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Spandi - Your 99.9% dosen't wash as most of the Chinese bikes I have inquired about that are being sold on Craigs List here in the Tampa to Orlando area down to Nokomis and up to Jacksonville were purchased at local dealerships in Florida not on-line. I am not going to lie to support your warped presentation of how things are where I live. Most folks I know refuse to do business with Ebay Vendors and have a very dim view of internet only shops that sell scooters especially. Too many operations that sell bikes on the internet only seem to change their corporate names every year or so to sidestep prosecution.

Today I did a search for 250cc and up Chinese scooters and found few online vendors still selling them. I did not cherry pick to be fair and TxPowerSports was the first one that came up that finally did have a 250 and it was $2,620 (special reduced sale price) with the 300cc at $3,499 however neither of them had anywhere close to the 465 lb carrying capacity of my bike or were even close on the Interstate crusing capacity.

www.txpowersports.com/Cougar_Cycle_LEGEND_250cc_Scooter_p/cougar-legend-250cc.htm
www.txpowersports.com/new_icebear_T9_300cc_scooter_PMZ300_T9_p/pmz300-t9.htm

We have 5 or 6 and probably more local dealers of Chinese bikes within 15 miles of where I live and there are many more if you live across the Bay in Tampa proper and their prices seem competative with TxPowerSports so why do business sight unseen over the internet when you can get an easy to register dealer titled bike right here with a temprorary tag on it that you can ride immediatly for the same to less money.

are there any current 244cc model scooters being made?
i can find plenty of references to 2008 or so, but i can't find any newer models.

it seems to me that these 250cc scooters would sell pretty good.

is there something keeping america gas crazy?

Spandi - I just double checked my facts with multiple locals and in Florida between 2010 and 2011 the Honda derived 250cc Chinese bikes sold at Brick and Mortor dealerships when the Piaggio/Aprilia 250's were selling for $2,999 wer indeed $2,599 to $2,799 and the Vog 260 Monoshock Bikes such as the Tank Vog 260 were selling for $3,299 to $3,499. I pays to shop around and not listen to Internet Rhetoric as Chinese bikes are not always the cheapest way to go. My bike was several hundred dollars cheaper than the VOG bikes and equal in cost to less expensive than the Honda derivatives after considering the much larger trade-in value the Piaggio dealers offered compared to the no-existant to $100 from the clone dealers. Again I am only talking about buying at local brick and mortor dealers and not sight unseen from drop shippers with little to no real support after the purchase.

Everyone across the USA was offered the same $2,999 price that I got and then for two years after that everyone in the country could have taken advantage of the $2,599 price on the Aprilia 250cc bikes. It is only since then that I have spent 30 minutes to an hour each year maintaining a few relationships at the local dealerships. Much less time than you have denying this or twisting things around. People who listened to the likes of you missed out on that deal however eveyone on this forum who walked into an Aprilia Dealership or contacted MotoInternational in Seattle during those years not days or moments could have made exactly the same deal.

Today you have to look and work harder for it however its well worth the effort as you usually end up with a vastly superior product and not have to go through the OCD remanufacturing of the bike to make it right. Its like the original poster said, part or the "Trial and Error".

As for the castings being weak and having defects, Lance themselves warned me about the issue with the stock heads along with most replacements being inconsistant in quality as did several local mechanics that worked primarilly on Chinese bikes with problems. The local mechnics usually had a stock pile of bad heads waiting to be stripped down so they could be sold to the local scrap yard for the best price for the low grade aluminum that they were made from. They did turn me to Parts for Scooters as a sorce of better quality heads and Matt over there has more than proven that they are a few step ahead of the competition.

My personal opinion is that the Chinese aren't unscrupulous Mercenaries but have been taking directions on what to build since the British moved in over a Century ago. I don't think things will get a lot better until they stop letting tiny importers move their products. CF Moto has a real presence here under their name. They let QLink sell their stuff for years but stopped and took over their name.

I recently was looking at Superiorpowersports.com and noticed a subtle change.


www.superiorpowersports.com/category_s/145.htm

Look at all the dirt bikes called Bashan. Not Roketa, Apollo or Joe Smith. It seems they want their products identified and not hidden under someone else's title. I've had great luck with my GS Motorworks sourced Bashan and would buy one of those in a minute. 

Spandi,

Yup, you got it! I'd forgotten about the Animals... Cool group! Have a bone on The Old Chopper Guy!