A few years ago I realized that my days of feeling totally safe on the Enfield were over. I came close to losing it a couple of times just getting it out of & back into the garage. So I started deciding on something else to at least keep me on two wheels for a couple more years.
The Honda Ruckus was what I decided on. A it looks like a little urban assault vehicle way more than the little pastel Chinese scooters that are out there by the millions now. & B Honda's been building them for a long time now & they're about as good as they can get. Like alligators.
Had to wait 2 1/2 whole seasons for it & luckily it was a 2022 Grey one that came around on the guitar. I wanted either grey or black.
I've ridden it 2 whole seasons now & I love it. It moves around almost weightlessly for me in & out of and around the garage. All the weight is way lower than the Enfield.
It's super nimble on the road & the only thing I had to train my brain to is that the small tires react way more quickly than a motorcycle. Even glancing at the mirrors the first few weeks took brain retraining because the Ruckus would react to my eye movement & and lean a tiny bit toward where my eyes were looking.
My 1st mod was a side stand (Buzzetti). The leverage to center stand it was all wrong & I was hurting myself getting it up. The side stand fixed that. The one drawback is you can't kickstart it on the side stand.
The 2nd mad was different mirrors.
The 3rd mod was to the headlights to give me my own switches. I just could not stand having to ride around with both headlights blazing all the time. And running the battery down.
The 4th mod was a set of foot pegs outboard of the "floor". I found the 1st season of riding that I just did not feel right with my feet flat on the floor directly in front of me. I felt off balance all the time especially when having to turn right or left from a stop sign or similar. A simple hardwood dowel & bicycle hand grips solved that problem & the improvement in balance is 100%.
Another addition was an underseat bag, an absolute necessity if you want to go to Ace Hdwr or the grocery store. You can get quite a bit in this bag.
35 is easy & it will do 40 on the right road with no headwind. But even blasting around at 25 is fun because of the go-cart effect. It "feels" like you're hauling ass
Lots of grin factor. Plus my only 120 pounds is no strain for this tough little engine.
One of the most interesting things is that there is absolutely no (zero) "starter sound" with this machine. You press the button & it's just running with no starter motor sound at all. Honda has electronically rigged the alternator to be a starter until the engine is running & then it becomes an alternator. It's almost like it starts by magic.
The ECU that manages this thing is huge. It's 1/2 of that lump in front of your knees. The other half is battery.
Topic: My 2022 Honda Ruckus (Read 6558 times)