Nice day for a scoot

...and I wasn't the only one to think so.

I met my best friend at a local nursing home where he was paying a visit to a church member, and we took our scooters to the local "Berean" bookstore. He was riding his little Wildfire, which I noted has started to lose its rear turn signals. I took a moment to take a closer look and saw that they just sit on a pair of little metal nubs which they had popped off of. They were just hanging by their wires, which speaks to the quality of Chinese construction. They still work, but just the same, I'd rather have my durable turn signal posts instead of flimsy rubber ones sitting on metal nubs.

Anyway, I saw a 200cc Yamaha Riva scooter. Kinda neat little bugger. It's just too bad that Yamaha doesn't make a 200 anymore. I'd really like a 200cc eventually, but unfortunately none of the Japanese manufacturers make a 200 at this point in time. Neither Yamaha nor Honda have even a 250cc in their lineups this year. Honda seems to have cut out everything except for their 50cc's for 2009, and Yamaha seems to be focusing on the 50cc, 125cc, and 400cc+ crowd. From what I understand, Honda hasn't manufactured the Elite 80, the Helix, or the Reflex since the '07 model year. It really seems like they don't care about the scooter market, which kinda surprises me since it seems like there's a lot of money to be made from them at this point.

125cc is fine I guess, but it seems a little underpowered to me. 150 is a little better, but when I get a new scoot, I want it to be something with enough oomph to take me up to about 65 MPH and keep me there comfortably, but with a small enough engine that I'm not sucking down gas like there's no tomorrow.

Ahh well, unfortunately there is a tomorrow and I need to get to sleep so I can wake up in the morning. So, safe scooting and keep your eyes open for all the other scootin' fools out there.