Saying Goodbye and a New Dot Com Scooter Rises…

Since I got my full motorcycle learners license, I’ve been busy looking for a successor to my Yamah C3 scooter. The road was long and my ass is sore from riding so many different bikes over the last week, but the search is finally over. However, before I unveil the new leader of the Dot Com Scooter Gang, I’d like to take a moment to remember my 2007 Yamaha C3 scooter, known to everyone as Happy Scooter.

Happy Scooter came into my life on June 27th 2008. I originally purchased him to battle the overinflated gas prices and although he was quite successful in doing that, getting anywhere between 133 - 197 KM’s per 4.5 Liter tank (at around $5.30 - 6.50 per fill up), it was clear that this little scooter had more personality than anything else on the market in the 50cc class. It wasn’t the most powerful or the coolest looking, but the cavernous storage really caught my eye. For the same reason why I chose a Subaru Impreza Wagon over a sedan, I chose Happy Scooter: He was practical and was low maintenance and the extended ass end gave me a place to throw my crap.

Although he was pretty much ready to go out of the box, I made small upgrades to enhance his comfort and his usefulness. Later, I added even more practical touches, like a first aid kit that came in quite handy in patching up a certain Segway Crasher during Dot Com Scooter Gang, where Happy Scooter proudly led the Dot Com Crew around Vancouver, “Meep Meeping” happily along the way. During his first check up, Happy Scooter surprised me again as a quick variator weight upgrade gave him even more pep and power, showing off just how much heart his 49cc engine had. Although the Yamaha C3 currently lacks a good base of aftermarket parts, there are manufacturers stepping up and you’ll see those parts in the very near future.

Despite his boxy demeanor, Happy Scooter comes with a formidable pedigree. His brother, a Blue 2007 Yamaha C3 Scooter owned by Mike and Keri went across Canada, from Vancouer to Barrie, this past Summer and travelled over 4486KM’s on just $153.76 worth of gas. Happy Scooter was very excited to hear that.

This past week, while looking for a new Dot Com Scooter, I was also looking for the right person to adopt Happy Scooter. I thought that his new parent would be a mommy, but she fell victim to the charms of a free Honda Ruckus, a Scooter that doesn’t hold a candle to Happy Scooter, but free is good. I went down the list of potential parents and found Chris, who just happened to be a fan of Happy Scooter and has been following his EPIC adventures around the lower mainland.

This past Tuesday, Chris became Happy Scooter’s new Papa. Chris is a cool guy and I know he’ll take good care of him. He has also promised to continue updating his Twitter account so that all his fans can continue to witness his EPIC scootering adventures as he moves from Port Moody to Vancouver. Knowing that Happy Scooter has a good home and a good Papa means that I’m now free to take delivery of my new scooter friend…

The next day after completing the adoption with Happy Scooter, I went down to the Vancouver KYMCO dealership, Rideaway Motors, to pick up the new leader of the Dot Com Scooter Gang. Instead of going back to Happy Scooter’s family, Yamaha, I decided to cast a wider net and rode all sorts of different scooters from different companies and finally settled on something from the land of the crazy scooters. We’re talking Taiwan of course. It also helped that the crew at Rideaway Motors gave me a great deal and were very helpful with the whole purchase process. If you are looking for a KYMCO Scooter in Vancouver, definitely go see them.

I am now the proud owner of a 2007 KYMCO Bet&Win 150 Scooter. Except for the weird name and the really red paint job, I immediately connected with the ride of this scooter. On the test ride I was really impressed with the quick and nimble handling and the acceleration; things that keep scooters from becoming carnage in the land of Taiwan where scooters are a way of life. In fact, I’m sure I’ve almost been run over by a couple of them over there.

I’m going to take a few more days to get acquainted with my new scooter. I haven’t even named him yet, though I have noticed that he does 110 KM/h on the Barnet Hwy and has frickin’ heat vents to keep you warm, near the steering column. I’m serious. While it was easy to figure out Happy Scooter’s personality and give him a name, it’s not so clear with this new scoot. He’s really red and really quick, but I don’t want to call him “The Flash” or something. I wasn’t sure about the color initially, particularly because it would be parked beside my red Subaru Impreza Wagon, which IMHO is a bit tacky, but oh well. Welcome Home New Scooter.

The Motorcycle and Scooter Dilemma

Since testing and passing for my full learners motorcycle license, I’ve been presented with a bit of a problem. I’m torn between whether I should get a new motorcycle or buy a bigger scooter. Here’s how it played out based on my criteria…

Parking - One of the things that is awesome about a scooter is that I can pretty much put it wherever I want. It’s like RockStar parking wherever I go. The change to a motorcycle will not only get me noticed, but the parking cops and the mall security people start to notice too. Right now, with Happy Scooter, I can stick it beside a bike rack, go away for hours. I know I couldn’t do that with a motorcycle. Point for new scooter.

Storage - Happy Scooter has crazy amounts of storage. You can hold two bags of groceries in the cavernous trunk. Motorcycles have no trunks and if you need additional storage, you need to add hard cases and top cases, making the vehicle fatter, heavier, and even more difficult to maneuver in super tight spots. All scooters have varying degrees of underseat storage and some scooters have hooks on the front for your groceries. Since I often have stuff to pick up at the post office, or errands to do, the added bulk and cost of adding storage cases put the motorcycle in the dog house. Point for new scooter.

