Rat scooters. The name says it all. Rat scooter. Rats are quick, urban, subterranean. People–ordinary decent people–sneer at them, loathe them. And rightly so, because rats are bold creatures, unsettling, very hard to catch and dangerous when cornered.

Think of this as the subversive side of scooter culture. Think of these scoots as Vespas with rabies, Piaggios with a social disease, Hondas made of razor wire. They’re not meant to be pretty; they’re meant to be ridden–and ridden hard. These units aren’t about cute, safe, economical modes of transportation. Rat scoots are about skidding in sideways and dirty, having lost a little skin, and shouting “Get the fuck outa my way.”

Rat scooters. They may be hard and uncouth, they may be bad-mannered and unsafe at any speed, they may look like they’re made from stolen parts, but in a world where dentists ride Harleys you have to cheer for the rat. And if you give the rat the respect it deserves–it still won’t care what you think.