Considering possibility of getting a scooter (preferably 50cc)

**Cats** · 18th September 2013, 00:22

Not sure if this is the right section or not for this thread, sorry if it isn't.

I have to travel between home and uni each day, and the public transport has just gotten too frustrating. Riding a bicycle is too annoying with the hills, as it takes me around 30 minutes to get home on and that's on a good day as I am not that fit. It is around 5 KM's long each way, and has a lot of hills (Quite deep into Karori -> Victoria University's Kelburn Campus)

I have considered the possibility of getting a scooter to do this journey. Perhaps occasionally going into the CBD to get something from the shops, in particular the Sunday vege markets, but probably not much more than that. If this part was unrealistic (the hill is steeper) that'd be fine. I wouldn't want to go any further than that, so would just be staying within Wellington City.

My budget is VERY tight (I'm a student!) and I'd ideally want to pay less than $1000 for the scooter. Not sure how realistic this is. I have never ridden a scooter before. This would be new to me.

What I wonder is if I can get away with a 50cc Scooter. I really wouldn't care if it was quite slow, if I was able to get from the uni to home in 20 minutes on it, that would be by far beating the public transport system! But my fear is that a 50cc scooter would simply stall on Wellington's hills. What kind of speeds would it have going up hills (For those that are familar with Wellington, would a 50cc scooter make it up The Terrace for example? How fast would it go?)

I actually don't have a car licence. I would actually not mind being able to just get the car licence and then I have that so that I can then get driving lessons when I can afford to do so, and the 6 month learners licence clock would have started ticking. So if I was to go for a 50cc scooter, then I could just have it on the car licence which would be convienent.

Oh, and I am a bit on the heavy side. I weigh 87 KG's, and could need to carry up to 10 KG's (groceries/ university books/ laptop).

In terms of cost (and a look on trademe), it seems that there are a lot more 50cc's under $1000 than there are 125cc's. The lack of needing to pay for the training cost and the test sitting costs of the motor cycle licence would save a lot. The fact that I need to apply for a car driver licence anyway would mean that it'd overlap in cost with that. So this makes the 50cc tempting. Please don't be hard on me for not wanting to spend much; I really can't afford very much.

**DanielM8** · 18th September 2013, 02:22

Originally Posted by Cats

Not sure if this is the right section or not for this thread, sorry if it isn't.

I have to travel between home and uni each day, and the public transport has just gotten too frustrating. Riding a bicycle is too annoying with the hills, as it takes me around 30 minutes to get home on and that's on a good day as I am not that fit. It is around 5 KM's long each way, and has a lot of hills (Quite deep into Karori -> Victoria University's Kelburn Campus)

I have considered the possibility of getting a scooter to do this journey. Perhaps occasionally going into the CBD to get something from the shops, in particular the Sunday vege markets, but probably not much more than that. If this part was unrealistic (the hill is steeper) that'd be fine. I wouldn't want to go any further than that, so would just be staying within Wellington City.

My budget is VERY tight (I'm a student!) and I'd ideally want to pay less than $1000 for the scooter. Not sure how realistic this is. I have never ridden a scooter before. This would be new to me.

What I wonder is if I can get away with a 50cc Scooter. I really wouldn't care if it was quite slow, if I was able to get from the uni to home in 20 minutes on it, that would be by far beating the public transport system! But my fear is that a 50cc scooter would simply stall on Wellington's hills. What kind of speeds would it have going up hills (For those that are familar with Wellington, would a 50cc scooter make it up The Terrace for example? How fast would it go?)

I actually don't have a car licence. I would actually not mind being able to just get the car licence and then I have that so that I can then get driving lessons when I can afford to do so, and the 6 month learners licence clock would have started ticking. So if I was to go for a 50cc scooter, then I could just have it on the car licence which would be convienent.

Oh, and I am a bit on the heavy side. I weigh 87 KG's, and could need to carry up to 10 KG's (groceries/ university books/ laptop).

