In the beginning, there was the Big Bang, the molten masses cooled and the galaxies formed, life emerged from the seas, humans developed, and in 1902 the first motorscooter was created. It began with a Big Bang. It continues with a putt-putt.

Scooters are funny. They are mechanical marvels on two wheels. Streamlined spuds. Mutant oddballs of Jet Age styling gone berserk. Innovative inventions shoehorned like sardines into miniaturized monocoque bodies. Engineering and styling enigmas, the stranger the better. They are two-wheeled pogo sticks, Italian hairdryers, Pushmans, dustbins on wheels, motorized lemons. Their names can be swear words, or their names can be uttered in worship by the faithful. They are the weird and the wonderful. They are the cute, the quaint, and the curious.

Throughout the ages, motorscooters have meant different things to different folk. Scoots have been cheap transportation for people without enough pennies for a car. They have been rebellious hot rods for misunderstood Wild Ones. They have carried lovers and warriors, priests and poets, and many a movie star.

Explaining what inspires the scooter faithful ain’t easy either. Tell a pal you like scoots and some hoot, some holler, most all smirk. Others nod, and immediately launch into a dialectical discussion of the brake swept area on the first generation of 98cc Vespas. Explanation is not needed. If you have to ask, you just ain’t gonna understand—and most Harley-Davidson folk don’t have a clue what we’re talking here.

The Scooter Bible is a colorful, authoritative, and ultimate history of the little motorbikes that could. Starting from the first scooter craze nearly a century ago, the authors chronicle the American scooter boom, the golden age of scooters, and the rise of the Mods in England. Today, nostalgia for Vespas, Cushmans, and Lambrettas is driving a new thirst for cool scooters in motorcycle dealer showrooms. This compendium of all things scooterific includes a comprehensive marque-by-marque encyclopedia of scooters.