Today is the day!!

[paper]

I'm about to go shower and get ready to go to work, and today is the first day I'll be riding my $500 People 50!!!

I bought it at the beginning of winter, it's a 2005 that was a salvage title scooter I found on Craigslist down in the Quad Cities, IA.

It had issues, and I've stored it in my kitchen all winter.. It gave me something to work on when I felt like it.. The seat had issues (cracked, torn, screwed up latch) and was replaced. One brake lever was broken and the other was bent. I replaced them, the floorboard rubber, and modified all the latches so everything worked as they should. Tire pressure checked, all lights operating, plenty of gas (with Seafoam) and the oil reservoir is full of extremely high quality synthetic 2 stroke oil..

Since I'll be riding it 10 miles of basically (sub)urban riding to work, I bought a nice 25L top box to toss my lunch in, lock up my jacket, get a gallon of milk, etc.. That got mounted last night.

Well, it's 40 degrees out and I have no excuse not to ride... License plate mounted, insurance card tucked away ($28 a year, yeah baby) and I have plenty of cold weather riding gear.

My concern is that I've ridden this scooter a total of 4 blocks. Two when I bought it, two when I got home in December. So, my fingers are crossed that I won't have to walk at some point, as this is the shakedown run.

Fingers are crossed..

Photo of it in the parking lot at the office, hopefully to follow.

[blue]

good luck and injoy your new ride. lay off the front bracks tell you get the hang of things.some times the front bracks hit so hard you lose control.tap lightly.

[paper]

good luck and injoy your new ride. lay off the front bracks tell you get the hang of things.some times the front bracks hit so hard you lose control.tap lightly.

Thanks for the word of warning.. I was careful, and in the photo you'll see why...

Yes, that's ice..



And as luck would have it, I'm playing in a photo tag game on a club's forum I partake in.. The new tag this morning was to get a photo of your bike in front of an Irish Pub.. Just happened to be on my way to work.

[big blue]

Congrats on your winter project! It is great to bring a bike back to the road again.

[Stig / Major Tom]

Love your People!

If they'd had a new or used People on display - I might be riding that instead of my LIKE. (my choices were several 10' long maxi scoots out of my $$, and a pretty Honda Metro and little Yamaha 50...and 3 LIKE's)
That ice in the dark is what I get real concerned about on my commute to work. One morning that was iffy - I took the car all the way to my job to check the roads - then came home and rolled the scoot out for the commute.

Yep, as 'Scooter in the Sticks' winter Vespa riding guy says : Stay off the front brakes!

Glad you made it safely and isn't it great to ride the scoot to work!!
Stig

[Momma bear]

Good luck with that beautiful scoot. What a deal! Love the pics.
Ride safe

[paper]

Thanks everyone!! The to work was nice, but I was concerned about everything.. You know.. First ride of the season, riding something with not a lot of power, concerned about other traffic, concerned that the scooter was going to make it without issues, etc..

It was 48 when I got out of work and I get what they talk about when they say they're cold blooded That's for sure!! I let it idle to warm and then after a minute it was actually OK with accelerating. Then the ride home was FUN!!

One funny side note.. I got home and I noticed that the ODO was almost 30 miles higher than when I left in the morning.. I'm thinking "Crap, I was hoping that'd be accurate. " and then realized it's KM, not miles.. So, before figuring out MPG at some point in the future I'll need to do a little bit of converting.

[Vivo]

Nice scoot Paper! great price too!

[paper]

Nice scoot Paper! great price too!

Thanks!
It's a salvage titled scoot, and I'm pretty sure it was a theft recovery. The fender and front fairing are scratched, and as I mentioned the levers were bent/broken. The original seat was the brown and the cover was hard and cracked, torn and ugly. A new seat was $60, and I thought going all black would look nice. The floorboard rubber was only $15, so I swapped that out, too.

I'm planning on scuffing the plastic up and shooting it with the Krylon plasicote once it warms up (and my work schedule backs off). And I'm planning on having a lot of fun with this little scooter.. It's been a long time since I've had a 50cc scooter..