Daniel's birthday at Kempton Park race course.

Kempton Park

An unpolished gem of a scooter

As the office is moving from Sunbury to Hammersmith within the next two months and I refuse to part £150 a month for appaling train service, I have decided to commute to work by scooter.

Almost certain that I wanted a big 250 - 400 ccm scooter with big protective screen and great visibility in the traffic.

A friend managed to convince me the Suzuki Burgman 400 was old structure and I should avoid it as a lot has happened in the last couple of years.

After then researching the market, I identified the Piaggio X7 250 I.E. which is a brand new bike in 2008.

As it was not in stock over the weekend I landed up test riding the Honda SH300i from the neighbouring dealership. The bike was fun and easy to ride but to be honest it looks like a pizza delivery bike...

I was therefore convinced that the Piaggio X7 would remain favourite and i would buy off the shelve when I finally got to test ride it.

The test ride compared to the Honda SH300i was disappointing to say it the least: The bike looks stunning with big screen and integrated lamps and mirrors etc.

The bike initially appeared extremely fast as it got from 0 - 60 in VERY short time. The disappointment was tremmendous when I realised that Piaggio does ot convert the dashboard for England and this it was 0 - 60 Kilometres (not Miles)...

Upon entering a roundabout I nearly landed on the bonnet on some twat that forgot to indicate that he was going AROUND the roundabout. I am certain that with the Honda's leveraged ABS brakes that scenario would have been more in control.

The final straw happened on the return when the little dashboard popped open and wouldn't close as the little "clip" had broken off.

For a 6" tall bloke the Honda also appeared to have more legroom as the knees weren't knocking against the screen.

So there we go the cost of bias and the benefit of research have landed me a ugly but fast and comfortable machine.

I will refer to it as an unpolished gem-stone.

Kevin Ash from the Daily Telegraph had the following review of the bike: "Design a machine to be the best of two worlds and, more often than not, it ends up a compromise instead. Honda said, before I rode its new SH300i scooter, that the aim was to endow it with the in-town agility of a 125 as well as the performance and stability to make it a viable proposition on motorways, ring roads and faster, more intimidating routes in general. This could easily have translated into breathlessness and nervous handling at speed with ponderous handling in traffic. Instead, the SH300i really does seem to have pulled it off.

Pushing the limits: Kevin puts the Honda SH300i through its paces Honda says the engine is the most powerful in the class and it certainly feels that way; it's up there with some of the 400s, in fact, with its 90mph top speed and positive overtaking. It's muscular from a standstill too, which is important in aggressive traffic, and, as well as being fast, it's comfortable being fast. Stability is excellent even flat-out on bumpy roads and you don't get the feeling, which you have on many scooters, that you're exploring the edge of the chassis' ability when the twistgrip is against the stop. The SH's sophistication plays a role in that.

The engine is exceptionally smooth, so doesn't feel overworked, while the ride quality is the best I can recall on a middleweight scooter. A lot of work went into isolating both road and engine vibration using rubber bushes in the powertrain mountings and the effort was definitely worth it from the rider's perspective. The end result is a silky, responsive feel from motor and chassis that lifts the SH well above most of its rivals. What makes the handling more impressive is the scooter's flat footboard, which is good for comfort but usually a major problem for chassis stiffness.

A scooter with any pretence to performance will usually have a central tunnel for chassis rigidity, but the SH shows it's possible to manage without. Having said that, my big bloke's feet only just found enough room on the footboard, and space elsewhere is something of an issue. Under the seat there's enough for only one of those vestigial open-face helmets that Italians like to use but the rest of us are scared of, while the small glovebox in the fairing is claimed only to be water resistant. So it leaks, which makes the phone charger inside a bit of a risk in the rain.

The storage compromise (even the SH can't avoid falling between some stools) comes from the large diameter 16-inch wheels, which means there's less room under your backside for clobber - the lowest seat in the class is another factor here. But as the big wheels are partly responsible for the excellent ride quality and stability, this will be worth the sacrifice for many, and Honda lists a capacious topbox as an option anyway.

As most scooters are much the same in meeting their typical riders' demands, the SH stands out even more starkly as a particularly well executed example of style, quality and good design."