Interview: Jeremy Hall of Enviromoto

Jeremy Hall was born in Shelbyville Indiana in 1977. He is married with two great kids and has a lot of fun on his off time working in the garden. Jeremy has been working on just about anything with an engine since he was 13 years old. He owns a couple businesses and manages The Antisocial Scooter Club. He is also organizer and owner of the recent Twist and Gone scooter drag races and swap meet. I have known Jeremy for several years now being first acquainted with him on various tech boards for Chinese scooter riders and then at regional scooter rallies.

KSC: Jeremy, how long have you been riding?

Jeremy: I got my first dirtbike at age 6, still got it, she's a 1985 Honda Z50r, going to restore it and give it to my son one day.

KSC: What do you think of the recent "Lead Ban" which threatens to keep children off of motorbikes?

Jeremy: For the record I'm firmly against it and think the measure was politically motivated by the big 4's lobbying groups.

KSC: You feel the same as many people. I have heard that opinion before. Let me ask you, how long have you been riding specifically scooters?

Jeremy: I have been riding scooters since I was 15. First scoot was Yamaha Jog.

KSC: You still have your dirt bike. Do you still have the Jog?

Jeremy: No that puppy had a hard life. Eventually left it in the woods after a monster leap off of a bmx ramp broke the case in half. Landed it though with two of us on it. It was a long walk home.

KSC: What kind of scooter do you currently ride?

Jeremy: That all depends on the destination. I have a Honda Ruckus with a 70cc Zuma motor I built over the winter for fun and a 150cc China special for daily beating around.

KSC: Well, to start, I find it interesting that you took a Yamaha engine and put it into your Honda Ruckus. Were there any difficulties doing that?

Jeremy: I spent about 4 months building that scooter over the winter. You can follow the complete build over at TotalRuckus just search the word "Hamaha". The reason we swap out the motor on the rucks is because the stock motors are so expensive to tune and make fast its cheaper to just swap out the motor. At this point its pretty much my show bike.

KSC: I personally rode a 250cc Roketa for 8000 miles as my first bike. I sold it and it's still going strong as far as I know. You say you have a "China special" for regular use. I know a lot of people who shy away from the scooters imported from China. There have been many comments on how they are just junk. What are your views on the Chinese imports?

Jeremy: China gets a bad rep and mostly deceivingly so. However what people don't realize is the GY6 platform has been around for a long time now. With a little know how and elbow grease you can have a dependable scooter on your hands, if you just do the work. They are the VW Beetle of the 21st century. Periodic valve adjustments and oil changes will help keep your GY6 scooter on the road for a long time. One thing people overlook about the Chinese scooter market is that it drives the high end scooter market. Say Kim walks into a scooter shop and sees the price of a new Vespa. She is nervous about spending that kind of cash right away so she goes around the corner to buy a $699 Chinese scooter. She drives it, gets the scootering bug, and saves her money and buys that Vespa a couple years later. If it wasn't for the Chinese scooter being there when she needed a cheap scooter she may have never jumped on a scooter at all. Bottom line the Chinese scooter market has its good and bad side, but from where I'm sitting the scooter culture wouldn't be half of what it is today without them.

KSC: I believe that there are two main reasons for the bad reputation of Chinese made scooters. The first is due to the quality (primarily assembly but secondarily parts) when they first started coming into the country in 2006-2007. The second is shady dealers who would open a store, sell their container load of scooters, then close the store--or online dealers who would sell a scoot in a crate sight unseen and have it drop shipped from the importer's warehouse. These types of dealers had no knowledge, mechanical or otherwise, of the products they sold and had no wish to support them. Do you agree? Disagree?

Jeremy: I agree.

KSC: Tell me about your company Enviromoto. What service or product do you provide?

Jeremy: We build custom scooters, sell parts online. In the future we plan on branching out to a bigger location and offer scooter sales and service.

