Modern Vespa

Ok so i know this is modern VESPA but im just curious about how reliable other scoot brands are...im just curious because i've been saving the past couple of months and wanna buy a sweet ride..so tell me a little about these scoots or if you've heard anything bad or great stuff about:

the buddy 125
the vino 125
Milan 150 (lance scooters)<---im actually interested in that badboy cause im a poor college student but i havent even heard of Lance until ive been browsing the net..


so yea those are the ones that i am interested in besides the infamous glorious Vespa

i would love your input

I do not recommend Lance, or any of the cheap-o Chinese brands. Heartache and headache there, just waiting for you... If you can only afford a Lance, do without.

Top shelf brands (you'll be happy with any of these):
Honda, Suzuki, Yamaha (Japanese)
Kymco, SYM, Genuine, TGB (Taiwanese)
Vespa/Aprilia/Piaggio (Italian)

Just O.K. Brands:
Daelim, Hyosung (Korean)

I wouldn't consider a scooter that is not on my list above. Important: Do not confuse TGB with the Chinese manufacturer TNG.

Don't forget to budget for adequate gear (armored jacket and gloves, helmet, etc.)

If money is tight, take a look at Piaggio's Fly 50 or 150 and Kymco's Agility and Super 8 series scooters -- manufactured in China to Piaggio's (or Kymco's) design and inspection standards.

Lance is okay as long as you have an actual local scooter dealer who'll service it. Don't ever buy one online. They're one of the better Chinese outfits (that is to say: mediocre instead of god-awful.)

But, for the same price, you could find something used, like a Vino 125 or Fly 150.

If you're interested in Lance, check out scootdawg.com They're the experts on Chinese scooters on the net. I was looking at the same scooter under the Qlink brand. I have a good dealer and was willing to take on the problems, but I felt the scooter was too large and unbalanced for me.

The general poop on Chinese scooters is that the designs are fine, but the construction is mediocre to horrible. The result is very wide variations in quality and often a very long first six months of riding with lots of little things causing issues and being fixed, causing issues and being fixed, until you finally have all the manufacturing defects solved. You either want to be someone who fixes everything yourself or you want a dedicated reliable dealer nearby. The other importance of a dealer is that they will be the ones giving the scoot the once over when its uncrated and assembled and with the Chinese ones, you really want the once twice and three times over. You also want all the fluids changed as the oil is... well it might be oil.

If I have the story right, Lance has recently shifted away from allowing people to sell their scooters via the net and has decent parts availability. They still have a lot of dealers who aren't really dedicated to scooters though, they were just looking to grab something and sell it to cash on on the scooter boom. So you really want to suss out whether or not the place will say "sorry we're not selling those too many problems" six months from now.

Since you're here on the Vespa board, you presumably like Vespa design. If that's the case and you need cheaper, I'd look at the Genuine Buddy and the Sym Fiddle II. You can find reviews of both at justgottascoot Personally, I love the Buddy, but the Sym is an almost exact LX clone. I think for the extra $800-1000 over a Lance, you'll be a lot happier in the long run.

Motorcycle.com has a review of one of the Qlink models; the 250.

http://www.motorcycle.com/manufacturer/2008-qlink-commuter-250-review-86743.html
You should check it out if you're interested in the brand.


Regards
Harvey

The most telling point about the video is the missing "K" on the rear Qlink badge from the bike on the video. If that isn't a reinforcement of Chinese quality construction, I don't know what is.

..thanks so much for the info guys =]

..and yea im totally into the vespa but my feet dont really touch the ground=[

The Buddy scoots are better for the short legged, so you might find that an appealing option. Vinos are also not tall bikes. Sorry to hear you can't make the Vespa work! But those are good options. Also, some piaggio brand scoots have a lower seat height by a bit than the Vespas, so you could potentially still make the Piaggio engine/legacy thing happen for yourself.

+1

Check out Craigslist A LOT and get a used one. Good used ones go fast here, but you can save a lot of money and sometimes get a pristine scoot.