Are Chinese scooters good? ( NOPE! )
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- Опубликовано: 24 фев 2019
- This is a brief history of my experience with scooters. I've owned several Chinese scooters, as well as a fancy Piaggio. Which one is the best? Watch to find out.
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Bought a Sym 300 from 2014 three years ago. Had about 33,000 km on it at the time.
It now has 43.000 on the clock and still going strong
Sym is a okay scooter.
Sym is Taiwanese with almost 50yrs of history. Great motorcycles
Do not confuse SYM with cheap Chinese scooters. They are a Taiwanese company that makes excellent reliable scooters.
ha ha, so true. Vespa doesn't stock parts. Don't know why that is. 😂Wow the last thing I expected was seeing my face at the end. lol
You have a lot of good advice about which scooter to get and what scooting is all about. Watching your channel is the best thing to do if you want to get a scooter!
Shout out to you Ramen!! Love your channel
You were unlucky. Everyone i know with chinese scooters no one had trouble with them
I love Chinese Scooters. Never one problem
I've been iding the same taotao for five years now Just bought a new engine and did a BBK Got near 6000 miles on it
Those who tried to adjust carb, mess with emission controls. Don't touch those. All you need to adjust valves. Every 3k miles, adjust until 15 k to 20 k miles afterward, you won't be needing valve adjustment. Too often chinese scooter instruction manual never mentioned that.
Intake is .04 inch and exhaust is .08 inch.
Why valves needing adjustment because valve seat which was pressed in factory isn't pressed all the way in until stop. So valve pounds valve seat while riding. This is why scooter started to have trouble starting or won't stay idle.
Check oil in crankcase once a month. Don't expect scooter to run forever without checking oil. Treat it like you do to ur car.
I’ve got a taotao thunder 50. Everyone talks trash but 1 year later 4K miles it’s running great. “Knocks on wood...”
Lol yeah no shade maybe because these people are used to higher grade bikes most people that get Japanese bikes first like he said his sister had a Japanese 50 of course the quality will be good and all you have to pay is a dollar for gas it’s a Japanese bike for crying out loud in a been doing business with America for a long time so everything is already tuned properly it is a 90s bike is not a new bike that just came out lol anyways AnyWho there’s plenty of warehouses and people knowing how to build these bikes and keep them running as well if you’re mechanically inclined of course if you buy a cheap Chinese but your bike you’re not just gonna be able to ride it like a Japanese bike with no problems you’re gonna have to spend top-of-the-line dollar the first car around to keep the bike on the same pedestal as the higher elite bikes it’s just common sense you have to replace literally everything to Taiwanese and Japanese in American porridge that’s why Japanese is collaborating with Taiwan they have their hands in literally every other Asian country they do business with Japan in China China really need them the most because like you said the quality isn’t just there but since they are clapping with China their quality improve highly dramatically but people don’t wanna spend that type of money on these bikes which is stupid I believe you get any budget bike in Spain a couple of hundreds you’ll be fine no problems
I guess I take care of my scooter pretty well then. Had mines for 3 years with over 6K miles and the wheels haven't fallen off yet! It's definitely been through a lot! Since I don't have a garage its constantly exposed to the elements, which means LOTS of rust! I definitely agree about the repair expenses, I got my scooter new for $675 and over the years I spent that much on repairs! Anyway, when it comes to Chinese scooters, if you take care of it, it'll take care of you. Now if you'll excuse me, I gotta waste another $400 on repairs.😩💸💸💸💸
He wanna make propaganda for the liberal electric motors. But what happen when you got your electric bill? He is not talking about that inconvenience, and dad will pay the bill anyway. Or you step out of the class room and the battery, sorry doesn't make it home?
Now we learned that even Vespa Piagio (the ones that invented the scooter) are garbage.
My neighbor bought his daughter a TaoTao 150cc from TexasPowersports. We didn't know if the girl really would ride it on a long run, so we tried to save money.
I'll think they called that scooter TaoTao Ice Bear. The dealer did all the work, upgraded the belt, the carburetor, other lil stuff, a bigger windshield, and put a bigger trunk in the back (so the laptop and the books for college fits in it). The scooter cost 1249.00 USD with all TAX, and license plate driving of the lot. Insurance for the newly biker-girl 55 USD annually by the Insurance with the little Gecko.
This was 2017. She loves her little TaoTao calls that thing "speedy" She has to go from home to campus on a hwy about 20 miles and in the city about 9 miles every day. Wherever she goes, she takes her speedy. She does it ever since. She loves that thing to death. She never had to call home because something broke or was wrong. We did only oil service, checking belt checking tires etc..... just saying we keep that thing maintained. That thing has now more than 19000 miles on it and was driven rain or shine, get parked on the campus in the open free parking lot.
She could have a lil automobile now. but she doesn't want it. She said bring me a transportation that goes 350 Miles a week and cost me only 15.00 USD (electric or gas).