KSC: Give me an example of one of your custom jobs, and something you have in the works.
Jeremy: One of my favorites was a Honda Reflex Clone done up Tokyo style, lowered, chopped, and enough LED lighting to cause a UFO scare. Currently I'm restoring a vintage Lambretta for a friend and I hope to get my hands on a 60's Allstate soon.

KSC: I would like to see a picture of that Reflex clone! About the Lambretta, are you doing custom work on that also, or just a straight restoration?

Jeremy: Its a full blown resto-mod, and you can see it when its done at the Gasoline Rally.

KSC: When you are able to offer scooters for sale, what brands do you plan to carry?

Jeremy: Its up in the air at this point. Although I do like Genuine Scooters along with the Znen lineup.

KSC: Genuine makes a sturdy machine. I know, I was hit by a Stella recently. It make have scratched the Stella, but it tore off the back of my muffler!! Znen is Chinese, right? I expected that. Do you think you will be able to provide good service and keep parts in stock to keep your customers rolling?

Jeremy: Znen is Fly, Lance, Puma Cycles. Of course these are simple machines and parts are readily available at my shop.

KSC: If you are able to keep your customers with Chinese scooters running and satisfied, I think you'd be one of the few to do it. I personally would be thrilled to see that! You are starting to sound like the scooter version of those chopper guys. Are you more like a Paul, Paul Jr. or Jesse? Do you think it will ever get that big?

Jeremy: I would say I'm a healthy mix of all three. Yes I know it will get that big just look at the rest of the world for examples. Scooters are fun, cheap, and earth friendly. You don't have to have a crystal ball to see where this industry is headed.

KSC: I would really like to see that. If gasoline price keeps rising I don't think there's any way the scooter scene won't blow up. Jeremy, you also head up the Antisocial Scooter Club. Tell me a bit about it.

Jeremy: Antisocial SC was formed a couple years ago because we felt we just didn't fit in with the local scooter clubs. Now we have chapters in several states and have seen steady growth ever since its conception. Our motto is " long hair, freaky people welcome"

KSC: Awesome concept! Would there be any types who would not fit in with the Antisocials?

Jeremy: Dishonest, fake, assholes will not fit well into our group. We try to accept people for who they are not who we want them to be but we have our limits.

KSC: What do you like best about riding on two wheels?

Jeremy: There is always a moment when I'm out on the scooter or riding in a rally and I think "this is why I do what I do" and that is my favorite part. Sometimes its just the way the light shines through the trees, or the smile on my wife's face, or the thanks of my peers for being there for them. Since Ive owned a scooter I have never been happier.

KSC: I can identify completely with that! Let me ask you about the Twist and Gone. Can you tell me about that?

Jeremy: We started the Twist and Gone as a prototype and only planed on a few of us getting together at the track to see how it would work. The word got out to Scoot! magazine and the whole thing took on a life of its own. I did a little work behind the scenes to get some top notch sponsors on board and the rest is history.

KSC: I attended Twist and Gone and I can say that it was pretty cool!! You can you can view the report about it on this blog. How does the North American Scooter Racing Association fit into this? How are you involved with the NASRA?

Jeremy: The North American Scooter Racing Association LLC is the organizing body for all of our events. They are the Host of the Twist and Gone and we plan on hosting other events around the country in the near term. Long term we hope to establish a nationally recognized racing organization with a points chase and standardized rule and class structure. I am the owner.

KSC: Is the NASRA part of the Motor Scooter Racing Association? How do you guys fit into the scheme of things?

Jeremy: No we are our own organization. Currently we are putting on a few events to measure the interest in scooter racing. From there we want to partner up with the other racing leagues around the country and start hosting nation wide events. Eventually we want to be recognized in the scooter community the same way the NHRA or AMA is recognized in auto and motorcycle.

KSC: What do you feel like scooterist share in common with all riders?

Jeremy: Our passion for freedom and the open road.

KSC: What do you feel sets us scooterists apart from other riders?

