I give up

[paulmohr]

Well guys, I think I give up. This scooter thing must not be meant for me. For those of you that haven't followed my posts I got a new scooter a few weeks ago, a brand new Roketa (zuma clone). It ran ok for a few days then it broke down on me and I had push it home. Wouldn't run right after that. I called the shop and worked out a deal with them to bring me a new scooter of lesser value but with some work done to it. BBK, clutch springs new weights that kind of stuff. They bring my second scooter and while its a bit cheaper and chintzier than the first one its quick. Much better than the first one, very fun to ride.

Well it would have been fun ride if after 34 miles it wouldn't have &*^*&ing died on me!!!!! I hit a rough patch of road and it just died going over the bumps. I figured I knocked something loose, no biggy. So I sit at the side of the road taking it apart and looking for something loose or askew. No luck, everything looks fine. I tried to start it again after it sat for a while and it did start after cranking the crap out of it. I thought "thank god, I am pretty far from home.". Ya, well it made it about 4 feet and frickin' died again. I tried all kinds of stuff to get it running and eventually ran the battery dead messing with it. And the kick start basically does nothing, it barely turns the engine over. If cranking it for 3 minutes isn't going to to do it that puny little kick starter is useless.

I try pushing it for while, end up having an asthma attack. Someone has to stop and take me to the hospital. Asthma attack turns into what is basically a nervous breakdown (I suffer from anxiety and depression problems). So guess who gets to the spend the night at the hospital. They released me to my moms care today, but I had to promise not to off myself.

So at this point I am done. They can have this piece of shit back and give my mom her money back. There is no making things right at this point. This was supposed to be my birthday present and something to help with my stress. LOL that worked out great. I don't think I will ever trust a scooter to go farther than my driveway from now on. If I want a motorcycle I will just buy a motorcycle and get the damn stamp again. Quite honestly, for what we have into the scooter I would rather have a new target bow. I would rather have a gun, but they have this weird thing with not wanting crazy people to own them? go figure huh.

For what we spent on the scooter and the time and headaches it gave me I could have bought a used car and fixed it up lol. Maybe  a nice little miata or something.

I MIGHT consider a Honda Grom, but they look pretty slow for what they are. I am not sure I want to pay insurance for something that only does like 50mph. Other options would be a honda 250 rebel, honda 300cbr or a 300 ninja. What I would really like is an old 250 ninja or a suziki savage with the 650 single bore. Those fit my size perfect.

I will let you guys know what the shop says, they were supposed to call today but they didn't.

[scooterpimp]

Wow , i hate to hear of your bad luck with scooters. China scoots can be a little challenged in the reliability department , but imo. Is seems like your dealer has to step up thier quality on thier PDI department. As the old saying goes.. if it has t_ts or wheels its going to give ya problems.

[katastroff]

Float in your carb must be stuck. Bang the bowl with the big end of a screw driver.

[scooterpimp]

Remind the dealer a happy scooter owner tells his friends about them , but a very unhappy scooter owner will tell everone ! If you get my drift. Hope it works out.

[90GTVert]

Darn. I thought this one would be a good one since it would get some attention before leaving the dealer.

[birdman]

dont give up on scooters. Just give up on that dealer!! Dont let one bad business ruin what could be a world of fun of modifying, tuning, and learning scooters!

[tsimi]

...I hit a rough patch of road...

Hmm, this doesn't sound good. Scooters are not motocross bikes or dirt bikes. Scooters are more meant to be driven on flat roads or at least they should be. Driving a Ninja or other street bike over rough terain might end up in a similar situation or worse.

That said, did you check the carb as mentioned already? Having a scooter with performance parts on it will require maintenance from time to time.
Trouble happening so fast is of course not great at all but it most likely was the bumpy road otherwise it would be still running.

[backtrackbug]

Really sorry to hear about all your scooter problems. Nothing worse then being excited about finally getting something you really wanted and it turns into disappointment! Feel bad for ya man.
If you decide to go with a street bike, my first was a Honda Shadow 500. Its a great bike for beginners. Its got power but yet its mellow, its not going to do a wheelie if you crack the throttle a little too quick and etc. And mine never gave me any problems. I was young and really didnt perform maintenance as regular as I should of and that thing just lived forever! And the seat is pretty low, so if youre short, although the bike looks beefy, its perfect for someone small. And it has a over drive gear thats great for highway cruising and good on gas. And they can easily be customized to look like a bad ass bobber like in the pic.(and lots of different styles if you like)

[paulmohr]

I don't know what is wrong with it, and I don't care what is wrong with it at this point. For that kind of money I shouldn't have to be doing maintenance on scooter that is less than 3 days old. I did try tapping the carb though, that was one of the first things I did. I used to own a muscle car with a holley, so I know about stuck floats lol.

And if this thing can't handle hitting a bump or two in the road I really don't want it. I live in Michigan, not every road is going to freshly paved. Hell, half them are not even paved lol.

I did consider just getting a better one from a local motorcycle store, they sell honda's right down the road from me. But after riding this one everything is going to be painfully slow I think and I don't want to bother with modding a brand new scooter that cost over 2 grand.

I used to own a harley sportster 883 hugger. I won it in a contest. I only kept it or a year though and sold it. It was just too big and heavy for someone that is 5'3" and 140lbs. Not to mention I wasn't that impressed with it. For a 900cc it was pretty junky and slow. Upside is they have great resale value and I got almost 5 grand for it. That was years ago though.

