I just want a means of transport – I don’t want to join a club
Posted: June 8, 2010 Filed under: expats, Hanoi, transport, travel | Tags: honda dream, minsks, motorbike, scooters, vespers 10 Comments »
As much as I love Ms Hoa I can’t help but feel she’s ultimately not really me.
She’s a little small for my lardy tay frame. But most of all its those go-faster stripes that really get me.
It’s not just Ms Hoa though – such stripes seem to endemic of all scooters. It’s as if the design team are an unsackable bunch of eighties boy racers.
Why can’t I just get a scooter in all-over matt black?
But what to switch to? While I’d love to go on a few spins into the nearby countryside, the whole Minsk thing doesn’t appeal. Sitting taller than locals in traffic while belching noxious fumes onto the old lady on a bicycle behind me – well it just doesn’t seem right.
Then there’s the Vespers. Undoubtedly cool but just a bit trying-too-hard, no? They’re unreliable but also, as with the Minsks, buying one would feel like joining a club when all I really want is transport.
Super Cub? I like ‘em. And if I was female and half my weight and size then I’d have already bought one.
So basically I think we can narrow it down to a scooter. And yes, of course I want it to be cool – but quietly so.
Obviously anything without gears and with a footwell is just for girls.
That archetypal Vietnamese everyman workhorse bloke bike the Honda Dream?
Maybe.
But I’m still not convinced.
I feel the same as you and despite really liking the Honda 67′s the thing that really holds me back from getting one is the club I think (and of course the rising price tag on them these days).
My recommendation: the Honda Win100. It’s a man’s bike without being obnoxious like a minsk or trying to be something its not like all the bigger honda’s and daelim’s and whatnot. It gets the job done but it’s subtle about it. It can handle the city but it thrives on an open country road.
I’ve had mine for nearly 5 years now (and that’s of the 16 years of its existence) and it still runs like a charm. I can’t imagine ever trading it in for anything else.
What about a pushbike?
i’d love to have a honda chaly from the seventies. yes, i’m a girl.
I prefer the scooters myself over the moto bikes. It’s that whole “Roman Holiday” thing I guess, showing my age. I live in the states but bought a Vespa wanna be called a Qlink 150.
yamaha exciter.
Interesting choices – Tyler – I have to say that’s a solid looking bike. If I did move up from a scooter to a bike then that’s what I go for.
Will, bought push bikes in assorted hot countries and promised myself I’d use them and after several sweatey rides I gave up and the rusted in a pile. I know myself better now.
Moonwire – the Honda Chaly does look girl. Again..if I was a girl and a whole lot smaller.
Drifter…my scooter frame of reference, being British is Quadrophenia. As cool as that was when I here Paul Weller saying he’ll die a mod I just think…you’re 60, get over it.
Dave, I googled the Yamaha Exciter and got a snowmobile – am I missing something?
What about giving Ms Hoa a paint job?
I agree with most of what you’re putting down here. The ’67s are too small and pretty difficult to steer without a different set of handlebars, at least for me. I own a Super Cub and I love it, but it is small as well and tops off at about 35kph. I also own a Minsk but hate driving it in the city for the reasons mentioned above. So it sits in a garage except for the occasional trip out of town.
The Win100 looks nice but the one time I rode one it felt very, very cheap. As if it would rattle apart at any moment. Maybe it wasn’t a great copy–I think those bikes are produced everywhere under only slightly different names. But I do like their Atari-esque graphics on the gas tanks. A Dream is kind of like Everyman’s bike; I like it’s blue-collar status. If it had a soundtrack it would definitely be by Springsteen.
I guess you make concessions on all of the above. We expats seem to be a finicky bunch. All like little Goldilocks. A lot of time is spent driving here though, so it’s an important decision to make.
haha yes u are.
here u go.
http://www.yamaha-motor.com.vn/home/san_pham/Exciter/ExciterGPHC2009_new/dac_tinh_san_pham?section=video_clip
i know u were talking about the stripes, etc. but the reason i hate my bike with stripes is cuz it has no business having them. the exciter does.
Nice that you found my picture on flickr , i like the motos in Asia too
But now there is a helmet law in Cambodia http://www.flickr.com/photos/magnussweden/3367659148/
the driver needs a helmet
and some day i will get a 9
http://www.chinasmack.com/2009/pictures/8-people-on-1-motorcycle-going-faster-than-a-car-in-china.html