Jeremy: Not much, we may be a little smarter with our money but other than that nothing.

KSC: You know I am pretty keen on the larger scooters. What are your views on them? Would you ever own one?

Jeremy: I like them and I see how they fit into the scooter culture. I have owned one it was a 150cc and I liked it.

KSC: Most would not categorize anything below 250cc a maxi-scooter, but then its a term for a very sketchy classification. Some view them as big scooters, some as automatic motorcycles. Have you done any custom work on these kinds of scooters? Was is mostly aesthetic, or performance?

Jeremy: I haven't done much more than general maintenance on the 250cc+ scooters yet. I will one of these days and when I do Ill send you some pictures.

KSC: I will absolutely post your work here as I am sure it would be of interest to many scooterists who are looking to get some custom work done. I myself am looking for someone to fabricate highway pegs for the front of my Majesty for when I travel distances. Would that be something you could do?

Jeremy: Yes sir we can do that no problem. I would need your scooter for a week or so and it will get done.

KSC: Let me say that even general maintenance has my respect! I can do a few things like change oil & plug by myself and a few others like belt and weights with the help of good friends, but setting the valve gap and stuff like that is beyond me. I might have to check with you about coming up to get some things done. How does Enviromoto work? What are your hours, or do you work mostly by appointment? What percentage of the day is spent in things like upkeep and repair as opposed to the cool stuff like modifications? Do you have a labor rate?

Jeremy: Everything we do is by appointment only and we can talk about money later, for my friends I usually take payment in beer.

KSC: Have you ever owned a regular street bike?

Jeremy: I've owned several including a 2002 Harley-Davidson Wide glide. I like scooters better because you can have fun without worrying about getting it dirty or scratching it as much as a $20,000 ride.

KSC: On your previous motorcycles or on a scooter, what is the longest trip you've taken on two wheels?

Jeremy: Honestly I'm not much of a long haul rider. I like to take less than 200 mile rides, anything longer than that my back and butt starts hurting.

KSC: Perhaps you need to get into the custom upholstery also! There is big business in custom motorbike seat work. Do you do that at Enviromoto?

Jeremy: Not currently but I do know a amazing upholstery guy.

KSC: Enviromoto seems to imply something about the 'environment' What do you think about the whole "green factor" of riding a scooter? Do you play into that or make a point of it? Does your company promote "green"?

Jeremy: Lets see, scooters use less gas, and make people more aware of their consumption, so yea they are about as green as two wheel transportation gets. 4 Stroke scooters are very green, the 4 Stroke Stella is the green machine to beat right now with a EPA rated 150 + mpg and CARB certification.

KSC: I completely agree on this viewpoint, and so do many others. According to Washington City Paper's Cecil Adams, "The major greenhouse gas produced by motor vehicles is carbon dioxide, which is a function of gas mileage. SUV fuel economy for model years 2008 and 2009 ranges from 12 to 32 miles per gallon, for an average of 18.5. For scooters the range runs from 33 to 140 mpg; we’ll say the average is 75. At 19.4 pounds of CO² per gallon of gas, an average SUV emits 1,050 pounds of CO² per thousand miles, while the average scooter emits 259 pounds. Even assuming the SUV carries a passenger plus the driver, it’s still contributing twice as much to global warming per person." He adds to this "Given that a typical SUV weighs about 20 times what a scooter does, it’s a safe bet manufacturing an SUV uses way more resources. While it’s tough digging up numbers for a good apples-to-apples comparison, the estimates I can find suggest car manufacturing produces anywhere from 12 to 65 tons of greenhouse gases per vehicle, whereas building a scooter may produce less than 5."

Jeremy, when you say you don't need a crystal ball to see where scooters are going, I firmly believe that. Thank you very much for answering questions. Readers, if you are interested in learning more about Enviromoto or contacting Jeremy visit the Enviromoto website at www.enviromoto.com