Introduction

So we start...for a variety of reasons, I had been looking into the possibility of getting a motorcycle for the summer months of 2010, but I what I wanted and what I could afford were obviously different!

Sooo on a whim, I began looking at scooters that were out there. Kawasaki, Yamaha, Vespa...I looked at all of the name brands, but for someone who wanted to just 'test the waters' it seemed like an expensive hobby. We just wanted to see if it could save some money for the wife (Cath) to get to work about 5 miles away occasionally and the odd errand around town. We live just outside of St. Louis and have a van that we use for highway travel, etc.

After seeing some of the Chinese scooters online for outrageously low sums of money, I was intrigued to do some more research and found out there was a dealer here in the area, Brad's Scooters, that carried mostly the same types of Chinese scooters and for only a slightly higher price, but you could buy a warranty from him to keep them running. So...off to visit with Brad I go. Brad seems like an upfront and good guy and I think he was generally good to me, albeit perhaps a little pricey compared to the online stuff, but he had already assembled the vehicles and had to pay for a display store in a mall, so I was alright with my final price of 1600 plus 200 more for the warranty for a JCL MP 150E Scooter.

I'll describe the scooter in my next post, but this is the essence of how we came to own a scooter. Curiosity, great gas mileage and a kind of need for something that could go a few miles back and forth for almost no money at all.

...not to mention two boys ages 14 and 8 who consider this the greatest thing I have ever done as a father! The oldest is already thinking in terms of this being his first vehicle for getting back and forth to high school in a year or two.