MANKATO — Mark Lachmiller understands why he gets some strange looks when he’s riding his motorized scooter from his pawn shop on North Riverfront Drive to the Wagon Wheel Cafe a little less than a mile away.

What he’s not sure about is whether people are squinting because they think it’s weird to see a middle-age man on a scooter or because they’re wondering why an adult is flaunting the law by cruising down the street on the contraption.

For the record, Lachmiller knows he looks odd, but only because the trend hasn’t caught on yet. And what he’s doing is legal.

“I go to the post office, I go to Hy-Vee, I go everywhere,” he said. “I know it looks kind of goofy, this gray-haired guy going down the alley.”

A state law passed in 2005 made it legal to ride motorized foot scooters in generally the same places as bicycles. The scooters have to have a surface to stand on, although they can have seats, and their wheels can only be a maximum of 10 inches in diameter. Their top speed can’t be more than 15 mph.

Mini motorcycles, such as pocket rockets, don’t qualify.

The minimum age for riding the scooters is 12 years old, but anyone younger than 18 is required to wear a helmet. Neither a license for the driver or vehicle registration for the scooter is required.

Beau Tobin and Kale Drengler, both West High School freshmen, have been riding their scooters since the law was changed with prompting from Gov. Tim Pawlenty. It was pretty common a couple of years ago to get scolded by adults wondering why they were riding their scooters on the street, they said.

Their response was, to sometimes confused reactions, that the street was the only place they could legally ride them. The motorized scooters cannot be ridden on sidewalks, except when entering or exiting an adjacent property, according to the law.

Lachmiller used to sell the scooters at Quality Pawn until a change in federal pollution laws put an end to his supply source in 2006. The gas-powered scooters usually have two-stroke engines and the Chinese company that built what Lachmiller was selling no longer complies with emissions standards.

A company called Go-ped makes scooters that do meet the new exhaust requirements. The only authorized dealer in the area is John’s Repair in Le Sueur. John Jones, owner of the business that also goes by Innovative Sporting Products, said he sells about 40 Go-ped scooters per year. Depending on model and engine size, the scooters generally cost between $450 and $1,400.

He said he has customers in Le Sueur who use the scooters to travel to school and work.

Commuters aren’t his only customers. A few farmers take the scooters out to the field in their tractors and use them to get home at the end of the day, Jones said. Campers also like to pack scooters into their recreational vehicles and use them to get around campgrounds.

Walk-in business has slowed since he started selling Go-peds four years ago, about two years before the new state law made them road legal. Jones suspects potential buyers are concerned the law could change again, or new city ordinances will restrict their use.

That possibility has been considered. North Mankato Mayor Gary Zellmer has made his concerns about the scooters known at City Council meetings. He believes they’re too loud and dangerous and has considered cracking down on the scooters through the city’s noise ordinance.

Vance Stuehrenberg, Mankato City Council member and former police officer, asked city officials to research motorized scooter laws recently after seeing them on the streets. When he found they are legal, he urged riders to be cautious and follow the required street laws.

“Typically right now, they’re not following the rules of the road,” said Capt. Chris Boyer of the North Mankato Police Department. “Unfortunately, they’re horribly dangerous if ridden improperly. I still see kids riding without helmets.”

He said North Mankato officers also see kids riding the motorized scooters on sidewalks and not stopping at stop signs, as the law requires. When that happens, the riders are given a lesson about the rules and their parents are contacted.

Copies of the law also are made available to people who complain about the scooters, Boyer said.

Tobin and Drengler said they follow the law and hope others will, too, so it isn’t changed. They said some scooter owners modify their motors to make them louder. They’re hoping people who do that don’t ruin what they see as a good thing.

They’d also like to see more people using the scooters, which can get as much as 200 miles to the gallon. Both boys, who use the scooters to travel all over Mankato and North Mankato, said they can go for a week on a gallon of gas.

Bob Drengler, Kale’s father, admitted he can be seen on a scooter occasionally.

“You can scoot around on nickels and dimes and have fun at the same time,” Bob Drengler said. “I carry them in my motor home. It’s probably the most economical way to get from point A to point B these days.”

Kale Drengler said he wished more adults were willing to give the scooters a try.

“I want more adults to ride so they can see why we ride,” he said.