opinions on scooter buy? By cloudkicker (Read 1,692 times)

[LUKE]

the title of this thread is "opinion on what scooter to buy"
here's my opinion on what NOT to buy.

[kz1000st]

Oh Luke. You really have to educate yourself. Let's look at the first line of this thread.

hi well i got my bike into the shop ok, the Tomos Velo 150cc starting went from spotty to complety dead.

Let me school you on some facts. The Tomos Velo is built for them by SYM, a Taiwanese company, in China. Because the quantity of parts in it have a higher Taiwanese-produced percentage than Chinese it has an "R" VIN number, designating it as Taiwanese in origin.

Now as we all know from history the island of Taiwan was a Japanese possession from 1895 to 1945. Weapons and products for the Japanese homeland were built there for nearly half a century. So, in essence, the OP is having problems with a scooter that was built with Japanese engineering and quality control.

Anything has problems. Even your video is questionable. The type of people who buy cheap skateboard scooters will abuse them furiously compared to people buying Japanese engined/US built models. It's like comparing a Squid on a Kawasaki Ninja to a BMW K1600GTL owner. OR a Yamaha Morphous owner.

[jct842]

Cheap so not much to loose trashing them.

[kz1000st]

Exactly. Do you remember the 1970s Japanese bikes, John? They were a dime a dozen, before being severely discounted because of dealer stock overload. Nobody fixed those bikes, even the dealers told customers they'd give them a few bucks on trade in for a new one, then sold off the busted bikes to salvage yards. The people who bought new Japanese bikes, flogged them, blew them up and bought new. It wasn't until after the 1980s Harley Davidson tax penalty on any import over 750cc that prices rose to where it became sensible to fix them. Before that a Japanese bike with over 10,000 miles was an oddity.

Chinese scooters are in the same boat now. Who's going to buy a scooter for $850 and take it to a dealer for a ring or valve job. If it takes three or four hours at shop rates of $80 and up it's over $400 for the repair after parts, labor, tax and hazardous fluids disposal. You might cough that up for a $3500 Honda or $3800 Vespa 50cc, not a Chinese scooter.
.
For laughs I looked up the resale on KBB.com for a couple of China scoots.

Here's the Roketa Sicily the same as my Bashan 150cc
www.kbb.com/motorcycles/roketa/mc-17-150-sicily-150/2008-roketa-mc-17-150-sicily-150/suggestedretailvalue/?categoryname=scooter
Trade in is really a laugher.
www.kbb.com/motorcycles/roketa/mc-17-150-sicily-150/2008-roketa-mc-17-150-sicily-150/trade-in/?categoryname=scooter

How about a 250cc China scoot?
www.kbb.com/motorcycles/roketa/mc-54/2008-roketa-mc-54/suggestedretailvalue/?categoryname=scooter
Trade in will really make you gag.
www.kbb.com/motorcycles/roketa/mc-54/2008-roketa-mc-54/trade-in/?categoryname=scooter

Now I ask you. When Joe Citizen sees that, how much will he take care of a China scoot?

[jct842]

If it didn't take so much time to unwrap the engine on most scooters they would be kept in a lot better shape too. When a shop has to charge 1/3 of what the used price of the scooter just to get at the engine to repair a vacuum leak or adjust the valves it isn't going to get done.

[cloudkicker]

thanks again well maybe the best way to have a scooter is to get like 3 or 4 of them lol.

I got the vino125 other day and its been running great except sometimes I feel like its going to need valves done and maybe.  starts a little hard and idles a bit poorly until after its been run awhile

and im pretty sure its never had adjusting

very nice though no rattling or overly cheap pieces falling off... huge difference in overall quality

oh and the exhaust is definetly needing replacement a lot of rust down in the joints n stuff looks ready to come apart lol