I wonder how long that lil motor will last. The GY6 motor from the chines is a reliable engine. No doubt. But you have to keep that thing maintained. Service like clockwork.
We bopught already the replacement because 20 000 miles...... the complete motor inc transmission was 320.00 USD
Well...this comment aged well, lol.
You should have purchased a waterproof cover. They do not cost that much and make a huge difference.
I agree with you 100%... I have a 2015 Kymco Agility for 3 years now & it has never given me a problem or needed a repair. Eton is a good brand.
You must be the unluckiest man alive. Don't go out when it's lightning please
I have a 150 powermax i got it new in February 2018 i put 4 thousand miles on it before i had to park it for winter .we get snow and very cold .put a 22 dollar carburetor on it from ebay it took a long time to cold start have not had any other problems and it only cost 800.00 dollars delivered to my door .just started after sitting 5 months and it ran perfectly
You're very lucky. Most Chinese scooters never make it to 4,000 miles.
my hubby had a Wolf (Gorilla motor works) V-50, and he did not have too much problems out of it. When the shop that sold him the scooter did not know how to service it, he went on youtube and taught himself, and took the time to maintain it. Most of the problems he had were little things, and a belt from the cvt breaking, other than that it was bulbs burning out or the fuel valve going bad. He had that thing for 4 years, and he rode it year round, and put 6 or 7k miles on it. Right now he has an icebear q6, and he is doing the same thing he did with the v-50. I would say as long as you are taking care of the scooter, it will last a long long time
Paul, didn't you have a TaoTao 150cc ? How was that scooter for you ?? decent?, junk or what ?
I'll give my opinion not as an owner but as former dealer for one of the biggest importers of Chinese motorcycles in the United Kingdom.
I was buying these bikes in at wholesale price so I could have my pick of them for not a lot of money. However, my daily ride to work at that time was a 15 year old, 50cc, two stroke Yamaha.
That should tell you all you need to know.
And the closest powersports shop near me actually sells SYM branded scooters, so it was cool to see them mentioned.Don't know if they still have it, but for awhile they were a selling a Honda Cub clone called the Symba, lol
As a master mechanic it amazes me how inept the average person is to mechanical devices. Motorcycles,scooters,mopeds do vibrate more and things will loosen up and that is why you need to do a check every couple hundred miles. I knew when you said in the beginning you previously had no experience where you was heading. Also remember the big name brand have a great dealer prep. The Chinese scooter do not have the same luxury.
I agree that most people are not mechanics and can't even do simple repairs. The Chinese scooters require checking everything every couple hundred miles, like you said, and that is why they are not good for the average person.
I recently did some maintenance on my Honda scooter, with 5,000 miles on it, and nothing was loose or broken. The average person who is unable or not willing to fix their scooter every 200 miles will be ok if they own a Honda.
i have 2 chinese scooters,1 is twelye years old and the other 1 is 3 years old,they are on good condition until now,maybe it depends on user(owner)
by the way,the brand of my scooters is rusi,
TaoTao aren't terrible.. I've had a 2011 atm50 for about six months and aside from an overheat resulting in catastrophic failure in the form of a disintegrated piston, it's been great. I rebuilt it in about 8 hours for $70 (split case to remove schrapnal). I blame myself for the failure anyway.. I'd installed a pod filter and knew it was running lean. I picked up a larger jet the next morning and figured I could make my five mile ride to work before installing it.. I was wrong. Shat out in the last mile after going up a long hill. Either way, I had it back on the road in a few days in an upgraded 72cc from. Id put about 2000km on it before the incident and about 500 since. Always starts on the first kick. I paid $350 for the bike in showroom condition with 450km on it. The only other issue I've had is the speedo cable disconnecting under the plastic a few times. Counting tools and extras, I've got about 550 into it so far. It's definitely paid for itself in the time I've had it.
I have owned 2. The parts likely to go bad are cheap and fit in the trunk or under the seat so you have them on the scooter before you need them.
Any info on genuine ??
Hahaha🤭🤣😂 this guy is funny how many scooters this guy bought he bought more scooters than Jay Leno
Have you tried the Chinese EFI 200 cc scooters like the Capri are the Clash ?
I haven't yet, some of those seem pretty nice, but I'm still expecting very low quality.
@@LabCoatPaul I've had the EFI 200cc Capri since 2021 engine still runs great first thing I realized is they don't use loctite on none of the bolts so stuff starts coming loose on it. So far the engine is still running great The bike itself is holding up fine. But the exhaust on it is crap. And I have used it for delivery since I bought it so it has some serious miles on it. And the speedo cable does not last.
In Mongolia the scooters break constantly and parts are widely available and very cheap. I think the beauty of these things is they are like BIC lighters universal interchangeable and very cheap and easy to work on, and when they burn up on the side of the road an "new" one is only $100 away.
You're right. They are surprisingly easy to get parts for, and if I crash a Chinese scooter, I really don't care. I have a nice Honda scooter now that never breaks down, but I would be pretty upset if anything happened to it.
