A few words about Chinese scooters

I am getting bombarded with questions about 49cc scooters, what to buy, and what to beware of. Chinese scooters are the thing to beware of. It's all hit or miss. Generally, if a scooter is offered brand new, delivered to your door for under $1200, stay clear of it.
Inferior batteries (some with a 2 week warranty), poorly machined carburetors and engines, substandard hoses, cheap tires, and hard to come by parts are only a few issues these bikes have.
I've gotten word that most dealerships who carry these bikes don't honor the warranties that come with them, and trying to deal with a Chinese manufacturer makes things even harder to deal with.
One of the locals here in Estes Park picked up a used Roketa scooter for $500. Brand new it was $950. The thing is a little over a year old, and we can't tell how many miles are on it because the speedometer broke a long time ago. As a matter of fact, it quit working at mile 15. This gentleman bought it for his wife as a birthday gift, and brought it to me to fix up a bit before he gave it to her.
I opened up the carburetor and was stunned to see all rough edges to the machine work, like a dog chewed on it. The needle jet inside was very cheaply made with some sort of plastic part on top of the needle that will surely deteriorate fast with the gasoline in there with it.
The hoses already had signs of deterioration, and the brakes were completely worn out. Now, let me say that Estes Park spans maybe a 5 mile radius, so it's not like this bike had a few thousand miles on it.
From my rental mileage, I would guess that this scooter MAYBE has 2,000. Far too few to be showing this sort of wear and malfunctioning.
Other brands like Tank, Roadrunner etc. have had mixed reviews. Mainly dealers giving good reviews, and customers giving bad.
Some customers have said that the scooter shows up in a crate, and they never get it started.
Some get them started, but with in 500 miles have repairs to contend with, and no source for parts or service.
My advice, pay the extra money for a Honda, Yamaha, Kymco, Derbi, etc... What you get are reliable brands, little maintenance, machine longevity, and something any mechanic can work on.

Some websites say, "Why pay twice as much...?" Because you want it to work the first time, and every time.

THANX DONUT HAUS!!

The gals over at the Donut Haus here in Estes Park came by today to present me with the Vespa tribute donut!

As you see, the sprinkles on the donut are the colors of my Vespa 150 Sprint that is for sale out here at the shop.
It is reported that the Vespa tribute donut is a great seller amongst the children!
My guess is that the orange and green sprinkles together make for a better tasting donut.

So, to the ladys over at the Donut Haus on Moraine Ave.. THANX!

Stay out of the HOG PEN!

Sounds like a funny title for this blog post, but there are reasons. Today was a gorgeous day, and luckily, I had a family come rent a bunch of scooters from me.
The told me all about their business, The Hog Pen in Leakey, Texas. They are a BBQ family, and we chatted it up about how great Texas BBQ is. Very friendly people.
They all had rider's experience, as they kept telling me. So off they went... all 7 scooters.
Upon their return, I was inspecting the bikes loosely, as no one alerted me to an accident or spill, and then I was distracted with more southern charm.
They left the lot, and I went to the bikes to line them up properly.

Well guess what! One of them *name withheld* wrecked a scooter, and did not point it out to me.
They left the lot after saying things like "come see us in Tx." and "We'll set you up with great BBQ".

So there is the damaged scooter. Of course, thru the power of Credit Card Machines, and the legalities of my contracts, I went back and adjusted their account to reflect the damages.

Why do people lie?
It's frustrating beyond a financial and mechanical level.

You go thru life thinking people are generally honest, but in reality, most are shady and sneeky, and will try to get away with as much as they can.

So, if you are anywhere near Leakey, Texas... make sure to stop in at THE HOG PEN BBQ. Tell'em ZootScoot sent you, and then walk out. Maybe buy some BBQ somewhere else.
If they are willing to skimp out on their vacation rental, I wonder what they skimp on in the quality of their establishment.

It says on the koozy they gave me that "Bikers Welcome".
Well, the bikers who own the Hog Pen are not welcome back here.

Gummy gas for the start of the season

After getting all the scooters up and running, I realized that 3 of them were just acting poorly. Throttle seemed to stick, and they just weren't performing right.

Got into the carburetor with a simple couple sprays of Carb Cleaner, and now the things are running like tops again.

This season, when it's time to winterize and store the scoots, I'll just drain them all of gas, and save the trouble of this messing round with carbs.

Yippie for warmer weather!!

The last few weeks have been up and down for rentals. Memorial weekend started out OK, but then Mem Monday rained and rained all day.
And just as things seemed as tho the month would go out with a whimper, the last weekend rallied and we had a spectacular finish to May!!
May 31st was the 2nd best day ZootScoot has seen yet in terms of rentals, and that was just ever so shy of the best day which was 4th of July 2007.

What does this all mean? In theory, it seems like we could have a very busy summer.

http://www.estesparknews.com/?p=135 I had an article posted in the Estes Park News. Tips on buy a 49cc scooter. Check it out!!