Chinese scooter or TOMOS Moped ?

[fayettevillefrank]

Hi, my license are revoked and I'm looking for some cheap 50CC transportation (don't need a license to drive 50CC's in NC). My budget ($1,500 or less) leaves me with two choices: A cheap, generic chinese made scooter or a TOMOS Sprint. The guys over in The "Moped Army" forum all-of course-reccomended the TOMOS, saying that the chinese scoots are unreliable cheaply made pieces of crap with no support. What do you guys think? I'd really appreciate your advice as I really dont know too much about scooters. I read some of the threads addressed to forum newbies however I'd like to hear more opinions. Also what about the TOMOS nitro? I've heard that it too is a cheap chinese bike. Thanks.

[chromestarhustler]

ask the ruckus guys. they love swapping in our gy6 150 motors into there rucki. what they say is our motors are fine and run beautifully, its the rest of our cheap ass plastic bodies that suck. the electronics are hit and miss at first but have a complete set of spares, coil, regulator/ rectifier, cdi. change the crappy hoses and all the fluids.

[skuttadawg]

Tomos makes a great moped I had 3 . The only thing I did not like is it started without a key as the key only locked the steering

[qwertydude]

The moped's acceleration will be very slow. Even though you can tune them to be faster than a Chinese 50cc the acceleration and hill climbing will be absolutely atrocious. I know because I ride in a moped club and compared to the mopeds a stock 50cc Chinese scooter is a rocket in terms of acceleration, and when properly tuned is only a few mph slower top speed wise. About 45mph mopeds with mild mods, and 40-42 for a stock Chinese 50cc with a simple change to slider weights and a carb tuning. The Tomos Nitro uses a 139qmb, so it's no better than a cheapo Chinese 50cc.

But with $1500 you should easily be able to afford a used 50cc Japanese scooter, because one thing Chinese scooters will need is maintenance and service. Don't for a moment think a Chinese 50cc is a free lunch, they take work, and dedication to get reliable.

You can get a new one but you'll still need to do a proper PDI to work out all the kinks out of the bike. Rarely do these Chinese 50cc's come ready to go and reliable. A used Chinese 50cc may be a good bet but a lot of times in these no license and no registration states you'll be getting a stolen and wrecked hunk of junk. If you spot a good one though with a couple thousand miles on it AND it runs good with no problems, get it. Generally if a Chinese scooter makes it a couple thousand miles without problems it'll go on for many more trouble free. Usually by the time they get to that many miles, the lemons would have been weeded out and so a used Chinese scooter in good condition can be a very good deal, often times better than a new one. Because even though you can buy a new 50cc scooter with a "warranty" from the dealer, if the bike is constantly in and out of the dealer for minor things because the dealer didn't do a proper PDI, you're gonna get frustrated, yell and scream, complain, and then this board will have to take the brunt of that fallout.

[mongoose]

The Tomos Revival, Streetmate, and Streetmate-R use a key ignition. You can get a brand new Kymco Agility-50 for under $1,500.

[jayhawk]

I'm with qwertydude...check out Craig's List. Your budget is huge for a used 50cc...should be tons of Hondas, TGB, Buddy's, Adlys, SYMs, KYMCO and Yamaha 50ccs out there used that'll be lower maintenance and make a great ride. Used Hondas are phenomenal - a used Metro or Ruckus (or Yamaha C3) has service intervals more like a car so you'll spend less time on oil changes and other routine maintenance.

That is unless you want to wrench it yourself...if you do, Puma has some nice looking 50cc bikes. Puma is made by Znen, and they're pretty much top of the line for Chinese scooter companies. You may not need to do much wrenching with a Puma, but I wouldn't buy one unless I was willing to do some wrenching.

Eric

[noreaster]

OK, I'm kind of a nerd but I think that actual mopeds are WAY cooler than 50cc scooters! That said, the are't as useful and since this is going to be your primary transportation, the storage and "weather protection" of a scooter is going to be important to you.

If I were you, I'd save up the other hundred buck os so that it would cost you to get a Kymco Agility 50.

Since this IS your primary vehicle, I wouldn't buy any thing used. Odds are you could get something nice BUT if you get a lemon, or even just one that needs some work, you can be way over budget and on your own without a warrantee.