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Rich,

Sounds like you ran into "Barney Fife"... LOL! At least he was more helpful than painful. As for no front fender, I rode fenderless choppers for about 40 years. Never did have a problem with rocks in the pie-hole, but there WAS this one skunk... Whew! Or should I say "PEW!"?

Lookin' pretty speedy! If she goes like she looks, you're gonna have fun!

Ride safe,

Leo in Texas

Ah... Let me take a really wild guess: Could it be the one WITHOUT a V-twin engine?

Just goes to show that all you need is two wheels, not two cylinders...

Love it!

Leo in Texas

SWEET SCOOT!

Old school all the way... right down to the paint, bars, mirrors and tan seat. Only cosmetic mods I'd make might be whitewalls, red wheels and maybe a vintage-style exhaust.

Of course, anything internal that will provide a little more giddyup is always fun too!

This bike just exudes "fifties" Vespa/Lambretta. Gotta love it! Even has a "hood ornament" on the front fender! Guess I'd just HAVE to get an LED light in that thing somehow... or replace with a genuine fifties illuminated ornament like the old Pontiac Indian Chief, OR one of the vintage lighted baubles from J.C. Whitney or Honest Charley from the fifties...

Somehow, a Mack "Bulldog" with lighted eyes, or a bull, naked lady, swan, etc. that lights up just fits this marvelous tribute to the past... Just the right ornament might be something fun to dig for at any car swap meet!

Ride safe,

Leo in Texas

Tonya,

I've been riding for more than fifty years, but I can't add much to the good advice you already have here. One thing I have noticed with these modern scooters is that while they are similar in weight to a small/mid-sized motorcycle, the weight is centered MUCH lower.

This makes them just a little "twitchy" and that's great for snappy handling at low speed. It also increases the phenomenon you experience when taking off from a stop. Big motorcycles have heavy engines up high, the higher the center of gravity, the easier it is to balance. (Prove this by balancing a baseball bat in the palm of your hand.) With the small end in your palm, and the heavy end up high, it's easy. With the big, heavy end in your palm, not as easy.

Even so, scooters are STILL easier to ride and balance than bicycles... LOL!

If you accelerate a little faster, you may find it much more stable and easier to not be awkward on starts. My scooter manual even recommends that... "When start from stop, open throttle and do not be gentle, for easy ride..." You GOTTA love the Chinese translations.

Based on a half-century of enjoying two-wheel transportation, I can ASSURE you that you'll be glad you got the 250. It takes you past the surface-streets-only realm, and allows you to hit the freeway for some serious travel. It just takes a little time to get used to it.

Having ridden just about everything from mini-bikes to stretched-out choppers, I will say I've found scooters to be just slightly more challenging to ride than big motorcycles, BUT only SLIGHTLY. Basically, they are slightly snappier at low speed, but a lot easier to pick up if you drop one! LOL! Picking up a Harley will give you arms like Popeye... and get expensive!

You're going to love riding that scoot (except maybe during Milwaukee winters...) just be careful, and you'll have a ball!

Ride safe,

Leo in Texas

Rich,

Yup... It's been a LONG time since kids rode Cushman, Vespa, Lambretta, etc. to the Dairy Queen! Too bad, too! So many folks today, when thinking of a motor-scooter, only envision Sal Mineo's Doodlebug from "Rebel Without a Cause" reruns. I think that was a Doodlebug... there were several models like that in the fifties, especially in California.

I was excited to see a re-birth of scooters a few years back. While I rode Harley choppers all my youth, I always enjoyed scooters. First modern ones I was exposed to was the Bajaj Vespa copies from India. I really wanted one, but they were still too expensive for my retirement budget.

Then along comes the generic Chinese 150... BINGO! Had to have one no matter how much trouble they were... Heck, they're no more trouble than the old fifties Harleys... LOL!

I've been a pretty good "ambassador" for scooters around here. There's an excellent B&M store nearby, and, for those who just can't spend the store-bought price, I help 'em with Internet purchase info, and PDI, etc. And, of course, introduce them to this site, as well as the "others". I just make sure they know what to expect, and are mechanical enough to work on them, as they need to know that there's a reason Internet prices are cheaper, and involve zero help after the sale.

Since gas didn't go to the $6+ level drivers were scared of, scooter popularity has dropped somewhat around here, but the old f*rts like me who use them for daily drivers still ride plenty.

The most fun part is the reaction of the wives and gal friends when they learn their guy's chopper cost maybe 50 or 75 times more than a scooter. Whew, talk about couch-sleeping time... After checking them out, even some of the crotch-rocket jockeys decide to get a scooter for daily driving to save their 400 hp organ-donors for Saturday night mahem...

Last season I traded rides with an 18 year old kid on a built Japanese missile that would have made the Terminator proud. GOOD LORD was that thing FAST!!! Scary-hell-fire and damnation, warp-nine FAST... But, my old back got tired quick, from my butt in the air, and the handlebars down near the front axle... LOL! He loved my scoot, but thought is was "a little slow". Oh, yeah... When I told him it only had 9 hp, then he thought it was pretty fast, considering...

He was a hoot! When he caught up with me, riding his, he yelled "yer not gettin' it going right... Goose it REAL GOOD an' then hit the nitrous button!" Ah, the sweet insanity of youth... Oh well, they don't call them "crotch-rockets" for nothing! Hey, I DID manage an accidental "stoppie" trying to keep from running a redlight at mach 3... LOL! Must still be a little kid lurking in me somewhere...

I asked him how many ponies his ride had... He said about 250 or 300 unless you hit the nitrous... then about 450. Hmmm... Can you say "E-ticket ride"?

I think the future popularity of scooters will depend a lot on the price of gas, and the unemployment situation. As we sink into 3rd-world status, so will our transportation.

Such is life!

Ride safe!

Leo in Texas

Pretty slick, I'd say!

I'm sold on these, as in my 105 degree climate they actually seem to help. Heck, they look cool too... I especially like your trimming of the cut plastic! Looks factory.

NICE WORK!

Leo in Texas

Rich,

Lookin' GOOD!

As the "old chopper guy" I'm really liking what you've done... This is the essence of what we did "back in the day" like in the early sixties... when chopping a Harley or Brit bike. OR a Cushman...

The high-mounted single headlight is classic. How about a suggestion here? A simple fabrication of a false (cosmetic only) top triple-tree from sheet stock, and false upper fork downtube extensions from chrome sink-pipe or polished aluminum tube, running from the top end of the real downtubes to the fake top triple-tree? That would closely simulate a Cushman Eagle front fork, and be in character with the new headlight.

Either no front fender, or, a simple one like the red-painted rear would also be in character (bet you could find a perfect trailer fender at Northern Tool of similar place) creating a great fifties old-school cosmetic to the front end without any real alterations. Simple, clean and WAY different from the typical "short fork" look of the original.

Great looking upsweep exhaust too, now, if you could only snag a sprung solo seat!

No hard feelings if you don't like these ideas, just me rambling... but I'm hard-core, rat-rod, rat-bike, bobber/chopper old-school, and your scoot is quickly heading toward just what I'd build if I had the extra time and money...

I'm AMAZED at how a Chinese design can edge toward a fifties American "bobber"!

Hey, ain't them no-limit CDI's honkers? Love 'em.

Good work!

Leo in Texas

PS: Hope you got that front end wobble cured!