You and I get it: scooters are cool. That's why you're here, browsing Moto-USA's scooter reviews. But since we're friends, we can admit it: there's something a little geeky, a little square about riding a scooter. But we overlook that because scooters are just so fun, convenient and easy to ride.

But in many places around the world, a motorcycle is the choice for urban transportation, and that makes sense, too. A small motorcycle is light, cheap, great on gas and with its more robust suspension, longer wheel travel and flexible manual gearbox, a little better for the busted-up pavement and other obstacles inner cities feature. So if we enjoy getting around town on our scooters, we (okay, mostly me, but M-USA's editorial staff did sign off on the story) thought you may also get off on one of these two takes on classic cafe-racer style, one from Taiwan, the other from mainland China.

Not only are the bikes from the same corner of the globe, they share a common motor ancestor, have similar weights and are priced within two hundred dollars of each other. So how could they feel so different?

To answer that question, I'll have to tell you about each bike. SYM's $2999 Symwolf Classic 150 is built in Taiwan and is the more slick-looking product—not surprising, as SYM has been churning out powered two-wheelers since 1962 (when it started license-building Hondas in Taiwan), building a million two-wheelers and 35,000 automobiles annually.

The SYMWolf is and you had to see this coming: a sheep in Wolf's clothing (where tha Misfit is an angry sheep in wolf's clothing). But that's not a bad thing in this market segment. Although it's about the same size as tha Misfit, the Wolf feels lighter and easier to handle, toy like, really. That may be due to the aluminum (rather than steel) wheels, or the lower seat. The suspension is soft, even with spring preload adjusted, but it still feels controlled and damped. Brakes are about as good as tha Misfit's, which means maintaining the four-fingered squeeze coached in MSF courses is a good idea...