scooter

[mr72]

I bought a little Vespa for commuting and getting around town. My wife loves the damn thing! She wants to get her license now.

I truly believe this is exactly what my wife would do if she ever tried riding one. So the trick really is, I have to get one for myself, then let her think she's stealing it from me. But she probably would never believe that I actually wanted a scooter for myself, when I already have a [potentially] perfectly good motorcycle.

Maybe next weekend I can spend Saturday teaching her to ride, if the weather is cooperative.

Take it from a guy who's been married now 24 years (today!): have your girlfriend take the MSF basic rider course and don't try to teach her to ride yourself. They will teach clutch and friction zone and countersteering and braking and all of that, and she can get frustrated and mad at those instructors and not at you when she's learning. Just MHO. Actually one of the reasons I am considering a scooter is because really there's not much instruction required to learn to ride it and then I'd send my wife to the MSF class where she'd learn to use the clutch and lean angle and all of that on their bikes and without arguing with me about it. Plus in TX, you have to take the MSF to get the M endorsement.

[qcbaker]

Take it from a guy who's been married now 24 years (today!): have your girlfriend take the MSF basic rider course and don't try to teach her to ride yourself. They will teach clutch and friction zone and countersteering and braking and all of that, and she can get frustrated and mad at those instructors and not at you when she's learning. Just MHO. Actually one of the reasons I am considering a scooter is because really there's not much instruction required to learn to ride it and then I'd send my wife to the MSF class where she'd learn to use the clutch and lean angle and all of that on their bikes and without arguing with me about it. Plus in TX, you have to take the MSF to get the M endorsement.

Happy anniversary mate.

And yeah, I totally get what you're saying. She will take the BRC, as its an easy and free way to get your M endorsement here in PA. But, she asked me to teach her the "basic stuff" before she goes to the course. I'm not really sure what all the thinks is "the basics", and I told her that the course is designed for people who know nothing about motorcycles, but she insisted she wanted to learn at least a little from me before learning from strangers. As I want motorcycling to be something we can do together, I will teach her what I can and if she gets frustrated with me we'll stop and wait until she takes the course.

I'll probably just start by repeating some of the first things I learned in my dirtbike sessions: bike anatomy, pre-start check, starting procedure, stuff like that. If we get to actually riding the bike, I actually don't think she'll get too frustrated with me. She knows how to drive stick pretty well, so I don't think clutch operation and shifting will be an enormous issue for her. That's really where people seem to have the most trouble to me: pulling of from a stop in first, as "easing off" the clutch is an alien concept to people who've spent all their life driving automatic cars lol. But since she already understands the conceptual side of shifting, I'm optimistic that she won't get frustrated too easily.

[Bluesmudge]

I think one of the most important things for a new rider to learn, especially women, is how to move the bike around and move around the bike when its not under power. New riders will get much more confident with the bike if they are not worried about tipping the bike over.

Teach them that a balanced bike weighs nothing. Before they ever turn the key, the new rider should be able to walk all the way around the bike when it is off the stand, keeping only one hand on the bike at a time. Then have them push the bike around walking next to it. Then turn the bike around walking next to it. Get on and off the bike over and over. Maybe even teach them the "spin the bike around on the kickstand trick." Show the new rider that maneuvering (and eventually riding) doesn't take any effort if you don't try to force anything, its all about balance. Unless you are pushing the bike up a hill, it should never feel like you are fighting against the bike. Doing the exercises will give them a lot of confidence in their ability to make the bike do what they want. They will feel familiarized with the motorcycle before they learn the more difficult stuff. Otherwise, from the very beginning, the bike is a big scary thing that they are afraid to drop.

[ShowBizWolf]

Blue, that was very well said IMO.

When I wanted to teach myself how to ride and I was lent (my future) GS to practice/learn on, that's where I thought was the most logical place to start... just getting used to how to maneuver the bike around. I spent lots of time just pushing it around in my dad's shop and walking with it/turning it around.

