Gas powered scooters and mopeds have been around since the turn of the 20th century. Most early versions had step through frames and actually looked like bicycles with motors. Maybe that's because that's essentially what they were. These are what we would probably consider today as mopeds. Back in the 1930's a company called Salsbury Motor Glide created one with an enclosed body and automatic transmission. This body style most resembles what we think of as a scooter today. Make no mistake they work well and were very popular, but times have changed.

Here are some of the fast gas scooters you may want to take a look at.

#1 Vespa
These became popular in post war Italy in the 1940's and continue today to be very popular scooters. They offer multiple models with one of the top ones sporting a 250cc fuel injected engine, capable of 80+ mph.

#2 Honda
They have been in the game a long time, introducing the Super Cub into the US market back in the 1950's. They are still going strong and offer a wide range of scooters. You can't go wrong with a Honda engine. If you include everything they manufacture (lawnmowers, generators, cars, etc..) they produce more engines than any company in the world.

o The 582cc liquid-cooled four-stroke parallel-twin Silver Wing can easily go a 100 mph.
o The Honda Helix, aka Fusion, has atop speed of 72 mph and its available in Japan.

#3 Yamaha
The Yamaha C3, or Vox as it's known in Japan is a small scooter with a top speed of 37 mph. If you want a little more speed you need to jump up the popular Zuma model which can get up into the mid 40's.

#4 Suzuki Scooters
Suzuki has two Burgman models: a 400 and a 650. These are fast and a couple of the more expensive scooters you can expect to find on the market today.

"Fast" does not mean these scooters are not good on fuel. Most of these scooters can easily get between 50-80 miles to the gallon. The fast gas scooter may be a little bit more expensive than the slower 49cc bikes, but hey, you got to have some fun sometime, right? So if you are looking to save a little money on fuel cost these days, but still want to have a little fun, a scooter may be the way to go.