If you’re only used to riding scooters the GTR 50 will come as a bit of a surprise when you sit on one for the first time, it’s a hybrid fusion of bike and scooter. It’s got a user friendly liquid cooled twist and go two stroke engine, which is fairly easy to derestrict (our test bike had been partially liberated but still needed a free breathing airbox fitting to complete the job). The scooter has a motorcycle style steel trellis frame and unlike a conventional scooter there are no footboards to put your feet on, there’s also a tank between your legs – just like a bike and it has rear sets fitted…yes, just like a bike. As a result as soon as you sit on board your brain goes into ‘bike’ mode and you want to press a non-existent rear brake pedal with your right foot and change gear with your left, you do soon adapt though! I’ve not felt this confused since the Alzheimer’s Associations annual hide and seek championships (my dad won by default, we’ve not seen him for three years).

The GTR’s riding position itself is quite comfortable and the whole experience reminded me of riding my old Italjet Dragster, feet back on the pillion pegs, quirky styling etc. although thankfully the CPI handles much better than a Dragster ever did thanks to those upside down front forks and 17” wheels. If ever a scooter suited larger wheels it would have to be the CPI GTR, they just look perfect on this machine (I’m never sure whether to call it a bike or scooter?). Talking of wheels those vented five spoke alloys look very tasty and if you look at a photo showing just the rear wheel and exhaust you’d swear it was a bike of some description.

Our test machine had been run for a few weeks by the staff at Moore Large. The friendly lads in the motorised department always use their brand as daily transport so their machines get a thorough work out in all seasons, this helps them to discover any problems early on and allows them to play about with things like tuning kits and go faster goodies – just like the end user. As mentioned before, the GTR had also been de-restricted which is a bonus as far as I’m concerned but in standard ‘moped’ trim it’ll be restricted to 28mph as I’m sure you all know.

Liquid cooled

A two stroke always sounds much more pleasing to the ear and this one started up quite easily and revved cleanly, the engine is also liquid cooled which is a good thing – especially on a two stroke and it makes it easier to increase power when/if tuning. It takes a few revs to pull away but once you’re on the move it picks up speed quite quickly. The engine spins up to 8,500rpm easily enough and downhill I managed 48mph whilst sat upright but the scooter still felt like it was holding back a bit and once the airbox is swapped I’d expect to see over 50mph on the clock without too much effort. I did notice that there was a bit of vibration and the plastics rattle a bit but it didn’t bother me too much and for the type of use the average fifty gets it’s not going to concern you either. The GTR has a useful modern digital dash with a few gadgets like a lap timer, trip, time, speed etc. (I didn’t quite suss out how to work the lap timer though) it also has a rev counter and a row of idiot lights.

As I said, the CPI feels very much like a bike when you’re sat on it and thanks to those decent sized wheels, fitted with Heindau rubber (which felt grippy enough on the cool autumnal roads) and that stiff trellis frame, coupled to twin adjustable piggy back shocks and a disk brake at both ends this could be an ideal machine for novice riders to get to grips with riding something with the feel of a motorcycle but without the gears to worry about.

The CPI GTR 50 is a good little machine that is guaranteed to get you noticed outside the chip shop, it also comes with a very good two year warranty so it’s guaranteed to get you home too! Check one out at your nearest CPI dealer, or check Bike Trader for used models, it’s been around a while now and you can pick a decent used model up for as little as £750.