Then I started slowly (and I mean painfully slowly lol) putting it into gear and letting the clutch out to see how much pull it had. Rolling along, going the length of the parking lot and then stopping. Turning around, going back, repeat. Then when I felt comfy enough with that, I went around the block. Over and over, blah blah, going a bit farther each time and before I knew it, I rode it home. Woot toot

[mr72]

Well there's another $50 not-running project scooter on CL this week, Taiwanese decent brand with GY6 and 16" wheels. Not exactly what I was looking for but if it's in halfway decent shape it could be worth it, since the company that made it is reputable and currently in business with lots of support so parts are available. There's also a running 150cc Taiwanese Vespa knock-off with GY6 engine that looks good but needs paint that I could probably ride home for $300, but the downside is the importer/distributor has gone out of business in the USA years ago so basically it'd be a custom-fab fix-it project for anything that needs fixing. I'd have to do a detailed inventory. From the pictures it LOOKS like someone just had no idea how to paint plastic and rattle-canned some black onto the creme molded-in ABS bodywork and it's peeling all over but otherwise, looks pretty solid. Fortunately I absolutely know how to paint plastic.

I am pretty heavily booked through the weekend but while my wife's out of town next week I may take a look at these if they are still available. I could even imagine taking them both home. That is, if I can get either of the sellers to respond to my emails. What the heck is up with Craigslist people? If the ONLY contact information you post is email then you really ought to reply to emails, you know? And the $400 Vespalike scooter guy I emailed AND texted. No response. You wanna sell it? Respond already. I can't tell you how many times I have texted, emailed and even called and left messages for motorcycles and scooters on CL and gotten no response. I swear it's like less than 5% of CL posters actually respond.

[qcbaker]

Well there's another $50 not-running project scooter on CL this week, Taiwanese decent brand with GY6 and 16" wheels. Not exactly what I was looking for but if it's in halfway decent shape it could be worth it, since the company that made it is reputable and currently in business with lots of support so parts are available. There's also a running 150cc Taiwanese Vespa knock-off with GY6 engine that looks good but needs paint that I could probably ride home for $300, but the downside is the importer/distributor has gone out of business in the USA years ago so basically it'd be a custom-fab fix-it project for anything that needs fixing. I'd have to do a detailed inventory. From the pictures it LOOKS like someone just had no idea how to paint plastic and rattle-canned some black onto the creme molded-in ABS bodywork and it's peeling all over but otherwise, looks pretty solid. Fortunately I absolutely know how to paint plastic.

I am pretty heavily booked through the weekend but while my wife's out of town next week I may take a look at these if they are still available. I could even imagine taking them both home. That is, if I can get either of the sellers to respond to my emails. What the heck is up with Craigslist people? If the ONLY contact information you post is email then you really ought to reply to emails, you know? And the $400 Vespalike scooter guy I emailed AND texted. No response. You wanna sell it? Respond already. I can't tell you how many times I have texted, emailed and even called and left messages for motorcycles and scooters on CL and gotten no response. I swear it's like less than 5% of CL posters actually respond.

If the ads have pics, post the link to the ads. I'm sure i'm not the only one who's curious to see what they look like.

If the running one just needs a can of paint, check eBay for parts. I wouldn't be surprised if there are replacement parts floating around even though the distributor is out of business.

[rscottlow]

I can totally sympathize with your CL troubles. When I was shopping for my GS I had a hard time getting several people to respond. Turns out at least one of the ads was fake. I also went to look at an SV650 and sat in the parking lot of the storage unit for over a half an hour repeatedly calling the seller...he never answered my calls or showed up, even though I had spoken with him the night before to confirm.

[mr72]

If the ads have pics, post the link to the ads. I'm sure i'm not the only one who's curious to see what they look like.

The $400 Vespalike has pictures, this is the best one:

If the running one just needs a can of paint, check eBay for parts. I wouldn't be surprised if there are replacement parts floating around even though the distributor is out of business.

Yeah maybe. But if it just needs paint, I wouldn't need parts. It's more likely that it needs paint and every chrome part replaced and a brake master cylinder and a wiring harness... You know how it is.

After reading the ad it KIND OF sounds like the engine is not actually in the scooter. Actually, it sounds to me like the guy bought the scooter in order to harvest the engine and use it in something else (150cc GY6 goes in just about everything), and now is trying to sell the scooter and engine and they may not be together in one piece. Who knows. If the seller would respond then I would know more. It's located way the heck in southeast Austin and I live in a northwest suburb so it's not trivial to go look at it.. probably an hour drive there and an hour back. Which would matter, if the seller responded.

[qcbaker]

...
Yeah maybe. But if it just needs paint, I wouldn't need parts. It's more likely that it needs paint and every chrome part replaced and a brake master cylinder and a wiring harness... You know how it is.

