2011 DAELIM BONITA 50 SPECS AND REVIEWS

Elegant and affordable – The Daelim Bonita 50

Bonita is a Spanish word that meaning “lovely,” and it is from this phrase that the nametag on this machine was derived. You can see what occurred…
Once upon a time, there was a very attractive Brazilian backpacker. She had an olive complexion and dark wavy hair that reached the middle of her back. The thing that really got you were her eyes… a deep shimmering set of sea green orbs that revealed a depth rarely seen in the back packers one is likely to meet. Ce La Vega, La Vega, Consuela, Maria, Guantanamera Jones (OK, so her father was British, don’t be fussy!) She insisted on no one shortening this while addressing her. The other thing that set her apart from the average tourist was her love of scooters… yes, the humble scooter was her passion, and during her sabbatical from her day job as the head of neurorocket science at a large and respected university, she decided to indulge this passion for scooters with a 3 month tour of Asia taking in as many scooter factories and museums as possible, along with some general touring and mingling with the scootering populat

After having a terrific time in Vietnam and Cambodia, our girl chose to travel to Taiwan, which was the developing force in scooter manufacturing. She landed and made her way to the hotel, little knowing that instead of renting a scooter at the airport, she loaded her bags into a cab and instructed the unpleasantly scented driver where she was going… unfortunately, her command of the language was very poor, so instead of the comfortable hotel in the center of town that she was supposed to end up at, she was dropped outside a place (of the same name by chance) on verge. The cab had gone… with her bags by the time she had spoken to the bedraggled, toothless old woman behind what passed for a desk, realized she was in the wrong location, and departed. When everything got black, she turned to travel somewhere to obtain some transportation… A hard cosh to the back of her skull, rather than a solar eclipse… occasionally an obviously well-heeled foreigner in the wrong area of town is just too much to resist…

I won’t go into detail about what happened to our unfortunate girl, but let me take up the narrative when she is hauled out of the port, alive but with little recollection, no identity, no finances, and in horrible condition, by a little man with a wide grin and bright, kind eyes fishing on his day off. He carried her home, washed her up, and put her in bed with his strangely compassionate wife, hoping she would recover. She did so in the sense that she regained awareness, motor function, and so on… but her recollection remained somewhat cloudy. She remembered her name, but the lovely couple couldn’t say it, so the wife called her by the only Spanish word they knew… Bonita… Bonita didn’t have the heart to tell them that in Brazil (for the sake of the story, she also remembered where she was born), Portuguese is the spoken language… not Spanish; after all, they had taken her in and effectively saved her life. Mr Wing, the guy in issue, couldn’t afford to house and feed her indefinitely, so he arranged for her to work at the Daelim plant where he worked. Bonita was perplexed as to why she was so happy wiring left hand front indicators into scooters… but she was, and she was good at it… eventually she saved enough money to return to her native Brazil, and with some expensive therapy paid for by a wealthy gentleman (she didn’t get ugly over the course of the story!) she regained most of her memory… and she never forgot her time at Daelim, and they never forgot her. Later, she created a design for the perfect scooter, complete with specifications. Daelim loved the idea, constructed the machine, and named it after her… (Ce La Vega, La Vega, and Consuela Maria Guantanamera Jones did not fit on the side!)

So that’s the true explanation behind the name Bonitas… I warned you there would be no humor! What? I never promised not to veer 83 miles off subject!
I presume you’re interested in the scooter… It’s AMAZING! Good acceleration, peak speed, fantastic fuel efficiency (83mpg), and arguably the finest suspension on a 50 ever, with no bottoming out (even with my fat ass onboard!). The style is also very interesting, the typical modern classic that we see a lot of but with a lot of unique features. Â Okay, so there are a few other scooters that are pretty good, but what sets the Bonita apart, aside from the excellent performance, is the styling. When you first see it, the Little Daelim is pretty attractive, but when you get up close (as we do when giving it a pre-photo shoot wash), you start noticing the little details. The Bonita was certainly built with care and attention to detail, and it shows. It gives the impression of a complete package, well-built with high-quality materials… it just works well as a whole, and it isn’t overtly masculine or feminine in its execution, so a girl will probably enjoy the aesthetic and a man won’t feel particularly girly riding it… which is unusual for this style of machine.

The only major niggles are barely worth noting… but I’ll say them nonetheless for fairness… There is no full-face storage beneath the seat, despite the fact that it is rather big, and the fuel needle is difficult to see at night, and the seat is on a bit of a downhill slope for my preference… yes, that’s all… I told you I enjoyed it. It also boasts various features that are often overlooked (and hence overlooked in daily use), such as an indication clicker (albeit it could be a little louder) and a seat release from the ignition. Overall, an excellent bike, a reasonable price, a decent set of features, a good look, and a good speed (which it keeps well uphill!) Go on a ride!