Thanks motormike and breaze for the responses! I'm Scott, 38 from Seattle.
Mike, you have the Aero of my dreams. I love that blue '85 version with the extra storage compartment.
Here's mine ('84):

- Scott and Aero 80 - 2023 Medium.jpeg (120.24 KiB) Viewed 462 times
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ORIGIN STORY
I had an Aero 80 back in 2014 (I think it was an '83), and loved it. It was pure joy riding that thing around, and I never had any mechanical issues.

- Scott and Aero 80 - 2014 Medium.jpeg (55.02 KiB) Viewed 462 times
I lived in an apartment in a densely populated area at the time, so I had to leave it sitting out on the street all night. And was stolen, twice. The first time, I found it a mile or so down the road, the plastic body around the ignition had been broken away and presumably it was hot-wired. I brought it back, and then it was stolen again a couple months later.
I moved into a house with a garage last year, and have been thinking about getting another scooter ever since. I was thinking about it last weekend, hit craigslist, and lo and behold found nearly the same Aero in pretty nice condition. I test rode it, got it up to 42mph, all seemed good to go, and bought it.
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PRESENT DAY SITUATION
I took the Aero out on a ride the following day after purchase, and I got about a mile from home before it sputtered out and died going up a steep hill. And I couldn't start it again, so I had to push it home. Once I got home, I remembered the kick start, and that actually got it running again. I took it to the nearby grocery store and back and nearly got home before it sputtered out and died again. Both times, like you described breaze, this seemed to happen at wide-open-throttle. And since, I've had trouble getting it started and/or keeping it running enough to ride down the block.
The only scooter repair I've done was cleaning the carb on an old Puch moped before bringing it to a repair shop. Now there don't seem to be any shops in town that work on old Aeros, so I am ready to get digging into maintaining it myself.
Thanks for mentioning the wikispreedia, Mike. I hadn't noticed this part of the site, so once I get a chance I'm going to be running through these steps:
http://hondaspree.net/wiki/index.php/Ge ... n_the_Road
Breaze, you mentioned the choke system and sounds like that might be part of the problem here too. I've seen a couple videos & posts about it (e.g., this Bear 45-70 post:
http://www.hondaspree.net/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?t=16059), so I think that'd be another thing to look into. I'd love getting sent that full write-up if you have more info on that.
And, yes, any general tips/resources for getting going that you're willing to share would be super appreciated. I know there's a TON of information here, but it's a little tricky knowing where to get started and there's a lot of parts/terms/lingo to learn.
Also, I'm wondering if the parts needed to keep an Aero running very readily available? I've found a few things on Partzilla (air filter, a missing nut cap), but curious how many parts are realistically replaceable.
Thanks again!