New to scooters and cycles, have a few questions By furball (Read 346 times)

[furball]

Hello, everyone.

I am completely new to riding scooters or motorcycles. I am selling my car to purchase a scooter (probably) very soon. Reasons are economic, but I've always wanted a motorized bike of some type. I have a few questions that I've not yet been able to search/google out, and I hope you can assist.

I stopped by the local B&M "motorcycle" dealer the other day wanting to see a few scooters. They had exactly 6. 2 were 150's, the rest were 50 cc's. All were Chinese, all were a different brand (don't remember which). Sales guy asked me a few questions, then decided a 150 was where I should be. Long story short, I didn't buy from him, but I was close to putting a deposit on the one used scoot he had. Since that visit, I've been wondering if a 250 wouldn't be a better idea. My situation:

Plan to ride on mostly 45 mph roads, but DO need ability to go 55-60 or better for limited highway use.

Need as much storage space as I can get, as I need to be able to get some groceries home, and I do some handyman work at my brother's house when he asks (He's not handy at all), so I need to be able to take a couple of tool boxes, somehow.

Fairly easy to work on, as I'll be doing all of the maintenance/repairs, as I've done on all of my cars since I was a kid. I know which end of a wrench is which.

As low initial cost as I can get away with!

After a LOT of online research, it looks to me as a Chinese scoot would work well for me. Ideally, I'd like a "touring" style (as it looks like it has the most storage compartments).

I see that most of you are quite down on the Sunny/ScooterDepot.us brand, due to mostly custserv issues or post-sale issues. The problem for me is, they have a large model selection, larger than I've yet seen from anyone else. As I'm trying to keep the initial spend low ($2000 or less, including shipping), The Sunnys are attractive to me. But, I don't want to have it dropped off at the door and find out the trunk is destroyed and the plastic farings are damaged, or whatever, and have to call and deal with a rude moron whom I'd dearly love to shoot in the head!

Another thing: In looking at some 250cc scoots, I've seen "Cannot be shipped to Florida" on the advert. Anyone know why that is? Is it an emissions rule, or a safety issue, or can it just not be registered at DMV?

I just want a reliable scooter that I can register in Florida in the 150-250cc range for less than $2000. This shouldn't be that hard!

I'm also not averse to buying used, a la Craigslist or something (got a few great deals off of CL!), but I need to know what to look for, and also styles and such are much, much more limited when buying used. Is there an online resource that would help that I'm just not seeing yet?

Thanks for any assistance.

[helix803]

www.scooterfinds.com is a good clearing house of used scooter ads.

[terrilee]

if you need to go 55-60 mph
u need at least a 250cc.

most 150cc's will cruise at 45-50 all day long,
with a occasional boost of 50-60
NOW THAT IS STOCK

my 150 cruises all day at 55
and i can get to 60-65 for very short bursts
w/o out going over 8500 rpms.
and shes all stock

now u can make a 150 run 55-60
by tuning the CVT, the carbs etc

but imo u'd be better off getting a 250
and cruise at 55-60 with shorts bursts

storage space
well u always will have under the seat,
u can add a 'trunk'
theres a member on here cccf { i think}
who has hard type side cases on his 250
and it looks good.
but that has always been a downfall of scoots
great mileage around town, etc etc
but NO carrying space.
when i have a ton of things to carry
i have a regular plastic box w/ lid { that you can buy at wally world}
i cut holes in the sides so i can strap it down, securely
still cant carry a ton tho lmsao

if you find something u like
get the make. model, etc
and call your DMV and see if it is able to be registered there

[jct842]

under seat storage? check out a used helix or a Chinese clone.