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Post by Senna1Rossi on Feb 17, 2017 16:10:26 GMT -5
I hear that first thing you must do when you get a new Chinese scooter is to change all the oils and fluids... I hear
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Post by bluegoatwoods on Feb 17, 2017 19:23:53 GMT -5
Yup. We've now got it plated and all legal and we've been riding it around a bit more. I took it for a five mile cruise the other day and it felt like a perfectly good piece of machinery to me. Right from the start it grips the road better than my Kymco. I only recently got my Kymco to feel good underneath me by buying some good 4 season tires and getting them 'settled in'. The bike feels good now. But the Taotao feels just as good with the stock tires.
Then I had my wife take a ride while I followed and watched the Taotao from behind. It seemed to look and handle just fine.
Today my wife rode it to work. I saw her on the way in. She said everything felt just fine.
Nice bike.
And my new Icebear arrived today. I received it at work and brought it on home. I've got it mostly uncrated and was able to get a decent look at it before sundown. Good looking bike.
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Post by pinkflames420 on May 1, 2017 12:17:39 GMT -5
A brand new bike sounds fun. What are your guys costs for shipping? I can imagine them being the same cost as the bike. By the way, that oil DID look narsty.
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Post by bluegoatwoods on May 1, 2017 21:34:35 GMT -5
A brand new bike sounds fun. What are your guys costs for shipping? I can imagine them being the same cost as the bike. By the way, that oil DID look narsty. Shipping really isn't so bad. Looks like it's often about $250 within the lower 48 states.
Looking around I've seen a few shipping quotes in the $150 range. Plus there's a few 'free shipping' deals out there.
If I remember right this red Taotao was about $630 plus about $250 shipping. My total was just under $890. I remember that pretty clearly.
The Icebear that I bought after this one was $1069 and free shipping. That was a particularly good deal. I think that vendor was getting rid of old inventory that wasn't selling well. There was only two choices of color when I placed my order. Checking afterward there was only one choice of color. Then shortly after that, that particular listing went down, apparently for good.
There are some other vendors out there with the same bike or the same bike with very minor differences. And they seem to be in the $1200 range. But a few of them have a free shipping offer.
Oh, what the heck? Here's a pic of the Icebear.
This bike has now become my main scooter and the red Taotao has become my spare. It was originally meant for my wife. But it let her down a few times. So I gave her my black Kymco, with her blue Honda as spare. And maybe that makes better sense. She doesn't want to mess with fixing bikes. So we'll give her the 'name brands' and I'll take the Chinese scooters.
The trouble with the Taotao turned out to be that vacuum operated fuel petcock. You'll note that Brent warned us about those in the PDI videos. I've bypassed mine and there's no longer any fuel starvation. I've only put a few hundred miles on the Taotao so far. But with this problem out of the way, she really does seem to be a reliable bike.
But it's still early in the game because I only ride this bike, perhaps, 25% of the time or so. The rest of my riding time is on the silver Icebear. That is one sweet bike, I'm telling you. Beautiful, stable, comfortable. I could go on and on. But I won't take up a bunch of space with that. But to anyone who's considering one of these I'd say you're not likely to be sorry.
We've had a bad stretch of weather here lately. Yesterday my daughter and I took a short ride. Me on the Icebear and her on her Mom's Kymco, which she likes too. It was wetter and colder than we'd anticipated. Numb hands, people looking at us like we'd come from Mars, that sort of thing.
Then today I took a ride on the Icebear. The weather looked better. Until I stopped, considered what was coming up from the Southwest and decided that it still looked okay. Got about 5 miles from home and this nasty, cold rain with a 20 mph plus straight line wind came and got me. Oh, I froze. I had some moderately heavy and weather-proof clothes on. But not really enough. Brrr....
Plus I've been riding my bicycle to and from work lately. I need the exercise.
So I'm taking a long time here to say that I'm not riding these scoots quite as much as I ought to. And they're still pretty new. So it's a little early to give them my total seal of approval. Yet both the red Taotao and the silver Icebear are acting like good bikes. And the both feel good. So.....so far, so good.
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Post by ozo on May 21, 2017 11:46:12 GMT -5
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