...And then there were two

Of course, I wouldn't recommend taking a motorcycle safety course, then getting you M endorsement, and leave it at that. It's just not right. I did wait to complete the process. July is no the time to by a motorcycle. It's summer and people want to ride. The time to buy a bike is in the fall, when people are cleaning out the garage/barn/attic, or realizing that the New Years baby is more real and precious than imagined, and decide that it's time for that thing to go.

 We elected to get another mid-displacement scooter, so we could hang out in the not-so-fast lane together. Top of the list: a Bajaj Chetak at Modern Classics DC and a couple of used Genuine Buddy 125s on craigslist. All had been on the market for a while... easy pickings.

Modern Classics is doing pretty well. Maneuvering through the bikes for repair was a bit stressful. Knocking one over would cause a huge, costly domino effect. I wonder if there was some order. I really liked the Chetak, or at least wanted to like it. Retro manual tranny scooters are cool. But, it was also the most expensive bike (1500$ to purchase, then there is insurance, registration, inspection, and transport from downtown to Suburbistan... probably $2000 total), and Bajaj pulled out of the US market years ago, and parts are getting scarce. Sure, it's a Vespa clone on the outside, but the engine is unique to the bike: it was just one rare broken part away from being useless.
 

That left the two Genuine Buddys. The Girly and bought a new (old stock, no miles) 2009 bike in 2011, and it's been fast and reliable. Both bikes had been used by college students, and thus had significant weathering and various maintenance problems. The 2006 Bike was very pretty. It was metallic orange: never dropped, but also wouldn't start, and the tires were worn to dry-rotting nubbins. In contrast, the red 2007 buddy had a bit of rust and fading from Oklahoma sun and rain, but ran well and had tread. If we weren't in a hurry to be on the road, I would have made a lowball offer on the non-starting bike and then (if successful) gotten it fixed, but we wanted to be riding soon.

Now we have our own little mod gang.