Modern Buddy

Ok so what is really better? Some say the ride on a blur is way to rough .And stiff and the seat is too hard. Lower back pain and a sore butt. So is the sport city 250 the winner? Has the same motor and tranny as a vespa gts. So it is a good motor very reliable which bike wins?

I mean this in the nicest way possible...

Please start using punctuation in your posts. They're bloody hard to read.

Buy the one you like best.

sorry

IMO, the the two scooters are in different classes and cannot (should not?) be compared to each other - somewhat like Porsche 911 and Cadillac CTS. Both are good for their intended audiences, but with a completely different "feel". Personally, I like both and would have a hard time choosing one over the other so I guess the only solution would be to buy both...

went to my piaggio dealer today and test rode a sportcity 250 and WOW i love this thing it was a 09 and 1000 cheaper than a blur(no one in wisconsin has any new 220 blurs)The breaks were really good ride and comfort was great what a nice bike the only thing i hate is the dash read out the mph is very small

I usually avoid buying anything without a dealer close by. Unfortunately, our local scooter shop went under with the recession and the remaining stock was bought out by a place that specializes in lawn & garden equipment. I buy weedeater parts from them and have no hesitation taking my lawnmower to them but I don't know how well they deal with scooters.

Anyway, as concerns pretty much any Genuine product, we don't have a local dealer any more but there's an indie motorcycle shop in town. I assume most any Genuine product, including the Blur, would not present them with any particular difficulties? Would repairs by an indie still be covered by warranty?

ggs34 wrote:went to my piaggio dealer today and test rode a sportcity 250 and WOW i love this thing it was a 09 and 1000 cheaper than a blur(no one in wisconsin has any new 220 blurs)The breaks were really good ride and comfort was great what a nice bike the only thing i hate is the dash read out the mph is very small

An Aprilia Sportcity 250 for $2900 is one heck of a bargain! What did they say the out-the-door price would be?

Southerner wrote:I usually avoid buying anything without a dealer close by. Unfortunately, our local scooter shop went under with the recession and the remaining stock was bought out by a place that specializes in lawn & garden equipment. I buy weedeater parts from them and have no hesitation taking my lawnmower to them but I don't know how well they deal with scooters.

Anyway, as concerns pretty much any Genuine product, we don't have a local dealer any more but there's an indie motorcycle shop in town. I assume most any Genuine product, including the Blur, would not present them with any particular difficulties? Would repairs by an indie still be covered by warranty?

From what I understand, warranty repairs must be completed by an authorized Genuine dealer. I know that Genuine is clamping down on warranty authorizations (just formalizing the process really) due to some dealerships "throwing parts" at scooters and tying up parts that don't solve the specific problem. That said, any motorcycle shop should be confident working on these scoots, but you may have some convincing to get them to work on one.

Poo. That leaves the nearest dealer in either the Atlanta area, which is at least an hour away, or Birmingham, about 1-1/2 hr.

Incidentally, if you use the "find dealer" button on Genuine's website, it seems to confine your search to in-state. I'm barely in Alabama but it listed Birmingham as the nearest when there's several in the greater Atlanta area.

Still, the Blur seems fairly conventional. Air-cooled. Don't know how complicated the EFI or the suspension is but still looks fairly straightforward.

Southerner, dunno where you're located in AL, but check to see if Scenic City Scooters in Chattanooga TN is any better. I almost ordered a Blur 220i from them... super nice, and went out of their way to educate me and get me a 150 model to see in person.

~SM

The Blur is pretty conventional, and the best bits of the suspension are very similar to motorcycle use. That and the track record that Genuine/PGO has would make me confident in buying one far away from the dealer, especially if you are handy spinning the occasional wrench (oil changes, etc.). The few problem areas talked about here (my engine/oil temp warning light and tachometer failures) are pretty easily addressed, I should think and the one really weird thing (splitting the clutch) is a one-off (I hope). I'd not hesitate to buy one, but make sure that the dealer knows that you are far away and that you'd like them to work with you in case something goes wrong.

Swordsman wrote:Southerner, dunno where you're located in AL, but check to see if Scenic City Scooters in Chattanooga TN is any better. I almost ordered a Blur 220i from them... super nice, and went out of their way to educate me and get me a 150 model to see in person.

~SM

Actually, I'm near Auburn. Been to Chattanooga once, when we drove down from Lookout Mountain to buy gas. What I saw looked pretty nice.

You look to be up there in prime motorcycle road country yourself.

Rippinyarn wrote:The Blur is pretty conventional, and the best bits of the suspension are very similar to motorcycle use. That and the track record that Genuine/PGO has would make me confident in buying one far away from the dealer, especially if you are handy spinning the occasional wrench (oil changes, etc.). The few problem areas talked about here (my engine/oil temp warning light and tachometer failures) are pretty easily addressed, I should think and the one really weird thing (splitting the clutch) is a one-off (I hope). I'd not hesitate to buy one, but make sure that the dealer knows that you are far away and that you'd like them to work with you in case something goes wrong.

I'm good for changing plugs, fluids, filters, adjusting cables and chains (unnecessary in this case) but try to keep my hands outside of the engine generally.

What I'm curious about is why in the world they've marked a Sportcity down to $2900. The MSRP is $4700. That's a whopping $1800 difference! Is it used and/or a previous year model?

I do like that Sportcity a lot. Looks a bit more roomy, though the storage looks smaller.

~SM

Over the weekend I was in St. Petersburg and visited a local cycle shop. They had a few 09 Sport Cities marked down to $3499 (for awhile they had them listed on ebay) with an OTD of $3700 if they shipped out-of-state. I was tempted, really tempted as it's liquid cooled, FI, and looks really nice. The negatives were, no helmet hooks (funny how something so minor becomes important when you get used to it), underseat storage does not fit a full face helmet (much less my gym bag which fits with room to spare on my little Elite), and foot space is a little tight. Plus, it looks so good in it's standard configuration that one would hate to put a big Givi screen on it (winter is near in MO) or a big top case which would be needed for storage.

When compared to the Blur, I liked the fact that it was a true step through configuration. Despite complaining about leg space, my feet felt just as cramped when I sat on the Blur. Blur is not liquid cooled and has 6 less hp. The SC has 15" wheels vs. 13" for the Blur. The SC seems to be more reliable, if only trusting what I have read on the Internet, but some have complained about parts availability from Aprilia (granted, those posts were from back in 2009).

Anyways, at the advertised price I saw over the weekend, I would definitely get the SC, but if it was $1,000+ more than the Blur at typical rates, then the Blur just might get the vote.