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As a large bike rider (F6B-Goldwing-FJR etc) I have lusted after some of the cooler scooters, but would not ride one in public because would have to turn in the "man" card. My buddy bought a new BMW650 scooter for his wife a couple years ago and brought it out to his hangar. We both rode it around the airport but that's all, was fun for sure. Cut eye holes in the paper bag over the helmet. I suppose with counseling or electric shock therapy I could come out of the scooter closet...........
Erm... Man Card, whit that level of insecurity? You might want to check again, it appears to have expired.
Seriously, NO ONE CARES what you ride. If you think less of someone else for what they ride, that speaks only of you and nothing of them.
Some of the best memories I have of riding are on a YSR50.... mind you, I'm 6'4". Second to that were my years racing an RS125, and the decade I rode Ninja 250's on the street despite having access to any/everything else. I find big bikes flat out boring, not sure I even put 5k miles on the Concours I owned at a time when I was putting roughly 25,000 miles a year on motorcycles. Same story for all the "big bikes" I've worked on or had loaned to me, might as well be in a Prius for the excitement level offered. Put me on an Aprilia RS250 though, and I'm loving the experience (well, so long as the roads around me have some bends to them).
If I lived in a small town, I would buy a scooter. They are fun, and I am not worried about my man card. Could care less what others thought.
I was on a freeway several years ago, going up a hill at about 70 mph on my ST1300, when I looked over and there was a guy on a Burgman next to me. First thought was I never knew they had that much power, and that he is going as fast as me, at probably half the weight, and twice the mpg.
If I lived in a small town, I would buy a scooter. They are fun, and I am not worried about my man card. Could care less what others thought.
I was on a freeway several years ago, going up a hill at about 70 mph on my ST1300, when I looked over and there was a guy on a Burgman next to me. First thought was I never knew they had that much power, and that he is going as fast as me, at probably half the weight, and twice the mpg.
Burgman 650 will do 110mph......quick machines......
As a large bike rider (F6B-Goldwing-FJR etc) I have lusted after some of the cooler scooters, but would not ride one in public because would have to turn in the "man" card. My buddy bought a new BMW650 scooter for his wife a couple years ago and brought it out to his hangar. We both rode it around the airport but that's all, was fun for sure. Cut eye holes in the paper bag over the helmet. I suppose with counseling or electric shock therapy I could come out of the scooter closet...........
I understand your reticence.
Look at it this way:
In the 1980s, when I was a wee lad (teen), there was nothing cooler than the Ninja 900 and Yamaha FJ1100, both of which came out in 1984. I was knee deep in the magazines and got why the water-cooled Ninja was such a revolution. The FJ was one of the very last liter bikes that were air cooled yet made big HP and handled okay too. For the day...these days they're a dangerous joke as they won't STOP and handle weird on 16" wheels and...never mind. That was then and chassis geometry was and is an ongoing research project. I swore I'd own an FJ, and by God I did in 1989 and wasn't that a dream-fulfilling day? Put 45K miles on that thing, too, until the engine blew up for the last time and I sold it to a drag team for $1,000, whereby they did a complete rebuild...never mind.
Because I was a kid and was broke as hell, I started on a Honda Aero 125 that same year. I rode it for years and sucked it up. It was NOT cool or hip, I was some nerd on a scooter. Didn't help get dates, it was pure practicality. Someone did me a favor and stole it end of 1986, whereby I went and bought a GpZ 550 in March 1987 for $500 (worth every penny) and did not see another scooter in my future.
However: punchline to the above is I have no use for sport bikes anymore. For decades...20 years...I figured anyone not riding a sportbike was probably either an outlaw biker (nothing to do with me) or some yuppie poseur. I saw what I wanted, and firmly believed it. Call it confirmation bias or tribalism.
Then in 2010, I bought an Adventure bike and traded in the GT bike. (Ducati Multistrada, which was then new and revolutionary). It handled, and was the ultimate tour bike too weirdly enough: I did a couple multi thousand mile roadtrips on that thing and it handled it well.
Now here I am at 51. It is possible...possible, mind...I could end up in some old fuddy place like SW Florida in ten years to kick it back a notch and flip the bird to this rat-race. I'm thinking it over, hard. MAYBE a big scooter, like what the old 650 Burgman "executive cycles" were all about, is the way to go at that point. I'll be in my lime green golf pants, light armored jacket and gloves, and buzz around town but really not go further than 40 miles from home under any circumstances...further, I'll drive or in all probability fly first class thankya very much. I can see it, and not feeling a bit ashamed either as once again, coming full circle...
...That will have become the right tool for the job, within my means, and within my demographic manages to salvage at least a modicum of dignity. The kids can point and laugh, because in 1983 I WAS that kid pointing and laughing. And so it goes.
I've got a Honda Elite 80 that is loads of fun and perfect for short jaunts around town on side roads. It's my favorite mode of transportation for quick runs to dinner or going out for ice cream.
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