Another Chicom Scooter Broke Down Today  By  americanpsycho (Read 5,257 times)

I don't recall reading any agenda about this forum being "geared towards Chinese", after all the name of this forum is "It IS the Ride".

This forum seems to be geared towards helping and giving advice on how to fix scooters. It just so happens that a disproportionate amount of the threads are about fixing Chinese made scooters, I wonder why?

You think $800 was a good deal on a Chinese 50cc? Think again.
I bought a 2007 Yamaha C3 with 750 miles for $1000. It was three years old and looked brand new without a scratch. 44 mph top speed and 115 mpg. Water-cooled and fuel injected, you could literally cruise at WOT forever, It was almost as fast as my two-stroke SYM DD50 that I bought for $500. Yeah, that's right, a Taiwanese built 49cc two-stroke with 1200 miles that I fixed up and invested $700 total into and it ran 47 mph.

The Yamaha C3 ran perfectly for the couple of years I owned it and never needed anything but oil changes. I sold that terrific little scooter for $800. Beat that deal with an $800 Chinese 49cc.

And yes, I sold the SYM DD50 for the same $500 I paid for it.

I am on a crusade. I am sick and tired of people who buy Chinese scooters insisting on two things.

1. They are as good or almost as good as a Taiwanese or
Japanese equivalent.

2. They are a better deal and save money.

I think almost all of the people that claim these two things have only owned a Chinese machine and just don't get it. I myself owned two Chinese scooters and figured out they don't save money. I have also owned more than a dozen Taiwanese or Japanese scooters/motorcycles and do all of my own maintenance and repairs.

Kymco, SYM and Tomos all make Taiwanese manufactured scooters that are assembled in China. I don't know how many times I see people here willing to spend a few extra hundred dollars on a Chinese made Znen to get better quality. And yet they are unwilling to spend a few hundred more to get a budget Taiwanese machine that is a much bigger jump in quality?

At this point I'm almost ready to give up explaining that buying a cheap Chinese scooter rarely saves money. I said almost ;D

And let's not forget to mention the infamous Chinese PDI. You take a brand new Chinese scooter and replace some of the essential parts and then hope that it keeps running with some degree of reliability.

I don't know exactly when people began to accept buying something brand new that was broken and didn't work correctly, and then were happy about it?

Looks like those Chinese are way smarter than a lot of Americans!
(Or at least a lot of people here )

There nothing wrong with buying a Chinese scooter for a cheap price. I'm not sure that's the smart thing to do, but if you're a decent scooter mechanic with extra time and lots of patience, it might work out OK for you.

But it is wrong to try and justify the purchase of a Chinese machine by trying to convince people (or yourselves) that they are something they just aren't!

I told you he was a crusader. I have to agree with his basic sentiment. I have spent not much more than a Chinese scoot on my former Burgman and my Vespa. It doesn't take much more. I wrench on my rides too and polish incessantly. A built 200cc 2 stroke doesn't run without constant tinkering. That being said I don't worry about the major parts at all but you do have to keep up on things. I would counsel my friends to spend a bit more and to not order off the internet if they wanted a scooter for commuting it would just make their life a bit less complicated. No matter what you ride part of the ride is turning wrenches. The difference is what you are doing is adjustments or chasing strange electrical and running problems...

What I see a lot, is people tend to drive these little guys beyond their design limits, or not caring for them properly.. Missing oil changes, not changing filters, ect.. Then blame the machine when it fails.. Few are willing admit or perhaps understand when something they did or didn't do caused the failure..

Then they come on here and other forums complaining of the failure and only give a one sided explanation of the failure.. You know bad news travels fast, good news slow... This being a help forum we mostly only hear of the ones having troubles, we don't hear much from those not having trouble.. So again the image presented is a little one sided..

Now when I got Fawkes, I was very new to this engine, there was a learning curve, there were problems, most by me and my inexperience with this engine design, some also by my lack of knowledge of what the 50cc's design limits are.. I freely admit it, and I say it because it's the truth, and I wish to give an honest accounting...

Hey gitsum,

Did you ever buy anything BRAND NEW?
All your bragging about your rides, THEY ARE ALL USED- somebody elses leftovers. I but my stuff new. and it so happens that i could own any bike i choose NEW> I choose a chinese scooter because For what they are, they are a great valye

And for me, as some have said, It's the FUN of improving something with your own ideas and your own two hands If everyone had a SUPERIOR bike, with no issues or questions, we would'nt have a forum now would we?

Why would you buy anything new and take the depreciation hit yourself? I only buy used, has worked well for me for 20+ years of motorized transporting... There are plenty of perfectly good bikes out there already. Why pay the Chinese to rape the earth a bit more for additional metals for a new scooter?

I know, and you,re absolutely right. This guy just frustrates the out of me , bashing all chinese scoots, as with any product, you have the good and the bad. I don't buy Everything new, Just the scooters, because I have a trust issue withsellers around here.