125cc scooters

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jamiebae

Original Poster:

6,245 posts

210 months

Thursday 2nd March 2017
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Just in case anyone is interested I thought I'd update this post.

I put my son to work cleaning it



Back in August I did my 'praktische grundschulung' which is two blocks of four hours on the bike with a little bit of theory thrown in. This gives me an A1 license without actually having to do a proper test at all. The first part was done on a lovely sunny day at the local driving test centre and consisted of low speed manoeuvring and some cornering stuff which was quite good fun. The second part was in the evening, on a rainy day, and held in a town 500m above where everyone lived. I'm convinced this was done for a laugh by the instructor who wanted to see how long it took a couple of 16 year olds on 50cc 'sports bikes' to ride up a mountain... Anyway, after taking my certificate to the 'strassenverkehrsamt' (the Swiss do like long words) I got a new photocard in the post and binned the L plate.



I then bought some of those oven gloves to go over the bars, and a fitted blanket thing and proceeded to commute on it until the temperature dropped below zero. I wouldn't recommend scootering in the snow though, it's slightly hairy and visibility is rather limited!



As for the bike itself, about £5 of petrol takes me circa 200km, I've changed the oil once (easy job) and it's now approaching 10k km on the clock. It's happy enough on the motorway and will hold 110 kph without a problem. A friend has an LML Star (Indian Vespa) which will manage 90 kph at a push so it's interesting to see the difference between 125cc scooters - I'd have thought they'd all be pretty similar.

So, in summary I'm pretty happy - the bike has been trouble free, ultra cheap to run and surprisingly good fun to ride smile

Mr2Mike

20,143 posts

254 months

Friday 3rd March 2017
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jamiebae said:
So, in summary I'm pretty happy - the bike has been trouble free, ultra cheap to run and surprisingly good fun to ride smile
Not tempted to go for something bigger now? evil

mudster

784 posts

243 months

Friday 3rd March 2017
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jamiebae said:
So, in summary I'm pretty happy - the bike has been trouble free, ultra cheap to run and surprisingly good fun to ride smile
I bought a PCX125 for commuting and I'm really tempted to add to the collection with a bigger scooter for longer distances (instead of taking the car). Find them really relaxing and enjoyable to ride.

jamiebae

Original Poster:

6,245 posts

210 months

Friday 3rd March 2017
quotequote all
Mr2Mike said:
jamiebae said:
So, in summary I'm pretty happy - the bike has been trouble free, ultra cheap to run and surprisingly good fun to ride smile
Not tempted to go for something bigger now? evil
Possibly, but it's not cheap to do the test over here and would require me buying a bigger bike which is less useful than the scooter for commuting on in the interim. Still tempted, but not tempted enough yet...

jamiebae

Original Poster:

6,245 posts

210 months

Friday 3rd March 2017
quotequote all
Insurance renewal just arrived, 70CHF - £56 at today's exchange rate, add in 40CHF for a Vignette so I can drive on the motorway and 38CHF for the annual tax and it's cheap motoring.

jamiebae

Original Poster:

6,245 posts

210 months

Thursday 13th April 2017
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Who was it who said even scooters can be a gateway drug...




MotorsportTom

3,318 posts

160 months

Thursday 13th April 2017
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Always loved the look of the TDR's!

In fact there is a TDR 250 in my watch list on ebay right now hehe

Looks very clean, any write up on it?

jamiebae

Original Poster:

6,245 posts

210 months

Friday 14th April 2017
quotequote all
MotorsportTom said:
Always loved the look of the TDR's!

In fact there is a TDR 250 in my watch list on ebay right now hehe

Looks very clean, any write up on it?
It's a 125, I wanted a Varadero but couldn't find one close/cheap enough then spotted this with a couple of bad photos on a classifieds site about 15 minutes away.

It was bought new in 2002 by someone who commuted on it for 15 years, racking in about 16k KM in the process. As he lived in a village at about 3,000 ft altitude I guess it wasn't used all year round! It was then used by someone to learn to ride before swapping to a bigger bike.

The only visible damage are some scratches from boots rubbing on the frame, other than that it's in great condition with recent Dunlop tyres at both ends.

Accidental wheelies are quite easy, I need to work on my clutch control! It feels more stable, but a bit less nimble than my scooter and the engine is mad - it feels like you're doing 170 but you look at the speedo and if shows 85kph hehe

jamiebae

Original Poster:

6,245 posts

210 months

Saturday 29th April 2017
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Well that escalated quickly...






mudster

784 posts

243 months

Saturday 29th April 2017
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Need to change the thread title!

Hope you enjoy it. smile

Mr2Mike

20,143 posts

254 months

Saturday 29th April 2017
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I thought that might happen smile

jamiebae

Original Poster:

6,245 posts

210 months

Sunday 30th April 2017
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I'll pick it up next week, back to L plates, then another 6 hour course before I can take the test. It actually seems easier to do the test here than in the UK so I thought I may as well get it done.

I wanted a Monster 620 but they're all limited to 25KW, too expensive and not at all practical. The TDM was cheap, with a fresh test and is powerful enough to do my test on (has to be 600cc and 40kw plus) then I can see what I want to do next.

The contrast between a scooter and a bike is quite marked and I could see myself with another scooter soonish for popping to the shops and commuting. Doing the full test opens up a few more options, but I'll keep my eyes open for a cheap 125cc in the interim.

Thanks for all the help and advice, it's all your fault...!

jamiebae

Original Poster:

6,245 posts

210 months

Wednesday 24th May 2017
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Time for another update, I've bought another scooter...





A 2008 Kymco People, bought because it had a recent test and cost pennies (circa £250).

I missed the scooter, the TDM is great but not much fun riding round the city, especially on a hot day. It's also too big to park in a lot of smaller bike bays and a bit inconvenient for popping down to the pool so much to the dismay of my wife I'm back up to two powered bikes in addition to my three pedal ones.

It felt really strange to ride at first, so much lighter than the TDM, but the 16" wheels mean it rides far more soothly than the old Cygnus X did, it's just a shame my open face lid doesn't fit under the seat so I might need to grab a cheap top box for it.

KTF

9,788 posts

149 months

Wednesday 24th May 2017
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jamiebae said:
Time for another update, I've bought another scooter...



I had one of those as a rental on a greek island a few years ago. No problem at all going up the hills 2 up and loaded with shopping smile

It was like new when we rented it but a few days after we off-hired it it was outside the rental place with a scuff all down one side where someone had clearly had an off on it frown

jamiebae

Original Poster:

6,245 posts

210 months

Wednesday 24th May 2017
quotequote all
KTF said:
I had one of those as a rental on a greek island a few years ago. No problem at all going up the hills 2 up and loaded with shopping smile

It was like new when we rented it but a few days after we off-hired it it was outside the rental place with a scuff all down one side where someone had clearly had an off on it frown
I've just ridden it home, definitely a lot slower than the Cygnus was but it has done 38k KM against the 10k on the Yam when I sold it. The lack of a screen and any kind of wind protection is really noticeable too but as it's already mid 20s here it'll do for the summer and I'll get some bits for it in September/October if it's still running by then. There's way too much free play on the throttle so I need to take a look at that soon but otherwise it seems to run fairly well.

For some reason it has a winter tyre on the front and a summer on the back but that'll do for low-speed town work, I assume it needed a tyre for the test and the winter was lying around in the shop. It had a new front disc and pads too so hopefully won't need anything other than an oil change.