While driving through the city on my beloved Hercules 50cc mokick yesterday enjoying the sun my mind started to wander. I've had one of those 'what if' moments that are mostly gone as fast as they came, but this one stuck. I'm not sure why, maybe because this thought has crossed my mind several times now...

What if one was to embark on a really loooong trip on a 50cc two-stroke scooter / moped / mokick?

I was seriously starting to consider pros and cons and caught myself debating the logistics of such a trip in my head. Obviously, a 50cc two-stroke is not a very powerful machine and tops out at 45-55 km/h. Thus, one would need a lot of time to get from A to B. At the same time it has several advantages - easy to fix (it's a two-stroke, there's pretty much nothing that can go wrong), very light (my Hercules weighs 62kg, 50cc scooters tend to average around 80-90kg), and has amazing fuel economy (my average in the city is more than 120 mpg US / 140 mpg UK). They're small and would save a lot of money when shipping / flying, and they're dirt cheap. If one was going out of Europe one could also modify the engine a bit - a 50cc two-stroke can easily do 70-90 km/h without showing any significant increase in wear and I highly doubt that anyone outside of Europe would really care. Spare parts and capable mechanics shouldn't be much of a problem either since pretty much all of Asia and huga parts of Africa still run on two-strokes.

So, anyone ever done something like that before? I remember reading about this one guy from California who went on a several week Sasquatch hunt on a moped but he never faced shipping, insurance questions, etc. Compared to travelling on a big bike it would obviously be quite a different experience but I'm not quite sure it'd be as enjoyable...

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"Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in one pretty and well preserved piece, but to skid across the line broadside, thoroughly used up, worn out, leaking oil, shouting GERONIMO!"