It started off innocently enough. I have ridden about 60000 road bicycle miles and about 20,000 dirt bicycle miles over the last 40 years. I am very comfortable on two wheels. I decided that I wanted a cheap scooter. At the time, 2013, there were two or three really good GY6 scooter forums with lots of information (all have since died horrible public deaths due to infighting). So with the info available, I set out to find a cheap 150cc scooter. I went to Craigslist, the place to find these things at the time. For cheap (under $300), I was looking at the dregs of scooters. I was persistent, though, and kept looking and kept looking. For me, that has turned out to be the key for getting a cheap deal on a scooter. Finally, there was a virtually brand new 2013 scooter with front end damage and only 300 miles. All of the plastics were perfect
(or so I thought. Turns out there was a front fender that I never knew was there!), it started first time , but he had hit a curb and the wheel was pushed back into the wheel well. I did not know anything about scooter front ends at the time, but I knew that if the frame wasn't damaged, I could probably fix it. It came with a helmet that fit me... so for $300 I bought a scooter with title and everything.
When I got that scooter home, I started taking apart the front end. Low and behold!, this thing has a front end like a 1980's bicycle! I kid you not... ball bearing head set and everything. Only on a scooter, they call the whole thing a "triple tree". and what I saw was a bent triple tree... an easy fix if you can find a replacement. FIRST BIG CHINESE SCOOTER PROBLEM: There are no replacements. Yes, maybe for some of the more popular chinese scoots, but this one is pretty obscure. I took careful measurements and found one that was a 99% match that would work. But before purchasing, I thought I would try straightening this one. Laugh all you will, but I have a 20 ton press and I have straightend rifle barrels! The point is to bend them just past straight in the opposite direction and do this little bits at a time. With a rifle barrel, you can look down the barrel at the pattern the rifling makes and get it surprisingly exact without complicated tools. This triple tree was not much different. After just a few minutes, I was able to get it back to very, very close... close enough to ride it. I put that thing together and went and got my MC learners permit so that I could ride it legally on the road.
The interesting thing about this scooter... and maybe all 150cc class scooters... is that it has a wheelbase almost exactly like a large frame 29er. It basically is small and turns much like a bicycle. I rode this thing around my subdivision for about two months I rode until I could do figure eights in the street in the 22ft wide road in front of my house in either direction without putting a foot down. Then, I started taking it out. I am very fortunate in that the mountain twisties start a mere 4 miles from my house. What I quickly discovered is that this thing does not have the lean that a bicycle (and motorcycle) does. I would scrape the center stand. It also took a while for me to get comfortable leaning into turns at 50mph. All of my previous two wheeled adventures occured at (mostly) 25mph or less, though I did 62mph on some straight away downhills on a road bicycle! Anyway, I rode for about 2 more months, practicing all of the maneuvers that would be on my MC test. I put out rocks and practiced a slalom. I practiced the accelerate and cutaway, accelerate and fast stop... all of the stuff on the test. Then , on the fateful day, I rode 30 miles there and took the test. On this day, I went first ahead of some guy on a HUGE Harley that had failed the previous week. I offered to let him ride my scoot for the test, but he declined. His buddy was pissed because others had also offered smaller and easier to test-on bikes.
I went first, passed all of the maneuvers first time and earned my license.
