Mopeds are Great Fun and Cheap to Run!

My 21 year old son needed transportation... problem was he had very little money to get transportation or to maintain it! A motorcycle appealed to his masculine mind, but the accompanying insurance and regulations did not!

Alas, he considered the purchase of a moped or scooter. At first it was a comical idea. We all laughed about it. Then the idea warmed on us. Why not? I had a Honda 50 at his age and loved it!

So, began a week of intensive reading and studying to decide on a model. The popular scooters looked too silly to him. He instead was fond of the TFR moped. It looks like a regular cycle and has the peddling option for the "no doubt it will happen" misfortune of running out of gasoline.

We scoured Ebay, newspapers, free ad magazines. No luck! Why were there no used TFR's available?

Because, as we learned through actual TFR fan web pages, people love their TFR's and are not getting rid of them!

Off we headed to a scooter shop to look at a new one. The purchase price with taxes was right at $1,000.00. Initially, this may sound steep for a college student's budget, but considering there would be no inspections fees, no registration fees, no licensing fees, and no insurance fees, it was not that bad of an investment.

The 2 stroke engine is under 50 cc and burns an oil/gas mix. His gas mileage is about 125 mpg! Although speed is limited, while scouting around town it is quite sufficient, reaching 30-35 mph regularly with the occasional fluke of 40 mph under ideal circumstances (down hill with no curves or bumps!).

He has been traveling 17 miles one way to his job until he gets moved into town. He needed to carry not only his backpack one day, but also his violin. This is when we decided he would benefit from a moped rack. Back to ebay we went and hurray! We found a perfect rack, bid, won, and paid. Only days later, his moped was fitted with a great rack. He can now carry everything he needs with ease and safety.

And just in case you're thinking that's great for a college kid, My husband and I both took turns riding it and it was a blast! We are at least 20 years older than he is, so do the math... old foggies can use these cool bikes too!