The other day I decided to stop in at a little hole in the wall shop selling those Chinese scooters and atv's at pretty good prices. While looking at a nice 250 tank touring scoot The Tank touring 250DE my mind drifted back to the days I had my old reliable Honda 250 Elite scooter. I have ridden many different types of motorcycles over the years from a little Honda 50 up to sport bikes that could take you from 0 to the chiropractors office in a heartbeat, and of all those I had the most fun on that little 250 scooter. I remember smiling at work when someone would tell me that it is a cute bike but you couldn’t take a trip on one, knowing that weekend I put over 300 miles on it ( and only two tanks of gas) . I took that thing everywhere; around town on trips even on the trails ( but very slowly). The full floorboards, front fairing and windshield were great on cold and rainy days. I only had three real gripes with that scoot. My legs are long enough that my knees were about a quarter inch from the glove box and hit it many many times while riding, while it had more then enough power, with the cvt transmission, if I got slowed down on long hills behind a motor home or trailer I couldn’t get back up to speed until we hit flat ground again, and while in the mountains those little drum brakes would heat up and fade on a long downhill making the corners at the bottom more exciting then I would have liked. Despite all that I had more fun on that scooter then I had on any other motorcycle and to this day have regretted selling it. Now these new Chinese import scooters are looking pretty good. I know some of them have had quality control problems and I also know that they don’t meet the same standards of fit and finish as the Japanese brands but they are getting better and with prices sometimes thousands less then their Japanese counterparts they are an attractive option. I might have to pick myself up one of those Tank 250 touring scoots one of these days and see if once again I can enjoy the freedom and fun that comes from riding a scooter.