Modern Vespa

I'm a big fan of smaller bikes. So un-American!
My interests lie in scooters and motorcycles in the 90 > 250cc range.
After riding scooters and motorcycles smaller than 175cc's for a few years, here in Ohio, Calif, Mass & Texas, - I see no reason to ever go bigger.
Plenty will need more speed and power - that's OK, too. For them.
In my coffee village yesterday, having breakfast with my oldest daughter, I spotted the new Honda 150 parked by the Group W bench!
I noticed a fellow in a riding jacket - approached him and we had a nice chat about his new white XR150L Honda. Very new to our shores - April or May, 2023, but has been around for years in other markets. (Asia!)

He really loves it - his other ride is the new Honda Trail Cub 125. (one of the 2 I saw at the street fair recently) - he said he rides with a group who all own the new Super Cub and/or the Trail Cubs! He said his group really like this XR150 - and each will probably add one!

MSRP just below $3K.
Rear drum, and a carb....to keep the price down I imagine. These things have an incredible record for toughness and reliability in 3rd world life!


O.S.

If I didn't have the Vespa I would totally have one of the smaller Hondas, like this or the Trail 125 in particular. As it stands, really don't need another small bike at this stage, but I'm glad they're out there.

I could go for a Honda 125 Super Cub, even if only to sit and stare at it on rainy days.

It's rolling art.

I hear you.

I was a big fan of both my Suzuki VanVan 200 and Vespa 125 Sprint.

I do like my current 1200cc behemoth too, but I would not miss quite a bit of the weight shaved away. Very seldom use all the power either, I just like to enjoy the huge low end torque for lazy cruising.

Personally, my sweet spot is perhaps somewhere around 400cc light bikes... Something with just a tiny bit more power than would be necessary to get the job done Still, I do appreciate the purposefulness and simplicity of e.g. this Honda.

OldSchooot,

I am with you. The riding/handling characteristics of the under 400cc machine, at a lighter weight, is my preference. To me, and we all differ, the larger bikes above 400/500ccs are like sitting on top of a V8 engine going down the road.

I have posted before - the smaller the bike/scoot, the more fun it is to ride. The most fun has been on vacation renting 50cc scooters zipping around exploring.

In the Twin Cities (MN), you almost can not get across town with out going on the freeway. For that reason I loved the Vespa 300 when it came out with the long legs to hit the expressway. Even my Kymco 550AD is under 500 lbs. That is why I bought it - same weight as my prior Burgman 400.

The Beach Boy's said it all "I going to Ride my Honda Tonight"

Bob Copeland

It seems like old is new again. Even though I currently own a '96 Sportster that I took in trade towards a '22 Trail 125, my favs are the sub 250cc bikes, pre 2008 Ninja 250s in particular. The joy of these smaller machines are the fun you can have just tooling along at 35 mph or just running around backroads staying under 55 mph. The only downside I can see on the XR150 is acceleration in busy town traffic, a decent 150cc scooter will be able to walk away from it easily. The Trail 125 I had was definitely outclassed it traffic, whereas the XR should do a little better and probably hold 10 mph more speed at the top end.