Scooter Advice Request

The Other PaulG

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Hi all.

A mate is after a modern scooter for commuting. He likes Vespa, as he has been maintaining a Vespa 50 for three years and he knows the parts are so crazily cheap.

His commute is now 10 miles on B and 50 limit A roads.

So..... please does anyone have any advice? Will a 125 be good enough or would it prove too slow - if so, what's the upgrade, 200cc? What speed could you expect from a 125 or 200?

As a biker of 38 years he asked me for advice but I know next to nothing about scooters.

Cheers,

Paul g
 
I have an ‘09 burgman 125 I used with my motorhome before I got the XT660X, even two up it would easily do 55-60 mph( assuming speedo is accurate) the larger type modern scooters have good storage and weather protection, economical and ideal for short commutes, only downside is they are a bit bulky if you are of short legs, my wife struggled with it, she’s 5ft 7.

Al.
 
Honda pcx125, loved mine, should never have sold it. Mega reliable, loads of fun, practical, and cheaper than walking.
 
Most 125 scooters will do the job well, lots of them about so should fine one at a good price, pcx is a great scoot just beware the servicing irc its every 4k.

3 types - knees together (Vespa etc) sit on (Tmax, xmax, etc.) and sit in (Burgman)
 
I purchased a 'big wheel' Honda SH125i in 2012 new, and recently sold it on this site. Brilliant commuter and perfectly capable of longer rides (I used to do a 100 mile round trip to the NEC on it to save getting my bike dirty/salty). Fantastic weather protection, sips fuel, honda quality and oil changes were a doddle. Nothing went wrong in my ownership (only about 12K miles), and I only sold as fancied a change.

Big wheel scooters look less cool, but ride our roads much better as can handle potholes and road imperfections slightly better than small wheel scooters. The handling surprised me as well as to how competent it was.

RBW.
 
I purchased a 'big wheel' Honda SH125i in 2012 new, and recently sold it on this site. Brilliant commuter and perfectly capable of longer rides (I used to do a 100 mile round trip to the NEC on it to save getting my bike dirty/salty). Fantastic weather protection, sips fuel, honda quality and oil changes were a doddle. Nothing went wrong in my ownership (only about 12K miles), and I only sold as fancied a change.

Big wheel scooters look less cool, but ride our roads much better as can handle potholes and road imperfections slightly better than small wheel scooters. The handling surprised me as well as to how competent it was.

RBW.

I would echo RBW comments above my lad had a 10 plate Vespa Lx125 injection, in fact I sold it on here. Around town the small wheels make turning and manoeuvring a dream. Once above 45/50 mph you feel the effect of small wheels as they track any surface imperfections. If your mate is on good A roads then a small wheeled scooter is fine.

If he wants a more large bike feel for handling on swooping curves as stated above the SH125 would be a better buy.

Re 125/200 , upto 50 mph a 125 will be fine, it will feel rapier fast compared to his 50:)
 
pcx125 had in between sized wheels if I remember correctly, so best of both worlds.. Also servicing was a matter of a very easy oil change and rinse the very simple oil filter.
 
Suzuki Address

Hi all.

A mate is after a modern scooter for commuting. He likes Vespa, as he has been maintaining a Vespa 50 for three years and he knows the parts are so crazily cheap.

His commute is now 10 miles on B and 50 limit A roads.

So..... please does anyone have any advice? Will a 125 be good enough or would it prove too slow - if so, what's the upgrade, 200cc? What speed could you expect from a 125 or 200?

As a biker of 38 years he asked me for advice but I know next to nothing about scooters.

Cheers,

Paul g

I have a Suzuki Address 110cc. £2000 brand new plus OTR charges of course. I use it for work 7 miles each. Does as it says on the tin:banana
 
I started with a Peugeot Vivacity 50cc for a two-mile commute to the station. Utterly reliable over many years with very little TLC from me.

I now commute around 20 miles each way, using the A12 so now have a Gilera VXR 180. It is easily quick enough for the A12 and small / nimble enough to filter when the traffic is bad. I would prefer bigger wheels for stability (as mentioned above).

In short, Peugeot make bullet-proof motors if he is looking for long-term reliability and they do bigger engined models for the longer commute. They are on a par with Honda for reliability.

Invest in decent security as scoots are very nickable (as referenced on many threads here).
 
Peugeot are the commuters’ steed of choice, if the motorbike bays of London are anything to go by.
 
Thanks again folks; I chatted with my mate at the weekend and he was really grateful for all this input (esp re the power and the wheel size).

It has been very useful. :beerjug:
 


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