The Honda PCX / Forza / ADV150 / SH Forums

So I rode Natasha to work. Had an absolute blast driving there, rode around the campus a bit, parked, and then went on inside. When class was over, and I was walking out to the bike, one of the campus cops was slowly following at a distance. As soon as I got up to her and started getting my jacket, gloves, and helmet on, he rolled up and told me he'd "driven through the parking lot several times to admire my bike, and what kind was it?" Honda PCX 150, I told him. How fast, how much?, MPG?, was it fun?, etc... and the more I told him of my experiences, the bigger his smile got. "That thing looks great!" he said. So we got some really good admiration.

On the way home, I was stopped at a traffic light, and across the light coming the other way was an older guy (grey hair, half helmet, leather vest) on a Harley. I could tell he was looking me over, and as the light changed, he nodded at me, and gave me the "two fingers down" sign as he roared by, which was a first for me.

So, here I am floating on air riding home, and as I get to that stoplight at the bottom of that long downhill (mentioned here: http://hondapcx.org/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=5049&start=20) and this guy in a tricked out custom van pulls up next to me at the light. He rolls his window down, waves frantically, so I lift the visor on my helmet, and he yells "You really can see that reflective stripe on your jacket, man! I could see you all the way back from the top of the hill!" The light changed, I flipped down my visor, smoothly rolled away, and went on home...

With a huge smile on my face.

What a great ride home!

Ishkabibble wrote:So I rode Natasha to work. Had an absolute blast driving there, rode around the campus a bit, parked, and then went on inside. When class was over, and I was walking out to the bike, one of the campus cops was slowly following at a distance. As soon as I got up to her and started getting my jacket, gloves, and helmet on, he rolled up and told me he'd "driven through the parking lot several times to admire my bike, and what kind was it?" Honda PCX 150, I told him. How fast, how much?, MPG?, was it fun?, etc... and the more I told him of my experiences, the bigger his smile got. "That thing looks great!" he said. So we got some really good admiration.

On the way home, I was stopped at a traffic light, and across the light coming the other way was an older guy (grey hair, half helmet, leather vest) on a Harley. I could tell he was looking me over, and as the light changed, he nodded at me, and gave me the "two fingers down" sign as he roared by, which was a first for me.

So, here I am floating on air riding home, and as I get to that stoplight at the bottom of that long downhill (mentioned here: http://hondapcx.org/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=5049&start=20) and this guy in a tricked out custom van pulls up next to me at the light. He rolls his window down, waves frantically, so I lift the visor on my helmet, and he yells "You really can see that reflective stripe on your jacket, man! I could see you all the way back from the top of the hill!" The light changed, I flipped down my visor, smoothly rolled away, and went on home...

With a huge smile on my face.

What a great ride home!

Scooters get attention, the PCX is no exception. Wonderful that it has brought you happiness! You will probably find that you get questions about fuel economy and such things quite often.

I see far less Vespas being inquired about than I do our two PCX 150s. I get a lot of waves from the big bike riders too. We have stopped at places where there were a lot of Harley riders and invariably, if there were a lady on the back of one of them, the woman would come over and ask us about or bikes. They are very surprised when we tell them that these are scooters. If we have been riding the back country roads with them they want to know if these scooters can keep up in the mountains. We show them, rather than tell them. We obviously do not have the available horsepower they have, but these little 150cc scooters can hold their own at 50-55 mph.

I never imagined anyone would even care, but for that older guy to give me the "two fingers down" was a major upper! And for the campus officer to actually wait around so he could ask me about it, well, that's just amazing.

I'm really glad to be a part of the world community of riders, and now I'm wondering why there aren't more folks from my area on these things! I never see any other scooters around town, except for kids on those Chinese 50cc things. If there were a group around here that rode places, I'd surely be interested in it!

Out on the road here in Wisconsin, home of HD, scooters are considered weenie bikes ridden by weenie riders. Big V-twins outnumber hot Japanese superbikes by a large margin. When I get into the city where I work, I feel a little better -- it's a college town with lots of Vinos, Metropolitans and Ruckuses. On the rare occasion when I encounter another larger scoot out on the open road, we almost pass each other before waving because it takes a while to overcome the surprise. I'm glad you had a good experience.

I had a good ride today, and got acknowledged a couple of times by other motorists.
I even stopped to talk to some guy parking his 4x4 that showed interest in my scooter.

Good times, Gav.

Yeah, there seems to be this attitude of utter contempt for scooter riders, as if a scooter is somehow less of a motorcycle than, well, a motorcycle. I mentioned on another thread that I asked a local motorcycle-safety course provider about bringing my own bike to a course, and was told that as long as it wasn't one of those crappy scooter things it was okay... Why some people have to actively attempt to put others down to feel better about themselves is beyond me.

I have to have a motorcycle endorsement like they do, I have to wear a helmet like they do, I have to obey motorcycle regulations and traffic laws like they do, I have to deal with the same laws of physics and gravity like they do, and I stand as much chance of getting run over by some inattentive soccer mom on her iPhone in a Suburban just like they do. But, my insurance is almost certainly lower, I absolutely get better MPG than they do, and my two wheels are much better looking than their two. In my opinion. And since I'm the one who researched it, picked it out, bought it, paid for it, rides it, and enjoys the everloving bejeebers out of it, then their opinion is pretty much worthless to me.

