When I was a young lad, I used to hang out with my older neighbor who had a Sachs Eagle moped. I never rode it. Considering I was ten that was probably a good thing. But I watched as he maintained it, tore it down to repaint it a deep red and eventually sold it on for something with four wheels. About five years later, I bought my own scoot-about with lawn mowing money. But not until I was complete in terrorizing the neighborhood on a Rupp minibike. Thanks dad.
My moped wouldn’t come in pedal-form though. Thanks to Honda, the scooter market was reborn in 1983 after the slowly declining sales of Vespas throughout the ’70s. Kinda like Miata after the MG. The Japanese nailed it. The Aero came out in 1983 with 50 and 80cc models. I purchased the 2nd generation Aero 50 in 1985, showroom new. Fast forward to disposable income years, I never found my elusive one year only ’85 model. It had different stickers and a red floor. Both of which sealed the memories.
Despite this one being an ’86 model, I jumped on it. When else am I going to find a black and red Honda Aero 50 with 164.9 miles? So what it was scratched up a bit. It was essentially new. I convinced myself it was better to own the ’86 because Honda returned the kick starter which they deleted for 1985. It was much more practical to have a kick starter when staring at it on display. All in all, I get the same warm fuzzy looking at it even if I was only caretaker for a short while.
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