Paul Shpakov what model of Honda scooter do you own my friend?
This guy must be lying, why would he continue to buy chinese scooters over and over if they suck? I know someone that has 9k miles on a taotao 150cc. Just regular maintenance over the years.
Buying a Chinese scooter is like gambling at the casino. You can win, but you probably won't. Once in a while, you get a Chinese scooter that works well. All the scooters I've owned required major repairs often.
Oh, and I buy crappy scooters, because I guess I enjoy fixing them, and making videos about them. If I had a scooter that didn't need repairs, that wouldn't be very interesting at all.
As far as Chinese scooter variants, TaoTao seems to be the best one. I've had my ATM50-A1 since 2015, and almost at 10k miles, it's still going strong! It really depends if you take care of it. If you keep it under a weather proof tarp, or in a garage or building, then that keeps corrosion wear from happening. That's the biggest issues with these things, and is the key factor of parts breaking all the time.
Wolf are wayyyy better to than Tao tao
hey what about Kymco? they are also taiwanese, and from little i've seen are reliable good quality scooters.
Thanks i found this video very helpful..i am about to buy a new moped somewhere between 50cc -125cc. I was considering niu e moped but when I found out if was Chinese make i became hesitant tbh
Wait you had a problem with a Piaggo Liberty? I know people who ride those and they are tanks. Thats pretty insane that they coudnt fix that. I would take it to a different dealer. Maybe contact scooter west, they do amazing work.
Agreed ...Always heard Piaggio scooters/bikes are bullet proof .
I just bought a 2023 Wolf 🐺 EX-150 sport about 2 months ago and have been pleasantly surprised so far, they are Chinese but have strict American quality control standards and tech support. The scooter is self seems to be solid I take it upon myself to tighten bolts once a week just because that's what you have to do with the scooters, all scooters, I've just been breaking in the engine until I get to 300 mi which I'm almost at before I open it up, I've talked to several owners that said they've topped out at 75 I got it up to 60 the other day and had plenty to that 75 doesn't seem unreasonable I'm just waiting to do my 300 mi tune up. The only issue I had is that it was idling too low and that was a simple carb adjustment and has been fine since. Is very stylish, nice rims, nice fat tires, has a nice sleek gauge cluster with tachometer and speedometer. I actually thought about checking back in 6 months to give the verdict but I just realized this video is 3 years old so maybe some other video another time frame.
I'm glad your Chinese scooter is working well so far. It's common for the small bolts to strip out as well, so replacing them with some flanged bolts from Ace hardware might be a good idea if that happens to you. The small ones are usually M6 x 1.0
It might also be a good idea to check the valve adjustment on your engine. They don't always get it right at the factory. Add blue loctite to important bolts like the front axle, brakes, and muffler so it doesn't vibrate apart.
It is possible to keep a Chinese scooter running for many miles, as long as you keep up with it constantly falling apart.
As an experiment, write down all the little repairs you do, and let me know how big that list is a year from now.
I'll be uploading a video soon about the worst Chinese scooter I've ever owned. I bought a 2014 Tao Tao BWS 150 (yamaha zuma clone) with 13,231 km (8,221 miles). That's extremely high mileage for a Chinese scooter, and it was completely destroyed. I replaced the stator, drive belt, variator, re-threaded the exhaust bolts in the head, cleaned carburetor, replaced headlights, battery, had to fix broken plastic floorboard, polish foggy speedometer plastic, bleed front brake, replace all hoses, new rear tire, and the list goes on.
In comparison, my 2010 Honda Elite looks brand new with 9.500 miles on it, and I've only replaced tires and changed the oil. Nothing is broken on the Honda.
Had my 50cc Chinese scooter now new from 2016,still going,if anything breaks its Ebay to the rescue cheap parts ,carb is only 20 pounds new.if you have little money it's worth buying a second hand bike and learning to fix it yourself like me.keep an eye on the oil level every 2 weeks.
Yeah, parts are crazy cheap. You can buy spares for everything important for very little $$$>
Yeah all the Chinese scooters I’ve had always ran. I mean of course they aren’t as good as their name brand counterparts but for on the cheap they are great. It takes some tinkering and normal repairs they’ll last for a while. If people don’t trust them they should just try to find a used Honda scooter for cheap
I have Sym Jet Euro X 50cc 2005 and it haven't had any problems it have 40k kilometers
You're right about the Eton being a good bike bought a 10 year old one with 12k Miles on it put a bbk in it and currently almost at 16k Miles you had to be rough on your bikes if your rear shock snapped in half
Yeah of course Kim Cole makes better quality parts I meant to say Taiwanese Deere parts they frequently make Japanese parts they are parts typo and that’s a load of baloney you can buy a cheap freaking Chinese bike cheaper than Taiwan and you can enter change them because Taiwan makes parts for Chinese bikes and you can get the quality up just like the Taiwanese bike I hardly believe he kept having problems with it because he kept buying stupid cheap parts that was made by Chinese people instead of interchanging them and buying higher quality ones from Taiwan that’s what I did I have a Taotao scooter I’ve been having problems with my bike for the longest but when I replace all of my parts with Taiwanese and higher quality lightbulbs that won’t blow out on me like the LED lights I never had a problem yet like the parts that I literally switch out of the bike they don’t give me any problems its self no changing the bushings from the engine mounts in the freaking stater and fly will I never replace those so yes they gave me problems I have to replace them right now as we speak and quite frankly it’s just like anything if you have a high-quality Japanese bike and putting Chinese parts in it that are low quality OEM parts you really think the bike will have its reliability anymore? It will not . Sadly to say
Is vespa any better tho..
