most unlikely scenarios. Global warming or scooters? This fall it could be hard to tell.
Of course, it might just be the phenomenal amount of money she and partner Rhett Muse are saving on gas that's making her so giddy. Their entire fleet of eight royal blue Adly Scooters probably consumes less gas per week than your average Honda station wagon. "The tank holds a gallon and a half and I think I fill mine up every two weeks? A gallon and a half! I love going to the gas station," says Staddon. Muse concurs: "I love handing the attendant $2.15 and the guy behind me's spending $93 to fill up his Chevy Suburban."
There's a real social awareness that united Staddon and Muse, first to each other and then to their business. The pair met at a screening of his documentary
Turmoil
, an in-depth look at the effects of oil production on the Venezuelan society and economy. Staddon, a poli-sci graduate from the College of Santa Fe embroiled in the
creation of a cross-genre book about the interface of
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people and politics, found a like mind and a spark quickly kindled. "We were lovers first," Staddon says. Muse oozes charisma; Staddon is bright and approachable. Both blush, noticeably, at this admission.
"And then," Staddon charges ahead, "I got on a scooter. He lived in Asia for 10 years and that was, like, the primary mode of transport there. It was amazing! I said to myself, 'I am never going without one of these again.'" She's unsure how she made the leap to a whole business from a new object of passionate interest. "You see scooters everywhere! In Europe, on islands, in big cities. It just seemed like a natural thing for this city."
Their hunch is proving well-founded.
In the three months it's been in operation, three quarters of iScoot's booming and building clientele has been local. Bearers of a normal driver's license can visit their flower box by the Water Street parking lot, fill out a rental agreement and go. (Rental rates are $30 for two hours, $40 for four hours and $60 for all day.) Muse and Staddon have made up maps of
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fun local places to scoot (Bishop's Lodge Road, Cross of the Martyrs, etc.),
have an impressive battalion of helmets on hand (required if you're under 18, optional thereafter) and will even coach beginners in the parking lot before sending them on their way. Even their cash register, a slick aluminum briefcase with a super-modern wireless credit card machine, is state of the art and entirely portable.
In the few months they've been open, Muse and Staddon have seen all kinds of people using scooters for their own ends: older couples on holiday, first dates, swarms of teenagers
taking to the streets (an aside: Vespa, the world's most notorious scooter, translates literally to
wasp
in Italian.) They assure the reluctant and the cautious that their scooters are incredibly safe, that the only accident they've had so far is a nervous rider plowing into a parked car at under 10 miles per hour. "Besides!" Staddon throws her arms wide and laughs again, her enthusiasm absolutely infectious. "It's fun. It's like a bike or a motorcycle without all the work! It's lightweight, it's zippy, here-here-try it!"
Of course, a new business isn't all fun times on the open road and at the gas pump. iScoot's only open during
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the warmer months, from May to mid-October, and Staddon and Muse will set their sights on expansion while their fleet winters. In addition to adding some sturdy yellow Yamahas to their scooter stock, they intend to spend the colder months inside, building up their Web site and paperworking themselves into a franchise frenzy. By next spring, iScoots ought to be popping up all over the place.
And why not? Scooters are cosmopolitan, continental and environmentally conscious alternatives to hulking cars. They're a fun two-hour holiday or a responsible transportation alternative. They make an afternoon of errands into a zippy adventure around town, they're sure to wow a first date, and for Muse and Staddon, at least, they're indispensable.
"The minute I climbed on a scooter, I knew I'd have one for the rest of my life," Staddon is emphatic. "I'm going to be an old woman on my scooter with packages strapped to the back, zipping in and out of traffic."
There's a way to stay young.
