2008 Honda FSC600A Silver Wing

Little Wing, Big Scoot

As I rattled over the fir-plank bridge to Westham Island, a vast flock of snow geese swept overhead, darkening the sky and filling the air with surround-sound honking. In the filtered sunlight, their feathers took on a lustrous gray color, almost silvered. Silver Wing. What a great name for a scooter, I thought.

Big scooters are nothing new, of course. The Suzuki Burgman 650 is now five years old, the 400cc Yamaha Majesty is at least three (in North America) and Honda's 600cc Silver Wing has been on the books since 2002. RoadRUNNER has also presented test results for the Piaggio BV 500 and X9, Aprilia Atlantic, and the Kymco 500 Exciting in previous issues. But as the FSC600A is the machine that set the standard for big scooters, we thought it was time for a fresh take on the small-wheel Wing.

Scootability

I cut my riding teeth on scooters. My first "motorcycle" was a sporty Moto Rumi Formichino (and if you've never seen one, Google it), which I thrashed mercilessly, just as a 16-year-old should. Next, hoping to impress the ladies, I owned a Vespa 150cc Sportique. This model, produced under license in Bristol, England, by the Douglas Motorcycle people, featured a rotary valve engine tuned for economy, which really meant that most of the time it was quicker to walk.

Riding a scooter in England in the 1960s made a statement about your preferences and affiliations. My adolescent world was divided into Rockers (those leather-clad, oil-stained "oiks" who rode Bonnevilles and Gold Stars and listened to Gene Vincent) and Mods, who preferred button-down Oxford shirts, mohair suits, Lambrettas, and The Who. Sparks flew, often literally, whenever members of these two cultures found themselves within similar space-time coordinates – as the notorious riots that ruined many British holidaymakers' seaside weekends attest....

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