guess ive been lucky my taotao bws 150 still running fine afte 6 years ,only had to replace the Throttle cable once and just order a new back tire for 1st time. been using it every day pretty much the whole time
I have a Sunright Prescott 150 scooter. The only problem I have is the bolts. Yeah they are cheap but I just like to modify my bike. Also it does not run in January lol. It is a Prescott if you get it.
Sym is the way to go on price vs quality balance. As a training school we had an old 50cc 2 stroke, it had 30,000 miles on the original engine. Never went inside the engine. It must have been dropped hundreds of times but just won't die!
Was that Piaggio Liberty made in China or Vietnam? How about the 50cc?
The Piaggio was made in Vietnam. My 50cc SYM scooter was made in China, for a Taiwanese company.
@@LabCoatPaul was gonna buy a Piaggio 50cc , $2800 plus insurance and helmet, chain.. I'd
pass went with a new Cabo 2019
@@rickycamara7677 I think the Lance Cabo will be better. It's made by SYM. Good choice.
Mine is a 2017 TCS dycon 50cc with 11,000 miles on it. This Chinese bike is a trooper. I have upgraded some things but no major issues. Also it doesn't matter what the scooter is. Most have the same gy6 engine.
I have a jiajue transpro 50cc. I broke down 3 times.and it sucks.
Yeah, my Powermax 125 has over 13k miles on it...NEVER any problems or issues! Sorry for your luck.
You're very lucky. Thanks for watching! :)
My Favorite Scooters (well here in Australia) Are TGB (Taiwan Golden Bee) Love the tiny turning cycle, which is smaller then SYM (Also a good make) Taiwan made is the "China" Premium Grade Stuff.
Is it a good market for scooters in Australia? Are there a lot of scooters on the Road?
Geely scooter is ok ?
Geely is also a Chinese scooter brand. I haven't worked on a Geely scooter myself, but I would expect poor quality.
I bought a 2007 Vespa GTS New old stock in 2009 still have it today, no problems just regular oil changes, speedo cable broke a few years in that's it
I literally know nothing abt scooters is GIO a good brand or not for its price
@Steve VanGo how did u even test the school bus one
in the netherlands it is very common to see kymcos and syms. they seem to share the exact same frames with generic chinese brands however. so i doubt their quality is any better. it is also very common to see vespa look-a-likes here, they last long enough because everyone has them, including me
I always say: Chinese scooters can be reliable if your replace the whole scooter. You can throw the scooter away and buy something else, or you can replace it one piece at a time. I have a reliable Chinese scooter at the moment, but I did rebuild everything on it.
Most of these Chinese scooters are based on the old Honda 125 single four stroke. The most common is the GY6. If you replace the parts that fail with South Korean parts it will last a lot longer. Always change the engine oil every 6 months and use a good quality oil.
I have a Chinese 50cc scooter it's a 2017 wolf Islander 50 Scooter and I got it used and when I got it the scooter didn't have much power and did not want to go fast at all.
all I had to do was increase the amount of fuel that the motor gets through the carburetor by adjusting the fuel jet and then it gained plenty of power and now does 40 miles per hour easily, besides needing to fix that little issue there is nothing else wrong with my scooter so maybe I'm lucky I don't know much about wolf Islander scooters maybe there a good Chinese brand or maybe I just got lucky
in the past 25 days I've put 900 miles on it and it's still going strong
What about kymco?
Kymco is a Taiwanese brand and makes better scooters than those Chinese companies. They're not as good as Japanese scooters like Honda or Yamaha, but they will definitely be useable and not complete junk like the Chinese ones.
