Here's what I've seen with my own eyes: Crank shafts needing welded at 1,000 miles. Odometers stop working at 15 miles. Electrical nightmares under 500 miles...etc.
A gentleman came to my shop last week looking for parts to his Chinese scooter. In his mind, all scooters are the same, which is a shame, because if he'd spent about $800 more than he did, he could have gotten a Japanese scooter that will last for YEARS.
Here's what he said...
Him: "Well, I've had zero problems with my scooter"
Me: "So why do you need parts?"
Him: "Well, the starter went out on it"
Me: "And that's a problem."
Him: "Oh no, we've had this scooter for 5 years now."
Me: "You mean you've driven it in the summers for 5 seasons"
Him: "Yes, we drive it to Safeway."
Me: "How many miles are on it?"
Him: "Oh, less than 1,000"
Me: "And you haven't had any more trouble than the starter?"
Him: "No.... except when I first got it, I tried to lock the steering column, but wires inside were too short by 3 inches. They pulled out, and I had to rewire the whole thing."
Me: "Oh yeah? So, less than 1,000 miles on it, and you've had to re-wire it, and change the starter?"
Him: "Yeah, but that's it."
How does re-wiring a scooter, and having to get a new starter for it constitute "NO PROBLEMS?"
Look, in the 4 seasons that I've been running my scooters... and most of them are way past 7,000 miles... I've only had to CHANGE OIL, REPLACE AIR FILTERS, AND CHANGE SPARK PLUGS. That's it.
A quality scooter will not give you problems. A quality scooter will last for years and years. Why does a used Honda Elite Scooter from the 80s sell for as much as a brand new Chinese Scooter???? COME ON! It's a HONDA! Hondas run forever!!
Friend in Austin, despite the warnings from myself and other scooterists, bought a cheap ROCKETA scooter. I was in Austin for 6 months over the winter, and he had that thing in the shop 5 times! 5 times in 6 months. Then, he just gave up and sold it. Every time the "group" would go for a ride, he had problems.
The savings of $600 - $800 dollars is not worth the hassles of these bikes.
Don't buy CHINESE SCOOTERS.
And if you do, please do not bring it to me to fix. I won't touch them.
We know their toys are painted with lead.
We know their baby formula is tainted.
We know they export toxic Dog food.
We know they export jewelry with lead in it. etc...
We know these products from China SUCK! Why get a scooter from the same place??
7 comments:
This artical is so true, I am living in China at the moment for work, I bought a scooter to see the city easier while I'm here, I have had it for less than a year and done just over 2000km on it, in that time it has been in the shop at least 6 times, I can't really complain as it only cost about 300pound and the cost of fixing it here is around 35rmb = 3 pound 50 but I would never buy one in England, way too much trouble and far to expensive to fix, I'd go Japanese everytime with bikes and scooters
i think your wrong because my mp150tr has over 1000 miles on it and all i had to do was change the oil and put gas in
ZootScoot, you are so right on with that. I work for the Snake Oil Man, so I will post this anonymously, but you know who I am! We are not in the business of scooters, however we sell a lot of Chinese stuff. I see soo many problems with what we sell. The electrical units we do sell brand new, have so many more problems than the ones that we fix ourselves, and re-sell as refurbished. How does that work?? Problem is, they have the technology to make good items, they just dont use it, they would rather sell crap and try to keep people oppressed. Thank you to our American govt for opening the trade market with China....NOT! Buy American or Japanese, or anything non Chinese....you will be a much happier consumer!!!
My friend and I were recently discussing about how technology has become so integrated in our day to day lives. Reading this post makes me think back to that discussion we had, and just how inseparable from electronics we have all become.
I don't mean this in a bad way, of course! Ethical concerns aside... I just hope that as technology further advances, the possibility of uploading our brains onto a digital medium becomes a true reality. It's a fantasy that I daydream about all the time.
(Posted on Nintendo DS running [url=http://knol.google.com/k/anonymous/-/9v7ff0hnkzef/1]r4i ds[/url] DS SeKu)
"And if you do, please do not bring it to me to fix. I won't touch them."
DON'T BLAME YA, BROTHER, don't blame ya... I feel the same way after having to fix mine every time I sat my behind on it (and I am an experienced mechanic BTW) and having the POS STILL leave me stranded. Then it just quits running altogether for no reason to speak of (and you wind up breaking half a dozen other things just to fix one due to the shoddy monkey metal construction). Then I go through the runaround of shops who don't carry parts, much less deal with them (WHOSE TO BLAME 'EM?), then having to wait weeks for parts I ordered online since no shops carry them, and the agony of being forced to get back at least some of what you spent on that moneypit that STILL doesn't work by selling it for scrap because you are flat broke. Now I am without a scooter, broke, and want to drink a bottle of southern comfort to go to a deep sleep and fuhgettaboutit. NEVER AGAIN BROTHER, never again....
these crap scooter are very gay
they are pain in the ass and break for no reason, every thing would be great in good shape and clean but wont start
they are very weak and don't resist heat
my keeway 2 stroke(2 stroek are very easy to fix) it a pain in the arse, i clean i the carb and make it better than new but wont start
i was replacing the cylinder but when i was tightening the bolt one of the four axes broke on me, ans i was like WTF
on it's 3rd day, the horn stopped working, and after few weeks the lights didn't open, it's a nightmare of electrical problems, now this shit is not trusty and nevver go away of your home on one of these things cuz they can break on u in the middle of nowhere like it did on me away from the city by 8 miles, this shit is pain, now i'm gonna sell it for 200$ and go get mmy self and MBK(yamaha) bw's or nitro these things are very solid and will last for ever
Just so true right now!! For reals I had two chinese scooters I got the them from different chinese manufacturers, and they are just worse than riding a lame horse with a cancer, the first one I had only about 300km and the lights are shutting off on its own like a retarded Christmas light, the bolts started to come loose there are just these crazy vibrations...I decided to get a new one as I thought its all from the manufacturer...but things just got even worse the second Chinese shuts off like the engine just turns off on its own for no reason, then above 40 km its just vibrates like hell...the rpm goes up and down on its own so I decided to just get a Yamaha instead, since I learned my lessons NEVA AGEN WILL I EVA GET ON A EM CHINESE SCOOTER! !
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