To buy... or not to buy...

[tabyk]

So, with the thought that spring/summer is here and I really don't want to pay $3 a gallon to feed my Jeep (which gets a whopping 15MPG) I have once again started looking at scooters and motorcycles. Stumbled across this one and kind of liked it. However, it's going to cost around $6000 new to buy, and I am still uncertain of selling my Jeep and

Comments

[catwho]

Don't make Lothar's mistake.

He bought a little Omni 6000 gas scooter for $1250 MAIL ORDER. He figured it would be OK because it has a Suzuki engine, even though the chassis was made in china.

That friggin' bike has given him more problems than his car ever has!

Here's my recommendation:

1. Get a bike you can test drive. If this means forking over extra cash at a dealership, so be it.

2. Make sure you have some means of getting it to a repair shop if it breaks down. (He insists on sticking it in MY trunk which kills the suspension on my car, considering it was like 300 lbs.)

3. As for that, make sure you have some place capable of repairing it within a reasonable driving distance. The only bike shop in Athens is a good half hour away.

4. Do not buy cheap chinese ripoffs to save some cash.

5. Be aware that not everyone is enthused about riding on a scooter (I refuse to touch the thing since I don't trust it), and in some places you will have to get a motorcycle permit . . . the laws vary by state, but they usually depend upon a maximum allowed speed.

[tabyk]

1. There is a Honda Motorcycle dealership near where I work, and I have already confirmed that they have one on the lot that I can test-drive.

2. I have friends/parents with a flatbed truck. No worries.

3. See answer #1. *smile*

4. Been there, done that, have already been burned.

5. Still trying to figure that one out. They are advertising it as a scooter, which doesn't require a motorcycle license here (Oregon), but in the DMV manual they describe a scooter as having an engine 50cc in size or smaller, and the one I'm looking at has a 249cc engine. Still doing research.

[catwho]

Lothar's scooter is a 50 cc, for comparison.

You really don't need anything higher if you just want something to get from point A to point B within a city. It doesn't go faster than 40 mph but that's all we need in our little mid-sized town. For long distance driving involving highway travel, you'd want to have your car anyway.

[tabyk]

I'm mostly thinking of using it to drive to work and back (they changed my hours so I can't take the bus any longer), plus tool around town to visit local friends. My fear of the smaller 50cc model is that I am a big guy (260lbs), and in the 5+ miles to get from home to work or back, I have to go up some fairly steep hills. Big buy + steep hill + 40mph cruising speed = 15-20mph going up that hill in a 40mph zone... I have bad dreams about that.