Post by xcountryron on Apr 25, 2010 15:34:57 GMT -5
I bought a 150 CC Bashan scooter from Peace Power Sports (AKA Green Earth Scooters), ordered on April 8, and it was delivered in the shipping carton on April 13. I spent the next couple of days putting the scooter together and chasing down a fuel line leak.
I enrolled in a motorcycle safety course that ran over 4 mornings from April 19 to April 22. I'm retired so I had mornings free. I had no way to get my scooter to the course location, being a round trip of 50 miles, and the scooter was not licensed, so I used a 2005 Honda Metropolitan, that they supplied, for the range work. (I did buy a motorcycle rack from Northern Tool for our Tundra the other day. $150 plus tax.)
We had two classroom sessions and two longer sessions on the driving range. I did fine in the classroom, passing the written test, 100%. I've always been a careful motorist, no citations ever, and last crash ($165 in damage) in 1970. I also took and passed an Effective Cycling (bicycling) course a number of years ago and have had around 210,000 lifetime adult miles on my bicycle with 25 years of almost year around bike commuting in the Milwaukee area of Wisconsin. Over that 25 years I had two crashes. The first was a right hook. A van passed me on the left and turned right into a driveway. The second was that I hit a car that backed quickly out of a driveway. I was day-dreaming. Somewhat my fault but the car driver's insurance company was quick to fix my bicycle.
I did have trouble on the driving range. The Honda had driveability issues. The course instructor thought the scooter needed to warm up but the engine just stalled when you rolled on the gas after an extended idling. I finally figured out that I needed to keep engine revs up and hold the bike in line using the brakes. But my two big problems were that I didn't push, counter-steer, on one hand grip to turn that way and I didn't swivel my head enough to look ahead. Personally, I think the Honda has pretty upright steering so it doesn't lean very well when you push on a hand grip so you have to steer more than lean through the corners. In contrast, my Tour Easy bicycle, practically drops on its' side when you push on a hand grip. Anyway, I didn't pass the range tests and have been asked to come back again after I practice on my own scooter for some time.
In the mean time I've received the Certificate of Origin and the Bill of Sale so I'll go to the DMV tomorrow to get the scooter registered and titled and hopefully license plates and a temp permit. I also went to the library and found a great book, “Proficient Motorcycling” by David L. Hough, which I'm reading. There is a church parking lot nearby so I can set up a driving range and go through the suggested exercises in the “You and Your Scooter – Riding Tips” booklet published by MSF.
I enrolled in a motorcycle safety course that ran over 4 mornings from April 19 to April 22. I'm retired so I had mornings free. I had no way to get my scooter to the course location, being a round trip of 50 miles, and the scooter was not licensed, so I used a 2005 Honda Metropolitan, that they supplied, for the range work. (I did buy a motorcycle rack from Northern Tool for our Tundra the other day. $150 plus tax.)
We had two classroom sessions and two longer sessions on the driving range. I did fine in the classroom, passing the written test, 100%. I've always been a careful motorist, no citations ever, and last crash ($165 in damage) in 1970. I also took and passed an Effective Cycling (bicycling) course a number of years ago and have had around 210,000 lifetime adult miles on my bicycle with 25 years of almost year around bike commuting in the Milwaukee area of Wisconsin. Over that 25 years I had two crashes. The first was a right hook. A van passed me on the left and turned right into a driveway. The second was that I hit a car that backed quickly out of a driveway. I was day-dreaming. Somewhat my fault but the car driver's insurance company was quick to fix my bicycle.
I did have trouble on the driving range. The Honda had driveability issues. The course instructor thought the scooter needed to warm up but the engine just stalled when you rolled on the gas after an extended idling. I finally figured out that I needed to keep engine revs up and hold the bike in line using the brakes. But my two big problems were that I didn't push, counter-steer, on one hand grip to turn that way and I didn't swivel my head enough to look ahead. Personally, I think the Honda has pretty upright steering so it doesn't lean very well when you push on a hand grip so you have to steer more than lean through the corners. In contrast, my Tour Easy bicycle, practically drops on its' side when you push on a hand grip. Anyway, I didn't pass the range tests and have been asked to come back again after I practice on my own scooter for some time.
In the mean time I've received the Certificate of Origin and the Bill of Sale so I'll go to the DMV tomorrow to get the scooter registered and titled and hopefully license plates and a temp permit. I also went to the library and found a great book, “Proficient Motorcycling” by David L. Hough, which I'm reading. There is a church parking lot nearby so I can set up a driving range and go through the suggested exercises in the “You and Your Scooter – Riding Tips” booklet published by MSF.
