Since my Early 20's I have always wanted an Aprilia Pegaso. I blame that Colin Schiller, the then editor of Fast Bikes for all of those 'Ooligan pictures of wheelies and stoppies on a bike they kept raving about. Bizare really, because fast... It really isn't!

So last year I chanced upon an '08 Trail version being sold cheap on ebay. high miles, very grubby but full service history. I hadn't ridden for 8 years but as soon as I (just about) swung my leg over it, I was a happy dude. Setting off on it out of London I became even happier. It was comfortable, nimble, pokey and didn't vibrate you to death at motorway speeds (I was worried about that). I knew we would get on famously.

Then it broke down. Everything died as I came off the motorway. After taking out all the fuses and replacing then, I was moving again. I spendt many a month cleaning her up and fixing minor niggles, but the same problem kept re-appearing. It would get embarassing as the same cars that I had overtaken five minute before would go past and toot... again. My eldest son Elliot came up with the name for my bike. Breakdown Betty (both mental and physical).

So the good thinks about Betty...
Good looking (something desperately lacking in this sector of bikes IMHO)
Low seat (I am 5'5", 5'6" with a blow dry)
Light (ish)
50-60mpg
plenty of room for stuff
Unusual around these parts.

Some of the bad things about Betty....
Electrics like overcooked pasta.
I think they used one tin of paint on the whole production run and it flakes off very easily.
lumpy spot at about 4000 rpm. A few mods has sorted this out.
Melts the 20 Amp fuse.
Parts are astronomically expensive.
Breaks down constantly.

As you can see, She is the perfect bike for a 7000 mile trip!

To be fair, things have been going well for the past 2 months after I uprated the melting fuse to a 25 amp one.Maybe Betty has shaken off her forname. I do hope so!