Why a Chinese Scooter?

[birdman]

LOL. I would rather be held upside down from the Tsutenkaku tower!!!
LOL J/K I hate heights

[aeroxbud]

Aug 18, 2015 17:57:15 GMT -5 filip said:

Aug 18, 2015 9:57:26 GMT -5 iwiketuddlz said:

Thanks gt90!!!! Mine starts with an R...... So I guess I can't relate to China scoot as mine isn't!!!!! That's why it' seems to be made really well, certainly not cheap plastics anyway!!!

Lucky you

I think some of it comes to luck, as some manufacturers source parts from other manufacturers based on price so you can get better or worse quality parts on the scoots, even when they look the same.

I remember watching a keeway manufacturing vid, and they make most of the parts in house.

Like Brent pointed out a lot of people dont even know they ride a Chinese scooter. Zips have been made in China for a while now.
Even Triumph bonnevilles are made in Thailand now

[iwiketuddlz]

I only paid $350!for my scoot bone stock though... Nothing like what I have turned it into!!!' I liked the look of it when I seen it sitting at the back of this guys shop flat tires and all, gas tank full of water!! Lol I drained it right there and drove it home!!! Woot best $350 I have spent!!! I love my Taiwan scoot...!!!!

[taotaonow1]

I bought a Taotao ATM50-A because I could get it delivered to my door for under $750. I like tinkering with it and shopping for upgrades. I spend lots of time lurking here and absorbing all of this valuable information. I have found a few problems during my pdi. Nothing too surprising. I replaced the fuel and vacuum lines, went with a manual fuel petcock. Changed the fluids and valve stems I read where upgrades should be done one at a time so I haven't installed the new coil, iridium plug or cdi yet.
I tried to install a new carb yesterday. The new one was worse than the one that it came with. I took it apart to check the needle setting and see what jets were installed. The Jets didn't have any marking I could find so I decided to see how it ran with the new carb before trying different jets. When reassembling the carb I noticed that the bottom piece that covered the float didn't seem to fully seal by the accelerator pump but decided it was my imagination. Turned out It didn't fit right and leaked fuel when I tried to start it. I got lucky and was able to partially unseal the old carb so I could swap out the needle and adjust the low idle. It runs better but still has a slightly irradic idle. I'm waiting for a new carb before trying to unseal the float portion.
I'm shopping for a tachometer and reading everything I can find on variator weights...
If I was looking for a scooter I could ride without tinkering with it, I would have bought a Honda... but then for the money I could buy 3 Chinese scooters...

[90GTVert]

Welcome taotaonow1!

[FrankenMech]

Welcome taonow! It is always good to do one thing at a time but I would not worry too much as long as things are reversible. Install the plug and keep the coil and CDI as spares. Having parts to swap and play with is important. I have a highly customized carb.

I use a little trail tech TTO tach, -works perfect. It keeps track of my engine hours so I can pull maintenance every 100 hours.

[birdman]

There is one thing that baffles me about chinese scooters.. Or maybe I should say chinese scooter owners who are selling thier scooters... On my local CL i often find people with 1 to 2 year old chinese scooters and the asking price is usually just as, if not more high than what you can get a brand new one for. Someone recently sold a tao tao 150 for 1200 when a local dealer has a brand new one for 950 out the door... Whats the deal with this? Are thier similar trends in yalls areas?

[tsimi]

birdman

Maybe they replaced some of the bad parts like fuel lines, carb, variator, belt and therefore trying to get that invested money back by selling it a bit higher then a new one would cost?

[90GTVert]

Aug 20, 2015 1:16:58 GMT -5 birdman said:

There is one thing that baffles me about chinese scooters.. Or maybe I should say chinese scooter owners who are selling thier scooters... On my local CL i often find people with 1 to 2 year old chinese scooters and the asking price is usually just as, if not more high than what you can get a brand new one for. Someone recently sold a tao tao 150 for 1200 when a local dealer has a brand new one for 950 out the door... Whats the deal with this? Are thier similar trends in yalls areas?

I think that occurs with owners of everything. I see Rucks with a Chinese 150 and a paint job and they think someone wants to pay them sometimes $10,000 for it.

Sometimes with Chinese scoots I think pricing issues across sources can make craigslist ads seems ridiculous. For example : Someone may buy a scoot like my TaoTao ATM50 locally for $900-1000 at some places. Then they put a few miles on it and try to sell it for $700. I think it's ridiculous because I paid less than $700 new online, but they think it's reasonable because they're depreciating the value some.

