I Came Sooooo Close This Morning ...

... to ordering a scooter. Not the one previously on my Amazon Wish List, but the one on there now:

The base price of the X-Pro Maui is about $100 more than the Taotao ATM50A1, but the shipping cost is about $80 less .... and it comes fully assembled in the crate instead of needing to be put together.

Why was I sooooooooo close? Because the price of Bitcoin was way up.

Why did I hold off?

Because there's stuff I still need to do, and because I expect some better local deals to be coming up.

I need to get my driver's license. Tamara will be off work for most of November recovering from hernia surgery, so once she's up and about a little, I'll probably make an appointment and go take the damn test.

Gainesville is a big scooter town, and as the weather cools down I expect that the local shops will sprout new used inventory as the kids who started the school year on them decide they need cars after all for when its below 60 degrees or wet out.

I've already seen both new and used scooters at local shops that are price-competitive ... and when you buy a scooter at the local shop, you walk out with the taxes and plate taken care of instead of having to do all that separately.

Of course, I have to work out a deal with Tamara to use Bitcoin for some other household needs in return for cash from her to do the scooter stuff. And I'll need to buy a helmet and so forth. And get insurance, but that seems to be dirt-cheap for scooters.

My plan:

1. Get a driver's license;
2. Get a 50cc scooter;
3. Get used to the scooter, including rides to visit a friend in Fort White, 40 miles away or so and so forth, as well as tooling around town;
4. Do all the things I can to "de-restrict" the scooter for maximum operating speeds (earlier);
5. Put a 100cc bore kit in the scooter to really amp things up (later);
6. Get used to riding the now much faster scooter;
7. Take a longer trip or two, perhaps to Miami, Atlanta, or New Orleans and back;
8. Consider moving up to a "real motorcyle" and taking even longer trips.

Step 7 is probably waaaaaay down the road. If I'm going to bother paying for the school and license certification, I don't think I'll settle for a 110-to-150cc bike. I'll want to go with a 500 or bigger, something that can handle interstate highway speeds. Which, of course, will cost more than, say, a 110cc Honda Navi. Unless someone reading this has an old but running Norton Commando 850 sitting around that they just want hauled away to get rid of. Which I doubt.