This Motorcycle Can’t Decide if It’s a Scooter or a Cruiser

Retro styling up front and scooter proportions at the back.

Photo by: Motorrad

By: Enrico Punsalang

Jul 21, 2024 at 1:53pm ET

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We’ve seen all sorts of weird abominations from a bunch of Chinese manufacturers. And while there are a few Chinese brands that are making waves in the global industry, it’s safe to say that a good number of bikes emerging from obscure bike makers are probably better off left in China.

One of these is the Haochen HS 150, a scooter that clearly has an identity crisis.

On the one hand, its side profile seems to mix and match the design elements of the BMW CE-04 electric scooter and the Honda Zoomer X scooter. And on the other hand, it gets some retro cruiser inspirations up front.

Like the CE-04, the scooter’s rear wheel extends well beyond the saddle. And just like the Zoomer X, it features angular bodywork under the seat, although I doubt the HS 150 has the same cargo-carrying capability as the Honda’s little scooter.

Like the CE-04, its rear wheel extends beyond the saddle.

Honda's Zoomer X sports a handy storage compartment under the seat

Meanwhile, up front, the HS 150 sort of looks like a cruiser, borrowing styling elements from retro-inspired machines like those of Indian and Harley-Davidson. So yeah, it certainly looks like this thing’s designers all pitched in their ideas of what a cool-looking bike would be.

And when they couldn’t decide which one to pick, they just agreed to throw them all together in one scooter.

A round headlight complete with a cowl is reminiscent of retro cruisers and cafe racers.

From a performance standpoint, the HS 150 is not all that different from other scooters of this variety. It’s powered by a 150cc thumper that sends power to the rear wheel via a CVT. Haochen doesn’t provide any claimed horsepower output, but it does say that the thing dishes out 14 Nm, or about 10.3 pound-feet of torque.

What do you think?

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Luckily, it doesn’t seem like this thing will be sold anywhere outside of China, as is the case with the majority of motorcycles from obscure Chinese brands.

But what do you think? Would you take this odd scooter out for a spin? One thing’s for sure: it’ll surely turn heads and leave people wondering what it is.