Ok...this is where I feel like a moron.

I had not put on nearly 200 miles like I thought. Not even close. And I got all excited when I gassed up at 200 and it took 2.23 gallons, and I was thinking Woohoo! Nearly 90 miles to the gallon!

Um. Well. Apparently a European bike (scooter, whatever...in my head it's a bike) displays in kms. I knew the odometer was reading in kms, but I thought the trip odometer was set to miles...but it wasn't. I tried; I did what the owner's manual said and presumed I had the trip odo correct, but no. FAIL. So my magical 90 mpg was actually 90 kmpg, which put the mileage closer to 55ish.

When we got home from our nice NOT 87-just-60 mile long ride, the Spouse Thingy got the owner's manual out, worked around its major typo, and set the odometer (regular and trip) to miles. So yay for him, that made me happy. But all totaled I only have 175 miles on it, and I thought I was way over 250 by the time we got home.

His brain works in ways different than mine...when I mentioned to him the engine lugged a little bit going uphill, he surmised that perhaps the dealership fueled up with low-octane gas. When I filled up today I used 91 octane (highest the AFB gas station had; the manual says it should get 95 octane. I'm not even sure I can get that anywhere around here) and we headed up a decent enough hill (Peabody Road near the prison for anyone local.) No lugging at all; it zipped up the hill with no problem, and even accelerated to the point I realized I better slow down lest a LEO be waiting over that hill.

After that we headed towards one of my favorite roads (Pleasants Valley)...it's about 11 miles of baby twisties, with a posted speed limit of 45. Stress posted. Most riders seem to tear through it a whole lot faster than that. I'll hit 55 on the straights but I slow for the curves...lots of deer and peacocks and trucks turning left in the middle of blond curves on this road, so it's not worth the risk to go too fast.

On the way up Pleasants Valley I took it easy, just enjoying the ride. At posted speeds the scooter handled even the tightest near-hairpin 15 mph curve smoothly, and hugged the longer curves nicely.

From there we turned onto Highway 128 and headed up towards Monticello Dam for a few more twisties; I throttled up a little bit and tried to ride through them the way I did on the SV. I was never in danger of dragging a peg, but I usually took those over the speed limit. The scooter handled them just fine, though maybe a tiny bit more anemically. I don't think I was leaned over near as much, but I didn't struggle to hit and maintain speed. It went zoooom.

We stopped just short of the dam and turned around; on the way back I made some intentional stabs at setting my line a little late in curves, and was impressed at how well I could make adjustments (I was trying to think of typical things a brand new rider might do...going into a curve too hot, trying to adjust by slowing down...) I never came close to going over the line or off the road. Didn't have to lean harder, just slow down a bit. That's one thing that sticks with me--you can roll off the throttle in mid curve with no worries.

Ok, so far I can. It might be a YMMV thing.

And I'm getting a better hang of the wheel lock. As long as I'm not stopped before making a turn, it's kind of kicky to use it. Unnecessary for the most part, but kicky.