Boring Background

Several years ago, I was given a '76 Honda Goldwing by a friend at church. I was attending a "Biker Church" (Heart of God Fellowship in Buckner, MO for those of you keeping score) at the time. Before getting the bike, I had created a lot of expectations in my mind about what it would be like to own and ride a motorcycle.

Quite frankly, I was let down by the whole experience. It was nerve wracking to ride it to work. (Not the 'wing's fault. I had a 50 mile, high-speed, bumper-to-bumper commute.) At 35 MPG, it barely got better gas mileage than my Hyundai. And, I'm not sure what I expected from riding with the bikers from church, but my expectations were too much.

Fast forward to about 3 years ago. We had relocated to my childhood home of Tucson, AZ. While moving in to our new house in 2003, I had started admiring this orange colored scooter called a Stella. It's owner apparently worked at the Home Depot at which I was spending considerable time.

In early 2008, my son and I were both thinking about scooters. I was doing a lot of research online.

One day, we went to our local scooter shop, Scoot Over. Shelby Stirrat is the owner and she runs a fabulous business. My son and I accepted their offers of test rides. I fell in love with the things. More research for several weeks test find the best value with our limited funds. My wife graciously let me have the entire tax refund. What to buy, what to buy?

Everyone has heard of Vespas, so I went to their dealer. Vespas are great scooters, but too expensive. Went back to Scoot Over to look at the Stellas. Nope, couldn't afford that either. But wait, what was that? I discovered the Genuine Buddy line of scooters. Nice line, good acceleration with my big carcass on it. Price was right. I went home a did a bit of brand specific research. I also found an amazing website, modernbuddy.com.

In mid-April of 2008, I brought home my first scooter! An '08 Genuine Buddy St Tropez, 150cc scooter (pictured above). Since then, my love for all things scooter continues to grow. This a long post and the history of scooters and I is not yet complete.

Scoot on!