Wanna get a 125 scooter for a number of reasons, popping into town on, something for the missus to learn to ride a scooter on, and eventually have on the back of the motorhome.

I was just going to get a secondhand Vespa/Peugeot/Gilera, but then noticed for the same money you can get a new chinese made, put it together yourself one for about £800.

Just had a quick look at reviews online which don't seem too bad. Has anybody got any first hand experience of them?

DONT DO IT!!!

A friend of mine got one. 3 days of driving and the engine gave up. 6 months later, he got it back. A week later the electric starter gave up and tuesday the kick start gave up. It was quite funny, three of us pushing him to get it started

no experience, but chinese says to me, get a 2nd hand vespa

I've had 3 Vespa's in the past and they were all completely unreliable and always breaking down!!! Mind you, they were all twist gear models, not the later auto ones.

quote:

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Originally posted by Jasper
Just had a quick look at reviews online which don't seem too bad. Has anybody got any first hand experience of them?

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This is what you need!!



90

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Originally posted by whitestu
This is what you need!!



90

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Ive got a 50cc jobby you can have for £300.
Cheers,
Bob

A guy at work was a fan of eastern European and Chinese bikes. He recommends replacing the tyres straight off. He had a friendly importer, though, who factored in the cost of an extra scooter in each container to be dismantled as spares. Even if you buy 2 and use one for parts, its still cheaper than a piaggio.

The other thing he used to say was that chinese copy engines don't rev as high as the japanese motors they copy and they aren't as efficient so the power isn't as high or the economy as good.

Get a s/h Japanese scooter, and you know if will be reliable and safe (or as safe as a scooter gets). People should just stop buying the Chinese crap until they get their quality control up to scratch.

EDIT: I know someone who had quite a nasty accident on a cheap Chinese quad where the rear axle casing split open due to a combination of incredibly poor design and a very porous casting.

The Chinese scooters and motorbikes are no better, the fit and finish of many parts is beyond a joke.

The other aspect is that a s/h Jap bike will depreciate less than a new Chinese one.

[Edited on 18/9/09 by MikeRJ]

buy japanese, if its anything more than a toy then you want it reliable.

The cheap chinese scooters will be made from crap materials in my expeirence and so they break down real easy and are very hard to get parts to fix.

There are some good brands of chinese scooters where they is some form of quality control, but these arn't much cheaper than a 2nd hand "proper" brand.

If you want the real opinions then visit link I have a small 50cc chopper from china that my daughter rides see it in my photos.

You have to be prepared to do a few things once you get one as the Chinese dont know what quality control is but once your done the bikes are ok and at less than half price of Japanese.

Such as change the engine oil - Chinese stuff is poor.

Change the spark plug as it is likley to be counterfit

Attend to bits of wiring all this is well documented on the above forum I reccomend you go have a look.

Ours has been reliable so far.

I would say though if its for every day use and going to get abused then buy Japanese.

[Edited on 18/9/09 by big-vee-twin]

I;m looking at buyijng something similar myself for pretty much the same reasons (with the addition of being the quickest way back onto 2 wheels until I get the full test passed).

Best bet is either a Honda C90 or CG125 for total bullet proof reliability. A slightly more grown up option (and a little more pricey) would be a Honda Varadero 125. Personally I'd spend the extra money on passing my full test and buy a CB500 for £500 and run it till it fails then buy another...

Cheap Chinese Scooter, made of:

Cheap Chinese Suspension.
Cheap Chinese Steering.
Cheap Chinese Bearings.
Cheap Chinese Brakes.

Do you want any of those letting go whilst you or any of your family are on a stretch of busy road. Its probably a good thing the engines are no good either.

Ashphalt hurts even at 30MPH, where two wheels are concerned buy wisely not cheaply.

My daughter has used a Korean scooter on a daily basis, same as Ive got up for grabs and has had no problems at all for the past 3 years.
Whether the Chinese stuff is a lower quality than Korean I dont know.
Cheers,
Bob

[Edited on 18/9/09 by splitrivet]

Peugeot rebrand a cheap chinese scooter and sell it for twice the price, same engines with different outer cases.

Kymco are the best of the cheap makes i have worked on, and i work on quite a few. Kymco People 125 is worth a look.

Paul

I would have said avoid them like the proverbial but a guy I work with bough a cheap chinese 125 and has done 10,000 miles in the past 20months without any problems. But...I'd still get a cheap Honda C90/CG125........it will still be worth the same after a few miles whereas the cheapy chinky will be worthless.

That's what I thought, I'll get me a nice 125 Gilera Runner then, thanks for the feedback

I can get you a container full. Got the costs etc earlier in the year.