Performance - Although most motorcycles are much more powerful than scooters, their size and weight make them hard to maneuver in tight traffic. Motorcycles also have additional controls for the clutch and a foot brake. A scooter is comparatively simple, only requiring you to twist the throttle and the CVT transmission takes care of the rest. Front and rear brakes are both on the bars, making them easy to reach in a panic. This puts less distractions in front of you when jockeying for position in the city traffic. Outside the city however, the added weight and power of a motorcycle gives way to highway stability and headroom for passing slow moving cars and staying out of the way of large trucks. Since I’ll be mainly traversing urban highways and battling traffic in the city, the scooter makes more sense in my case. Draw: A scooter is better in the city but the motorcycle is better outside the city.

Gas Mileage - A motorcycle, displacement for displacement, gets lower gas mileage than any scooter. The CVT transmission always shifts at the optimum RPM and as a result, the engine is more efficent. We know that blipping the throttle, taking off in a lower gear and what not is a lot of fun, but it doesn’t make for the best gas mileage. Since one of my major reasons for getting into two wheeled transport in the first place was to stick it to the oil companies, it’s clear that scooter wins. Point for scooter.

Cool Factor - Of course, scooters are dorky as hell in North America. However, in the rest of the world, they are the mode of transportation of choice for the masses. When I selected my Yamaha C3 scooter, I knew that it wasn’t the looker. Some thought it was ugly, and no one called it pretty. However, it was definitely functional. Since I’m all about utility these days, the scooter works for me, but cool factor definitely belongs to a bad ass cruiser anyday of the week. Point for Motorcycle.

At the end of the day though, I turned to two wheeled transport for the practical aspects. I save nearly enough money in gas each month to purchase an Xbox 360 (Arcade) and I get to park wherever the hell I want. Most of the time I don’t even have to pay even though everyone else does. Although I can’t rule out getting a motorcycle in the future, for now, scooter FTW.

I’m Sort of Legal To Ride a Motorcycle Now

So this past Thursday, I had another Motorcycle Lesson with my instructor, Dave Clayton, at 2Wheel 2Ition Motorcycle School. First off, he obviously doesn’t have super web design skills as evident by his website. However, what he lacks in Interwebs Skillz, he more than makes up for in being probably one of the most patient and thorough instructors of anything that I’ve ever been instructed in. Motorcycle riding is extremely dangerous if you lack the proper experience and education and I’ve felt safe riding with Dave every step of the way, from front wheel sliding in the parking lot and almost dumping the bike, to slightly wet pavement in the downtown core of Maple Ridge. Despite never being on a motorcycle, I certainly faired much better than a certain segway crasher.

The thing I’ve been particularly impressed with about Dave is how he keeps his cool even when his students lose it. This in turn makes his students feel at ease. I wonder if he could teach Kwanye to ride a scooter rather than crashing it? I guess after being on the Vancouver Police Force for thirty years he’s seen it all, but I’ll have to ask him if he’s seen anyone bite it on a Segway in his long tenure on the force.

During the Thursday class, I met up with Dave again with one of the other students and we started the day with a road ride. We ended up doing a lot of turns with lots of stop signs in the suburbs of Maple Ridge including a lot of hill starts and U-Turns. When we got back to the parking lot, he setup cones and he ran us through the Motorcycle Skills Test that we’d be going through to get my restrictions pulled off my license so that I could ride by myself during the day without any supervision. This would of course open up the doors to shopping for a successor to Scooter.

After about half an hour or so of practicing, he informs us that the Motorcycle Skills Tester would be stopping by to do our test. I wasn’t nervous since I was doing pretty good in my low speed maneuvers, but a little notice would have been nice. Wasting no more time panicking, I continued to practice as we waited for the tester to arrive. About half an hour later, tester shows up and it’s show time.

With none of the students willing to volunteer, Dave volunteers the other student. I breathe a huge sigh of relief. Not going first also allows me to observe what the tester is watching for and what things the other rider screws up on. About 20 minutes later, she passes within the maximum allowable amount of demerits. Relief for her. Great anticipation for me. The tester beckons me to take my spot at the line and runs through the first part of the test with me verbally. Part one of the test includes a slow, walking pace ride, a stop, then a u-turn in a box not much bigger than two parking spots and then a slalom through some cones.

I run through the first part of the test carefully and make it through. I’m relieved. The tester goes through the second part of the test and I’m off again. Since the second part is the same as the first, but with a left hand turn to start, I feel pretty good and complete the course and return to the starting area. Next up was the third part and then the final part.

Part three consists of a quick acceleration to about 25 - 30 KM/h, then a wide sweeping right hand turn. At the completion of the turn, you are to accelerate up to 20 - 25 KM/h to a set of cones and then stop before the second set of cones. You are not to stop until the tester says so. I do the acceleration, the right hand sweeper, and accelerate up to 20 - 25 KM/h and wait for the testers signal. At the first set of cones, the instructor dropped his hand and I came to a controlled stop. Not bad. I thought I almost slid the rear wheel which is a demerit. I couldn’t recall.

Part four is the same as the third part, except you start the straight line acceleration with a wide right hand turn. I made the turn, accelerated, hit the sweeper, and then came down the straight stretch to the controlled stop area. The tester drops his hand, I grab the front, then the rear brake and come down for a controlled stop. Perfect. To add to the great finish, the tester tallies up my total and declares that I’ve done the whole test perfectly, with no mistakes. He signs off my test form and gives it to me so that I can take it to ICBC to have my restrictions removed.

Since I rode Scooter in, I twisted his throttle as far as it could go and did a little over the speed limit so I could make it to the ICBC Office to have my license updated. After my license was updated, you get a new piece of yellow paper that limits you only to riding between dawn and dusk. Since getting my license updated, I’ve been out looking at motorcycles and scooters and I’ve narrowed the list down somewhat. I have one more test ride tomorrow and then I’ll share my final choices with you guys.