Ben Salmon

" Cars? I don’t like being enclosed. I’d rather fall off than get a bar smashed in my face "

Age 17. Occupation Student/part-time waiter. Salary £60 a week.

First ride Aged eight, Honda C90. Owns G-reg Honda Vision 50. Cost £375.

Insurance £368 third-party. Top speed 29mph. Ideal bike 2002 Yamaha R1.

IAN WOODFORD

" It’s just something to get about on. I’m getting a car in April "

Age 17. Occupation Student/part-time electrician. Salary £50 a week.

First ride Aged 10, 125 Yamaha scrambler. Owns B-reg Tomos 50. Cost £60.

Insurance £75 third-party. Top speed 40mph. Ideal bike Kawasaki KDX125.

IAN thompson

" I had to do two jobs at the same time to get my bike "

Age 17. Occupation Student. Salary £85-£90 a week, plus commission.

First ride Aged 10, CZ125. Owns R-reg Derbi Vamos (with a pipe). Cost £800.

Insurance £750 third-party. Top speed 30mph. Ideal bike 2002 ZX-6R.

JAMES WOODFORD

" I get cut up twice a day. Cars see the L-plate and they think, ‘I ain’t staying behind that’

Age 17. Occupation Student/part-time mechanic. Salary £205.

First ride Aged 10, 125 Yamaha scrambler. Owns Y-reg Honda Starway. Cost £1300

Insurance £200 third-party. Top speed 45mph. Ideal bike 2002 ZX-6R.

Winter riding

Ian Thompson: " I ain’t bothered about the cold. I’m getting through it at the moment and you can always get kitted up. "

Scooter sex appeal

Ben Salmon: " 50cc is no help at all – unless you’ve got a bike like Ian’s Derbi. If you’re on a scooter and there are girls there and a big bike goes roaring past, you look like a nob. "

The law

James Woodford: " I’ve been pulled over eight times in the last two months. The first time was because another moped like mine had been stolen. They apologised, which I was quite glad about. Another time the bloke was just laughing. It’s out of order really. I asked for his number and I’m making a complaint. "

Desirable machinery

Ian Woodford: " I wouldn’t touch an Aprilia with a barge pole. Too popular. More chance of it getting nicked. "

The cost of insurance

" Insurance people have got it in their heads that people our age are always having crashes. "

What other people think

Ian Thompson: " They take the piss. But car drivers give you more respect if it ain’t got L-plates on. A lady even gave me a nod the other day. "

The rise of the scooter:

1976: Sixteen-year-olds can ride anything with 50cc and pedals. Result: Suzuki’s awesome 50mph AP50 and Yamaha’s 45mph FS-1E are the tools of choice for Britain’s youth. Big party, crash, bang, wallop.

1977: A new law restricts peds to 30mph. Boo!

1981: Bike sales hit an all-time high of 320,000. Pre-77 Fizzies rising in price.

1985: Maggie’s pro-car policies flood UK with cheap, used four-wheelers for the first time. 30mph mopeds are crap. Utility biking is dying.

1988: Biking’s dark night of soul: 75,000 sales, pubs refuse to serve riders, dealers go bust, leg protectors and 100bhp limits loom.

1992: Congestion in cities horrendous, mid-recession working life stressful, FireBlade invented. Trickle of born-agains turns to a stream.

1994: Blade rider Anthony Pearce busted for 160-something on front page of The Sun. Born-again stream now a river as the generation who dropped bikes 15 years back re-discovers the greatest buzz on earth.

1995: Piaggio now actively promoting scootering in UK. Oasis, Spice Girls, Jamie Oliver follow. Italjet and Malaguti look amazing.

1998: Public transport still rubbish, traffic gridlocks, cheap credit abounds. Peugeot Speedfight 100 nearly outsells VFR800.

2001: Scooters outsell motorbikes, trickle-down effect makes them affordable to youth, huddles of nippers appear in town centres. Is it all about to happen again?