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Need another scooter . . .

Melensdad

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Well it has only taken a few days of riding, but my daughter is now fully capable of riding the scooters. We still don't and won't let her ride alone. But it is obvious that we need to become a 3 scooter family and we only have 2 in the garage.

I'd like to get a slighly larger frame size, but still stay with a 49cc scooter. In Indiana a 49cc scooter is street legal, needs no license plate, no operators permit, etc. They are big enough for an adult, small enough for large kids, and will hit speeds of about 45 to 50mph so they are quick enough to get around.

My wife and I both like the looks of the "retro" styled scooter, but both the Honda Metropolitan and the Yamaha Zuma are small and I feel cramped while riding them. The Zuma is virtually identical to the 2 I own, and while I like the 4 stroke engine of the Zuma, I'd prefer a slightly bigger unit.

Any suggestions? I think it may force me to look at another Chinese unit to get what I want but somone told me about a brand called Aprila (sp?) from Italy?
 

Doc

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Those Italians are scooter pros. I have read good stuff about Aprilia ....but just read it in passing as I have no use for a scooter.
Until I read the 49cc limit I thought you were ready to move up to a Harley. :whistle:
 

Melensdad

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Dutch . . . thanks for the link, they have a couple Chicago area dealers so I'm going to check them out. The website shows only a modern style scooter, but I've been told they also make a retro style so there may be some chance they will be able to help me out.


Doc . . . no Harley for me. I'm really not very interested in a real motorcycle. Nothing against them, just really don't want one. One of the guys I work with has a Police Edition, full dress Harley, I've played around with it but really have no desire to drive it home one day. He's offered. Now the Moto Guzzis are very cool. I like those. And the old Indians are my favorites. I guess I like the old style bobbers as opposed to the newer chopper styles, the traditional Harleys, or the rice rockets. But for now, I'll stick with the things that are closer to a Vespa!
 

Melensdad

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Well I found out that Aprilia does make a retro styled scooter.

The Aprilia Scarabeo. At roughly $2600 it is much more than a toy and looks like a great unit. I'm not sure that I want to spend this much for a scooter but I do like the large wheels and the overall measurements. I have to find out if any of the Chicago area shops have one in stock, so I'll be calling around tomorrow to see what I can find out.
 

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Melensdad

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There is a shop not too far away (across the Michigan state line) that has a Chinese scooter that looks similar to what I'd want. This one is $1400 plus a tank of gas to go get it. I still plan on checking out the Aprila Scarabeo scooters, but it would be tough to justify another $1200 on top of the price of this scooter. The Aprila has, what appears to be from their website, a great little engine. No clue about the quality, or crudeness of this Chinese unit. At least on the 2 Chinese scooters I have now they have a licensed Yamaha engine.

I guess I have some test driving to do this week!

Thoughts?

I'm really not sure about the Chinese engines, parts, etc. With the current 2 scooters I had the reasonable assurances of the Yamaha powerplant. Not so with these. Sort of makes the Aprilia more attractive.
 

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Melensdad

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DAMN I am a cheap A$$.

I didn't even do a test drive, I just bought this scooter.

I even beat the heck out of my best price, but I have to take the scooter out of the crate. This is a 150cc scooter that will do 65mph and get 75mpg. Its a cheap chinese job, technically needs a licence plate and an operators license, but I called my local law enforcement guy (his kid and my kid are friends) and asked him about the regulations, he said for our purposes, which is primarily on private roads in a non-patrolled subdivision that he wouldn't worry about the license because its technically private property.

Anyway for 900 bucks + shipping I am getting a crated scooter right off the boat. For $1400 and a couple hour drive each way I could have got a 49cc scooter assembled that looks similar (see the post above). Heck for the price of 1 of the Aprilia scooters I could almost get 3 of these. Granted this is a plastic deal and the Aprilia is metal, but I think I did OK.

Even it is made by Jinma :moon: Heck I might paint "NorTrac" on the side :yum:
 

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Durwood RIP

Gone But Not Forgotten
How about a link where you got it Bob. Looks like you got a good deal. Actually i think it made by Kioti and farmed out to their Chinese plant.:yum:

Dur
 

Melensdad

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Dur, they are actually looking for dealers if you want to get yourself set up to sell these things!

http://rcmoto.com/HotRod.htm

I saw them on Ebay. There is another guy selling virutally the same scooter (his has a hood ornament stuck on the front fender) and he has logoed his Baron. He sells them on Ebay for $1600.
 

Durwood RIP

Gone But Not Forgotten
Thanks Bob...nice looking bikes and they seemed priced right too. Good luck and give us a review of it when you get it.:thumb:

Thanks,
Dur
 

Durwood RIP

Gone But Not Forgotten
B_Skurka said:
Durwood

Here is the other similar scooter on Ebay. Its $1699. It appears to be mechanically identical and cosmetically about 95% the same. Maybe I'm missing something?

