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Sh4 posted:Maybe not on a race track but on the streets (including highways) I gave my friends a run for their money (my friends have 600 Hornet, 600 Fazer and Z1000) I'm not really sure what people mean when they say "yeah, it's slower around a race track, but they hang together on the streets." You mean if you stay under the speed limit and don't accelerate and corner like a dong? Uh, yes, that makes sense.
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Jul 13, 2012 17:30
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Sagebrush posted:I'm not really sure what people mean when they say "yeah, it's slower around a race track, but they hang together on the streets." You mean if you stay under the speed limit and don't accelerate and corner like a dong? Uh, yes, that makes sense. I mean that it's handling and cornering abilities are inferior to a sport bike
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Jul 13, 2012 17:49
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The Tmax is a cool bike but Bloody Queef was asking about manual-shifted scooters and was looking at Stellas. You can't really get more different from what s/he was interested in.
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Jul 13, 2012 17:58
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Bloody Queef posted:I'm interested in looking at getting a scooter for my main commuting machine. (I have 3 other bikes that I'd like to keep for other duties) I'm really attracted to the Genuine Stella because A) it looks awesome and B) Manual transmission. But I'm fairly certain that the 125 2-stroke won't be able to haul my fat rear end up to 75. I know small wheels at 75 are frightening (I've been on a helix before). This would only be for a mile or two each way. Have you considered small motorcycles like the Ninja/Rebel 250 or a small displacement dual-sport? If you want something that shifts AND can go on the highway comfortably, there isnt much for options in the scooter world.
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Jul 13, 2012 19:32
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Gay Nudist Dad posted:The Tmax is a cool bike but Bloody Queef was asking about manual-shifted scooters and was looking at Stellas. You can't really get more different from what s/he was interested in. I know but he also said he wanted to do 75 so I gave him this suggestion as an alternative, plus this is the best scooter on the market imo
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Jul 13, 2012 22:17
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Olde Weird Tip posted:Have you considered small motorcycles like the Ninja/Rebel 250 or a small displacement dual-sport? If you want something that shifts AND can go on the highway comfortably, there isnt much for options in the scooter world. Among my bikes, I have a small bike, a cb350f. I just thought the idea of a scooter would be fun. I'll probably wind up with the Stella, but this probably won't happen for a few months.
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Jul 14, 2012 00:11
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Today I saw a really neato electric scooter while out on my run. It had a very light looking, waspy body. Like normally, vespas have this big block of a seat that covers the whole rear wheel, but this one was like this: (yes, it was a rad lime green) Anyway, I liked the way it looked. Anyone know what it might have been?
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Jul 16, 2012 23:00
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I'd say it looks like one of those "Smart Scooters" or the mini cooper scooter thing, but I don't think any of those are actually out. Maybe one of these? http://www.vectrix.com/products/vx-2/
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Jul 17, 2012 03:41
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Yep, I think that's it. Thanks!
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Jul 17, 2012 05:38
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The Scarabeo has started to go over all Italian.  Recently I've been noticing oil spots, so there's definitely a leak. And today, I went into a local place to get a cup of coffee, and when I came back out and started the bike, the throttle was stuck wide open, so tomorrow I guess I'll see if the cable is kinked or anything. What a pain.
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Jul 20, 2012 02:30
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While still sorting out my Vento's carburetor jetting, I discovered the valve stem on my rear tire is dry-rotted. It currently is being held in place with duct tape until I can find replacements for both wheels.
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Jul 23, 2012 14:58
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The girlfriend and I are discussing getting scooters, and were wondering if you future fellow riders have any input on Motofino scooters. It is a Chinese made scooter, but I can't seem to find any bad reviews on them online. We just want something to get to work and back, or around the neighborhood (for now), so we were figuring a 50cc would be plenty and not require any special registration.
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Jul 25, 2012 19:46
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JasonRiverwind posted:The girlfriend and I are discussing getting scooters, and were wondering if you future fellow riders have any input on Motofino scooters. It is a Chinese made scooter, but I can't seem to find any bad reviews on them online. Google "Motofino Chinese crap" and you'll find tons of bad reviews: http://www.vtscoot.com/infobase/ib-08.html If you're looking for low price you're much better off getting a used Japanese (Honda, Yamaha) or Taiwanese (SYM, Kymco, Genuine) scooter.
