For various reasons -- boomers trying to recapture a misspent youth, the price of gas, European influence, etc. -- scooters seem to be coming back into vogue.

When I was a callow youth, it used to be that if you rode a scooter of any kind you were either a loser to be shunned or a geek totally beyond redemption. Scooters equalled un-coolness.

Thankfully, those days are behind us and there's a whole crop of cool little runabouts on the market, including offerings from Honda, Suzuki and a reinvigorated Vespa, among others.

One of the most intriguing, both because of its name and layout, is the Suzuki Burgman, which comes in two varieties: The 650 and 400. I recently spent time aboard the 400, introduced this year.

Visually, the Burgman is kind of like Easy Rider meets Quadrophenia. With its long wheelbase (1,595 mm) and laid-back riding position, it has the comfort of a cruiser, and, thanks to a 385-cc, fuel-injected, liquid-cooled, single-cylinder engine and constant velocity transmission (CVT), all the economy of a scooter.

It may also be one of the most straightforward pieces of two-wheeled transportation on the market.

For novices or those who want uncomplicated riding, it's just what the doctor ordered. No gears to shift, no clutch to pull, no hot and heavy engine to straddle. Just get on and go.

Well, maybe there's a little more to it. The Burgman has a brake lever located on the right side of the, um, console. Basically, it stops the bike from rolling forward -- or backward -- when it's on its stand.

Because the CVT has no gears, there's no engine compression to stop the bike from freewheeling. However, there is a centre stand and unless you park on a fairly steep incline, the hand brake is almost redundant. Nice to have around, I suppose, but not really necessary. During my time with the Burgman, I never used it.

For someone used to conventional motorcycles, the Burgman took some getting used to.

For starters, I had to do a mental double-take to remember to mount the bike by slipping my leg through the middle, as opposed to throwing it over the seat. And instead of engaging a clutch, the left handlebar lever activates the front and rear disc brakes, which are integrated.

When you grab what would normally be the clutch lever, in other words, both front and rear brakes are applied at the same time. The idea here is to stop the rider from being pitched over the handlebars in a panic stop situation. And not having to shift gears kind of caught me off-guard a couple of times. But the CVT works well; just grab a handful of throttle and off you go.

Considering its fairly hefty weight of 183 kilograms, the Burgman moves off the line pretty smartly and has no problem keeping up with traffic in town or on the freeway.

I don't know if I'd want to subject it to the Sturm und Drang of Highway 401 around Toronto, for example, but it can cruise at 100 km/h reasonably effortlessly. During a moment of madness, I actually took my test model up to 160 km/h, albeit very briefly.

The Burgman is the essence of practicality. The seat folds upward via a hydraulic actuator strut and there's room in there for all kinds of odds and ends. There's also an oil change interval light that you can adjust and the ignition key locks the front forks.

Seating is very comfy, thanks to a lumbar support pad, and there are two riding positions: Knees bent and legs down at 90 degrees; or a kind of feet-forward, chopper-esque position. Both are comfortable.

The substantial windscreen does a good job of deflecting most of the turbulence and all but the most vertically challenged will have no problem getting both feet flat on the ground.

And let's not forget economy. With a 13-litre fuel tank and miserly fuel consumption, the Burgman can go a long way between fill-ups. I rode my test bike almost daily for over a week and barely moved the fuel gauge. But its not the cheapest set of two wheels out there, starting at $7,999.

As much as anything else, the Burgman gave me the chance to rid myself of some pretty deeply ingrained prejudices. I've always looked at scooters with a jaundiced eye: Just enough power to get you into trouble, but not enough to get you out.

But the Burgman, although it may technically be a scooter, is fun to ride, peppy, very maneuverable, very easy to get along with, cheap to run and, in its own way, kind of cool.

By the time I took mine back, I began to wonder why there aren't more bikes like this.

Never did find out about that name, though.