SS300 Test Ride

That's me riding the SS300 and giving it a big thumbs up!

This afternoon I had agreed to help a fellow scooterist out from the local scooter club getting his scooter inspected. He has a nice yellow Vento Triton and wanted to use it to take his motorcycle test tomorrow. I was a bit nervous as initially I thought he was driving it to the DMV as it requires going on the highway but luckily he has one of those nifty tilting tail-gate carriers. Now I was going to suggest we meet at the MotoStrada/PSF Store however they are closed on Mondays. So instead we met at Wal-Mart of all places. He got his scoot down and had it up and running in no time and we drove the short distance to the inspection station.

The nice thing about riding a scooter is that at the inspection station they have you pull right up between the cars and you get immediate assistance. They did however require he have 3 pieces of reflective tape on his helmet, as per the law, and luckily I had remember this and came prepared. After that it was just a matter of waiting for the computers to work and we were out of there.

While we were waiting I called up the PSF warehouse and got in touch with Alan there. When I last saw him at the store he had offered that I could stop by and see the new warehouse. He said it would be no problem if my buddy and I wanted to stop by so we did. There new warehouse is right next door to their other one but what they have managed to do in the new space is terrific. There is a nice showroom setup with a reception area and offices.

In back is a garage/work area with all sorts of neat projects. Soon they will be installing a dyno in an adjacent room. Large parts department with a maze of shelves. (They even had full stock of their ATV parts for models 2 years out of production.) Alas there were scooters towering above and beyond almost everywhere. I was told the other warehouse was just as crowded.

Alan was gracious enough to give us the tour and hang out with us for a bit. I know he is a very busy man so it was extra nice of him. I could tell my new friend had been bitten by the upgrade bug as Alan allowed me to test ride the new SS300. Let me tell you that thing is the Cadillac of scooters!

First to start the SS300 the kickstand has to be up, which I think makes good sense. Once started in ran smoothly and and was extremely quiet. I assume that is one advantage to a liquid cooled scooter. I took it for a spin and when I would come to a stop I would think the engine had cut off since I couldn't hear it. Its pretty fast although I didn't push it too hard as it had 6 miles and not enough road. Alan told me it would do 80 no problem and I believe him. Even at that speed I think it would be comfortable to ride. With its xtra big fitted seat, low ride, good suspension, and windscreen it felt just like being in a Caddy with the top down (so to speak). The braking felt very adaquet and the turn signals made a pleasant beep when engage.

Over all I was very impressed. Seems a little big for in the city unless you were to park it with the motorcycles and not the bicycles. The underseat storage was huge though! So that is definatly a benefit as my full face helmet fit fine with tons of left over space. If I had the money I probably would have purchased it to cruise interstate as well as to the shore on but its probably good I didn't. I do have my eye on it and since I plan to keep my rx200hp perhaps one day this would make a good second vehicle. Together that would still only be 4 wheels right...