Scooter's First Day

Odometer: 0.0 miles

This week, my sister and I both purchased Honda Metropolitan scooters. Hers was in celebration of a milestone birthday (happy 30th, baby sis!), and mine was the result of the desire for something fun and too much time spent online. Living in the DC/Baltimore metropolitan area, purchasing a scooter in my neck of the woods was difficult. Stores can hardly keep them in stock – as soon as they get a shipment in, they sell out – and there is nary a used scooter to be found.

Nevertheless, my other half managed to locate a Honda Powersports dealer about 20 miles from our house ad a quick call confirmed that their online inventory showing two Metropolitans was up to date. The scooters were parked right by the door, one red and one blue. Apparently, they had a shipment of four in yesterday, and two of them had already sold. That’s not much time to make a decision, but I went for the blue one.

Scooters in Maryland less than 50 cc are not required to be registered or insured, so I was surprised to find out that the process of buying a scooter was the same as for buying a car: lots of paperwork, waiting, and signatures. I guess I thought I would be more like buying a computer, just in and out. The dealer doesn’t let you test-drive the scooters (“There’s nothing to it,” he said. Famous last words.), so I could only sit on it and check out the compartments and controls. How do you know that you want to purchase something you can’t test drive? I guess you just have to go on faith and be willing to learn.

The delivery process was quick and painless, and in no time I was scooting around the parking lot and learning that turning was more difficult than I had expected. More like riding a bike, less like riding a car. The scooter got up to 20 mph easily, which felt a little out of control for someone who hadn’t ridden a bicycle in years. The flip flops I had worn to the dealership provided no traction, and truthfully I felt a little scared riding it around the gravel-lined parking lot. We decided to take it home and try it there instead.

A little creative wrangling allowed us to get it (barely!) into the back of the Jeep, and it was easy to tell just on the ride home that this little scooter would attract a lot of attention. Curious looks and waves from passersby followed us all the way home, followed by an onslaught of inquisitive neighbors who came out to see it before we even had it out of the Jeep. After a change of shoes and ten minutes of riding it around the neighborhood, I felt like an old pro and mastered the art of turning with no trouble whatsoever. Thirty minutes later, I felt comfortable enough to ride out on the four-lane road at the end of our development to return a movie to the Redbox. First errand, completed with style!