I just finished trip number four to Linda's in Danbury and back and have a couple of conclusions. Conclusion one. Chinese scooters are scary. Conclusion two. Japanese motorcycles are a much better bet for a long ride.
I came to the first conclusion this morning when the big scooter did something unexpected. I was on Route 17 in the very middle of nowhere when a shrieking noise came from the front end. I couldn't feel anything vibrating the handlebars but the noise was there. Not wanting to stop a rolling machine until I was in civilization I kept going at a reduced pace and gradually the noise disappeared. I slowly moved back up to the cruising speed I had before the noise started, finished the ride in my driveway and then closely examined everything I could that would account for the noise and came up empty. I was expecting to find something broken or cracked and rubbing someplace but found nothing. Tomorrow I will take the thing on a brief thirty mile ride and see if the sound returns.
Conclusion two is a no-brainer. With both a perfectly good Kawasaki 750 and a Honda 250 Rebel that have proven themselves time and again I have to ask myself why I dare a long distance ride on a Chinese scooter? Adventure? The Challenge? Dumbness?
This Wednesday I will ride to Connecticut again. If the big scooter so much as gives me even the slightest reason to doubt it I will pull a Japanese motorcycle out of the Bull Pen and ride. If it rains there's a perfectly good car to do the trip with. Let's see what happens.