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Had to take the little ninja in to get some new tires. I normally ride a 750 shadow so even the 250 ninja seems small some times. Anyway, the chop i take it in to (Bow Cycle Calgary) has a courtesy ride program that lends out these little Yamaha Vino 125s.

First off i will say i am a larger guy (6 foot 240ish) and this thing is totally different than a bike. I found myself wondering what to do with my feet at every stop and once or twice i found myself "blipping" the throttle at red lights like they teach you to do whenever you gear down, and the brakes are right hand rear, left hand front like on a pedal bike which took a bit of getting used to.

After tooling around the area of the shop and getting used to it a bit i hit the road and to tell the truth i had a BLAST on this thing. The feeling was similar to when you are a kid and get your first pedal bike with no training wheels.

At 125cc this thing doesn't have the pick up that my bike does, but that isn't a big shock, but it will get you up to city speeds quick enough that you don't feel like you are creeping along. The only big problem i had was trying to merge into traffic, going uphill and get the scooter to get up to 80kmph from the slow exit speed. It didn't do so well in this situation but i honestly didn't expect it to.

When cruising along at 40-70kmph this thing is well mannered and fun to ride. At 80kmph or above it feels very shakey and took some getting used to, and i would not recommend this bike for trying to go for a highway haul, but whipping around for groceries, to work or whatever this thing is awesome.

At the end of the day being the nice guy i am, i decided to put some gas into it before returning it. It had half a tank when i got it and i rode enough that i was almost on E. pulled into the station and figured "i'll put 5 bucks into it"...the pump stopped at $2.88!! I rode around for a few hours on about a buck worth of fuel!

Would I ride this thing around again? You bet! Would i own one if i lived in the city? Actually i probably would...although i would reroute the brake levers so the front brake was on the same side as my bike.

If you get a chance to ride one of these for a day, go for it, they are a lot of fun!

Scoots are cool. We sold our Reflex 'cause we weren't using it that much, (4th bike in a 2 rider family) and wanted the storage space and $$ for something else. But I missed it yesterday, had a short errand to run - scooters are perfect for that stuff. Instead of warming up the Bonneville took the car instead. I think if I lived in a more urban area a scooter would be indispensable.

Scooters are fine, but the real fun is in mopeds. 100 mpg. Good stuff. And if you run out of gas, you can pedal it. yup yup. Good stuff.

But you're right. They are NOT fast. Fun as hell tho.

--Scott

My spousette bought a Vino last month and she has been using it as a commuter . Now mind you she is 6' and a little overweight and she says she has no problem getting it up to 55 MPH and still has plenty of throttle left .
The best part is her fantastic milage .
Now that her tank and fenders are back from our friend the painter for her big bike and I reassembled it last Saturday we'll see how much she rides the Vino then
I think I may take it to work Thursday altho I have only ridden it once . Just for the hell of it .
Regards, Wizzard