Choosing a Scooter, Motorcycle or an ATV for the first time can be quite a daunting prospect, especially with such a wide range of machines available.

To ensure you choose the right machine for your needs and lifestyle, we have joined forces with Kevin Ash, a respected independent motorcycling journalist, who writes for both the Daily Telegraph and Motor Cycle News, to create the ultimate Buying Guide.

Here Kevin provides advice on the benefits of getting on 2-wheels, licence requirements.1

With road congestion worsening and fuel costs spiralling upwards itâ??s easier than ever to justify buying a scooter or motorcycle. Fuel economy figures can be as high as 120mpg, road tax starts at just £16 a year and insurance costs can be a tenth of those for cars â?? a 17 year-old on a KYMCO 125 can expect to pay between £250 and £300 a year, on average. These figures represent massive financial savings as well as reducing demand on our precious natural resources, and with KYMCOâ??s prices starting at just £999 you can own a new scooter for less than the cost of a railway season ticket!

Scooters and motorcycles are about saving time and money as well as the planet, with carbon emissions at a fraction of the output of even a small city car. In typical city commuting there is no faster form of door-to-door transport, with rush hour journeys often taking an astonishing one third of the time the same trip takes by car! No need to speed, just ease through the traffic. But the time saved is only a part of the appeal; itâ??s the sheer dependability of journey times that attracts many two-wheeler riders. With no more hanging around for late buses or cancelled trains and no fear of traffic jams, you can accurately predict when youâ??ll arrive at work or an appointment. No need to set off far too early just in case thereâ??s an especially bad jam, and when you do get there, parking is usually free and easy!

In one independent survey, commuters whoâ??d converted to scooters from public transport showed lower levels of stress, had fewer days off sick and their managers reported 10 per cent better productivity. They found their lives became healthier as they had more time to spend with their families, eating better and taking exercise.

But thereâ??s a lot more to two-wheelers than saving money and speeding up journey times... as if these werenâ??t enough! In a survey of London commuters by the AA, two out of three two-wheeler riders said they actively enjoyed their journey to work! As you can imagine, the percentage of public transport users who said the same was tiny, and car drivers didnâ??t fare much better. Put simply, bikes and scooters not only make sense, theyâ??re fun too, so much so youâ??ll be out on yours at weekends and in the evenings for no other reason than it makes you feel good â?? how many times have you taken a bus trip just for the fun of it? Many scooter riders find theyâ??re visiting their friends more often simply because itâ??s so cheap, easy and convenient, and then start using their machines for weekends away and for longer holidays too, getting even more value out of their wheels!

Safety is the biggest concern preventing people from taking to two wheels. But it neednâ??t be, the figures are nowhere near as bad as some people think, and when you take into account all aspects of safety, bikes and scooters can look a whole lot better than public transport! If you think that sounds improbable, imagine itâ??s late in the evening in a city centre and you need to get home in the suburbs. You couldnâ??t have come by car because there was nowhere to park, and these days cars are so expensive to run anyway, so you have the option of a late night bus or train. That means hanging around at a bus stop or on a platform alone for ages, just as the pubs are emptying and itâ??s getting rowdy out there, not knowing who else is going to be on the bus or train with you. Then at the other end, you step off the bus or train on your own and have to walk 15 minutes in the dark, late at night to your front door.

But not when you have a scooter! Itâ??s parked right in the city centre, your jacket and helmet make you completely anonymous â?? people canâ??t even tell if youâ??re male or female â?? and you can ride it directly to your front door, no vulnerable hanging around nor walking the streets on your own. And how many people ever got mugged while riding a scooter or motorcycle?

There are other health advantages to two wheelers: travel by bus, train or tube and you expose yourself to hosts of unpleasant viruses and bacteria every day, as crowds of people from all walks of life pack in tightly together breathing the same air, using the same handholds, sneezing, coughing and spreading their germs. Many days work are lost through colds and other illnesses caught while commuting, and sometimes nastier and more dangerous diseases are passed on this way. But not when you commute by scooter or motorcycle! Youâ??re out in the air, away from others, and youâ??re even exposed to less of the traffic fumes than car drivers as cars pick up air from closer to the ground while youâ??re sitting high â?? fumes are heavier than fresh air so they hang around lower down.

Modern riding equipment is a great boon to safety too, with excellent protection offered by the latest bike clothing and helmets, and with good training, the right attitude and a decent quality two wheeler such as a KYMCO, safety doesnâ??t need to be an issue.

At first glance the route to a scooter and motorcycle licence looks horribly complicated, but take a look at the information PDFs below (supplied by The Motorcycle Industry Association) and you can see that the steps to two-wheeler freedom arenâ??t so daunting after all. The details depend on your age, your current licence details, what you want to end up riding and even how fast you want to progress, but follow the PDFs and youâ??ll find there are only a few basic steps. Any KYMCO dealer can help you too, while the Yellow Pages is full of motorcycle and scooter training schools.