I bought my wife an '08 Honda CHF50 (Metropolitan) last year. She had wanted a scoot for 7-8 years, so it was a huge birthday surprise. She rode around everywhere last year and fell in love with it. When she wasn't riding it though, I would take it around myself, even though I'm sure it looked like the big bear riding a tiny bicycle at the circus. I'm 6'1", 200lbs, but that's okay, it was fun. We decided we both loved it so much, I should go ahead and get one the following year. So after years of looking at them for fun, I looked at them seriously for a while, but was so conflicted. I honestly liked lots of different kinds; Yamaha C3's, old 1980's Honda Elite's, Lance (SYM) Cali Classics, but always loved Stellas. The old vespa design, manual shifting, just so cool. Actually, our third daughter is named Stella (named before we found out about the scooter)! I almost didn't pursue one because I didn't want to make my wife jealous. Seriously. But with her blessing,
I started looking and after a while found a couple. But I went to go see the one that seemed to have a more caring owner, not the one "cleaning out his garage and it's in the way." Drove out to see it and fell in love; '08 avocado green, with newish Prima whitewalls. The original owner, named Luke, had already deblued the air filter, put on a Simonini exhaust, and aftermarket seat with a nice rack. It had been dropped once, but it was hardly noticeable. Thankfully he had a nice neighborhood to test ride in, and after a nice long ride I was hooked. I love it to death, and man, what a difference from the Honda. A bit fussier, so old school feeling, and solid. I've been into old air-cooled VW's forever, and oddly enough it's somewhat similar. In a weird way. I'm having trouble posting photos, once I can figure it out I'll post some of the 2 scoots next to our '60 euro model (semaphore) Beetle.
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So far we've taken a few rides together (when Grandma babysits) and its' so awesome. It may not be as easy as a modern automatic scoot, but it's so worth it. And sorry to ramble on; I love the scoot, and figured if anywhere, here's the place to go on about it. Look forward to talking to you guys more in the future! BTW, any scooter clubs around KC?
-evan
