Newbie here
Posted: Sun Mar 11, 2018 9:50 am
Hi All
Nice to find a dedicated sub-forum to the SH models. I've been a life-long biker having owned far too many bikes to mention, finally became a VFR freak, I now have 3 x 750s and the missus 2 x 400s.
So my life with scoots, frankly until very recently non-existent. Many, many years ago (I'd have been 13) a friend of my older brother gave me his non working Triumph Tina, it mostly remained non working and contributed to my thinking that scoots were not a suitable way forward. Fast forward 45+ years of biking, always steadfastly refusing to acknowledge scooter riders, my missus's boss gives up on his nasty Chinese imported "Lambretta" and hands the keys to her, looks like a very cheap commuter for her thinks I and promptly gets it up and running. In doing so I give it a few rides and conclude I was entirely right to dismiss them as a viable means of transport. However something must've clicked as four months later when an electrical issue side-lined my day to day use VFR, I decided to jump on the "Lambretta" for my 60 mile (round trip) commute (the missus hated it BTW). Frankly it was a nightmare, mostly because of the 10 miles on the M3 where I was absolutely convinced my life was going to end under one of those 'unnecessarily fast articulated lorries', funny how things become so relative! Can't have been too bad though as I managed the commute on the freaky little buzz-box for six weeks. It did get me thinking however, mainly due to the ease of use, and soon I was looking at some more practical alternatives. Long story short, went to my local Honda dealer and secured a four day loan of their '17 SH300 demonstrator. It was perfect for the commute, whereas the "Lambretta" took 10 - 15 mins longer for the commute (VFR averaged 50 mins each way) the 300 was almost identical, I was sold on the idea, besides it meant the VFR wasn't out in the crappy weather and I knew I wouldn't be as precious about the scoot. So I made the dealers a ridiculous offer, but they had the last laugh in that they surprised the hell out of me and accepted it! 10 month old SH300i with less than 1.5k miles, £3k anyone?
That was early December, guess what, seems I am pretty precious about it after all, loving it, it's 'easy-quick', if you understand what I mean, it's not a bike when it comes to riding but it's not a million miles away either, so now I'm looking to improve it, would love the 350cc upgrade (power increase), a nice looking exhaust (aesthetics and weight saving) but I don't see either being viable due to cost. I'd like some kind of screen, but what I've seen that's available look like barn doors, I'd like something that fitted like a bike screen, protects chest but left my head/helmet in the wind-stream, I'll have to keep looking for that or failing that invent something. Finally ways to quicken the scoot, i read somewhere on this site, a long discussion about changing three of the rollers to 19g as being the easiest and most cost effective solution to improve performance, if that sounds like cobblers it probably is as the twist and go concept is both new and alien to me, but will get on and do some homework on it. In the meantime should anyone knows the tread I'm talking about could you possibly point me at it please?
Sorry if that was a bit 'rambly' but it's just an introduction, hope to chat and discuss thing further with you all and hope I'm doing my bit to making this forum more used.
Cheers for now
Ian
Nice to find a dedicated sub-forum to the SH models. I've been a life-long biker having owned far too many bikes to mention, finally became a VFR freak, I now have 3 x 750s and the missus 2 x 400s.
So my life with scoots, frankly until very recently non-existent. Many, many years ago (I'd have been 13) a friend of my older brother gave me his non working Triumph Tina, it mostly remained non working and contributed to my thinking that scoots were not a suitable way forward. Fast forward 45+ years of biking, always steadfastly refusing to acknowledge scooter riders, my missus's boss gives up on his nasty Chinese imported "Lambretta" and hands the keys to her, looks like a very cheap commuter for her thinks I and promptly gets it up and running. In doing so I give it a few rides and conclude I was entirely right to dismiss them as a viable means of transport. However something must've clicked as four months later when an electrical issue side-lined my day to day use VFR, I decided to jump on the "Lambretta" for my 60 mile (round trip) commute (the missus hated it BTW). Frankly it was a nightmare, mostly because of the 10 miles on the M3 where I was absolutely convinced my life was going to end under one of those 'unnecessarily fast articulated lorries', funny how things become so relative! Can't have been too bad though as I managed the commute on the freaky little buzz-box for six weeks. It did get me thinking however, mainly due to the ease of use, and soon I was looking at some more practical alternatives. Long story short, went to my local Honda dealer and secured a four day loan of their '17 SH300 demonstrator. It was perfect for the commute, whereas the "Lambretta" took 10 - 15 mins longer for the commute (VFR averaged 50 mins each way) the 300 was almost identical, I was sold on the idea, besides it meant the VFR wasn't out in the crappy weather and I knew I wouldn't be as precious about the scoot. So I made the dealers a ridiculous offer, but they had the last laugh in that they surprised the hell out of me and accepted it! 10 month old SH300i with less than 1.5k miles, £3k anyone?
That was early December, guess what, seems I am pretty precious about it after all, loving it, it's 'easy-quick', if you understand what I mean, it's not a bike when it comes to riding but it's not a million miles away either, so now I'm looking to improve it, would love the 350cc upgrade (power increase), a nice looking exhaust (aesthetics and weight saving) but I don't see either being viable due to cost. I'd like some kind of screen, but what I've seen that's available look like barn doors, I'd like something that fitted like a bike screen, protects chest but left my head/helmet in the wind-stream, I'll have to keep looking for that or failing that invent something. Finally ways to quicken the scoot, i read somewhere on this site, a long discussion about changing three of the rollers to 19g as being the easiest and most cost effective solution to improve performance, if that sounds like cobblers it probably is as the twist and go concept is both new and alien to me, but will get on and do some homework on it. In the meantime should anyone knows the tread I'm talking about could you possibly point me at it please?
Sorry if that was a bit 'rambly' but it's just an introduction, hope to chat and discuss thing further with you all and hope I'm doing my bit to making this forum more used.
Cheers for now
Ian