Ebay Scooter
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/FAMO...4645156820QQcategoryZ6722QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

The guy on e bay is offering free shipping although that still doesn't add up to the difference in price. I guess it's one of those "It's worth whatever you can get out of it" deals. A guy on e bay last year was selling some chinese 250 scooters that were really sharp, but i think he was getting about $2800.00 for them. From looking at some 150s last year i think the fairest price on e bay was around $1200.00.


Dur
 

Melensdad

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You can ship a scooter across the country for about $250. The guy in Georgia with the scooters on ebay is apparently charging a lot of money for that little chrome eagle(?) that he is sticking onto the front fender!

Overall, I'd say that prices on Chineses scooters are coming down. 2 years ago when I bought mine, I paid about $800 and the Honda Metropolitan and Yamaha Zuma were roughly twice the price (to be fair, the Honda/Yamaha have two tone paint, lots of extra details, chrome, etc). Currently similar 'retro' scooters from China are roughly $850 and Honda/Yamaha are roughly $1700. But while you pay a hefty premium for the 'retro' scooters, the modern style scooters, with 49cc engines, can be found everywhere for about $600.

The thing I've noticed about the Chinese scooters is that they are made of plastic while the european scooters are stamped of metal and far better made. But the European units are, to my taste, excellent build quality. Vespa, MotoGuzzi and Ducatti are awesome. I just don't see the point in spending that type of cash for a toy.
 

Durwood RIP

Gone But Not Forgotten
Tsc has some chinese mini bikes with the knobby tires for aound 4-5 hundred dollars. I looked at them a coupla weeks ago and the chrome around the headlights was rusting pretty bad considering these were new. Sometimes you do get what you pay for i guess. I have always heard to buy this stuff from taiwan instead of mainland china because the quality is better but i have never been able to verify it. There are differences in quality among the chinese companies though.

Dur
 

Melensdad

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Tonight after work I "assembled" the scooter.

Basically you knock the crate apart, attach the handlebars, headlamp, gauges and mirrors. I found the horn dangling from a wire inside the front cowling so I attached that. The hardest part was installing the battery . . . I could not figure out where it goes! The instructions show it under the floorboard, after taking the floorboard apart, I figure out that it does NOT belong there! I looked under the seat, but there were no wires to attach to the battery . . . after taking an access panel off and digging around under there with I found some loose wires! They were the battery wires.

It came with the battery, the oil was filled, the gear oil filled, and the brake fluid was filled.

I did find one problem. The brakes engage the starter! Obviously there is a short somewhere in the system.

As for the build quality, what I can say is that this is a fairly nice plastic bodied scooter. The engine is very quiet and does not smoke like my smaller scooters. The scooter is only about 10" longer and 2" wider than my little 49cc scooters. It rides MUCH better, the acceleration is smoother and it handles speed better than the smaller scooters. It comes with a remote that controls an alarm! This scooter has much more detail and overall is nicer than the small 49cc scooters. For the $50 price difference, this scooter is worth several hundred dollars more; which may explain why other places sell this same scooter for roughly $1600 to $1700 assembled, while I got it for a bit under $900 unassembled. On the other hand, if I would have gotten it assembled, I'm sure the brake would not engage the starter motor!
 

Melensdad

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Melensdad

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More photos
 

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Melensdad

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The last 3 photos.
 

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Melensdad

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Here are 3 comparison photos. The orange scooter is the new one. The blue scooter is 2+ years old and has a 49cc engine. The blue one is obviously a 1 person scooter. The blue scooter lacks some details but seems to have a higher grade of materials (although it is still an inexpensive scooter).
 

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Melensdad

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Here are the final 3 photos, they got stuck in my cell phone. It gives you a good idea of the size of these scooters compared to each other. The newer one is about 10" longer overall.

Interesting is that the small one has a storage area under the seat that is large enough to hold a full size helmet. The larger scooter barely has enough room in the storage area for a couple baloney sandwiches!
 

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Junkman

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I notice no license plates. Are they exempt? Do you need a motorcycle license to operate them? You mention that it is a 2 person scooter. What is the weight limit of the two people???
 

Melensdad

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Under Indiana law, any scooter up to 50cc is exempt from needing either a license plate or a motorcycle operators permit. By law you must also be 15 years old (so my daughter is breaking the law). The 3 person scooter has a 330# capacity, the single person scooters about 200#.

I should dig up the Illinios law, we've driven the scooters to the state line, but have not crossed it (yet). Hmmm???
 

DaveNay

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B_Skurka said:
The 3 person scooter has a 330# capacity, the single person scooters about 200#.

:eek: That's not three person and one person, that's 1.26 person and .76 person. :yum:
 

DaveNay

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B_Skurka said:
I should dig up the Illinios law, we've driven the scooters to the state line, but have not crossed it (yet). Hmmm???
Carefull you are not stopped by the border patrol and your vehicles checked for contraband fireworks! :beer:
 
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