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Jul 25, 2012 19:58
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I wish I still had my pics from the last thread (Waffleimages!  ) of catastrophic SunL 150 engine failure, to post as a no-text response whenever someone asks about Chinese scooters.
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Jul 25, 2012 20:38
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Even if you can't find bad reviews about Chinese Brand Whatever specifically you can probably find many bad reviews for all the other scooter that came out of the same factories that are all the same pieces of poo poo from China. e: nobody reads the op 
Gay Nudist Dad fucked around with this message at 20:50 on Jul 25, 2012 |
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Jul 25, 2012 20:47
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A friend of mine bought a brand-new Chinese scooter about three months ago. Recently, when he rides it, the rearview mirrors slip downward until they are eventually hanging off of his handlebars upside-down and he has to stop and slide them back up. He tries doggedly to convince me that it's a feature - he can put the mirrors down so they don't get clipped in the parking lot, you see.
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Jul 25, 2012 20:58
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Well, I have read the OP. I read every post here, drooled at some of the pictures, learned a lot of useful information. But a blanket statement that all Chinese scooters are crap is not useful. You can't judge all products of a similar nature by the performance of a couple. I was curious if anyone had driven a Motofino, not had an opinion on them based on their dislike of Chinese scooters in general.
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Jul 26, 2012 00:09
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How about a blanket statement that people who have already made their decision to buy a crappy Chinese scooter don't want to read any contrary information and ignore all subsequent advice. (P.S. Chinese scoots are all the same with different names on them)
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Jul 26, 2012 00:34
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JasonRiverwind posted:Well, I have read the OP. I read every post here, drooled at some of the pictures, learned a lot of useful information. The reason we say this is because it's almost universally true. Here's the deal. There are factories in China that mass-manufacture scooters with no names. These scooters tend to be cheap-looking knockoffs of Japanese scooters and use cheaply-made copies of Japanese motors. Remember - China is very lax when it comes to intellectual property rights. Then a myriad of stateside entrepreneurs register a brand name and start importing them and selling them for dirt cheap. And the companies that sell them here have proven again and again to not be interested in establishing long-term operations with robust customer support. How can we look at a MotoFino and immediately say it's crap? Because it's exactly the same bike as a Roketa, a Tank, a BMS, an Auto Moto, and so many other brands I can't recall right now. They're all the same, they all come from the same factories, and they all suffer the same horrible quality issues. Poorly-cast machine parts. Crudely-made bearings with no grease. Electrics worse than the cheapest kid's toy. Cheap is the goal. Cheap, cheap, cheap. Cheapness at every level, from design to manufacture to QA/QC to import paperwork to emissions testing. Hell, they basically got banned in Pennsylvania because they were so questionable. Dealers don't exist (for long), or can't get parts, or won't honor warranties since the manufacturer won't. The build quality is so low and part sources so inconsistent that many scooter shops charge more to work on them - or flat-out refuse to take them. The situation is better now than it was, say, five years ago - but this isn't because the scooters have gotten better. It's because online communities and parts stores have begun supplying information and parts where the OEMs won't (remember, they're all the same, so there's almost infinite parts carryover). If you don't mind working on a scooter perhaps as often as you'll ride it, tracking down electrical woes and replacing poorly-made engine components as they fail catastrophically, all to have a scooter that will be lovely and unrewarding to ride when it's working perfectly, then go right the gently caress ahead and save some pennies in the short-term. But you're still better off buying a Japanese, Italian, or Taiwanese scooter and skipping all this bullshit to begin with. e: holy poo poo, MotoFino isn't even good value! Look at this - a Vino knockoff 50cc and MSRP is $1,600?! Astounding! You can literally buy exactly that lovely scooter for less than half the price. For $1,600 you can buy any used 50-150cc Japanese or Taiwanese scooter just a couple years old. And try to think about it this way. Say you want a decent small car and you look at a Ford or Hyundai or some poo poo and it's $15,000. Then you see the AutoFino Chinese whatever and it's $5,000. What do you assume about that car? How can you possibly think poo poo so cheap is going to be near the quality of what it is imitating? Gay Nudist Dad fucked around with this message at 00:45 on Jul 26, 2012 |
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Jul 26, 2012 00:41
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I can't tell you all what a nightmare Chinese scooters are at the bike shop I work for. They are the bane of our existence. I think maybe 2 out of the dozens that have ever come into the shop have left the shop without a massive bill that seriously disturbed the customer. Their levels of poor manufacturing and unreliability are almost unknown in the car world, so people just don't understand how they can be so awful. Maybe a Yugo would be comparable. Don't ever buy one unless you're comfortable effectively gambling that purchase money. If it ever breaks down, it is unlikely to be fixed without equaling the purchase cost. If you want a scooter, buy a Genuine, Vespa, Piaggio, Aprilia, Honda, Suzuki, or Yamaha. Get a used one if you need to save money.
