Give scooters a try!

My name is Helena, I have been riding scooters for 8 years now, and I have to tell you they are great fun. I started out on a dual-purpose dirt bike, a Yamaha XT225 that I bought for dirt biking and road use. It was a great bike to learn on and drive around our little town, but once I got bored and wanted to go out on the country roads and start riding farther it was time to get a bigger motorcycle.

2009 Piaggio MP3 500 (second from the left) ready for an adventure

My husband let me decide on my next bike and at the time I never knew I would end up with a scooter. After many trips to a lot of different dealerships, the one bike that kept interesting me was the 2009 Piaggio MP3 500, and the more I sat on it the more I really liked it. It was a demon black colour, with 2 front wheels and 1 rear wheel, Made in Italy, with awesome underseat storage (that was a huge selling point to me). So very strange but so cool at the same time. After weeks of reading online reviews and watching youtube videos I had decided it was the one, and I promptly called the dealership and started the financing. It was awesome to hear back that I had been approved, and he would be ready to go in a couple days. Woohoo, let the fun begin! This scoot always caused a commotion everywhere I went, lots of people wanted to know what it was and how the front end worked. I even had an engineer from Germany who came to Canada for a vacation crawl underneath the front to take pictures. I put 18,500 km on that cool scooter and sold it to a lady who was wanting to start riding with her husband. I miss my Piaggio but was very happy he went on to help another person enjoy riding.

My awesome touring bike, a 2012 Yamaha TMAX

My next scooter was one that had interested me for years while I owned my Piaggio MP3, and the reviews were always positive. When I had my Piaggio up for sale it was time to get serious about my next bike. I already knew years before I bought one that the Yamaha TMAX would be in my garage sometime in the future. All it took was a call to my local Yamaha dealer and they ordered a new 2012 Yamaha TMax 530cc model for me, just in time for our trip to Nakusp, British Columbia. It is a beautiful white colour with light blue flakes in the paint that would shine in the sunlight. This scooter was and still is a fantastic touring machine. It handles great, light weight, underseat storage, two front cubby storage areas for your cell phone and a camera, goes fast when you need it to be, and has a large fuel tank. Perfect for those long adventures you never want to end.

I still own and enjoy my Yamaha TMAX, but there was still one more scooter I had to have, because if you are going to ride scooters you have to sometime in your lifetime own a Vespa! After selling our house and coming out a little ahead after buying our new home there was enough left in the old chequing account to purchase a scooter for my inner child, a scooter to make you smile and giggle everytime you went for a ride, a scooter that would make you believe there is nothing wrong in the world, all is well and happiness can be found everytime you turned the key in the ignition. My new love was a 2013 Vespa GTV300 in a rich cappuccino brown colour. I love this lil guy, he is wonderful to ride, light and flickable in the corners, sporty and fun, with vintage scooter looks. He has a bag hook below the handlebars, underseat storage, and front storage too. You can even order a bottle holder that suction cups to the scooter for easy access while riding. Fun, fun, fun!

Riding the Buck Lake area with my 2013 Vespa GTV300

So if you are trying to decide on a motorcycle, don't ever rule out a scooter! I am so glad I didn't :)