I’ll be the first to admit, I love scooters. When my wife said she wanted a Vespa I jumped at the chance to wiggle one into our driveway. As fun as it was, and as frequently as I used it to trundle down a few dirt roads here and there, I never thought of it as anything more than a fun put-around. Honda has always been apt to see the potential of foot-forward motorcycles as evidenced by their popular Ruckus scooter. But, just recently they teased of a scooter specifically built for actual adventure riding. Have they jumped the shark? I’m going to say yes, yes they have. In a good way.
How do you know if it’s a good scooter for sale or not? Is it a 50cc Moped or A50cc scooter? There are quite a few good 50cc scooters for sale right now, and it’s not that difficult to see why.
Make no mistake, this is no cheeky toy like their very entertaining Honda Grom. With a 750cc parallel twin engine producing 51hp, the X-ADV will certainly scoot. See what I did there? It is also slated to ship with the same DCT automatic transmission used on their NC700X motorcycle and the much coveted Africa Twin. With many similarities to Honda’s Integra scooter, it seems realistic that the entry point for the X-ADV will put the price at round $10,000. That’s a lot of dosh for a scooter.
On the face of it, they appear to have taken this project rather seriously. The X-ADV has all of the prerequisite attributes any bike would receive when given the adventure treatment. It has riser bars, spoke wheels, hand guards, and even dual disc front brakes. Knobby tires are an obviously necessary adventure modification, and I can only hope they release some crash protection as an option. Like all scooters it’s clad in plastic from tip to tail and I can imagine it would shatter like a wine glass on impact with the ground.
I suppose there is an audience for the X-ADV or Honda wouldn’t bother to build it. The Ruckus and even the Trail 90 proved people are willing to take small bikes to far flung places not paved with slick tarmac. I also have to applaud Honda for their efforts to bring as many new riders into the fold as possible. Their NC700X motorcycle was specifically aimed at the first time rider, or re-entry rider. They clearly went to great lengths to make the Africa Twin as user friendly for the rookie as it is for the expert. The X-ADV might be just the ticket for a novice rider with dirty ambitions. I assume it would be easy to duck walk the scooter through tricky sections while not fretting over clutch technique.
My first reaction was to giggle, but the more I look at it, the more I want to take it for a taco run…to Cabo San Lucas.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFTMEjJEtPA