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Jul 26, 2012 00:47
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Mainland China still has the old-fashioned phenomenon of street-corner shadetree mechanics all over the place. You're never far from a guy just chilling out in a little garage with a torch, a grinder, a chop saw and a big pile of spare parts and sheet/bar stock. It's not that uncommon to find people who also have an old jerry-rigged mill and lathe or even a little foundry setup. And like Gay Nudist Dad says, the parts are all fundamentally the same, or close enough that they can be convinced to fit well enough for the necessarily loose tolerances. So if you're riding a cheap scooter and something fails catastrophically, you just push it a mile or two to the nearest guy like that and he'll kludge something together for you for a few kuai. As a system, it works fairly well, but obviously you don't get half of the equation once you bring the vehicles stateside. Wasn't there one brand of Chinese scooters that were acceptable? Lifan, I think? The ones who build engines under license for Honda?
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Jul 26, 2012 01:08
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Sagebrush posted:Wasn't there one brand of Chinese scooters that were acceptable? Lifan, I think? The ones who build engines under license for Honda? Lifan is the company that got sued (successfully) by Honda for selling 'HONGDA' scooters. I do remember there being one or two Chinese brands that weren't absolute crap, but I'm not sure Lifan was one of them.
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Jul 26, 2012 03:27
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For all the chinese models I've seen, CPI seems to be the only decent one. They sell 50cc supermotard and cross bikes too which are decent, engine are a somewhat enhanced minarelli.
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Jul 26, 2012 13:01
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JasonRiverwind posted:Well, I have read the OP. I read every post here, drooled at some of the pictures, learned a lot of useful information. A blanket statement that all Chinese scooters are crap is actually useful because its true. You can judge all products based on a few because they are all the same underlying scooter.
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Jul 26, 2012 14:50
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Despite what China claims, Taiwan is not theirs. Taiwanese scooters like Kymco and SYM are fairly solid. They seem to have good quality control and overall sound designs. Parts are kind of hard to find but the overall scooters are sound. As a scooter rule of thumb, Don't buy anything thats not a big name. Google can help you out there. For example, a used car dealership near me started hawking their 'Propel' scooters for the summer and I can guarantee that they are substandard Chinese crap. I get to feel all smug as I ride past them on my Honda Elite. Bit of a tangent, but Honda really needs to fill the scooter displacement gap between the small scooters (Elite, PCX, SH150) and the Silverwings. Bring back the Reflex you bastards! I saw a guy on a gloriously yellow Honda Reflex recently and it was awesome. 
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Jul 26, 2012 17:45
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This is my Chinese scooter. The only reason I got it is because it has the Minarelli 2 stroke and I paid the same amount for the entire scooter as I would have for just that engine from a Japanese scooter. After buying it, I replaced everything in the drivetrain except for the case halves. Just about every plastic piece is broken. Just about every rubber piece is cracked. I just discovered the valve stems are dry-rotted, so I can't find out my top speed after the rebuild just yet. If I'd been able to do it all over again, I'd have tried to find something Japanese or Taiwanese with a long case Minarelli. Anything but Chinese. Rugoberta Munchu fucked around with this message at 15:40 on Jul 27, 2012 |
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Jul 27, 2012 15:36
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Can I play now?  Its a 60 VBA with a brand new engine, 150 4 speed. I have a feeling its a LML engine, Id be interested in getting an original engine back in it, but it runs so well right now, I dont see a reason. Im realitively new to scooting, so I have to brush up on this stuff.
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Jul 28, 2012 07:38
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You not only played, you basically won.
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Jul 28, 2012 15:40
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I'm two months into my 2009 Sym 50, and haven't had any major problems with it, other than the infrequent stalling after a long run at WOT. Other than changing the oil, what other maintenance can I perform at this stage to keep it running smooth? I'm new to carburetors, is there anything I should be checking on mine? I really wish my local shop (scooter underground) in Victoria hadn't of closed shop.
