San Francisco says, "Scoot!"

A some of you know Jackie bought a scooter recently. She found it off Craigslist and when I asked such questions as, “What model? What year? What manufacturer” she responded with, “Red and white and cute all over”.

Ultimately we ended up out in Oakley which if you don’t know, is apparently somewhere in California. Far away is all you really need to know

We get there and it turns out the guys selling it doesn’t actually have it at his place. Sounds shady. It’s at his friends house down the way, we can follow him there. Shadier. Actually he isn’t selling it for his friend he is selling to for his friends wife. Shady Alert, Shady Alert! Cuz his friend died and he is helping her get rid of some of his stuff. Suddenly, not so shady but sort of sad. Also, how do you talk a widow down on a price of, well anything? I don’t know how but apparently Jackie does because she did.

We got there and while the bike seemed fine mechanically (some rust in the gas tank maybe) and in incredibly good condition esthetically it just wouldn’t start. As a result Jackie asked and got about 30% off. We packed it into the back of her uncle’s borrowed truck and, after various misadventures made it back to SF.

Lisa Duke had mentioned that sometimes a bike that has been sitting just won’t start because of bad gas in the tank. Since the tank was pretty low I filled it up with some Techron loaded gas (I am a firm believe in Chevron gas for finicky fuel systems) and the scooter started right up. Right now it is at the scooter doctor for a general check up (it shifts rough, won’t idle and the blinkers don’t work), though we managed to ride it down there only stalling once.

So in the end Jackie was right, it IS red and white and Cute all over. (Also known as a 1981 limited edition Honda Passport).