Scooting Martha

Oh, what have I unleashed onto the unwary roads of my habitually quiet neighborhood?

Martha had sucessfully passed the BRC two weekends ago and today we went to a local scooter shop called Sportique which I'd heard good things about from a co-worker.

The Englewood location of Sportique Scooters

I must say, the sales guy at Sportique did a great job in making us and especially Martha feel welcome and did all he could to help Martha decide on a model and type of scooter.  Vespas were sat on but found too tall, Kymcos were glanced at but not "classic enough" in looks.  Then, there were the Genuine Buddy scooters.  Martha was drawn to them as a moth to a flame I tell you!

The seat height was better than the Honda Elite she'd tried yesterday and the features of the Buddy pretty much sold the scooter to her.  I appreciated the easy accessibility to service points, construction simplicity and features such as four way flashers and turn signal reminders you can actually hear with the engine on.

Here's more info on the 125cc model of the Buddy which Martha ended up buying:  LINK

Here's a pic of the specific model Martha bought:  Seafoam Blue is manufacturer color.  I prefer to refer to it as Infantry Blue, for light blue is the color of the Unites States Infantry.  Whoo Ahh.

OK, so even calling it Infantry Blue only adds so much macho factor eh?

The salesman, I forget his name to my shame, first got Martha to demo ride a 50cc Buddy, running over the controls with her and helping her get comfy with it.  Martha ran it up and down the alley behind the store, even went around the block with it.  No problem.

Next came the 125cc Mandarin Yellow Buddy.  I liked this color but Martha saw it as School Bus Yellow.  The sales guy spent a bit of time going over the facts that this model was quite more powerful than the 50cc Buddy, had disc brakes in the front and so on.

Off she goes!

"I know, not quite ATGATT"

Back from her test ride!

Once she got back from the demo rides, she looked at both the "school bus yellow" Buddy and the Seafoam, er I mean Infantry Blue Buddy and chose the blue one.  The name is yet undecided on, please feel free to provide input, but make it fast.  : )

As Martha has zero experience on city streets and such and is still working on gaining confidence and experience on same, I rode the scooter home for her while she took the cage.

I must say, I haven't had a "shit eating grin" on my face or laughed out loud in delight as I did when I took a short demo ride on one of the demo scooters while they were prepping her scooter and paperwork was being done.

These things are fun!  However, the size of the engine is a bit small when compared to my regular motorcycles, I guess I've become accustomed to the seemingly bountiful power available to me from either Brigitta, my 1987 R80 Airhead or the 2004 Suzuki DL1000 V-Strom Sidecar, Vikki.

As I was headed homewards, I stopped at a light next to a Yamaha Vento.  Poor little thing must have been a 50cc engine because it could barely get out of its own way when the light turned green.  Martha's 125cc headed up into the hill with a bit of effort but managed to get up to 40mph which at the time was the speed limit.

Needless to say, top end speed is about 50-55mph on level ground but that's in excess of Martha's stated requirements.  The scooter's primary mission is to get her to and from the high school where she's a nurse, a total of about 1 mile each way, through neighborhood streets where the speed limit is 35 mph.  The Buddy can do quite well in those conditions.

After lunch, we got some pictures of Martha and her new scoot, plus a short video of her first ride out into the neighborhood.

 The Buddy in its new home

 A new scooterista!

We'll be getting her some better fitting riding gear of course, and no more capri pants!  : )

So, while that annoying whining noise one hears near Steve Williams' college town roads might be a phantom K75 rider appearing and disappearing seemingly at random....here in my neighborhood, it'll be Scooting Martha!