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.

I was talking to  a gentleman the other day  who had an electric hub motor on his bicycle. I asked him if it had a decent range on a charge and he said it was great he could go on his regular bike ride and never have to pedal. Ok while I have nothing against electric assist systems I actually think they have  some good uses. I always thought of them as electric ASSIST systems designed to help out with your pedaling efforts, you know like helping you  up a long hill or helping to get you moving when you have a full load on your bike. Personally I think if you want  an electric only bike there are many fine examples such as  the  eGO vehicles.  I would like to have  a system like Bionix  you can set  your  level of assist wanted  or just turn it off when no assist is needed. It also has the option of regenerative braking. This I think is a great feature. More then a few times I have  found myself heading down a steep hill making generous use of my brakes to  keep my speed down below windburn speed. With  the regenerative braking  set it to a high level  and let it keep your speed in check without  a lot of extra wear and tear on your breaks. Sounds like  a  real good  solution if you have a cargo bike or are loaded up for touring. Now I know there are probably quite a few cyclist out there who  would look down on using an electric assist  system while touring , but you know I think the most important part of a bike tour is actually enjoying the tour; now some may enjoy telling stories of how they  made it up some long mountain pass  reaching the top with their legs burning and having to stop and throw up before continuing on. I personally have  no problem pushing myself up a long hill and have felt the burn more then a few times but if by employing an electric assist system I can avoid the puking at the top of the hill then I say that’s a good thing. A good place to get started on finding out about electric transportation is http://www.electric-bikes.com/ They have all sorts of good information there.