Taming the small wheel

If you're still on those stock IRC or Cheng Shins or whatever it was it came with I wouldn't push it either. Swap that rear out for a Michelin S1 or something and you'll be scraping hard parts in no time (at least on the left side - the plastic transmission cover is the first to scrape; on the right I think it's the centerstand and it's harder to get to. Hooray for roundabouts!)

And I gotta throw my hat in with the "scooter like a hooligan" crowd. I don't have a big bike but I am 100x the asshole on my scooter than I am in my car. It was bad on the Metro, worse on the Vino, and worse still on the Stella (since I don't have to wait for the CVT to catch up).

Agreed. The stock Cheng Shin tires on my former Vino 125 were terrible. I swapped them for Pirelli SL26 and the scoot handled great. Hit the hard points on both sides of the bike... no problem. (As Seraph stated, plastic transmission cover ont he left, center stand on the right.)

You think about how it will fall apart as you ride down the road.

Pam, who had the full experience with a '78 Sportster Cafe and gladly traded it for a R90S

yeah, that 78 is damn near identical to a 2010.

Why not keep both?

The little 125 for sure isn't an expensive thing to keep around, and
you'll STILL use it more then your HD after a month or two of ownership,
I can guarantee that!

$


I think I'm over the HD already. It was a 24-hour bug.

Yeah, it works well, jack of all trades, master of none.

I actually should have gone the CBF600 or Bandit 650 route, but
I didn't know then what I know now.

$ ?!

Selling that little kymco will get you what.. new set of tires for the
HD? Or "free fuel" for a few months? It's so cheap to buy and maintain,
you should probably have 3 or 4 of them for it to become an issue.

I earn $600/month here in Croatia, and bikes here cost 40-60% more
then in USA. For the price of the 650R here, I could have had the ZX14
there..

New tires are 2/3 months' salary. Every 6000km check-up is 1/3.
Registration/insurance is $1,5k (!).

And while my 650R sits in the garage with worn out tires.. I'm at under
24 hours untill my new Kymco Agility arrives. That thing is cheaper to
buy and maintain then some of my bicycles have been.

I've grinded both sides of my 50cc peugeot scoot's centerstand and
had no chicken strips on the front, and after 15k miles on the Ninja 650
I've still got almost 1" chicken strips on the rear.

..and my scoot had a bit under 20k miles on it, the suspension and frame
were "tired".. bending and twisting, the shocks were also ready to be
"refreshed", it was undersprung to begin with etc etc.

I've got the job of a bike courier like 7 months ago and that (being on the
road and on the scoot daily) has improved my riding by a huge amount.

Your scoot is better in every way then mine was, you just need 'brand
name' tires. Nothing even fancy is needed.. and let the fun begin!

I don't have a Kymco. I just spent $3K for the Zuma 125. I have a family. I have to throw food at them a few times a day. You know the drill.

It's also simple physics. 2 fun-machines cannot occupy the same space (in my garage).

I do have a line on a '09 Agility 125 at a dealer CHEAP! I might try to get around physics and cram the Agility in with the Zuma.

When do you pick up the Agility?

That's true. It's weird: concurrent ownership of a big'un and a scoot might result in a dramatic fall-off of big-bike motocycling.

Maybe is has to do with traffic nowadays; most riding for lots of folks anymore does not happen along empty high-crowned county roads through fields and woods, - I would think: "Well, do I want to tug around in a forty-foot city bus today or buzz & weave with the mosquito?"

Sorry, I meant the Zuma, same thing :)
Why would you want both a Zuma and an Agility tho?
It's virtually the same thing in different packaging.

You get the Agility City there with the 16" wheels?
She's a beaut!

If all goes well, my Agility should arrive in a van tomorrow afternoon *bitesnails*

Exactly!

And my 650R is known for it's agility (not the kymco, pay attention dammit),
imagine how a HD would do! But still, IT'S A PIG compared to the zip'n'go my little 50cc had!

I'm hoping the Agility would be just as agile (pun intended), but give me
what the peugeot lacked.. more getup'n'go, especially 2up up2 (?) ~40mph
and it SHOULD return better MPG numbers the the little 2 stroke too.

I was considering going even smaller, like the Piaggio ZIP.. but only the 100cc 4 stroke
was available, and it's too slow Wish we had the 125.

Not to mention it's legal.. my 50cc derestricted wasn't, and the cop controls
were becoming more and more frequent.

Perhaps shifting your weight back helps when you are moving along briskly?

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Better to keep it light on the front wheel???

When I got my Stella, I also had a Zx-9, HD Softtail and a DR650 I raced dual sport events on (some chronicled in the thumper section) in my shed.
The awesome Greg and Ginger of Philly Stella warned me to be very careful cuz riding a scoot after years on a MC is not very easy. Uh huh, "Right........." thinks me. "s u u u u r e....."

Wow. :eek1 I was humbled quickly. I got used to it but it wasnt easy.
Thank goodness for the experience gained after all those lost nites staggering wobbly home after a jug of Old Crow..... Saved me from some treacherous learning bumps

Compared to a motorcycle, a small frame 125cc scooter is much more agile and quicker to turn in, also twitchier. You can just throw these little scooters into a corner with body english, and you will be laughing inside your helmet the entire time. They make you want to ride like a hooligan. They are also very practical as they hold a lot of cargo under that seat. Fantastic errand runners. Downside is that brakes and suspension are marginal and definitely not up to motorcycle standards.

To make a comparison, when I had my VStrom, I bought a DR650. The first week I had it, the DR felt like a motorized bicycle compared to that big Strom.

I now have the DR, a cruiser and the Agility 125. Compared to the DR, the Agility truly feels like a motorized bicycle - it is so light and small, it makes the DR feel big and heavy.

It appears to me that you should actually get a motorized bicycle!

Thanks for the input, Soboy.
Your thread on the Agility confirms the role of this sized scooter in the universe of two wheeling. Your experience with the other bikes is much like mine and is why I seem to be slipping downward in the displacement ladder.
OK, fess up.....which one of the trio gets most of "the love".

Always wanted a bicycle with a motor as a kid! I think the Agility is close enough for now.

Here is how I use the three:

DR650 - I put the most miles on this one. Used for dual sport riding and street rides when I want to carve corners. Average ride length on the DR is 100 - 200 miles.

Shadow - mainly used to cruise around the suburbs and exurbs. Also used to run errands and ride to my girlfriend's house, which is a 15 mile ride each way.

Agility - used 5 days a week. I live 1.5 miles from my son's house, and I use the Agility to visit him Monday - Friday. Also used as a local errand runner and grocery getter. Longest one way trip is 15 miles.