I purchased a brand new black Honda Elite 80 in 2001. I was commuting about 60 miles per day to and from work, and the miles were racking up on my car. I thought if I had a scooter, I could run my errands around the city and use my car for commuting.

The Elite wasn’t the prettiest scooter I had ever seen, but I wanted a little more oomph than was offered by the more charming 50cc Honda Metropolitan. I named my new scooter “Joey the Lemur.” If anyone remembers Mystery Science Theater 3000, you might remember a little ditty about “Joey the Lemur.” I became known as “Scooterjoey” to my online friends.

My first scooter may have been somewhat homely but I figured it was best to play on this. It was like an ugly puppy where one might say it was so ugly it was cute (more about this later). I put huge hot pink flames on the sides and front of my scooter and I strapped a Mr. T bobblehead to the rear basket. For good measure I hung a pine tree air freshener from the mirror.

In the 5 years I owned my Elite I only put 2,300 miles on it. I was a very casual rider wearing only a ¾ helmet and gloves. I was a very uneducated scooter rider. It wasn’t until I sold my Elite and purchased a Yamaha Vino 125 in March 2006 that I started to read about scooter safety and got involved with the scooting community. I took the MSF class, bought appropriate safety gear, blinged out my Vino, started moderating the Yahoo! Vino 125 Girls forum, and helped start an Albuquerque, New Mexico scooter club called the Scoodidos. I now have 4,000 miles on my Vino 125 and I look forward to many more years of scooting, learning, and exploring.