Modern Buddy

So the only manual bike I'd ever ridden was a friend's Vespa PK50... Until last night. Was out riding around and jokingly asked my friend if he wanted to trade rides. He said "why not?" I think, no problem, I've ridden a shifty before.

I didn't expect the Stella to be a completely different animal. I was a little too aggressive with the throttle and not smooth enough with the clutch and did a nice little wheelie.

I will say that, to my credit, I didn't panic and got it under control without incident. I only rode it about five miles and even though my shifting was rather awful, I want one. I really want one.

The adventure begins...

Ha... same thing happened to me when I test rode a shifty Stella from Craigslist. To her credit, the seller didn't freak and gave me a high-five.

Decided I'd rather stick with twist-and-go.

LOL! I am just really glad you didn't try a GSX-R1000 or similar bike. If you wheelied a Stella, it is hard to imagine what would have happened on s true sports bike. This is why I tell all new bikers to start out with a small displacement bike: mistakes are far less painful!

Yeah, I have no interest in a really powerful bike anyway. So there's no way I'd jump on a 1000cc sport bike without a lot of experience.

I'm looking at getting a Yamaha R3 fairly soon and also considered one of the Honda 500 range. That's about all the bike I should ever need.

I have been up and down the displacement race a few times. I always end up returning to small bikes. For me, they are simply a lot more fun. I can play TT racer without ever exceeding the speed limit (well, not by TOO much! I recently got a very stern look from a cop who caught me doing 55 in a 35 zone, riding my Buddy 50 down a rather steep hill. I was afraid he was going to pull me over and give me a ticket. If he had, I suspect that I would have gotten it framed!)

jrstone wrote:So the only manual bike I'd ever ridden was a friend's Vespa PK50... Until last night. Was out riding around and jokingly asked my friend if he wanted to trade rides. He said "why not?" I think, no problem, I've ridden a shifty before.

I didn't expect the Stella to be a completely different animal. I was a little too aggressive with the throttle and not smooth enough with the clutch and did a nice little wheelie.

I will say that, to my credit, I didn't panic and got it under control without incident. I only rode it about five miles and even though my shifting was rather awful, I want one. I really want one.

Two-stroke Stellas/Vespas are funny things. Once you get the hang of gear changing, get a feel for finessing the clutch and get the hang of rev-matching on downshifts, the ride becomes very engaging.

They are not very finicky machines, but you do need to learn a bit about keeping the clutch and gear change cables properly lubricated and tensioned.

stella is like cocaine...your first (wheelie/ride/shift, etc) is free, then your hooked...quirks and all.

welcome to the Krakhaus..

Looks like I killed another thread...

Nope. It's just that Stella's a hard thing to get. You need to give her more than a passing glance or a single test-ride. If it's a 4T, you need to break it in some because they're slower than molasses in January until the engine loosens up some.

In comparison, Stella's an easy thing compared to the RC helicopter I just bought!

jrstone wrote:Yeah, I have no interest in a really powerful bike anyway. So there's no way I'd jump on a 1000cc sport bike without a lot of experience.

I'm looking at getting a Yamaha R3 fairly soon and also considered one of the Honda 500 range. That's about all the bike I should ever need.

The R3 and Ninja300 are on my radar. Really fun bikes.