£500 mopeds- just how bad are they?

missile

You will likely get knocked off by some myopic car driver or catch hypothermia riding Ashbourne to Derby on a moped in winter.

BFG_2

missile wrote: »

catch hypothermia riding Ashbourne to Derby on a moped in winter.

Get something like the Piaggio ET4 ...it does a great job of protecting the legs from 'the breeze', then a neck tube, decent gloves, coat and helmet.

Oh, and thermals for really cold days...lol.

Also, it gives you an excuse to wear womens tights [if you're a bloke that is]!!!!!!!

Mark_Hewitt

You go to another forum as a break from SABRE and what do you see...

portchieboy

Daughter had one of these Chinese scooters, and it literally fell to bits within 18 months. Local garages WILL NOT TOUCH THEM at all. They will not get up hills at more than a walking pace.

Sorry, but forget them, better off with a bike!

Comstock

Mark_Hewitt wrote: »

You go to another forum as a break from SABRE and what do you see...

Sorry, Mark

portchieboy wrote: »

Sorry, but forget them, better off with a bike!

That's the impression I'm getting. So I shall can this idea at a very early stage and look for somewhere nearer to uni.


Thanks guys.

gaz_jones

Or just look for a 125cc moped or even a 50cc but proper make one. For instance a Honda 50cc scooter will be much better than one of the ones you linked too.

Snakeeyes21

woohoo I thought the chinese scooter bashing died a couple of years ago. take a look at the forums at chinesescooterclub.co.uk for loads of information on these !!!!!! scoots, everything from building one out of a box to changing a spark plug is there.
ive now had one for 3 years, done close to 45k miles and its still going strong. with a bit of maintainance these scooters are absolutely fine.

The people who have problems are those who think you can just get on and ride
without doing a single bit of upkeep on them.

dudenstumpy

"with a bit of maintainance these scooters are absolutely fine."

I have owned and self-maintained 30 bikes during the past 35 years ( and currently run 4 ). Only one bike ever got the better of me and that was a £700 brand new Chinese scooter my son bought. Not due to any neglect, the engine seized within a year and it was sold for £180. Huge depreciation for any teenager.

I have to agree with the other posters who say... buy an older used proper make( eg. Honda, Yamaha, Suzuki or Italian ) for the price of a Chinese make.

Premier_2

scbk wrote: »

...Definatly avoid a 4 stroke 50cc though IMO ...

I would totally disagree.

How I used to laugh at my mates with their AP50s having to check/refill their oil bottle whenever they filled up with petrol ... only to find the garage was out of 2-stroke oil

And as for the FS1E owners who had the messy job of pre-mixing the fuel on the forecourt before adding it to the tank :rotfl:
(unless they paid top dollar from the local village filling station back then, where pre-mixed 2 -stroke fuel was sold - I don't think you'll find that service available today anywhere though)

Best of all was decending a long steep hill when the 2-stroke riders had to struggle to decide whether to open the throttle and possibly go out of control, or close the throttle and starve the engine of vital oil.
But I was in the minority with my 4-stroke SS50 ... yet it was still running fine when their 2 strokes had already gone to the big scrapyard in the sky.

Honda C50 (and their slightly bigger cousins, the C70 & C90) - all 4 strokes and perhaps the biggest selling and most reliable small bikes of all time. First produced in the late 1950s, I understand Honda still produce at least one of the variants today. Although the engine has naturally been improved over that time, it's still a 4 stroke.

sss555s

Premier wrote: »

I would totally disagree.

How I used to laugh at my mates with their AP50s having to check/refill their oil bottle whenever they filled up with petrol ... only to find the garage was out of 2-stroke oil

And as for the FS1E owners who had the messy job of pre-mixing the fuel on the forecourt before adding it to the tank :rotfl:
(unless they paid top dollar from the local village filling station back then, where pre-mixed 2 -stroke fuel was sold - I don't think you'll find that service available today anywhere though)

Best of all was decending a long steep hill when the 2-stroke riders had to struggle to decide whether to open the throttle and possibly go out of control, or close the throttle and starve the engine of vital oil.
But I was in the minority with my 4-stroke SS50 ... yet it was still running fine when their 2 strokes had already gone to the big scrapyard in the sky.

Haha i remember those days too :rotfl:


My mate had a SS50 but i think most of us "modded" 2 stokers had more a laugh at him than he did at us even if he often was there a bit before us