Step through is still a motorcycle, not a toy... Some 50cc scooters can do 55mph. Amazingly enough it is true.
Motor life, not so great. My C70 was a step through motorcycle, the CT90 would have been a step up. A 90cc bike is what I should have gotten.
I test drove the Sym Symba, which was a modern version of the Honda Cub (50cc) with a 100cc motor and it could do 60mph hauling a 300 pound rider!
Was scarey how well it ran and stopped as I was expecting less performance. The 100cc motor had CDI ignition and was quite peppy to be only 100cc and it looked like a Super Cub and rode nice as well. A modern bike that could handle traffic where as my C70 needs a rebuild of the motor to restore the decades of wear. Was considering overboring it to 88cc with DrATV's kit but the exhaust and increased intake requirements were equating to more $$ than I planned on. Were it not $2500 I would have considered it... Sym was a Honda manufacturing supplier for decades and then branched out on their own and build scooters and small motorcycles. They build good quality as they learned from making things for Honda for decades. There stuff is probably not as long wearing as the old Cubs and Passports as they are built/engineered more for longevity and not performance.
If you have a scooter store somewhere that carries Sym, go give it a ride. It will surprise you that it is no toy. Safer than trying to commute in 40mph city traffic with enough power to maybe get out of the way...
More of a challenge (less of a prayer) with the less than 5hp of a worn C70 motor...
Commuting in Tucson with the C70 was fun, except when I had traffic in the morning stacked up behind me and impatient to get around me. Had a few small hills to creep up at 35 at the bottom indicated with maybe 25 mph at the top if not a long pull and a few of those I was in 2nd gear doing 15 mph. (Houghton Road being one of those roads. But the relaxed pace of the trip was worth the slow speed if you were using it to get around on the weekends. I rode it constantly day and night even in a few rain storms. Then the cheap helmet showed how it didn't seal and having water dripping inside your helmet isn't fun. Being wet is one thing in a monsoon rain, not being able to see and wet is another. The Michelin Gazelles did a good job in the water though...unless it were a puddle you were braking through in a parking spot, then you find yourself on your on your feet straddling the puddle holding up the bike beneath you when you wash out the front from the slick parking spot zipping into a spot... ;-) Got reminded to be careful in parking lots after the rain or during it, the hard way.
David
