So, after about 3 weeks of agonizing and obsessing over scooters (and eventually giving up on a plan to get the Stella, sorry baby), I decided on a 50cc bike just for zipping around my little town. Unfortunately, by the time I settled on this, there were none to be found.
So I went on a bit of a quest.
I was looking specifically for a Honda Metropolitan (sometimes it's called a Scoopy or a Jazz, depending on what country you are in): it's 4-stroke, gets about 40mph (45 on a downhill, haha), 100 miles per gallon, and.. it's cute as a button. Around my work, there was a girl who had a Yamaha Vino classic that I liked (and this looks about the same).
So, local Honda dealerships were out, other places were out. I was about to give up when I was talking to my office mate about it. I had the big list of bike-shops open on my computer and I had marked off most of them, although one I had gotten an unanswered call.
He said "none of those places had it?" and I said.."yeah!" and I picked up the phone just to prove it, calling the last shop on the list. The guy on the phone says "Yeah, we have three of them right here.." (And they were going fast, apparently $4 gas brings out the scooter fanatic in people).
So that was that. I jumped in my car and went down into Baltimore, and there it was. I bought it, called my friend to help me transport it back to my place, and by this time it was dark, so I didn't even get a chance to ride it that first day.
Since Saturday morning I've put 105 miles on it. I rode it to work today (wee!). I calculated that every day I ride the bike to work rather than drive, I save the price of a gallon of gas.
But the real reason I love it, is it's stylish and fun as hell.