Modern Buddy

Spent an afternoon after a meeting downtown checking out the options.

Looking at the 150-250's.

The Kymco People 250 is a very nice scooter, at $3999, it's a good deal.

The Piaggio Fly 150 isn't even in the same league as the Blur, as a matter of fact, none of the 150's are.

The Blur is competing with the 200's and 250's, and with that in mind, it's a steal.

Really, the only negative I see with the Blur, is the graphics and colors.

The Buddy is sooooo right, but the Blur, it's just busy. Too much branding too much Orange (not sunset, ORANGE). Fortunately some of the vinyl is removable, but the orange metal spaces would have to be changed for me.

I've got some more thinking to do, but the Blur is certainly leading the pack right now. One thing to note though. The Blur is not for short people. If you are under 5'6" I don't think this will be a comfortable ride.

dru_ wrote:One thing to note though. The Blur is not for short people. If you are under 5'6" I don't think this will be a comfortable ride.

You're SO right! I had my hopes up, but after sitting on one, there is NO way my 5-foot frame would be able to ride that scooter

Attention Genuine! ... We need something with the power of the Blur but closer to the size of the Buddy (esp. with a low seat!). I'll take ANY color!!

Have you ridden the People S 200 yet ? If not, I'd give it a whirl. I'm actually looking more closely at the 250 (trying to decide if I really *need* the extra 5-10mph top end over the Blur 150), but it's size and seating seems much more accommodating for people that aren't cursed with inseams greater than 34 inches.

Haven't seen the People 200S yet. And I'm afraid to since I have a habit of spontaneous purchases.

I guess I am borderline cursed since my inseam is 34".
I find the Buddy small for my tastes. And I had a hard time trying to figure out how to get on the Blur. Do I (like John said..) do the stork and bend my knee and throw my leg over the front. Or do the motorcycle, throw your leg over the back. Which will be hard if you add a top box.

I've got to admit to doing it girly style, flopping side saddle and swinging a leg in front of me across the middle.

dru_ wrote:The Buddy is sooooo right, but the Blur, it's just busy. Too much branding too much Orange (not sunset, ORANGE). Fortunately some of the vinyl is removable, but the orange metal spaces would have to be changed for me.

I already peeled most of the decals off mine. I like the logo, but it's too big and the orange triangles are too much, and mine were sorta crooked. They were cake to pull off, they'd probably fall off on their own sooner or later. Someday, we'll all be gawking over a Blur that actually has all the original decals.

The "Genuine" logo is screen-printed on, that's not going anywhere.

Once you peel the decals off, there's not really that much orange, just part of the headset (plastic), the bar under the seat around the gas tank (plastic) and the rear rack (metal) (and the shock spring, of course, which is not quite the same color, by the way.)

dru_ wrote:The Blur is not for short people. If you are under 5'6" I don't think this will be a comfortable ride.

I'm 5'10" with a 32" inseam and I'm fine. My wife is about 5'7" with a 28" inseam and she can get her toes down on both sides, or one foot down. Shorter than 5'6", you'd have problems.

I think a great scooter for short legged riders, would be the Yamaha Morphous! The seat height is 5 or 6 inches lower than the typical scooter or motorcycle; if you think a Blur is a challenge at a stop, try my Kawasaki Concours (600 lbs. DRY) or my classic Honda CB750K (500 lbs. DRY)! After those two, my Vespa ET2 50 seems like flying on the back of bumble bee ( or should I say WASP!) That Morphous is certainly a visual stunner, you're either going to love it or hate it. I think in black it looks like the BatCycle, in Silver it looks like something out of 50's Sci-Fi, and in blue it seems a little too tame compared to black or silver; maybe that's why blue was dropped and silver added!

Are you kidding? I LOVE the way that thing looks. That is one fierce looking scooter. Orange is great! There's no shortage of red, yellow and black bikes out there but orange is bright, aggressive and not overused (yet).

As far as inseam goes...yeah that can really limit your choices. the best way I know of to fight that is to find a custom seatmaker and have them cut the seat down for you. Pay the extra for gel since 1/4 inch gel is worth more than an inch of foam. You can actually cut down a seat and have it be more comfortable than when you started. It's a relatively cheap mod that can open the scooter market up for you. I have a 4'9" customer who rides a Stella. She cut the seat down and she still "one cheeks" it at stops, but she got the scooter she always wanted.

Good luck out there.

Although expensive, another option for shorter riders looking to gain some hieght is with the Daytona Lady Star or M Star boots.

illnoise wrote:Someday, we'll all be gawking over a Blur that actually has all the original decals.

The plus is that since they are just cut vinyl, anyone with a vector graphics program (Adobe Illustrator, etc.) and the skill to use it will be able to replicate those decals and then have them reproduced.

I was very worried about the seat height, my inseam is 29inches.

Sure enough once I sat on a Blur I found I could not flat foot both sides - I have to toe them or just flat foot one side. Fortunately my years as a bicyclist has accustomed me to high seats and not being able to touch the ground - at least on the Blue I don't have to slide off the saddle.

The Blur is light enough that I found I was very comfortable putting only one foot flat and leaning a wee bit - even with a bad knee - and once moving the seat height improves the comfort of the ride. On a heavier bike this could be a problem.

I was also looking at a couple of big wheel bikes - Like the People. Love the big wheel feel. Small wheels feel a bit too squirrelly to me at speed. I expected the Blur's 13 inch wheels to feel more like small wheels than like the 16s on a People, but they felt solid and unstoppable (except by the Blur's disc brakes) - I have to attribute the big wheel feel to the Blur's excellent suspension, it just keeps those 13 inchers rolling straight and true.

-Mark

BlueMark wrote:I expected the Blur's 13 inch wheels to feel more like small wheels than like the 16s on a People, but they felt solid and unstoppable (except by the Blur's disc brakes) - I have to attribute the big wheel feel to the Blur's excellent suspension, it just keeps those 13 inchers rolling straight and true.

Mark,

I totally agree with you on this. In fierce crosswinds, the Blur tracked like it was on rail while all the vintage scooter guys were being blown all over the place.

-John