I recently spent a few days in the city that Rice-a-Roni built, San Francisco. There are countless activities and attractions in a city with so much history. Mrs. Bald Rider and I walked from our hotel near Japantown to Pier 33, catching the ferry to Alcatraz. That was a fun afternoon even if the smell of ‘mud’ on the island reminded me a little too much of my time on an egg (chicken) farm. The biggest takeaway from my short time in that city, however, was that San Francisco loves scooters…specifically the Honda PCX.

There is no hiding that I’ve been on a scooter kick lately. I should not have been surprised at the number of scooters I saw either in active-scoot down the street or parked waiting for their next scootventure. SF is frustrating to navigate by four-wheel conveyance and I nearly lost my mind trying to find street parking for my small-ish Nissan Frontier. Therefore, I expected to see Vespas, Chinese-wannabe-Vespas (Chespas? - not that there’s anything wrong with that), a handful of old Helix’s and maybe a maxi or two.

Prior to this trip, I don’t believe I had ever seen a PCX in the wild. It isn’t fancy or exotic and they would have blurred into the scenery for less moto-brained individuals. Obviously, I did notice and I was impressed at how frequently I saw them. Maybe I just saw the same one a ton of times but I doubt it.

It is a very practical scooter, modestly priced and will get you where you need to go. They aren’t the Balenciaga sneakers of the scooter world (I also saw these fugly sneakers in the wild for the first time on this trip). Compared to its brother/sister (ADV150), it isn’t even as stylish in the sub-$5k Honda Scoot category.

Is the PCX the official scoot of San Francisco? Probably not. If I lived there, I’d probably have one if I showed restraint and lived there. Otherwise, it would be difficult to keep a Vespa GTV out of my garage.

A PCX is on my watch-list for acquisitions in the future and I don’t live in a congested city. I can only buy one bike this year, though, and this isn’t it.