the best chinese scooter?

[donny]

looking for suggestions of the best made Chinese scooter 49cc that are manufactured their.

[Dan Durston]

The hard thing with Chinese scooters is that most brands don't make their own scooters. A business man will start a scooter company and call it something like Whiz Scooters and then instead of building scooters, he'll order a big batch from an existing manufacturer that sells to lots of brands. He might pay a lot and get good quality scooters, but then the next year he may order from a different manufacturer and buy cheaper scooters that are terrible even though they look the same. It's really hard to trust a chinese scooter brand because they never actually make their own scooters. Even if they try really hard, they still don't really have complete control over what they get. There aren't actually very many scooter manufacturers in China. There are only a few and they just mass produces a ton of different scooters and put a wide range of brand names on them. For the exact same scooter, a scooter brand can opt to buy a good ones or pay less and get cheaper versions even though on the surface they look identical.

Actually to clairfy, there is about 2-4 companies in Japan that make all the motors (which are copies of Japanese designs for the most part) and then there is another 2 or so companies that make frames and body panels and then another 2-4 companies that do the assembly work. So a scooter brand basically chooses the cheapest motor they can get and matches that with a frame they like and body panels and then get another company to put it together. In China scooter brands really just sell the scooters....they don't make them. Two scooters that look very different might actually be the same scooters with different panels.

[kz1000st]

Tomos has a 49cc scooter made there (Nitro). Supposedly it's manufactured in a plant controlled by SYM. Your next bet would a 49cc Flyscooter. Leon Li insists on top quality from the Znen plant, always.

To clarify even further there are some companies that are just assemblers in China but the bulk of the engines are built in China. I know for a fact that Znen and Bashan build their engines in-house from parts they buy from outside sources. In Flyscooter's case they specify numerous Japanese pieces in their engines. Pistons, rings, cranks, seals and other bits. Other companies order Chinese substitutes, which can work just as well, but Leon wants that extra safety in his scoots. I've seen the inside of a GY6, "Made in China" stamped on numerous pieces.

[donny]

thanks i was hoping you would answer this. you have a lot of knowledge on Chinese scooters. the guy that started this question has not been on much but i hope he sees this.he is in china and wants info.

[kz1000st]

Thanks. I lifted this quote from their site.

ZNEN GROUP (Zhejiang Zhongneng Industry Group CO.,LTD.) is one of the largest manufactures of automobiles, motorcycles and motor scooters in China. Established in 1996, the Group has maintained rapidly sustained and stable development for 12 years.

Chongqing Astronautic Bashan Motorcycle Manufacturing Co. Ltd is mainly a manufacturer of motorcycles, which incorporates research, manufacturing and marketing of motorcycles, ATVs, engines and their parts. Located in Huaxi Industrial Park in Banan District, Chongqing, Bashan Company occupies an area of 100,000 square meters, capable of producing 100,000 ATVs, 600,000 motorcycles and 1,000,000 engines per year.

As I've said before the problem originally was quick buck artists bought scooters for here in the States with cheap components for big profits. Things have, for the most part, gotten much better. How they are in China, I don't know. They could be putting in "Lucas" electrics for the home market for all I know. Maybe you have to special order better parts.

The engines are Honda clones and should be up to abuse. We had a member in Scootdawg who put 26,000 miles on a 150cc in a little over a year before breaking the frame doing a canyon jump. He wouldn't weld it and junked it with a perfectly good running engine.

[ALHUSAIN]

Hi, I am glad to find someone here that might be able to answer some questions..
First of all, I am not familiar with the scooters world, but I am in need to get one soon to solve a transportation problem. I found this forum through my search for the manufacturer name I found on the scooter I found at a local dealer, I was not sure how reliable it is, so I started searching by the manufacturer name after I figured that the model numbers with the chinese scooters are useless, the name was

Zhejiang Lingyu Vehicle Industry Co., Ltd.

Can any body tell me if it is any good?
I went by myself and took some pictures

[donny]

Hi, our other member K1,000 research on that company is different levels of quality come out of that factory depending on money spent per scooter in quality of manufacturing and where they are being shipped. I guess the more you spend the better quality of scooter you will own. Maybe look for used scooter that has had any possible problems worked out and repaired It is expected here in Canada to have to fix new Chinese scooters of there poor manufacturing issues before reliable use.

[fototaker]

IF there's anyone in San Francisco who can do some simple work on a chinese bike, i'd happily welcome a call!! most if not all the motorcycle and scooter places in San Francisco refuse to work let alone LOOK on a chinese scooter. all i need done is to replace a bad flasher relay for the turn signals (which STILL do work just not flash by themselves) and after an hour charged me $100 for NOT fixing it (i even gave them the part). the other thing is to troubleshoot the odometer/speedo not working. after i hit a huge pothole in downtown SF a few months, it died soon after and i've looked as much as i can but nothing works. i can't do any complicated work as i have a serious lack of tools other than pliers etc. to give you an idea of my situation, when i took off the panels to access the odometer, i used a swiss army knife philips have had it since desert storm and love it! so, if thar's anyone in SF and very close to hilly North Beach, give me a holler and see if i can get both these problems fixed before anythang else happens! i have a chinese 2011 MEIDUO MD150T-4. thanks!!

[tiny]

what ya riding Phototaker?

[Busher]

Hi all...first time poster here as looking at getting a 49cc scooter for the kids...I live in a small town so limited options to buy stuff new or used...There is a dealer that sells new Saga's but Im hearing good and bad about them...There are some used scooters (Honda/Yamaha) with 2005-2009 vintage that are marginially cheaper, but they are used with 2-5,000 KMs on them...so im having some difficulty on getting a new chinese scooter or older more reliable name...thoughts anyone??? Thanks!!!

[tiny]

If ya got the choice go for the Honda or Yamaha better built and parts are really easy to find. Plus they last a really long tyme when maintained.

[Blowin Smoke]

In my opinion I would choose a used Honda over a new chinese scooter any day. I have both here at Casa Del' Scooto. I think it is a component quality issue that seperates to good from the bad. Sometimes you get lucky with a chinese scoot but,Japanese quality is consistant.

[tortoise]

KYMCO, SYM, Lance, Tomos, Genuine, Peirspeed, Znen

Tomos Nitro 150 . . Heeters . . review . . carb tuning . . road trip

[Busher]

Hi guys...thanks for all your comments...I went with the Tomos...was a very good price...had helmets thrown in and it only had 250km on it plus additional storage on the back...I live in a area with not much selection, so had to consider that unless i wanted to travel to find one..the only issue is that it is a bigger scooter than normal so I had to make sure my daughter was ok with it, so she test drove it...she loved it!

I did some research on them and found they are rated fairly well..it has been fun so far!

Im in the scooter world now! This was a great website to get info...Thanks!!

[tortoise]

went with the Tomos . . . did some research on them and found they are rated fairly well

Tomos Nitro 50 review.