After reading the ad it KIND OF sounds like the engine is not actually in the scooter. Actually, it sounds to me like the guy bought the scooter in order to harvest the engine and use it in something else (150cc GY6 goes in just about everything), and now is trying to sell the scooter and engine and they may not be together in one piece. Who knows. If the seller would respond then I would know more. It's located way the heck in southeast Austin and I live in a northwest suburb so it's not trivial to go look at it.. probably an hour drive there and an hour back. Which would matter, if the seller responded.

Even the most reliable machine will need parts eventually. How reliable do you think this scooter will be, based on the brand/parts involved?

And, yeah I would definitely ask for clarification about the state of the scooter. Even if it is in one piece and running, riding a 150cc scooter home is gonna be a chore. You definitely cant take it on any highways, so it'd probably take you twice as long to get home lol.

[mr72]

Even the most reliable machine will need parts eventually. How reliable do you think this scooter will be, based on the brand/parts involved?

Yeah, good point. I thought you meant just to get it going.

And, yeah I would definitely ask for clarification about the state of the scooter. Even if it is in one piece and running, riding a 150cc scooter home is gonna be a chore.

Haha. I was kind of kidding about that. I'll have to trailer anything home. It's an hour drive from my house in a car using freeways. I wouldn't ride my GS500, even if I had it and if it was fixed and working, that far at once, much less something with 15% as much power and no track record. Heck, after working on my own GS500 for two months I discovered it was not reliable enough to make a 20 minute ride anywhere.

[qcbaker]

So the Ninja I was gonna buy fell through. But, I found a Buell Blast that my girlfriend likes the look of (low seat height, more sport-standard-ish aesthetics rather than straight sport, reputation for being a decent beginner bike). I'm going to take a look at it tomorrow and make sure everything is in order and buy it if everything checks out.

Have you had any luck in finding a two wheel vehicle for your wife?

[mr72]

Good idea about the Blast. That seems like a pretty good starter bike especially if you really don't have a lot of sporting intentions. And you know, one carburetor is surprisingly far less than half as hard to work on as two.

Once I got my bike back from the shop with the bill being about $200 more than expected I basically decided to quit looking for a scooter until next year. Maybe by the end of January some folks will be tired of having their scooter sitting while it's too cold to ride and sell one for cheap. My wife's more likely to try and ride one after a) she sees that I've had months of trouble-free riding and b) the weather is turning nice. Trying to cram a new lifestyle idea in during the holidays is a bad idea, I think.

Good luck with the Blast.

[qcbaker]

Good idea about the Blast. That seems like a pretty good starter bike especially if you really don't have a lot of sporting intentions. And you know, one carburetor is surprisingly far less than half as hard to work on as two.

Once I got my bike back from the shop with the bill being about $200 more than expected I basically decided to quit looking for a scooter until next year. Maybe by the end of January some folks will be tired of having their scooter sitting while it's too cold to ride and sell one for cheap. My wife's more likely to try and ride one after a) she sees that I've had months of trouble-free riding and b) the weather is turning nice. Trying to cram a new lifestyle idea in during the holidays is a bad idea, I think.

Good luck with the Blast.

Keep checking craigslist, I'm sure a good deal will come up sometime. Good luck in your endeavors lol.

As for the blast, yeah the simplicity of it seems good to me since I'll probably do a lot of the maintenance. Only thing that I thought was strange about the bike is the lack of a tachometer. I learned to ride on dirtbikes without a tachometer, so I don't think it will be an enormous issue. My girlfriend already understands the mechanics of shifting from driving a manual car, so I shouldn't need to teach her when to shift or anything. Looks like there are a bunch of aftermarket options though, so it shouldn't be a huge issue to install one if needed/wanted. Just seems like a strange thing to leave out.

I'll be sure to post some pics in a project thread if I end up doing any upgrades or anything lol.

[mr72]

Only thing that I thought was strange about the bike is the lack of a tachometer.
...
Just seems like a strange thing to leave out.

I think it's a Harley thing. And with a 500cc single, the risk of you over-revving it is pretty low, because my guess is it runs out of power long before the revs get high enough to worry about.

[qcbaker]

Only thing that I thought was strange about the bike is the lack of a tachometer.
...
Just seems like a strange thing to leave out.

I think it's a Harley thing. And with a 500cc single, the risk of you over-revving it is pretty low, because my guess is it runs out of power long before the revs get high enough to worry about.

