eenee meenee minee moe - down to the wire By grocerygetter (Read 3,339 times)

[speedracer]

You really can't count dropping the bottom pan as removing plastic. When I did the exhust valve I did remove both sides of the bottom plastic panels for a bit more hand room. I watched that video on doing a value job and wow after watching that there wasn't a piece plastic on the scooter. That has to be an all day job doing it that way.

[scootercook]

I can't speak for any of the specific models you're thinking about, but I CAN tell you that I just passed the 30,000 km mark on my '06 CFMoto 150 e-charm. It went through 2 variators and two belts to get here, but I'm very happy with my 150's overall dependablity and performance. Just routine maintenance, fresh oil every 3'000 km, a new air filter every 9,000 km or so, and a fresh spark plug at every oil change. That, and it "overnights" in my living room. I ride all year, in any weather, and it's been a great bike for me. Can't complain at all about my CFMoto. And I LOVE the 16" wheels, and disc brakes front and rear.

[grocerygetter]

Thanks for the reply scootercook. I was wondering at the begining of this journey, whether these are throw away units that you get a yr or 2 out of with all kinds of issues along the way.
Sounding better all the time.
Still need to click that BUY button...

[mcalli]

Apr 3, 2011 11:57:58 GMT -6 bobf said:

The CFMoto Honda clone is 244cc and the Linhai Yamaha is 257cc. That may be some of the justification for the higher price. And maybe just the difference in manufacturers.

Both of those joint efforts are contracted deals. But where I live the Yamaha or Honda dealers won't acknowledge the agreements and tell me they won't service the machines. Seems strange to me. Income should be considered income if I was in business.
.

I agree, There is an Ask dealership here in my town that sells yahamas. But they will not service my 54B. They actually told me they are not allowed to because it is against company policy to service "clones". However, they would accept a clone as a trade in. So I asked if the would resell the trade-in and they said yes. I asked if they would service the bike after they sold it and they said yes I don't think there is any reason other than dealers want to discourage the sale of cheap scooters and encourage the sale of their more expensive scooters. They're attitude and thought is: If we make it hard for them to get service, they'll think twice, and buy a bike from us next time. What they don't think about is that the cheap bikes have a clientelle that buy them for a reason, that the cheap bikes are growing in popularity, and that there are more and more independent little guys that are taking advantage of this market and opening small businesses to service these cheap bikes. OK so ASK won't service my bike. But I have found 2 small business scooter people who will. (I just hope they can stay in business, they sell bikes also and with the price of gas going up, I hope their sales will go up too.

[grocerygetter]

mcalli - They will conform sooner or later.
As in history, all empires eventually fall.
A couple friends of mine opened numerous night clubs in the 90's, selling them once they got popular, knowing the popularity would be short lived.
People who dominate a market share rarely get to keep that for eternity. GM.
I believe the Japanese market will have to adjust in bikes as it did in cars - Kia etc.
I guess right now we have to go thru our suffering period with scooters, like we did with Hyundai cars.

I'm glad to hear people are getting high mileage out of these units. I just didn't want to make a purchase and find out that one builder or model is considerably worse than another, after the fact.
I'm ok with tinkering and some maintenance, I just don't want to be broken down on the road with unforeseen issues that my typical maintenance wouldn't have avoided.

[bobf]

I can remember way back into the late 1950's and 1960's, when Toyota was beginning to import to the US. If you bought a Toyota you needed to make sure you were near the dealer as far too many did not want to work on any of that Japanese junk for any money.

Toyota persevered and became quite popular and most mechanics decided that maybe they were OK to work on again. Toyota and other overseas manufacturers became quite popular and put a big hurt on the big 3 American companies. Today it is only Ford left that is not currently on some sort of subsidy from the government or lenders. The foreign auto's are doing quite well, in business appearance anyway.
.

[grocerygetter]

Well, I did it.
Placed order last Friday before heading out of country.
Hopefully everything goes well with delivery, read many nasty things about PowerSportsMax, but they had what I wanted for a decent price.

MC-U02 Roadster 250

www.powersportsmax.com/product_info.php/cPath/38_95/products_id/1034

Should see something by next week if all goes well.

[damin69]

Great news. Good luck with everything. Let us know how everthing goes and take lots of pictures during your PDI...... Welcome to the 250cc Club. ;D

[grocerygetter]

Well not so good so far.
I ordered last friday, by this tuesday I got an email stating that there is no stock and I should go back to the website and choose something else.
This is sneaky practice. I had noticed that other websites were out of stock and as so were updating their websites. PowerSportsMax was the only site that seemed to have full stock and no changes - I guess that should have been a warning.
Other sites wouldn't let me change color or add quantity.
So now do I wait which could be weeks or cancel and start the trail of grief trying to get my money back.
I've read lots of grief from taking that route.

So - what to do - I'm not interested in another model, and it will likely be the same story; change the order to another model and a few days later get an emial stating they don't have that one in stock. Bad time of the year and economy I guess.

Thoughts?
(I'm going to keep a running tab of this in the Dealer section)

[grocerygetter]

Ok - so I went and checked their website - they did in fact change the page. My model is gone. Now they want me to take a D54 WITH NOT TRUNK. Same price, no trunk and likely no mp3 player.
What else is different on this other model compared to the original one I chose? (MC-U02 Roadster)
Do I want to wait for the MC Roadster?
Here's the current offering; www.powersportsmax.com/product_info.php/cPath/38_95/products_id/616

thanks
Ron

[robb]

Get your money back and start fresh. Get what you actually want. I hope you used a credit card. If you are willing to accept something other than what you chose originally, then get something different from a dealer with a better reputation. Just my $.02.

[kz1000st]

Buy this

www.killermotorsports.com/2007_JCL_MP250A_Linhai_250cc_Gas_Scooter_p/jclmp-250a.htm

They sold JR one just like it and as you can see he's a happy camper.

[grocerygetter]

Killer was one of my choices. It actually came down to color selection and who had what.
Now in retrospect, dumb thing to make a choice on in this market.
Killer actually contacted me today and confirmed they do have the Linhai on the website.

Problem is PowerSportsMax wants 6% cancellation fee now.
Not too happy to be paying someone over $200 to not buy anything.
Somehow I think they should be forced to refund full amount when they run out of stock - not force me to take something else.

They offered me the MC-D54 with no mp3, no alarm, no remote, and looks like no trunk but they havent confirmed that, all for the same price as the more optioned-out MC-U02.
I'd take it if it wasn't delete all the stuff that the original order had, might even take it if it was cheaper to make up for the deleted items.

There is exactly the same exprience posted on Better Business Bureau - suddenly out of stock after order, offered cheaper rig, original unit comes back in stock for more money, PSM kept telling buyer they can't ship him one.

Waiting to hear more from them tomorrow regarding selection and waiting.