Who’s the man?
Aprilia Habana Custom
Okay, Starsky and Hutch had the red Ford Torino with the white
stripe down the side, but what about Huggy Bear? If he had a
scooter you can bet it would have been Aprilia’s Habana
Custom. Budding 16-year-old pimps should form an orderly queue
here
for their first step on the ladder to a fully-fledged pimp-mobile.
While most scooter manufacturers have looked to the Vespas and
Lambrettas of the late ‘50s and ‘60s for inspiration
for their ‘retro’ styled machines, Aprilia took a different
route. Sure they may have glanced at those dated designs but they
then went and gave the whole genre a huge shot of steroids with
the launch of the Habana Custom.
It’s big, curvy and swathed in chrome; the Habana Custom
divides opinions in two - love it or loathe it, there’s simply
no middle ground. Whatever people think of it, it draws a crowd
whenever it’s parked up. But then again, I’m sure posing
is the main reason why people buy these scoots; they certainly
don’t buy them for any practical reasons or for high performance.
After all, the Habana is no slimline and with only a 50cc engine
to push it along, it’s not exactly going to tear up the tarmac
is it?
Anyway, due to it being classed as a moped, the top speed is artificially
limited to just 30mph. A speed which it still struggles to reach.
Why would you want to go that fast in the first place? If you did
people might not notice you as you drift past on a cloud of chrome
and colour.
Potential owners should also be aware that the Habana is not the
greatest of commuter scooters. Yes, those mad, bad, big, wide bars
might provide a really comfortable riding position but they are
also strangely drawn to car door mirrors!
Oh yes, Aprilia definitely put form before function when it laid
down the design and created the Habana. There is only one way you’ll
get a full-face in the storage space under the seat – cut
it into lots of small pieces. On a more positive note, sandwiches,
a lock or a set of lightweight waterproofs will fit into the space.
But then again I can’t imagine too many Habana owners wanting
to use full-face lids – remember the Habana mantra: style
above all else.
The seat itself is something of a mixed blessing. Yes, it’s
nice and big but it’s a peculiar size; too big for one person
but not really big enough for two. On second thoughts, two super
models would be comfortable enough so maybe that’s who Aprilia
designed this funky moped for?
Nearly forgot, there’s also a glove box mounted on the back
of the legshields. And yes, you’ve guessed it, it really
is a glove box. Alternatively you can carry your mobile around
in there.
Strangely, the instrument cluster manages to combine good looks
and practicality, a novelty on the Habana then. The single centrally
mounted pod houses a speedo, fuel gauge and host of idiot lights.
Then there’s the taillight… I’m sure its design
was farmed out to someone who builds models for sci-fi films. How
else would the Habana end up with something akin to a miniaturised
SS Enterprise? It’s also another excuse to load up with even
more chrome.
Should you want to keep all the acres of chrome and manage to
keep up with the majority of urban traffic, or at least not get
overtaken by milkfloats and cyclists, then it might be worth considering
the 125cc-engined version. The downside of this is that you’ll
need a valid CBT certificate (Compulsory Basic Training). It doesn’t
get much better either. Two years after taking your CBT if you
haven’t passed a motorbike test of some type, a subject far
too complex to go into here, then it’s time re-apply for
another CBT.
So I’m off to park this Habana outside my local winebar
sit down, plonk me helmet on the table and watch the world watching
my scoot. Hey they only know how good it looks, not how slow it
is…
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