So I drove over to JDMyard to test ride Zi’s Sachs Madass today.
Kick start my heart (gotta love kick start over pressing a button!).
Brand new 160cc engine to replace the original 120cc. Check the oil cooler…so cute!
It’s been on the cards, and I tried to keep it a secret, but I’ve been meaning to get back on a moto again. An opportunity to get a Sachs Madass came up. Long story short I’ve been busy designing Zi’s new web site and as part payment I was going to take his newly acquired bike.
The Madass was designed by Sachs in Germany but oh noes it’s made in China. Apparently there’s good China and bad China and after much research it turns out the Madass is built by the later. People have suggested basically dipping the entire bike in loctite because at some point everything will fall off the bike!
I wasn’t so deterred though. I built my super dodgey death trap which I absolutely love riding, the only thing I don’t like about riding it is that it’s 100% illegal whereas the Madass is completely legal…well, in stock form at least…
This particular Madass has had $2k thrown at it. It’s old 120cc engine was thrown out when the gearbox blew up and a new 160cc engine was shoved in.
I was a little nervous about riding it as I’ve not ridden a motorbike since uni days (1994/5?!). The bike’s pretty tall for such a small looking thing (I couldn’t get both feet flat on the ground when sitting on it). I got going without stalling though and found it pretty easy to change gears up and down (albeit quite jerky!). The Madass feels fast (most likely a lot faster than it really is due to the vibrations and loud exhaust!) and I don’t doubt that I could hit 100km/hr on this thing but I wasn’t game enough to go anywhere over 60km/hr on my maiden ride.
I was left feeling very naughty, very much like riding my deathtrap. It’s fun, heaps of fun but then a spanner was thrown into the works.
Paul rocked up and suggested he was broke, in need of cash (sounds like where I’m at!) and that he’s thinking about selling his Honda Zoomer. HOLY SHIT. Yeah I’m pretty sure I’ve blogged about the Zoomer, it’s a “naked” scooter that I’ve always been into from a visual perspective, and one I’ve even written to Honda Australia about (to beg them to bring it in!). I am perhaps the only guy that takes a photo of the Zoomer at Deus every single time I go in there (they are the only guys in Australia compliancing them) but at $3500-4k ride away I couldn’t justify it, until now.
Paul’s “for me” price was too good to refuse considering he paid top dollar for one from Deus, then spent another $3-4k modifying it to go faster and look nicer (he even went as far as extending the wheelbase with a long frame kit). I didn’t even try to low ball him (ok, well I did a little only to realise that it wasn’t fair) so his Zoomer is all mine once I cough up the cash.
Yeah its no motorbike. No gears and you don’t “straddle” the bike (instead you kinda sit on it like a lounge chair), but it’s not going to explode as it’s got that Honda reliability (unlike the China made Sachs) and it looks cool (to me that is!) and it fits in nicely with JDMST, not to mention I’m most likely going to have a lot of fun modifying it and being a part of the large International Zoomer/Ruckus community (as for how it rides, well, we’ll see).
Enough spamming from me. I’m excited (but nervous about this new potential money pit). More Zoomer updates as they come! :)
