Muffler\exhaust protection

When I was a kid I fell off my bike and made a serious injury, I had to go to the hospital and get stitches. While waiting in the room came a teenage girl who was with her boyfriend, she burned her leg on the exhaust of his scooter. I always thought it was stupid that the bikes do not have at least a minimum protection.

This is what the engineers at Sym made for the Sym GTS 125 Evo...

Rear view mirror angle - not good

Not all is good in my Sym GTS 125 Evo :(

Since day one that I don't feel comfortable with the angle of the rear view mirrors.
They look good, they retract... but I cannot see what's happening behind me...

If I put them pointing inside I only see my arms... if outside they point too side ways and I cannot see right behind.

Normally I've to move my arm inside my body and stretch my head a little to view anything on my back. This is an issue for my rookie driving skills...

Questions... ask me some...

In a previous post someone ask:

"então man , e mais novidades? comportamento na estrada nas curvas , travões , consumos , médias? revisões , falta mais informação"

Which can be summarized as:
a) road behavior;
b) curve behavior;
c) breaks;
d) consume;
e) revisions;

For a), b) and c) I must remind my readers that this is my first ever motorcycle, and I'm still a little rookie on the road, and since I have no comparison terms I must say I'm very satisfied with the behavior of the maxi-scooter. I'll try to ask a friend who drives bikes for years for an expert review, any time in the future...

For d), unfortunately I've not rode my Symone has I expected to, because of the lousy weather and because I'm at home taking care of my recent born baby, so I only fill up the gas tank twice. So far consume is what expected prior to revision, it's something about 4lt/100kms. After that it supposed to be less, I will post information as soon as I have it, in a few months time...

Regarding e), the first revision is free :) - it was a benefit from the motorbike store. The first revision is at 1000km, I'm still at half of that :(

Feel free to ask me something, I'll try to answer...

Front wheel, brake and tyre

What a nice wheel hein?

Some pics

Just some pictures of my Symone :)

[the weather has been the worst these past months, almost didn't ride...]

1000 visits : blog statistics from Google Analytics

Another good Sym GTS Evo blog

Found this great Sym GTS Evo blog the other day:
http://gostodescooters.blogspot.com/

It's in portuguese so use the Google Translator if needed.
Translate link

There is some valuable information, take a look...

Lets talk storage #4 - at last but not least

To finish the storage posts here is the last one you can find on the scooter.
It's in the main structure right in front of the knees.

Yes, you can see a 12V plugin, very useful to charge the phone, pda or the mp3 on the move... nice... :)
This storage compartment has a lock, so it's a "little" safe to store some items.

Lets talk storage #3 - another compartment

In the right we can find another useful compartment to store smaller stuff. I keep my garage keys when going out so I don't need to store them in the jacket, when arriving I then get then from that little handy place.

(click to enlarge)

The commands : right hand

And here are the pictures of the right hand commands...

The commands : left hand

Here are the pictures of the left command and it's description...

The passenger's pedals

So you need to take a back rider passenger?
Well, he or she must put the feet somewhere...

Here are the back pedals (view from above):

Close pedal

Open Pedal

Never took a passenger thou... :(

[I guess everyone still afraid of my driving skills... ]

Time saving machine

It's been a few weeks now that I ride my Symone to work (not all the days thou, I still have no confidence at rainy conditions).

But I can now make some analysis of the difference between riding a car and riding my Symone.


It's a really time saving machine! 
I'm so glad I've decided to buy a maxi-scooter :)

Still feel like a rookie on the road, still very afraid of cars and other motorcycles, but even so I still can make better times than ever by car.

Best time ever by car, mid summer when the city was empty and didn't stop on red lights, took me some ~16 minutes. Average time by car going to work ~20m, going home ~30m .
Best time ever with Symone, in a normal day, took me 12 minutes.
Average time by scooter going to work ~16m, going home ~15m.

These results are on the "normal" conditions...

Since the start of using the scooter I've faced 5 major traffic jams...
If I've drove the car those days none of those traffic jam could be made in less than an hour.
With Symone... It's been smooth... :)

Lets talk storage #2 - secret hideout

This is a small compartment but quite handy.
It has no lock so it's no good to keep valuable stuff.
It's where I keep a simple cloth to clean up the seat from dust and humidity.

I took the photos with a tissue packet and a 50 cents euro coin to give the perception of the dimension.

Kick start

For those who might ask about it... yes, the Sym GTS 125 Evo comes with a "kick start", even if the manual said little about it :(

(click to enlarge)