In terms of cost (and a look on trademe), it seems that there are a lot more 50cc's under $1000 than there are 125cc's. The lack of needing to pay for the training cost and the test sitting costs of the motor cycle licence would save a lot. The fact that I need to apply for a car driver licence anyway would mean that it'd overlap in cost with that. So this makes the 50cc tempting. Please don't be hard on me for not wanting to spend much; I really can't afford very much.

The simple answer... Look on TradeMe for a 50cc 2 stroke you can afford. Might not have all that much speed but the torque of a 2 stroke will get you over those hills at a consistent speed and should carry the weight fine.

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**awa355** · 18th September 2013, 02:31

On the scooter charity ride from Wanganui to Taupo, there were about 40-50 50cc scooters. They all made it, and that included some steep climbs. Even averaging 40kph beats waiting at bus stops.

Any make from Taiwan or a reconized Japanese make, in good nick will do.

Obviously, the more money, the bigger engine, the better, but if $1000 is what you've got, then thats what you spend.

Ride using a bit of common sense, and you will be fine.

**Akzle** · 18th September 2013, 06:10

Originally Posted by Cats

Not sure if this is the right section or not for this thread, sorry if it isn't......

why in gods name would you call yourself cats?

No. A scooter would suck ass for that.
Hit the treadmill and loose some weight.
Bear in mind youre trusting your life to the machine. While there may genuinely be sub-kilo$ bikes worth having, most are probably shit.

**haydes55** · 18th September 2013, 13:26

Include in your budget a helmet, and some second hand waterproof gear (jacket with armour if you aren't as stupid as most scooter riders).

Before you go for a ride think "if I slid down the road at 50km/h in what I'm wearing, how sexy will I be?"

**willytheekid** · 18th September 2013, 13:44

Originally Posted by haydes55

Include in your budget a helmet, and some second hand waterproof gear (jacket with armour if you aren't as stupid as most scooter riders).

Before you go for a ride think "if I slid down the road at 50km/h in what I'm wearing, how sexy will I be?"

+1

Wot he said...Get some gear!

...We NEVER leave home without ours

...

hang on?

**turtleman** · 18th September 2013, 14:54

Also note that you can't ride a 125cc scooter on a car license, so unless you get a motorcycle license you are pretty much limited to 50cc.

**sgtp** · 18th September 2013, 16:08

if you are going to buy a cheap chinese scooter, make sure you atleast get a 2 stroke (copy of the yamaha jog minarelli/40qmb engine). With the 4 strokes you will need to adjust the valves periodically and do oil changes, whereas on 2 strokes you just need to top off the oil resevoir every 1000ks.

I dont know how the better brands are, but my chinese POS has needed lots of work in its 4 years to keep going. If I didnt do all the work myself, it would have been a rediculous money pit. Instead, its just been a pain in the ass from time to time, lol. Major probs have been electrical gremlins (replaced the regulator/rectifier 3x till I realized the cheapo replacements were DOA, the fix involved many MANY hrs spent with multi meter and eventually wiring in a r/r with a huge heatsink from an ATV). The other major pain in the ass was a seized piston due to a clogged oil injection port on the carb. That fix involved a 80cc piston/barrel upgrade (130 bucks on ebay) and some carb jets and several hours of my newb mechanic time. I doubt a shop would even want to do that for me. The current problem is that the autochoke doesnt work, i still trust the cheap crap replacement parts, so my plan is to create a shutter on the airbox intake (or just continue to put a finger over the intake to get it started when its cold)

Moral of the story is: be prepared to do mantenance and research a lot on keeping it running, and have ppl give you grief on spending so much time on keeping it going. My scoot has 14000kms so far and gets riden as far as makara and poriua, and does a 4 km commute during the wk.

**Ender EnZed** · 18th September 2013, 16:10

A 50cc scooter will be faster than walking and is the cheapest option. You'll occasionally get passed by cyclists downhill but Wellington is full of scooters and they don't seem to get in the way too much.