@@LabCoatPaul thx
Once you fix some wiring skyteam is pretty good too
I think a lot of the reason the Chinese scooters are so crap is companys not giving a shit about worn out tooling etc especially as its for export. Most people in China have gone electric for years now, I had a used 3000w (100-125cc equivalent) scooter in the UK in 2010 and it was awesome. Less than a US penny per mile in 'fuel' 30 miles range ridden flat out, sounds weak but for a 10 mile daily commute its fine, less than 4 hours charge time, 45mph restricted top speed, remove the fuse for limiter and 60mph no problem but tyres weren't balanced! Faster of the line than most other scooters, totally reliable in all weather's for a year until it was stolen. This is from someone with a full license and owned proper bikes, for a shitty city commuter it was awesome apart from nobody hears you coming, pedestrians step out all the time!
i traded an old 2002 john deere 115 automatic 42inch mower for a 2016 kymco agility 50 4t. poor bike wasnt taken care of. they had leaned the bike over and done donuts with it until one side of the tire was bald. then after that they were riding it and it highsided them slamming the right side on the ground breaking the fairing and both right side blinkers. they cut the cdi box to 'un-regulate' and stole some really dirty gas and it stopped up the diaphram on the petcock. they had said it just stopped running. so i got a new petcock, coil, plug, fuel filter, and cdi box. i got a muffler but the bracket broke so i had to quicksteel the hole. i get 37 to 40 on flat straights. right now im looking into the variator and eventually a bbk and better carb. BUT its ok honestly, ive rode it 100 miles out to our camp site and played around in the woods with it and then rode it back home. its currently sitting at 7785 km just did the lash, oil, gear oil, and fuel filter changes at 7k km. had 4k when i got it running 2 months ago.
Kymco is a Taiwanese scooter brand, and their quality is much better than Chinese scooters. It's still much worse than a Honda, but can be reliable if you repair it often enough.
It sounds like you bought that scooter from some high school kids. You should never buy anything from kids.
I bought a Yamaha Vino from a kid once. It "ran fine but now it won't start". The kid ran it until the engine blew up, and must have crashed it 100 times too. I wasted a bunch of time and money trying to fix it, then finally just threw the scooter away.
@@LabCoatPaul no it was just an idiot adult that im sure did some type of drugs. its been a great scooter so far. obviously had to change the tire out and worried about how much that would be but surprisingly it wasnt that bad.
My uncle bought a sym jet in 2001 and rode it for about 3500 km. Then it stod stil in his garage for 18 years. Now I own it and have not had eny problems whit it, have rode it for about 2000 km now. (I know my English is broken😅)
Just bought my first moped, and I've got to say it seems like people have a lot less issues with moped than scooters. Granted a lot of mopeds are two stroke so they are inherently more reliable than a four stroke with a lot more going on.
What you say is mostly true. But there is a brand called peace sports, that is fairly reliable. Of course, i do in house mechanical work on them and the biggest issues are these three things
1 cheap plastic
2. Carburetors that can only perform with ethanol free fuel and are very prone to vaporlock sitting in traffic
3. Bolts falling off. However, blue threadlocker is your best solution
Imo buy a honda. Its worth it.
Fairly reliable, except for vapor lock and bolts falling out. haha I've had both things happen on my Chinese scooters too. The vapor lock is most likely caused by your gas cap.
I have a 2010 Honda Elite 110 and it's the coolest thing ever. I ride it to work without any fear of getting stranded, or sliding down the road on my face because the wheels fell off.
Did you hear about gilera best scuters
Are they Italian?
Paul Shpakov yes 🤣🤣they're owned by Vespa/piaggio
i had a gmw i sold put 14000 miles on it shockingly mine was good and now i have a baccio 150 with 6,300 on it
i got a SYM orbit 2 50cc that i changed engine on to a SYM 125cc. it was a dream to ride so i upgraded to 161cc with 150cc exhaust. i also ported the head so now i do 120km/h on it flat. its insanly fun. but now its to scary to ride. way to fast for the small front brakes. I LOVE it so much. I got a car licence but still think scooters are super fun. Much more fun to ride than a car.
That's awesome! I always try to scoot instead of driving too.
The SYM orbit 2 looks just like my blue Eton Sport 50! It actually says SYM on the vin plate and engine on my scooter. 120km/h is crazy fast on that scooter. Where do you order your scooter parts?
@@LabCoatPaul i got the engine form germany on ebay. it was used. Then the other parts i buy from racing planet. The sym engine i had was from a Crox 125. But they dont have parts for Crox. Crox and Symphony has the same engine so i got the parts for that engine. For the bigger cc i ported the head and changed the cam. On the cam i grinded around the studs about 2mm so that when i did the valves it opened 2mm more. I am still not done with it. Its really hard to fing parts for sym engines so be carefull. You should find the engine code if you want to buy stuff for it. Its under the kick. I can help you out if you want.
I have a sym symphony 125, got it from a scrap yard previously stolen and recovered, only 3000 miles on it but violent previous life! Its brilliant, the violence continues as I do 90 miles per day every day delivering on it, tripled the milage so far no major issues.
I just bought the cheapest China 150 made. Vendor is DF-Moto, sold by Redfoxpowersports for 969 dollars. I have no clue who actually makes the scooter. $1,184.90 total for shipping to my door. It's called a Razor 150 (10.58hp, 10 inch wheels), and Redfox has had a video of it on their website for 7 months yet I cannot find even One video from anyone who's bought one. I'm starting to doubt it actually exists. The credit card should clear the banks by tomorrow and I'll have 30 days to get the money back if they don't deliver.