The honda grom does look like an interesting prospect, or a 250 rebel maybe. But I will have to see what insurance would be. If is too much I might as well just get a car. I am not going to pay 400 bucks a year insurance for a 125cc motorcycle that only does 50 mile an hour and I can only ride less than half the year because of weather. I could get a pretty decent small used car for 3 grand. But I really don't need a car because I pretty much drive my mom everywhere she goes and can just drive her new mazda if I want.

This was supposed to be a fun little toy for my birthday in exchange for helping her out and fixing up her house. And it ended up being a nightmare.

Sorry to be so down for you guys, I know you love your scooters. But I am just depressed and stressed over the whole thing at this point.I don't even know for sure if they will take it back, they haven't called back yet. They might just come fix it and I will be stuck with it. But I just don't know if I will ever trust it again. Maybe I should have just gotten a little go kart and rode it around the yard?

Maybe I will just hop up the zero turn mower, that thing is a blast to drive.

[90GTVert]

They can handle bumps usually. I'm pushing weight limits for these things and some of the roads here suck and I take it down dirt roads that can get washboard like. I did a PDI on my $675 shipped scoot and it took 2 years and 4000 miles or so for it to finally break down the first time and leave me stranded (for something other than a flat tire that I can't blame on the scooter).

I like my scooters a lot, but I can't recommend you to stick with these "cheap" Chinese scoots. I think for what you want you'd be better off going to a big bike or buying a Japanese or European scooter. Just have to know what exactly you want. Since you don't want to mod a new scooter, there's no need to keep buying 49ccs if you want to go faster than 35MPH or so reliably. For 50MPH cruising you'd want a 125-150cc scoot. If you plan to go on the highway, then you'll want 250cc minimum, or possibly some of the new 150s from big manufactures that claim 65-70MPH stock. Whatever the case may be, Chinese scoots really aren't for people not willing to take a little bit of a chance or that will give up on it after the first breakdown. This is the cost of the low price. They really are for people that like to tinker with them and won't be upset if they have to do some repairs, even on the first day they own it. I know that sounds unreasonable, but a lot of us are buying scoots like you currently have for $6-700 new and on our doorsteps. Compare that to the cost of any other scooter, car, truck, cycle, etc... you buy new and you have to realize they make a lot of compromises to get them out at that price and still make a good profit.

[niz76]

  Yah we do love our scoots! Sorry to hear about your bad experience- like mentioned they aren't for everyone! I have posted this vid b4 but I thought it'd be worth another post! If you're thinking about a grom this might just hook ya! Let us know if u get one! This vid alone makes me want one! (These r modified btw).

[Fox]

Strange. You aren't the first to say they hit a bump and the engine died. My first instinct says it's an electrical issue. Either way I totally understand your disillusionment with scooters with what you have had to deal with the last month or so.

My Chinese JMStar 4T 50cc never left me stranded once. I jumped it off curbs, went on rough dirt trails, hit plenty of potholes and laid it down at least twice and it never stopped running. Only time I had to push it was because I ran out of gas once right after I got it due to an inaccurate fuel gauge.

[richh963]

hey Paul. maybe it will be something simple a loose connection or the battery is just dead. could be an easy fix. I'm starting to understand these bikes, you need to replace some of the parts, getting better quality after market parts, instead of original parts that just get the bike off the showroom floors and onto the streets for a short period. I know that I will in the next month add and start replacing some items on my bike. and hopefully with new parts it will become a more reliable scooter. Keep a positive approach, and don't let it get you down. least you do have a car to drive if needed. all I have is my scooter and electric bike. and I live 6 miles from where any public transportation starts. and thank goodness for these boards and guys Like Fox and 90gtvert who are willing to give advice to help. 90gtvert has some great you tube videos on how to fix and repair.

[paulmohr]

I looked for everything simple while I had it apart on the side of the road. Everything in the electrical system worked, no blown fuses and it was getting spark, Battery was good until ran it dead messing with it. And like I said, it did get it start once, but it bogged down and died again real quick. I got it home and buttoned everything back up. I am not going to touch it for fear of them saying I messed with it.

I took my frustrations out on my lawn today. I went and mowed the lawn and carved "Suck IT campus scooter" in the front lawn. So they have something to look at when they come over.


No, I didn't really do that, but I sure wanted to lol.

Oh, and not to mention, while I was looking it over trying to see if I could get it started I noticed just about every nut and bolt on this thing was loose. The left grip where the brake is is loose, you can twist it like the throttle. The nuts on the throttle cable both at the bars and at the carb were backed all the way and just hanging. All the nuts under the seat were loose. The little inside rear fender is rubbing on the tire still. I should just be glad a wheel didn't fall off lol.

I mean I could see if this thing was a month old and I was out banging around on country dirt roads. But it was 3 days old with 34 miles on it. And most of those miles were me testing it out in church parking lot.

[Deleted]

Aug 16, 2015 11:32:16 GMT -5 niz76 said:

  Yah we do love our scoots! Sorry to hear about your bad experience- like mentioned they aren't for everyone! I have posted this vid b4 but I thought it'd be worth another post! If you're thinking about a grom this might just hook ya! Let us know if u get one! This vid alone makes me want one! (These r modified btw).

Holy crap!  What kind of scooters are those?  Yes, I realize they are modded but they sounded like 4 strokers to me.
I worked on my scoot most of the day but now I can see I have a long way to go, ha ha.

Bill