Meet Our Pets! Dukie & Black Dog

We picked up some wheels. Some older wheels, but they roll none the less. For Jacqui’s 15 minute drive across town a 19?? SYM Duke 125cc. Creatively named “Dukie” by the rider herself, this monster is held together by duct tape. We purchased the scooter from a foreign teacher who was leaving Taiwan in a hurry. We met him at a local department store to check out his sweet ride. A failed attempt at using the kick stand, left the seller in a real pickle as his scooter crashed to its side in the middle of a busy street….. “So, do you want it?” he said…, as the scooter lay dead on the road. He wanted 2000NT dollars… we gave him 1000 and we went on our merry way. For 30 bucks Canadian, we walked away with a scooter that rolled…. but real loud (no muffler). Since then we have put on a new muffler for another 30 bucks Canadian and she has run great for over 2 months.

Next on the list of purchases: a cruiser. We had always planned on driving around the island on motorcycle adventures, and so we headed out to find something that would work for us.

A couple weeks looking in the English teacher ads, and we found a nice cruiser that hadn’t been run in over a year. In Taiwan, repairs are dirt cheap, so we were looking for something that had some serious flaws…. We took a gamble on this bike… we’ll let you know how it turns out in the long run.

The bike’s owner had moved to Hong Kong, so it was his friend who was selling the bike. The bike was in terrible shape. It obviously needed an oil change, some basic fixes... and god knows what else. We talked him down to about 200 bucks Canadian and took the gamble.

Next, we found a great local guy who fixes up bikes and speaks enough English to communicate. He completely overhauled the bike (shocks, fuel line, chain, engine treatment etc…). Eric did a really great job on the bike and she has run great for well over a month. We hope to get a year or two out of the old girl. Oh ya, she’s old alright…. 1993 125cc SYM Husky “The English Teacher Special”. It only has a 125cc engine, which is very small compared to a north American bike….. trust me though…. with the traffic here, you don’t want to be going any faster than 70. She cruises very gently at about 65 on open roads. We’ll see what happens.