New Scooter

So a few months back, I was in a minor mishap on the PCX scooter, and managed to slide partway along the pavement around Nong Prajak Park. I know the pavement was slippery from the residual water from the Song Kran festival, where they pump a massive amount of lake water onto the road surrounding the lake. I know my rear brake was out of adjustment (later to find out the rear drum pads were nearly shot), and I know I was unprepared for a truck ahead of me suddenly stopping in traffic. Lots and lots of contributing factors to my front brakes locking up, and the bike sliding out from underneath me, and me going down on the pavement as sliding several meters on bare skin.

Even though it looks sort of bad, the damage was mostly road rash for me, and some minor scrapes for the bike. I actually picked up the bike, and drove myself to the hospital to get checked out. And truth be told, if not for some convincing from my riding buddy, I’d have driven myself home, and done my best to patch myself up. Fortunately, I had my riding buddy with me. I ended up staying overnight in the hospital for observation, and I did end up with a large hematoma on my left knee that took several weeks to resolve.

As soon as I was up and about I got all the issues on the PCX repaired and resolved. The centerstand put a big dent in the CVT cover, and the front tire was looking a bit age cracked. I also had the back wheel disassembled and ended up replacing the rear drum brake pads, and the brake cable adjusted to spec. All the things I probably should have done prior to the accident, and would have done if it was anyone’s bike other than mine. ‘Oh, it’s okay, I’ll get to it in a bit.’

Fast forward to just a couple of weeks ago, I have been wishing I would have had ABS brakes on my riding around scooter. I do have ABS brakes on my big motorcycle, and Bua has ABS brakes on her motorcycle, but the scooters don’t have ABS. I happened to be in town at the Honda shop getting some work done on the daughter’s MSX125 motorcycle, and noticed the Forza scooter has ABS, and it has front and rear disk brakes, and it has the little flashy switch on the handlebars for flashing the high beams. (All features I appreciate on my big bike. While I’ve been very good about credit since I’ve moved to Thailand, I do have a Line of Credit with my US Credit Union, and I can easily pay myself back the cost of the scooter within a year. I decided to go for ABS on my scooter. Bua arranged to sell the PCX to one of her friends the same day I bought the bike, so with the PCX gone, the Forza came home.

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