Well basically the best are Yamaha, Honda, Suzuki. After with other brands it depends where you live.
In Europe MBK (basically french brand owned by Yamaha since over 30 years), Peugeot, Piaggio, Vespa are also very good, and have a big network here. So you may not get the same problems as you got in the US with your Piaggio. But they are quite expensive too.
We have a lot of Chinese scooter too, because they are cheap, but I wouldn't buy one.
It took you over $5,000. to fine out if Chinese scooter are good.
I've had Honda scooters, Chinese scooters, etc. They are both "good" for their intended uses.
Folks buying Chinese scoots at 1/4 the price of Japanese or Italian and expecting Japanese gas-it-and-go quality will be disappointed. But buy one for 1/4 the price and do your own wrenching (like checking bolts on the exhaust, ahem), keep some very inexpensive parts on hand, and have a lot of cheap fun.
I agree that for a 1/4 price, you can't reasonably expect the same quality. With a Chinese scooter, you pretty much have to be a mechanic to keep it going. The constant repairs are a bit ridiculous if you compare it to a car. You can drive a car 3,000 miles and only change the oil. $30 - great. By the time I got 3,000 miles on my scooter, I had to fix it 10 times and spent almost $500 doing it.
I guess my point is most people just want something that works and don't realize how many repairs a Chinese scooter will need. If you're the tinkerer type, great. But If you're like most people, you're much better off spending a little more time researching which scoot can go for a few thousand miles without repairs.
@@LabCoatPaul I agree that buyers of Chinese scooters need to do more research before plunking down their cash. Perhaps the title of the video should be "are Chinese scooters a good choice for people who want to gas-n-go?" (the answer to that is "no", I admit).
Agreed Chinese scooters are like Harley-Davidson from the '80s you pull into our gas station fill the oil check the gas and tighten the bolts just keep that in mind and you're have no problem with your Chinese scooter I've had three of them I love them
Cushman 2 makes a nice retro style American scooter. They'll run you $5k, but the upside is they're made here, so you can probably get parts pretty easy. And from what I've heard they're pretty reliable. www.cushmanscooters2.com/
I built my own scooter from a Schwinn Cruiser bike, and an electric bike kit. That's another solution if you're afraid of buying a Chinese scooter. And upside to that is most of the parts are common bike parts you can buy anywhere. I only use it sometimes, so I can't really speak for reliability. Its surprisingly quick though, and only cost me $500 ($130 for the bike brand new, $277 for the kit, and $100 for the batteries). You could probably do it for cheaper. Buy a used bike and a cheaper kit. I wanted a really good kit, so I went with the more expensive option with a longer range. And I bought the batteries pre wired because I wasn't sure how to do it. Bikes are really easy to work on too.
Thank you.
idk, my X-PRO 50cc scooter is pretty good, easily hit 35 MPH going up a hill and up to 50 MPH on level terrain.
Taiwan is ok. Kymco , sym, TGB is ok. Watch out for Kymco China , some models are made there. Even Vespa has a factory in Vietnam and China! So quality =Honda, Yamaha, Suzuki, Kawasaki!
Sorry to rock your boat. ALL manufacturers nowadays have some level of production being made in China! Even the big 4 Japanese... So better cut the wishful crap when not aware of a subject! ;-)
This was a very well made and informative video. Thank you for doing it. A few years back I purchased (online) a new white BMS Palazzo 150 cc scooter. It looked great but it seldom ran right. Yes, it too, was a piece of junk. I paid about $1200.00 for it, worked on it all the time, never felt safe on it, then sold it for $100.00 just to get it out of my sight. Kymco USA headquarters is 50 miles from where I live, but in these times, that are having trouble getting scooters (from Taiwan) into the USA. I'm going to fork over the money and buy a name brand Jap Scooter or either a Kymco or Sym. My advice would be to pay the extra money up front if you are not mechanically inclined like me. Thank you again for this video.
My Xtreme Motorsports FYM 150cc was a tank and never broke down, blew out the clutch once when ripping it in the kick stand lol I dont blame it I was fucking Rippppping on it.
I have a 50 cc Chinese scooter from 2013 it has more than 400 000 km on it
Horseshit
@@AutodidactEngineer your mom 😜
@@H.EL-Othemany my mom's prety hot
Well, at least when inventing BS, you're inventing at a grand scale! LOL 😂
Jokes apart, I witness some Honda Today, 50cc 4 stroke scooters. Being sold in packs of 4 to 8 units. Well used, generally clocking 100,000km or slightly above! Which in itself is amazing! If I had the fact that they were from a Pizza franchise which was renovating it's fleet! That tells you right away those scooters where beaten to death, by temporary teenage workers delivering pizzas! Surprisingly they still worked!
I almost bought one myself! Deal breaker was not even the mileage. It was the fact that my knees would hit the handlebars! LOL 😂 That's how tiny they were! ;-)
But that's a statement of true quality. An acquaintance even used it's own Today 50 to travel to Scotland, France, Morrocos... on top of the general daily usage! ;-)
Even most car engines won't get you that far..
