Back in the old days, like 2004, we bought a new Yamaha Vino 125 which is a retro vespa style looking thing built out of modern technology.
As you can see I put hotrod flames on it, based on the "hotwheels" look I remembered as a kid in the late 70s. It was a weapon.
I say was, cos about 4-5 months ago it got stolen...grrr.
Anyway, after I got over the trauma of losing that sweet machine, it was time to look for a replacement. We have got a piece of shit second scooter anyway, which is a Kymco. Actually, that is the fastest scooter I have ever been on. It looks like crap, but beats anything at the lights, and has been known to pull wheelies with ease. As fast as that kymco is, it will die one day, and I don't really want it to be out somehere in the mountains on highway 7, on a rainy sunday afternoon.
I enjoy riding, and I don't do it just to get from A to B....so when the weather is nice in the weekends that is usually what is on the cards.
After looking around at a few scooters, and some second hand motorbikes, it became clear that to get something decent and tidy you need to pay a large majority of the new price here. Winding back odometers here is rife at dealers also. Living in Taiwan, it is not as easy as you would think to buy stuff. Firstly you have got to find where it is sold, and as the web and the yellow pages are all in chinese it makes it pretty tough just to get there. Add into that trying to commun
icate with some dood selling a secondhand one to find out hwere to go look at it etc etc(You can see where this is going)So, after some fairly lengthy discussions with my learning chinese partner, Ratlung (who was also looking for a motorbike), we decided to check out buying a new Hartford HD 150S each.
It was a bit of a mission, but we managed to talk to the Hartford dealer in Taoyuan. As a stab in the dark, we also went back to the Yamaha store that sold the Vino 125 and asked them. Taiwan is a strange place, and it seems anything is possible so it wasn't too surprising when the Yamaha dealer said they could get us a couple of Hartfords (one of their competitors). Ariel from work did the calling around the shops in chinese to get a good price, which included a security system and a new helmet.
We were all set to go around mid December when I realised that if we waited 2-3 weeks more we would be registering the bikes as 2006 not 2005, so a little more negot
iating and we picked up our bikes on Monday Jan 2nd, 2006. I like the idea of efficiency, so getting them on the first workday of 2006 was great.Anyway, about the first available weekend we could, Ratlung and I took our brand spanking new bikes our for an epic journey, to break them in.
It was a sunday and we left around 10.30 I think. The weather was good and we headed to the Shimen Dam. So far so good.
Then we carried on the #7 Highway, which is the north Taiwan cross-island highway. That was fantastic until we hit rain and low viz about the top of the mountain. Did I mention it was also around 2 deg? Thinking that we were experiencing some alpine weather, we decided to push on towards Yilan, which is on the east coast of Taiwan, and then head back into Taipei. By the time we got to Yilan we were soaked, and damn freezing. A search for a comfort shrine like a BK or McDonalds was fruitless, so we opted for a hot chocolate (out of a can) and some food at a 7-11.
I mentioned earlier our bikes had security systems installed, and one of the features is electric start. So while we were getting suited up for the concluding wet leg of our journey, I decided to start my bike to let it warm up again. This seemed like a cool trick considering we were both still inside the 7-11. Problem was, mine was in gear, so when it started it edged forward and toppled onto the ker
b. ARGGGH. Fortunately, and unbelievably, the pegs took 99% of the hit and the bike was virtually unscathed...whew. We both learnt a lesson right then.We carried on the journey which included 3hrs of hell riding on the #9, which is known as "Ghost Highway" for the amount of accidents that occur on it. I was getting a tad pissed off at this point. It was freezing, it was wet, my visor was a mess when oncoming headlights appeared, so I lifted that...but I wear glasses, so the same effect on those too. Combine this with Taiwanese drivers that honk because they believe a 2 wheeler shouldn't be on road outside the city and then literally move over to try and push bikes into the ditch....add into the mix that every corner seems to have slippery wet manhole covers right on the bike track line....grr.
When we got to Taipei it was a great relief, but we still had another 40-50 mins to get back to Taoyuan.
Ouch, it was one hell of a short sunday ride. In the end it lasted about 10hrs in the worst possible riding conditions, so I was kinda relieved to be home. The bikes looked like they were 20 years old with all the grime on them, but we had 400km+ on the clock of each bike - almost ready for the first service. Mission accomplished. :)