It does have a rev limiter though. So yeah, there's basically little to no risk of any damage form over-revving. But this makes it even stranger to me: the bike is measuring RPMs (or technically frequency of spark plug firing?) to prevent over-revving, but Buell/HD have just chosen not to display this information to the rider. The rev limiter kind of makes the tach unnecessary for safety reasons, so the point is kind of moot I guess, but again, I feel like its just a strange thing to leave out. Why omit useful information? Maybe you're right in saying its "a Harley thing". There are tons of things people love about Harleys (and big cruisers in general, I guess) are totally lost on me, but that's a completely different discussion lol.

[Watcher]

Just got back from teaching and we only have 3 motorcycles in the fleet with a tach.  Honda nighthawks, Suzuki TU250, Suzuki GZ250s, Kawasaki Eliminator 125, no tachs.

Our 2015 Honda CB300, 2016 Suzuki GW250, and Kawi KLR250 have tachs.



As far as the Blast goes, I wish I had a chance to ride one.  They are somewhat of a laughing stock among other Buell owners as Erik Buell himself is on record as hating them.  Apparently there's a video somewhere of him crushing one.
Not sure the history, maybe HD forced his hand into making a "beginner bike" which not only went against his racing pedigree but also made the Buell name subservient to HD themselves.

They do shake a lot, but they should be easy to work on and lightweight.
They also make less power than the GS500, and the GS500 is a staple beginner moto.  It shouldn't be very intimidating.

If the transmission is anything like my lightning it'll be clunky.

[qcbaker]

Just got back from teaching and we only have 3 motorcycles in the fleet with a tach.  Honda nighthawks, Suzuki TU250, Suzuki GZ250s, Kawasaki Eliminator 125, no tachs.

Our 2015 Honda CB300, 2016 Suzuki GW250, and Kawi KLR250 have tachs.



As far as the Blast goes, I wish I had a chance to ride one.  They are somewhat of a laughing stock among other Buell owners as Erik Buell himself is on record as hating them.  Apparently there's a video somewhere of him crushing one.
Not sure the history, maybe HD forced his hand into making a "beginner bike" which not only went against his racing pedigree but also made the Buell name subservient to HD themselves.

They do shake a lot, but they should be easy to work on and lightweight.
They also make less power than the GS500, and the GS500 is a staple beginner moto.  It shouldn't be very intimidating.

If the transmission is anything like my lightning it'll be clunky.

I was actually considering PMing you regarding this choice, seeing if you knew of any good Buell forums or other online resources. I found BadWeatherBikers and boy is that site hard to look at, even if there's tons of good info there lol. Reminds me of an early 90's BBS, a bit disorganized if you ask me. They seem to like the Blast well enough though, even if Buell himself didn't .

But yeah, consensus online seems to be that the gearbox is very clunky, but I don't think that's really much of a "problem". Anyway, the Blast seems like a good choice all around: its a decent beginner moto, and the seat height is low enough that my girlfriend (~5'2") will be able to balance it without being on her tip toes as she is when sitting on my GS. Plus, she seems to like the way it looks and I feel like getting her a bike she actually likes the look of (without my having to do any aesthetic mods) is good way to keep her stoked on riding. I know I wouldn't be psyched to go ride a bike I thought was lame.

[Watcher]

I'm on BuellXB.com

Good site, and there's dedicated sections for the Blast, 1125s, and even EBR.
Everything you'll ever need to know Buell can be found there.

One cool thing about Blasts is the bodywork is made of essentially "golfball plastic" and they are molded in color.  So it will weather abuse VERY well aside from things like breaking mirrors/signals/pegs etc.

[qcbaker]

I'm on BuellXB.com

Good site, and there's dedicated sections for the Blast, 1125s, and even EBR.
Everything you'll ever need to know Buell can be found there.

One cool thing about Blasts is the bodywork is made of essentially "golfball plastic" and they are molded in color.  So it will weather abuse VERY well aside from things like breaking mirrors/signals/pegs etc.

That site is much better lol Thanks mate. If I have any questions, I'll head over there.

And I'm assuming this bike with probably be dropped at some point (as most first bikes are) so study bodywork is definitely a plus.

[qcbaker]

So today, the Blast seller texted me saying he couldn't get the bike to start. I told him I'd still come look at it and if I could get it started, I'd still be willing to buy it. Figured the battery might just be dead, so it was worth it to drive out and see. Showed up with no expectations, but the bike started on the first try and ran perfectly when I took my test ride . Bought the bike and rode it home on the highway, and in stop and go traffic, even stopped for lunch. Had no problems whatsoever. Anyway, my girlfriend loves it. All is going according to plan lol