In response to Chinese Scooters

[KCScooterDude]

Since I can't post on the locked thread, I thought I'd put in my two cents worth.

I'm a former Tank Urban Touring 150 owner and here's my story:

I bought the bike second hand (after doing lots of research) for $1,000. The bike had 600km on it. I did so because I wanted to see if commuting on a scoot would work for me and I didn't have much disposable income to spend on a better quality product. We have a dealer here in town who stands behind the Tank scooters that he sells, so I felt pretty confident that this was just what I was looking for.

I put about 1,000km on the bike (Chinameters - who know exactly what the mileage is in the real world). Of course, I found I could not only commute on the bit, it was a lot of fun too. I found my .5 mile commute to work becoming four, five miles of joyriding.

Now, this is the point in the story that all you haters want me to say the thing blew up on me and left me stranded. Truth is, I had no problems with the bike other than it is a bit underpowered because from what I understand the motor is basically a knock-off 1970s Honda engine IE: Low tech.

I rode a lot of bikes in that time and figured out what I wanted out of a good commuter that might be fun to drive on weekends with my motorcycle buddies. I decided on a Blur 150 and couldn't be happier.

Truth of the matter is you get what you pay for. If you go out and mail order an $800 scooter that you have to put together yourself, well - good luck. If pay $1,400 (what the Tank listed for new) for a scooter that has dealer support, you might find the outcome a little better.

I'm going to Craigslist the Tank and I might lose $100 bucks in the deal. I know, becuase I have two other friends who did the same thing.

The Blur is 1,000 times better quality, but I never would have gotten there had it been for that cheap Chinese scooter. And you know what, there are a lot of people out there like me. You can trash 'em all you want, but you are better off congratulating Chinascoot owners on their new lifestyle and telling them how great a quality scooter is and helping them figure out what that second bike is going to be.

Oh, and by the way, I find it ironic that a lot of people who rail about Chinascooters tend to be Vespa owners taking a break from the hours they spend in the garage getting their tin back on the road.

[Roose Hurro]

Oh, and by the way, I find it ironic that a lot of people who rail about Chinascooters tend to be Vespa owners taking a break from the hours they spend in the garage getting their tin back on the road.

It's one thing for a 20/30/40 year old scoot to need lots of attention, quite another for a modern, brand-new scoot to need the same attention... or to totally blow up in the first few hundred miles (or less). So, not all that ironic....

Still, it sounds like your luck was good. However, not everyone has had that experience, and therein the problem lies.


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[jfrost2]

Here in ohio, theres a reputable guy who restores vespas, but I dont think he is as honest as many people say he is. He tries selling everyone a chinese rocketa scooter. This is one of the worst of the worst chinese bikes wthat break down the fastest. He told me they were made in the USA, that they were top quality, and never had problems with them. He wanted 1000 dollars for each bike.

Luckily I bought a buddy and it works.

Some chinese scooters work fine, while others break down right out of the shop doors, you just gotta research, but still made in china still makes me feel funny.

[PTB]

A .5 mile commute?

[Dooglas]

In fairness, I don't think it is "made in China" itself that is the problem. Piaggio has been outsourcing components and even whole scoots to Chinese manufacturers for years. These products generally appear well made and are backed up by a large international corporation. I imagine that Taiwanese manufacturers outsource components as well. The problem is poor quality knockoffs that are imported without inspections and sold without real warranties or dealer networks. There are enough of these knockoff scooters around that the "made in China" label has become a danger signal for everyone. Poor quality goods can come from anywhere and meaningless warranties are all too common as well. China needs to learn from Japan, Korea, and Taiwan. Have good manufacturing quality, inpection, and export standards so that your name becomes one people trust instead of one people shy away from.

[ERik3tb]

Okay. I have zero experience with Scoots made in China, but I do research anything and everything I can about Scoots in general.

Another Scooter forum I frequent talks alot about scooters made there.

http://scootdawg.proboards59.com/index.cgi?

[jrsjr]

...You can trash 'em all you want, but you are better off congratulating Chinascoot owners on their new lifestyle and telling them how great a quality scooter is and helping them figure out what that second bike is going to be.

I would whole-heartedly agree, except that so many folks come to grief with those things and never get a chance to enjoy the lifestyle, so it ends up turning them away from scootering completely. Glad it worked out for you, though.

[voodoosix]

chinascoots are just too much of a gamble for me, it seems like you can take 2 consecutive bikes off the assembly line and have one be ok and the other never run at all.

i work too hard for what little money i make and cant risk losing $800, $1000 or even $2000 on something with a horrific track record, or from a company that isnt afraid to flat out rip people off.

in the last 22 years ive owned 10 good scoots (2 or 3 at a time ) and ive spent a grand total of about $106 in repairs. in that time none has ever failed to start up and get me on my way and only broke down on the road twice (fried the top end of a P200, but it was my fault. and once i cracked a reed on my Malaguti)

i plan to keep my track record as good as possible and that means buying quality goods. since i commute solely by scoot i have zero desire to deal with a china scoot and cant afford the downtime when something does happen. anything can break down, but my chances of it not happening are better with a good quality scoot..... and im willing to pay extra for it.

[vitaminC]

A .5 mile commute?

+1

That's a 10 minute walk.

[Keys]

The primary issues with the Chinese scooters are electrical. They tend to use cheap wire (which breaks) and substandard stators which go out with annoying regularity. A lot of them don't have replacement parts available.

I don't know how it is now, but there was a dealer selling the Dazon scooters in Phoenix. They were having an issue with poor metalurgy. The pistons and cylinders would actually melt in the Phoenix heat. This may have been addressed by some of the more recent imports, I don't know...

--Keys

[KCScooterDude]

A .5 mile commute?

Yep. I'm too lazy to walk. Plus, I'm in sales, so working up a sweat isn't condusive to doing business. My wife works out of the house (also sales) and we like to have lunch together, so it ends up being two or three times back and forth to the office each day. Waste of gas in auto. Of course, nice weather means I take the long way home 5, 10 miles, whatever.