For 2-stroke, 20,000 km is the most without engine repair.
For 4-stroke, 50,000 km is the average.
So, either 4,000 km or 40,000.
wow a wooping 4000 dollars...in pesos its almost P200,000..u can already buy a big bike here in the philippines,,
Yes, Italian scooters are very expensive. I feel pretty dumb, because the scooter I bought for $100 was better.
I'm going to buy a Venom Roma direct-hate stealerships like you-I plan to be my own mechanic.
Man it’s sucks you dropped 4K on that scooter only for it to be complete ass. When it comes to scooters Japanese bikes are the best and Taiwanese bikes are almost as good but not as nice. But I feel you on the Chinese bike I’ve had a few and they’ve all had problems.
The funny part is the 150cc taotao I bought for 50 bucks. The plastics was completely trashed and ziptied together and had no issues beyond that but this basically brand new 50cc taotao I got for cheap from a friend has had nothing but issues.
I have 2 Chinese scooters and they work great!
Well I can't argue your Chinese scooter horror stories. Shocked to finally hear the truth about Vespa. Taiwanese scooters are the best, at least I have a Taida engine. Looks like I am the only one that is going to be representing the Chinese scooter industry.....long sigh....good video as always.
Chinese manufacturers can make very high quality things, they just choose not to most of the time. Chinese scooters are actually a good thing for me. I make repair videos, and Chinese scooters are always broken, so I'll get lots of views. haha
@@LabCoatPaul > they just choose not to most of the time
ie, the market will not pay them to most of the time.
@Minimalistic Van Living working out great. Guess I like junk.
Sounds like every one of my motorized bicycles.
I WISHD ID HAD SOME DAY CHINESE SCOOTER I WOULD LOVE TO FIX IT
I'm going Piaggio 150 Liberty!
I decided to bicycle instead, lost weight and passed people on these scooters lmao. I do look like a T-Rex tho lol
Sad to say YOU did not do your homework
YOUR a mechanic,spent money fix it.a child can fix it.
You’re …… sorry
This Guy is in the scooter business you can tell by his shirt
Yup. The shirt has all the best things: Cats, scooters, and lasagna. Thanks for watching!
He's a younger version of Scott Kilmer.
Haha, I like Scotty Kilmer. Should I start yell-talking like him?
You paid less for your 150 than I paid for my 50.
Buy a used Yamaha Vino
i had some sym scooters nothing but trouble you lucky
Linhai makes good scooters
Man I'm very exhausted these scooters demands constant i mean constant repairs anyone reading this please don't buy a Chinese scooter the price it self is a sign of the quality you getting
I've put 3,500 miles on my 2010 Honda Elite 110 in the last 2 years with no repairs at all. You'll never get that from a Chinese scooter.
@@LabCoatPaul- In all honesty I never had ANY motorbike/scooter that didn't need dealer attention on it's early km's! Notice and I do mean buying NEW! Curiously I never bought Chinese scooters for myself. Although I do have enough experience with the GY6 to say. They have a tremendous potential for one who knows what is doing!
From what I mentioned previously, follow some more evident examples:
- Honda CB500 new, in the late 90's. Almost 4 years of trouble free ownership. Clocking >95,000 km in that meantime! Nice!
Timing chain tensioner replaced under warranty in the first few months! Only issue to report. Other than that tyres, filters, oil changes, chain kit, brake pads... All regular stuff!
- Piaggio XEvo 250 2006 or 2007, I don't remember precisely! Although I recall owning it for 10 months. Clocking >14000km in that time! Another excellent workhorse.
Front tyre (Pirelli) started delaminating at around 900km! Front vibrated like crazy during braking. Curiously not under normal riding. Diagnostic made by Piaggio engineer! Tyre replaced under warranty by dealer!
Alarm OEM Piaggio (option), in fact a Cobra alarm with Piaggio stamp! Replaced under warranty (months waiting). Damn thing almost killed me! When it cut the engine, while I was speeding on the left lane, of a 4 lane freeway! I wasn't run over by a car, simply by miracle! Truly not fun at all!
- Suzuki Burgman 400, 2008. Owned 3 or 4 years but only used for about 2 years. Meanwhile I moved work/house. Damn I even ended up moving to another Continent (twice)! LOL 😂 Reason why the Maxi scooter was parked half of it's life with me! Anyway 2 years usage >35,000km. Severe issues with the clutch assembly. Suzuki was never able or willing to "fix" nothing. Notice it was by far and wide a manufacturing fault, so subject to warranty claim! I solved the issue (personally) with the assistance of a machinist and metal lathe! Correcting the problems the factory couldn't! After that, relatively trouble free! Notice this fault plagued the entire line, it was a fabrication defect, due to bad engineering. Suzuki should have recall them... But did absolutely nothing!