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Jul 28, 2012 21:15
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Another reason not to buy Chinese is because when some rear end decides they want to steal your scooter and breaks your steering column trying to disengage the steering lock, parts will be way easier to find for a Yamaha or Honda than some generic Chinese putter. This happened to me last week. Part is on order from Yamaha.
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Jul 28, 2012 21:51
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I just picked up a Buddy 50cc from my local dealer. I had been looking at the Stella as well as the Buddy 125, but the reality is I just want a cheap, reliable beater to take around town on side streets. Did I do good? Any obvious upgrades I should get?
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Jul 28, 2012 23:25
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So it turns out you are supposed to check your tire pressure more than once every three years  Feels like a totally different ride, I can actually make turns now!
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Jul 29, 2012 14:08
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Mandals posted:I just picked up a Buddy 50cc from my local dealer. I had been looking at the Stella as well as the Buddy 125, but the reality is I just want a cheap, reliable beater to take around town on side streets. Did I do good? Any obvious upgrades I should get? And in Chinese scoot news, replacing the plug wire and intake allowed me to take my modified Vento to 50MPH before backing off on account of the dry-rotted valve stem.
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Jul 29, 2012 16:30
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Mandals posted:I just picked up a Buddy 50cc from my local dealer. I had been looking at the Stella as well as the Buddy 125, but the reality is I just want a cheap, reliable beater to take around town on side streets. Did I do good? Any obvious upgrades I should get? You did good. As for upgrades, start with a de-restriction: it may be limited to 30mph stock for licensing purposes, but really it's capable of like 40-45 without any new parts.
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Jul 29, 2012 16:41
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So, I took the Buddy out today for about 30 miles to get a feel for it. Mostly side streets and some main boulevards around Chicago. Some observations: 1. Scooting is really, really fun. 30 MPH feels a lot faster on a scooter than 30 MPH does in a car. You notice your environment a lot more, too. Things you take for granted in the car, like weather or wind patterns, are front and center when you're scooting around. It makes it more...immersive for lack of a better word. 2. People in cars are jackasses. I'd previously noticed on my bike how inattentive they generally are (holy gently caress stop texting), but somehow being on a scooter made me even more cognizant of it. There's something about being in a car that turns the road into an abstraction and converts otherwise sane people into selfish assholes. 3. I'm really glad I got a 50cc. It's perfect for the city. I can reliably hit ~40, which is more than enough to keep up with traffic. Mandals fucked around with this message at 03:21 on Jul 30, 2012 |
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Jul 30, 2012 03:00
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Anyone have suggestions on tires in 3.5x10? I've been using Continental Zippy 1s as long as I've had my Stella and have been pleased but want to see if there's anything else worth checking out. In order of importance is wet performance, then dry performance, then price and life somewhere tied for 3rd. No whitewalls. A friend uses Heidenau K58 tires and loves them, but he says they can get a little squirrelly at high speeds. Maybe Schwalbe Weathermen? I'm at a rare moment where all 3 tires (front, rear, spare) are going to need replacing soon. I might go tubeless while I'm at it, but it'd be ~$200 (after shipping) in rims alone for the SIP kit.
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Jul 30, 2012 18:58
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I put the Michelin S1s on my P200E and they've been incredible - great in the wet and everything else. Check them out.
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Jul 30, 2012 19:22
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I have a set of Heidenau K61s. I've heard they are good, but since the scoot is still hosed, I'm still not walking (50 percent weight on the leg now) and the tires aren't mounted, I can't really tell you.  If you were local I'd sell them to ya, but it's too expensive to ship that sort of stuff, so it wouldn't be worth your while.
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Jul 30, 2012 19:45
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Mandals posted:Some observations: Preaching to the choir there. Scoots are even more invisible than motorcycles. Wear the gear, I'd wear a high viz vest if I was riding now, and pay attention even in your own neighbourhood. I fit that statistic of most accidents happening with in 1 mile of your home. Hell, I was 2 blocks away.
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Jul 30, 2012 19:51
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Mandals posted:
I was just thinking that it should be mandatory for people to ride a motorcycle or scooter for year. It makes you so much more aware of your surroundings and a much more defensive driver.
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Jul 30, 2012 20:20
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