[Fox]

It's the same all over. Los Angeles people are very optimistic with their pricing sometimes. If you watch them the prices usually drop over time when they don't sell fast but some guys stick to their price for months and months like this first guy.

It's a Sundiro Akita It's only redeeming qualities are that it's powered by a 1E40QMB engine,it has low miles and somehow the guy got it registered as a Moped which means no yearly registration fee but it's an old scooter with no under seat storage, a front drum brake so it doesn't stop well and the ignition looks as though it's been punched out. It's been up for sale for about 6 months at $900 and the guy isn't dropping the price.

losangeles.craigslist.org/wst/mcy/5143107278.html

Here's a used Lance Vintage 150 that's priced 3 times what it's worth. It's probably a 2008 model.

losangeles.craigslist.org/wst/mcy/5164543891.html

This one has a missing seat lock, duct tape holding the headlight on, broken brake lever which means it's been down at least once, holes in the muffler, broken/missing reflectors in the rear and a foggy speedo lens which means it sat out in the sun for a long time and he is asking $500 for something that's worth $200-$300 tops depending on how it runs.

losangeles.craigslist.org/lac/mcy/5174485914.html

Here's an identical one that's cleaner and doesn't have any of the issues the other one has but it's a 7 year old scooter with over 5000 on the odo. It's worth around $350-$450 but the guy is asking $975 and then he says no lower than $900

losangeles.craigslist.org/lac/mcy/5154587471.html

[Sitticuss]

Aug 20, 2015 1:16:58 GMT -5 birdman said:

There is one thing that baffles me about chinese scooters.. Or maybe I should say chinese scooter owners who are selling thier scooters... On my local CL i often find people with 1 to 2 year old chinese scooters and the asking price is usually just as, if not more high than what you can get a brand new one for. Someone recently sold a tao tao 150 for 1200 when a local dealer has a brand new one for 950 out the door... Whats the deal with this? Are thier similar trends in yalls areas?

Pretty much everyone does that. With most scooters/motorcycles.

[spaz12]

Aug 18, 2015 21:21:13 GMT -5 paulmohr said:

You don't see many used scooters in my area, especially higher end ones. If you do find one it is most likely a chinese model.

Another reason I didn't go the used route was I don't care how good the brand is, scooters are scooters. They are prone to problems at some point. I don't want to pay 600 to 1,000 dollars for what might be someones headache. To me its far more risky than buying a used a car. Now if you could pick one up for 100 or so that might be different. But like derbiman said I am not going to pay a grand or more for a used honda or yamaha when I can get a brand new chinese model for the same or less. The risk would be about the same, you might get a good one, you might get a pile of crap. At least with the new one if its junk you can return it in most cases. With the used one your stuck with it.

Another attractive point to a cheaper chinese scooter is that parts are pretty plentiful and cheap. If you are a decent mechanic you can get a new scooter plus everything you need to upgrade and tune it for less than a new honda would cost. Heck, you could a scooter and a spare engine cheaper than a new ruckus or zuma costs.

There is a BIG difference between Chinese and Japanese scooters. I've owned both and I had my own repair shop. I have the picture somewhere of my buddies speedo with 43 thousand miles, which was taken off the scoot a couple years ago. It's a daily driver so I imagine another ten thousand miles since. Belts... That's what it's broken. problem free scooter other than that. The only thing my scoots have broken other than belts was I had to replace a stator assembly once. 
They are far less risky than buying a car as well. There's no where near as many parts. Hell, changing the spark plugs (6) on my car costs me damn near a hundred bucks!
As for paying too much...





Here they are today.



I even bought a 2012 Zuma for 500 dollars. It's all about being patient. 

[spaz12]

Aug 19, 2015 2:27:44 GMT -5 tsimi said:

I personally would give my left nut for an Aerox 50 and both of my nuts for a Jog RR. God damn it spaz12 why did you post those super sexy Jog RR images the other day!

Haha, because I love them! I shall own one 

[bigmike]

I purchased a baccio vx50 anyone against those

[spaz12]

Aug 18, 2015 18:57:55 GMT -5 scooterpimp said:

Most small displacement scoots are made in China , yes the Japanese makes in the U.S. are mostly Cinese made. They too take advantage of cheap labor. May be built a bit better then a taotao. But still farmed out for the most part. I think even Vespa get thier small engines via China. So why pay for a name?

Actually, the Japanese brand scooters Honda and Yamaha are made in Taiwan. The few Asian parts that Vespa gets (cvt parts) that are not made in-house are from TGB, which is Taiwan. Taiwanese parts are worlds apart in quality compared to Chinese parts.