Building a dream sleeper...

I developed a love for scooters in High School. It was an offshoot of my love for motorcycles in general, of which the only ones that I could ride and afford were first of all, mopeds. At 50cc max in Connecticut, no registration/plate was required for a moped in the 1980's. Of course you still needed a driver's license, which I convinced my mother was not needed. That worked until I was detained by the Avon Police Department at 14 years old while riding... Mind you, we're still talking about a moped, the real definition of which has been muddied in the general lexicon. A moped is a motorized bicycle, that is, it must have functioning pedals and be able to be powered by your feet without the motor (no matter how much that sucks).

Sometime in the later 80's, pretty much nationwide, the definition of moped was broadened to include any two-wheeled vehicle of 50cc or less. You were still supposed to have a driver's license, but as the popularity of riding these small bikes grew, police enforcement became very lax. I looked big (tall kid) and my mopeds/scooter looked small, so I was mostly unharassed by the local law enforcement.

So to get back to my riding history as relating to a love for scooters...I first bought a junk moped (don't even remember the make) in 1983 or 1984 for $100. After much amatuer mechanic work (trial and error) and lots of starting fluid, I got it to run. It ran poorly, was slow, had bad brakes and often died, but it was a start! I ran it for a few weeks or so until it died, even trying to keep it cooperating on my AM paper route. It was loud so the customers were not pleased.

Soon thereafter my Grandmother gave me her nearly new 1979 (maybe 1978?) baby blue Motobecane moped with the large deluxe seat and baskets. She bought it new in 1979 during the gas crisis and rode it only once or twice alongside my Grandfather's 1963 or 64 Honda CB90. It had less than 50 miles on it! I loved the machine's speed - it would break 35 MPH with me tucked in on the flats, and would carry a passenger, but with no pegs they had to rest their feet on the pedals - and help up hills with pedal-assist!

I rode that for close to a year before it developed a bad transmission. At Christmas in 1984 my best friend, Scott Zbell was given a brand new 1984 Honda Spree scooter. While smaller than the Motobecane, it was electric-start and had oil-injection, a fuel-guage, more instruments and it was lighter and handled better. Unfortunately for him, it was still slower than the Motobecane and he was heavier than me - a poor combination for competion down local streets. I consistantly beat him in all but quick starts, and the Motobecane transmission would allow the speed to keep building down steep hills, while the Spree would never exceed 35 MPH or so. To add insult to injury, that spring my Mom went halves with me and I bought a brand new Honda Aero 50 scooter - candy red to Scott's Spree's black. It was bigger, more comfortable, handled better, had more storage areas, held more fuel, had a 4.5 hp motor compared to the Spree's 3 hp motor and had 2 variable pulleys in the transmission to the Spree's 1 variable pulley. I could pop little wheelies from a start and go to 38 MPH on a straightaway. The Spree could only push 32 on a good day. The Motobecane was 34-36. I was ecstatic.

During this time, Scott and I would fantasize of the unattainable - the Helix 250 and the Aero 125. Bikes that could be ridden on the highway and had double the power of our bikes. The seed was planted that one day I must have them,

I accessorized the Aero 50 with a car stereo, a milk crate on the back (very popular modification), speakers mounted on the milk crate and extra little reflectors. That scooter surprised many passengers with its quickness, and the extra power and transmission range meant I could climb any hill even with a passenger and could bury the speedometer down steep hills. My range of roaming increased and that's where the run-in with Avon's finest occurred. My mom and step-dad were quite surprised to learn how far I had ridden. I remembered my mom had to claim the bike was hers in order to get it back from the cops and we had to load it into the back of a Chevette to get it home.

Eventually I got my license, registered the Aero and used it to take my riding test for my motorcycle license in October of 1986. I passed easily. This was in the day before the MSRF had riding safety programs in Connecticut.

After that the bike started breaking down more often, and I eventually stored it until the late 1990's when I sold it for parts. I carried my love of riding to many motorcycles, preferring standards, touring bikes and now sport-touring models.

I returned to scootering in the late 1990's when I bought a cherry 1983 Aero 80 for cheap, $300 I think. My wife and I rode it all over Waterbury and on one occassion we rode it up to Vermont, camped overnight and rode back to Connecticut in the pouring, cold rain! That was the stuff of great memories! We hit over 55 MPH coming east down Rt. 9 in VT from the junction with Rt. 8. Comfort was poor, but laughs were great and the reliability was never a concern. I tried playing with some minor performance mods on that bike, but it seemed to remain consistent at 43 to 44 MPH for a top speed on the level. I was challanged to a race by some "kids" with a nice new Honda Elite 80 (CH80, the 4-stroke motor). I easily beat the Elite off the line and it tried to catch up, but after 1/2 mile gave up. Fun stuff.

