New Scooter rider wanna bee

[garmp]

I'm new to the Scooter world and know nothing so need plenty of help. My wife and I like to camp and trout fish and are thinking about a scooter to haul the two of us around the park from fishing site to fishing site. We camp out out of our van and don't want to disassemble our camp site to drive around. A 49cc scooter would be ideal, but we have no idea of what to get. First off we do this two to three or maybe four times a year so we don't want invest a ton of money.
Again I know nothing about scooters, but understand China made ones are to be avoided. I'm not good with tools, so service/maintenance would be an issue. Not fond of listening to salesmen, rather get my info from users.
thanks

[Pony66]

Well you will surely get a lot of opinions. Im glad your honest that you dont want to do maintenance. So you will need a scooter that has a dealer close to you. Most motorcycle shops dont want to work on Chinese scooters. They are just too inexpensive for shops to make much money.

So Kymco, Aprilla, BMS and of course Honda and Yamaha are all quality brand scooters. Those are some top of the line scooters that usually have service available. You will spend about 10x as much and motorcycle maintenance is not cheap. My local Harley dealer charges $120 for an oil change.

There are great benefits from a 50cc. They are light, mine weighs around 150lbs. Most states, you can park anywhere. Most state parks and national forest require registration to operate a vehicle. In Colorado scooter registration is $5.75 and good for 3 years. Insurance is about $7.00 monthly. The big plus is the 100mpg.

[inuyasha]

Hi
Welcome aboard
Pleased to meet you
Not all china scoots are to be avoided
In fact ive found them to be quite good
My Puma Angel is of very high quality fit and finish, and has excellent performance for a 50 cc
www.pumacycles.com/
Im extremely happy with her
Check there dealer locater and see if theres one out your way
Take care and drive safely
Yours Hank

[edfr]

Garmp,
Yes, if you do not want to do maintence yourself then you will need to get a little better scoot that some dealers close to you are selling. And always try them out for fit. Some are bigger than others and some are tiny. You also have to think about WEIGHT how much you and your wife weigh a 50cc may be to small to haul both of you around. You may be better off with a 150 for 2 up riding and getting around. But if should try the 50s first and do not take the salesman word that it will handle 2 up nicely, take your wife with you and try a 50 2 up go around the block or down a nice street and see what it will do.
Lefty

[algears]

Yes, you really must actually ride some WITH your wife before you make a decision. Too many people have not done that beforehand, and ended up with something that did not meet their needs. Stick with the name brands mentioned above and I think you will be satisfied without having the spend 10x what the equivalent less costly brands cost - maybe 3x - 5x if you purchase carefully. To some, the extra upfront costs justify perceived added reliability. There are no hard statistical comparisons available of which I am aware. But, the general consensus is that the brands mentioned require fewer repairs, and in some cases, longer intervals between major maintenance.

[warriorboxerdog]

Well if your riding of road on a trail I`would look at the yamaha zuma. I own a kymco super 8 50 2t and I have riding with a passenger with out a problem and I weigh around 190 and the girl weighted like 145. It did go slower up big hills. I would go with the 50cc for the weight and have the dealer take off the restrictions so you have a little more power for hills. I would just go to a good motorcycle dealer that sells scooter and test drive the one you like. I would also as about the warranty. Good made scooters have at lest a 1 yr warranty (my kymco came with a 2yr warranty). Good luck and I hope you find one that does what you need it to do.