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Last active August 29, 2015 14:05
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there's no replacement for displacement!
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engine-displacement.md

yo heather! very cool that you're looking into a scooter. i can guarantee a good time. anyway, to the point:

displacement

(disclaimer: I DON'T MEAN TO SOUND LIKE A MANSPLAINING D-BAG, so if i do, i'm sorry, i just get excited about this shit and want to pass on what i know)

displacement is the volume of gas moved by all the cylinders in an internal combustion engine. you've seen these:

piston

that's a piston, duh. the shaft in which it's moving is referred to as a cylinder. displacement is basically the total volume of all the cylinders in an engine. boiled down to the basic meaning, it's a measure of how much energy your engine puts out, i.e. how fast you can rip it up on the streets.

depending on the laws in DC (you'll have to look it up, i can't remember what it is), if your engine is over a certain displacement, you'll need a motorcycle license to ride it. displacement is typically measured in CC (cubic centimeters), and i believe the cutoff in most places (that would require a motorcycle license) is 50cc. to account for this, a lot of mopeds and scooters are, like 49.5cc, so you don't have to go through the trouble of taking a motorcycle test. Will at Mapbox or Sean at Hole in the Sky would know more about the legalities of this than i do.

anyway, i hope that helped - sorry for being a bit long-winded. feel free to hit me up if you have any other questions, and happy riding!

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