My first scooter ride began disastrously.

I timidly pulled back on the throttle. The scooter rocketed into a left turn and a split second later I hit the curb. The driver in the car behind me eyed me cautiously as I repositioned myself atop the scooter.

I took a deep breath, comfortably placing my feet back on the scooter and sitting with my back straight. My posture was good; if I closed my eyes I could imagine sitting this way at a formal banquet.

Thankfully, I didn’t close my eyes. If I had, I might have crashed again. Instead, I kept my eyes wide open as I gently pulled back on the throttle again and focused on steering the $3,000 Zapino scooter along Fremont’s busy streets.

Further down the road was John Stueve, scooter enthusiast and co-owner of Sound Speed Scooters. Stueve rode an EVT 168, a scooter with a classic retro look.

We sped through Fremont. Buildings zipped past and the cool spring breeze hummed alongside as a companion; it was an adrenaline rush. The odometer read 30 mph. Nonetheless, 30 mph riding atop a scooter was more harrowing than cruising along at the same speed while driving a car.

“It’s different than a car where you’re very much closed off to the environment,” Stueve explained. “On a motorcycle or scooter, you’re in the environment; it’s more of an experience.”

Absent from the experience was the roar of an engine to accompany the journey — Sound Speed Scooters are exclusively electric. The shop repairs scooters with gas engines, but the retail product is entirely electric.

“I’m an environmentally conscious gear-head,” Stueve explained.

Their electric scooters are deceptively quiet; something as large as a scooter feels like it should have a gas engine. The electric motor creates a peaceful, serene ride — at least as long as you’re able to stay on.

The quiet ride of the silent scooters can also have a more devious use.

“It’s the perfect getaway vehicle for a ninja,” Stueve joked.

How to ride a scooter

Starting a scooter, gas or electric, is hardly difficult. Anyone familiar with a car can quickly adapt to the scooter’s dashboard. The key goes in the ignition, the light button turns on the lights, the left arrow turns on the left turn signal; operating the scooter is pretty straightforward.

However, steering and controlling speed can be tricky. Starting, stopping and turning are perhaps the trouble areas that any new scooter user might encounter.

Starting from a stationary position, minutely pulling back on the throttle and slowly moving one’s foot from the ground onto the scooter is the safest way to start. Suddenly strangling the throttle with brute force will most likely send you hurtling straight into a curb.

A bicycle rider should have no trouble turning the scooter. Keeping both hands on the handlebars and leaning into the turn helps keep the driver on the road. Accelerating too quickly into a turn, however, is not advisable (a piece of advice I had to learn the hard way).

Stopping is relatively easy: brake slowly approaching a stoplight or stop sign and rest one or both feet on the ground when the scooter glides to a halt in order to maintain balance.

Vintage, Environmentally friendly scooters

The riding experience is key for Sound Speed Scooters. Besides their love for scooters, co-owners Stueve and Jeb Gast’s intent when they bought the business several years ago was to build an environmentally friendly product they wouldn’t be embarrassed to ride.

“We’re trying to make it cool,” Gast said. “A lot of electric bikes and scooters are cheesy.”

To accomplish this goal, Gast and Stueve model their scooters after the streamlined, polished aesthetics of the old Italian Vespa scooters. The result is a fusion of their high-tech electric technology with the classic Vespa look.

“It’s a good-looking bike,” Stueve said of the classic Vespa. “For the most part, these old bikes kind of appeal to my senses. … It’s kind of like a good-looking car or a good-looking sports coat.”

Gast and Stueve’s product runs on a battery, which allows the user to travel about 35 miles before having to recharge. The range isn’t ideal for a day trip, but the scooter allows the owner to commute around town on a budget.

The scooter can plug into any normal outlet.

“It’s basically like a laptop battery charger,” Stueve explained.

The limited range and electric motor may seem inhibitive, but Stueve also makes it clear that electric scooters aren’t the underperforming cousins of the gas-powered scooter. Both can achieve the top speed allowed under Washington state law, which is about 30 mph, or the top speed achievable with a 50cc engine size.

“They’re pretty comparable,” Stueve said.

Drivers must have a motorcycle license to ride anything with an engine equal to or larger than the 50cc size, according to state law.

In addition, an electric engine runs more efficiently than a gas-powered engine, Stueve explained. Their motors only have two moving parts, an energy-saving measure because the moving parts in a gas-burning engine create friction, which is a waste of energy.

Two-wheel pride

Besides selling electric scooters, Gast and Stueve are working on a conversion kit to switch out the gas-powered motors of Vespas with electric motors, as well as a prototype for an electric mo-ped.

For now, however, they still repair and retrofit vintage scooters. About a dozen scooters are parked outside their Fremont-based shop. None looked to be purchased during this millennium.

“A lot of pride goes into these bikes,” Stueve said. “Customers have a lot of pride in their machines.”

That pride can be found at the UW as well.

Senior Webb Miller owns a 1980 Honda Express mo-ped that was passed down to him from his uncle.

“It growls like a hog, chicks dig it, guys respect it,” Miller said. “I love it.”

A “dream job”

Stueve’s shop has a laid-back atmosphere. Melodies diffuse softly from a stereo resting upon a table cluttered with tools and customers are encouraged to come in, take a spin on the electric scooters and come back when they feel like it. All the test rides are free.

“We pretty much just come in and work on bikes and listen to whatever music we want to,” Stueve said. “It’s pretty much one of my dream jobs.”

Stueve and I hung around the shop to debrief after the ride. He was nonchalant about my crash. The scooters we rode were demo models — they’re meant to be beat up.

My heart rate slowly returned to normal. The ride was too short.

I now understand what Stueve means when he says riding a scooter “just feels cool.” My first experience riding a scooter was exhilarating and I definitely was left wanting more.

[Reach reporter Andrew Doughman at features@thedaily.washington.edu.]