Two takes from this testimony. Notice the absence of Chinese scooters, but also notice that NONE of them, where 100% trouble free! Although let's be honest Honda kept pretty close to it's almost flawless reputation! ;-)
@@crpth1 I agree about Honda being almost perfect. I have a 2010 Honda Elite 110 and I've ridden it almost 5,000 miles with no repairs needed, only maintenance. It's called the Lead 110 in most countries other than the US.
I've made many repair videos about Chinese scooters. I currently have a Chinese scooter that I tinker with for fun, but it's a death trap, even though I've already replaced most of the parts. Today the throttle cable got stuck at full throttle, for no apparent reason. The cable is new. The only thing that changed is I rode when it's below freezing outside. I'm not sure if there was some water in the cable, or if the zip ties that hold it got smaller and pinched the cable.
Some Chinese scooters are more expensive than harleys ...i do like my honda ruckus though
OK! I assume you said it as a joke! Fair enough.
Because anyone who as come up with Ebay! Will strongly disagree!
All these GY6 incarnations have one thing in common! They're dirty cheap to buy or maintain (by yourself)!
If you're in the hands of your local mechanic, well that's another story...
TAO TO IS VERY GOOD. I RIDE IT LONG TIME. KIMCO IS LIKE VESPA AND HONDA. ONLY THAT COST NOTHING.
Hahaha I only by Honda.
Cajun Rider my taotao has actually been far more reliable than my ruckus ever was and cost 1/4 as much.. I definitely had a lemon though
@@jseden that's good to hear, I just bought a 150cc Taotao and I'm honestly a little worried about it. I haven't got the license, tag and insurance yet, I just got it last week. I haven't even rode it yet but I had it propped up on the center stand an had it tilted backwards so I can put the front wheel on and it started dripping either oil or gear oil. It is coming from the plastic case that is right above the gear crank, do you have any idea what that plastic case is or why it would drip oil? I've been searching all I've the Internet yet can't seem to find a diagram so I even know what the part is. It looks like it has an air intake on the very top of the plastic box that was dripping oil. I leaned it back forward to rest on the front (still haven't put the wheel on) and it seems to have stopped dripping oil. I haven't even rode it yet so that is already making me worry a little, I paid $850 for it with $150 shipping ($1000 total), haven't even put gas in it yet and it is leaking oil. The plastic case has an air intake and the sticker on it telling me to change the oil after the first 300km, it's dripping oil from that plastic box, on the bottom of it which is dripping on top of the gear box with the manual crank peddle.
Crimadella Phone what model do you have? It sounds like you're talking about the airbox.. is it above the swingarm? It's also one of the only plastic engine components I can think of, along with the cooling shroud.
Oil coming from the airbox is a pretty common issue.. it comes from the vent hose on the valve cover that's connected back to the intake. I had one that did this but ended up just replacing the airbox with a little pod filter and now the vent hose isn't really connected to anything.. mind you I'm just talking about GY6 engines here, 99% of Chinese scooters use them. Iirc, the 150cc is a "157qmj" there should be a code somewhere on the left of the case, near the kickstand.
Searching for answers with your engine code will yeild way more results than the scooter model will.. I get tons of results searching "139qmb" but almost noting from "taotao thunder" (my current). I'd also recommend checking out some of the forums.. chinariders is pretty good. I'll often also add the word forum to my Google searches.. "qmb139 burning oil forum" tons of info on these if you know how to look.
I'd also recommend changing the oil ASAP. Gear oil isn't as big a deal but you might as well do it too.. it's quick and easy. Change it every few hundred for the first 1000km. This is when everything is first breaking in so don't be alarmed if you see a little metal in it. This is why it's good change often with a new engine.
Aside from burning a little oil, my current scooter has ~5000km on it and still runs/starts just fine. ~3000km of that is with a cheap 72cc cylinder I installed. My previous one had also run flawlessly for 2-3000km with essentially the same build before it was stolen.
These engines are very simple and easy to learn. I was able to rebuild my previous one after an overheat (piston exploded) for
Have good experience with Chinese scooters😊 the problem is probably not the scooters it's more likely you 😂
kymco
..you sure it's not your fault..🤣🤣🤣
I’ve owned many scooters over the years my advice is stay away from Chinese and European scooters, buy Yamaha Suzuki or Honda,
Yep 👌
I really what one
Piaggio is Italian not Chinese
Next time buy a used Piaggio or kymco
He bought a piaggio 150 and the dealer couldn't even fix it
God bless yamaha
I don't think your Piaggio story is very typical.
My Piaggio Liberty was made in Vietnam. I've heard from a few people that the quality from there is much worse.
I think the legit Piaggio factory in Vietnam might be ok, the real horror stories are usually "restored" vintage Vespas from there.
For all the money you spent buying and repairing junk scooters you could have bought a new Honda PCX 😂😂😂
Take the bus
Yamaha Neo's
best scooter ever made
Uhhhh....Taiwan and China are NOT the same.
SYM is the only good one because it's Taiwanese, not Chinese.
That's right! Still made in China, but definitely better.