Ride on, gang... we only come this way once. Enjoy every minute of it.

Out of about 30+ bikers I saw whilst out on a run around the countryside yesterday me and my friend (Who also owns a PCX) nearly every one of them gave a nod or a wave, was quite heartening really

triaxor wrote:Out of about 30+ bikers I saw whilst out on a run around the countryside yesterday me and my friend (Who also owns a PCX) nearly every one of them gave a nod or a wave, was quite heartening really

Scots must be more polite and open-minded. Here in tribal USA, the noisy, unhelmeted V-twin tribe hold us members of the scooter tribe in utter contempt. Whatever . . . I don't give it much thought; just ride my scoot and enjoy the day.

Scooter or bike, we're all getting cold and wet.


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Alibally wrote:Scooter or bike, we're all getting cold and wet.


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Ain't that the truth, lol

I'm not.

Getting cold and wet that is.

I don't ride in wet, and I haven't had it long enough to ride in the cold... Heh...

Most people return a wave. I honestly don't think an oncoming rider can tell what we are on. PCX's and Forzas look a lot like a sport bike from 200 feet away.

If there is one class of rider that doesn't acknowledge me, it would be the skullcap-wearing cruisers behind big fairings. I expect they don't wave to anybody in a full face helmet (you would have to be a wimp to wear a full face helmet, and thus not worth acknowledging). I'll cut them some slack - it is probably unpleasant for them to expose their hand to the elements.

Wet?
Today it was misting during all of my ride. I needs a shield wiper so I kin see 'n' sez howdy to the Hogs as they approach I figured they'd be happy today being a Holiday weekend and all. Geez, I figured wrong.
Tis true that most tour and sportbike riders see me and their 2 fingers go down or their head bows....."I don't care,
I love it!"

Life's so worth Living on a Scoot? Right?
I Smile so much that I need to remove some cheeky padding
"And in The End...." I say, Why not say Hi to all our Brother and Sister riders. If they want to be snobby, sobeit!
Be Kind & Let's Ride!

A friend who has had mostly big power bikes over the past 40 years told me that he has heard PCX's referred to as the iPhone of scooters. I think of all of the scooters on the market, it is one of the more classy ones, if not the classiest.

I will sometimes get a wave from a sport bike rider but never from a cruiser. For one thing I'm all tricked out in my yellow windbreaker and yellow helmet while most of them are bare headed and sometimes even--do I exaggerate?--bare foot--and have nothing but contempt for a f$%king armored scooter jockey.

Ishkabibble wrote:Yeah, there seems to be this attitude of utter contempt for scooter riders, as if a scooter is somehow less of a motorcycle than, well, a motorcycle. I mentioned on another thread that I asked a local motorcycle-safety course provider about bringing my own bike to a course, and was told that as long as it wasn't one of those crappy scooter things it was okay... Why some people have to actively attempt to put others down to feel better about themselves is beyond me.

Yes, that is the attitude, especially among the bare heads on choppers, cruisers, monster Goldwings and Electra-Glides, etc. I confess that my first impulse when I see anybody on any kind of motorized bike--whether the engine is 35cc or 1500cc--without a helmet, gloves and boots, is disgust at their utter stupidity. Very often, here in Illinois, you will see a young guy and his girl riding along with their hair flying. And just as often you will see guys and gals go by whose fleece is white as snow--that is,if snow were gray. WTF!? Life isn't precarious enough as it is then, that we have to hurl ourselves and our significant others into the tank battle of cross town traffic without so much as a bandana between us and very possible perdition?

kramnala58 wrote:A friend who has had mostly big power bikes over the past 40 years told me that he has heard PCX's referred to as the iPhone of scooters. I think of all of the scooters on the market, it is one of the more classy ones, if not the classiest.

Maybe the Android of scooters since you can actually customise it and are not locked into a walled garden.

chicaboo wrote:

kramnala58 wrote:A friend who has had mostly big power bikes over the past 40 years told me that he has heard PCX's referred to as the iPhone of scooters. I think of all of the scooters on the market, it is one of the more classy ones, if not the classiest.

Maybe the Android of scooters since you can actually customise it and are not locked into a walled garden.

Two thumbs up to that.

A couple of days ago we were passed by a sport bike rider with his girlfriend on the back. She was wearing shorts, a tank top, and sandals...and the required helmet. There isn't a lot of room to balance on the back of those sport bikes, so I expected her to fall off of the back at any moment, though she was holding on to him. As far as what he was wearing, I would say not much more than she was. They were weaving in and out of traffic until he would get an open area. Then he would crank it up until he reached the next crowded area, where he would filter through traffic at around 40 mph. (Filtering is illegal here.) All-in-all, he was not being a safe rider. I wonder how her parents would have felt if they had seen him. I'm not even sure they would care, because they would have had to have seen them at some point in time. So, if they had wrecked, and she would have left her skin on the pavement for 40 yards, do you suppose they would have cared then? Scooter riding is dangerous enough, but young people on sport bikes scare the heck out of me, especially those not wearing much in the way of protective gear. If you are going to ride, ride safe.