In the year 2000 I bought a mechanically nice but cosmetically challenged 1993 Honda Helix. It was an amazing machine! My wife and I could often hit 77 MPH on the freeway two-up. I bought a Givi trunk for it, sanded off the dozens of bumper stickers and changed the paint from sun-faded red to garbage bag green. I did a poor job on the paint, but it still ran great and we rode it all over southern New England and NY. We even used it to visit the site of the WTC disaster in November of '01. It was quiet and reasonably fast, but handled poorly. I replaced the stock shocks with one of the only optionas available at the time, Hexagon shocks imported from England. They did a good job, but failed within less than a year and I replaced them under warranty. The second set lasted an even shorter period and I sold the bike in 2003 (for over $2,000!), but not before getting it past 37,000 miles and giving my newborn daughter some rides around the yard on it...

I also sold the 1983 Aero 80 that year for $700. I sold it to a one armed man, I kid you not. He claims he had lots of bike experience and would modify it so the throttle was on the left and he'd be good to go!

The winter of 03-04 I drooled over the new Honda Silverwing 600, watching the promo video over and over! A sporting scooter that could break 100 MPH! I was in love until I sat on one and found my knees hitting the inner plastic. No fit for me. About that time the Suzuki Burgman 650 and Aprilia Atlantic 500 were set to launch. When they arrived in March of 2003 I went down to the New Haven dealership that had both in stock and sat first on the Atlantic 500 - I fit ok, but it felt a bit light and cheesy. I then saw the Burgman 650 and thought my eyes were tricking me - it was huge! I sat on it and the wide seat, wide bars, wide and long floorboard all fit me like no other bike ever had. That week I went to New England Motorsports in Hartford and negotiated a deal of the bike and a 3-year extended warranty for $8,500 out the door. I charged it. Victoria (my wife) was furious that I spent so much money without consulting her, especially just weeks after our first child's birth. She stayed angry until she rode the bike herself that summer and found she loved it as much as me. It had incredible power, BMW-like handling and space galore.

I rode that bike as a daily commuter and a tourer, going as far as Nova Scotia with my Dad and his riding buddies. They were quite surprised that not only did my bike hold as much as theirs and then some, but that I left the Harleys in the dust most of the time and all of the bikes way behind when the roads got twisty. The only one that stole my thunder was my father on the highways with his Goldwing 1800, plus my step-mother and a loaded trailer. At my top speed of around 110 MPH, he would fly by like I was in reverse. Good old dad, always has to be a step ahead. I only recently traded it for a 1997 BMW R1100RT to continue my swing towards sport-tourers. The BMW is clunky, heavy and quirky compared to the Burgman, but the suspension is awesome and it is mechanically easy to work on and ultra-reliable. I will get another Burgman when funds allow, hopefully with more than a 650 motor. It will be my wife's main bike while I keep the BMW or trade towards a Concours 14 or V-Strom.

In the winter of 2007, I came across a Craigslist posting in the Worchester, MA section for a 1984 Honda Aero 125 for $450! I called and told the guy I would buy it that Saturday. When I arrived there, it turns out he had lowered his price to $225 since it wouldn't start. It looked cosmetically in great shape, so I bought it.

It turns out the carb needed cleaning and a new battery was needed. But then it disappointlingly only would hit 45 MPH and had very slow pick-up. I bought lighter rollers for the variator, tighter springs for the clutch...all no good. I rode it for less than 100 miles before it died on me 2 miles from home at night. I walked it home and soon took the cylinder off to find a partly-melted piston with cracked rings that has badly scored the cylinder. After a local shop told me the grooves were too deep to be bored .050 over (the max size stock pistons were available for), I shopped the internet. I came across Rick Ritter Cycles and spoke with him at length about possible replacement pistons, cyclinder porting and even exhaust modifications. He performed all of these things, but not cheaply. When I got the parts back and reassembled, the bike was much better, but still no more than 45. So I bought a bigger carb than the stock 18 mm unit. I bought a Mikuni VM 22 and found that I could not jet the bike rich enough to burn all the gas the midified engine wanted. When I finally made it from the stock 100 jet to a 230 jet, and it still cut out at 55 MPH I discovered that the vibration from this more powerful motor was causing the fulel to foam and spill out of the overflow, then the carb was just sucking air at that speed.

So now I am at the next phase - I bought a 30mm OKO carb and CT manifold kit for Honda Dios and will get an adapter plate made to bolt it to the slightly larger opening on the Aero 125 crankcase. I also need gears that allow the motor to get past 70 MPH without that vibration and a good expansion chamber exhaust to radically increase the power. These are the parts I am asking for help on. It looks like the primary and secondary gears are the same as late 1990's Dios. but the exhaust mounts look very different. I will be posting a video and specs on the stock gearing and asking for help from Dio tuners to measure their equivalent parts and see how closely they match. I may be able to make something work and turn this mild-looking scooter into a sport-bike embarrassment at red lights. That is my goal with the bike I dreamed of owning since I got into scooters 25 years ago now...