Long Ride

Yesterday I finally got that long ride I've wanted. 47 miles in town. As hard as this is to admit, after this experience I am convinced that if you ride in town, scooters are a much better choice than motorcycles. There is no thrill like that of a long ride across the countryside on a motorcycle, leanin' low in the curves and running through the gears. But in the city, dealing with constant traffic and stop signs and traffic lights, the scooter is the only way to go. I've ridden for 2 hours on a motorcycle in the city; it's exhausting. But after nearly 4 hours on the scooter (including a couple of stops) I felt great. Not having to shift constantly is the biggest advantage for the scooter, but the ability to change seating positions helps a lot too. And the superior maneuverability is just a bonus. On this scooter you can sit in a standard upright position with feet flat. Or you can put your feet forward and slouch, like you’re on a cruiser. Or (my favorite) bend your elbows, lean forward and put your feet at the rear of the floorboard, giving you a sporty position. The downfall on this model of scooter is the seat. It’s sloped forward and is too narrow. You can offset this somewhat by sitting way back as far as you can. Also the closer your knees are together the better (I don’t know why). And as I mentioned before, it would be great to be able to store my helmet under the seat. As for fuel economy, well, the gauge says I used half a tank (tank is about 1.5 gal) I can not attest to the accuracy of the gauge, but from what other Chinese clone bike owners say, mine seems much more accurate that most. And by the way, I got caught in the rain for the second time on this scooter. I didn’t like it, but the bike didn’t seem to mind a bit.