Cool. But you can’t rent it
The Polaris buggy sitting in Cruz Bay at the scooter rental stand gets lots of looks. But that’s about all you can do is look.
Owner Richard Lerea, whose main scooter rental location is up the street at The Lumberyard, says the St. John DMV is fighting him. “They’re not crazy about giving me the registration,” he tells us. “You can’t go off-roading on St. John, but it’s an excellent vehicle for driving around on the roads.”
Should Richard win the battle, he says he wants to become a Polaris dealer on St. John.
You CAN rent the motorcycles. The 2009 Kawasaki 250s go for $95 per day. A motorcycle license endorsement is required. The scooters are $65 a day… and you do see people renting them.
On a dry day, at a measured pace, if you have experience and know what you’re doing and if you stick to sensible routes, it looks fun. On a rainy day, after a few painkillers, for someone who has never been on a scooter and who wants to run around the East End, not so much.
January 22nd, 2009 07:25
I agree! Scooters are nuts on StJ! You never know when a shower will come and road rash sucks! The little Polaris’s are cute but are they going to handle the mountains in the weather? It seats two so maybe they can carry it up Jacob’s Ladder?
January 22nd, 2009 08:25
Are the buggies 4WD??? Is there space to carry luggage? Better MPG than a regular size SUV I’m sure, small, if parking and traffic are a problem these could be a good option….plus they look like a ton of fun!!!!
January 22nd, 2009 09:22
I drove a scooter while living on STJ last fall, and I will be trading up to a dual-sport motorcycle when I move back because I will feel safer on that than on a scooter (better maneuverability, and knobby tires that can handle wet roads). I cannot say enough times, St. John is *not* the place to ride a scooter if you have little or no experience with motorcycling. I like Richard a lot, and they take good care of the bikes they rent, but the half-helmets that they offer with scooter rentals would be a joke in a wreck — and medical care for any serious injury is a boat ride away to STT. Also keep in mind that if you put 2 people and a day’s worth of gear on a scooter, you will be going very, very slowly over the top of the hills.
That Polaris is 4WD, but it is definitely smaller than a subcompact car. If you had any serious luggage, you’d probably need another way to transport it.
All that said, there are two major advantages to riding a scooter/motorcycle on St. John — (1) parking and (2) avoiding the huge trucks on Centerline that take up half of your lane. It’s a great way to enjoy the island, but only if you really know what you’re doing.
January 22nd, 2009 10:12
Maybe these might work better than the 2-wheel scooters, 3-wheeled scooters (70 mpg): http://www.scootcoupe.com/aboutus.html
OK, I saw them yesterday on The Price Is Right… and yes, contestant did win one… there are clips on YouTube… they’d probably reduce the Painkiller induced rollovers…
January 22nd, 2009 16:00
I was wondering what the deal was with that polaris ATV … It was sitting there in November and looked like it hadn’t moved when I was back in May … now I know why.
January 22nd, 2009 19:37
Hmmm… no comment (other than… if these become popular, how do they prevent off road crazies from tearing up the island?).
~ nsc3
February 12th, 2009 21:35
Years ago I helped do a protest to get Doug White’s solar car licsened on St John. It was a lot of fun, we had a large group with sign and we made the paper and local news. We pushed it around the park near the dock.(It would of been illigal to drive it0. The DMV did not want to licsense it because they said it was too small. It did make it up Jacobs Ladder with two person. They still did not pass it.