Scooters make a lot of sense for commuting

• Cost – If you want to buy a car you’ll likely be facing a large initial expensive unless you’re buying an  old used prospect that is probably not in the best condition. Scooters can be bought for very little outlay and even less if you want to buy a second hand. With brand new scooters available from at little as £500 you may find it easier to afford than you think.
• Fuel – We all know that fuel prices are increasing every week, and there’s a high chance that it’ll continue to rise in the future, with rising oil prices and fuel tax showing no sign of retreat. On average, a normal car would probably get around 35 miles per gallon while a scooter could easily get 3 or 4 times that which is obviously a huge difference, especially if you travel on a daily basis. Steve Kenward, CEO of the Motorcycle Industry Association, said: “Rising parking charge and high fuel costs point to two wheel motor vehicles as an obvious solution for those seeking sustainable personal transport, with some new scooters and mopeds doing up to 146mpg.”
• Traffic – Nobody likes sitting in traffic at any time, particularly during rush hour. If you live in a city or a large town you’ll know exactly what we are talking about here. In a car you’d have no choice but to sit there and wait, but if you had a scooter you’d be able to skip most of the traffic and get to wherever you’re going to a lot quicker. Avoiding gridlock becomes a breeze and far less stressful than wasting time behind the wheel.
• Easier to drive – It might sound a little bit strange, but if you don’t know how to drive yet but you need to travel then you really should think about learning how to drive a scooter. There’s not a lot to learn really since it’s quite simple, after you practice a bit you’ll know just about everything there is to know about driving any type of scooter!
• Age – You can drive a scooter at age 16 with a CBT up to a 50cc engine size, which means you have the freedom a whole year before your car driving friends and with current car insurance prices, at a lot cheaper rate. Getting to and from a part time job also becomes a lot easier, and theres no need to rely on friends or family for lifts.
• Insurance/Tax – Since the engine sizes on scooters are very small, the cost of insurance and tax is much cheaper than if you were to insure/tax a car for obvious reasons.
• Parking – Parking is something that nearly every person dreads, especially when you’re just starting out driving. As you probably expect though, parking a scooter is extremely easy so you won’t have to worry about parking too much, even if it’s in a really tight spot!

With prices so low, theres a scooter for every taste, whether you want something with a bit more poke like a 125cc engine, a nippy and cheap 50cc bike or even an electric scooter for those doing only a few miles a week. So you can see there are plenty of reasons why using a scooter for commuting makes a lot of sense.
 

Click here to check out the used Vespa scooters available on eBay

With scooters capable of getting around 300 miles to £15 of petrol they can seem very attractive for those car drivers paying 4 to 5 times that amount yet getting the same mileage.

Parking is of course easier with a scooter, and navigating traffic in a busy city can be easier and quicker due to their smaller size and ability to bypass traffic. Parking charges are often free for scooters, especially electric powered ones as the Government attempts to encourage us to ditch motors powered by fossil fuels. With bus lanes now being opened up to scooter traffic, beating the traffic is now even easier, making commutes much less stressful and hassle free.

In an age of austerity and ongoing job losses and cuts, everyone is looking to cut back on living and travel costs. Ditching your expensive car, with its repayments, fuel costs, insurance, tax and MOT can seem very attractive when compared with how much you save running a scooter. A 50cc sports scooter is usually the best way to save money, as their running costs are tiny compared to larger engines bikes. Of course those seeking a bike with a bit more ‘oomph’ are better looking at 125cc scooters but as with any larger motor, fuel consumption is higher, yet still pitifully tiny even when compared to the most fuel efficient cars.

Of course they are not for everyone; Large families would struggle, but for a lot of us who simply commute to work by ourselves the majority of the time, the savings are very worthwhile.

To ride a moped, all you need to do is pass a one day CBT test. This stands for Compulsory Basic Training, and teaches you the basics and te need to protect yourself on the road. Defensive driving has become a critical element taught to new scooter riders – and how not to rely on other road users to never make mistakes.

• Weight – The first thing that you need to find out about is how much weight a particular electric scooter can handle. Although electric scooters are improving all the time, unfortunately they aren’t quite as advanced as petrol scooters so you need to find out how much weight an electric scooter can handle. Obviously the more weight that’s on the electric scooter the slower it will go, so try to get a powerful one if you can. As well as this, it’s always a good idea to get an electric scooter that can deal with a bit more weight than the person is that’s on the scooter since you might want to bring some things with you while you’re on the scooter and so on.
• Use – Another important factor that will help you choose the right scooter for you is getting one which suits your own needs. Firstly you need to decide what you’ll be using the electric scooter for. For example, will you be going long distances/short distances, using it during the day only or day as well as the night. If you’re planning on using it at night we’d recommend that you get one that has lights built in so that you can still be safe while driving your electric scooter in the dark. Bear in mind lights add extra drain on the battery which is not present in the daytime, and so will reduce the range the battery can provide. You also need to decide how far you’ll be taking it – If you’re going to be using it for reasonably long distances we’d advise you to not buy a small or light electric scooter since it might not be able to work properly if you’ll be on bumpy surfaces from time to time.
• Battery Life – The battery life from one electric scooter to another will more than likely be a lot different so it’s a good idea if you know how much battery life that you’ll need in order to travel to wherever you want on your electric scooter. To some people one hour might be plenty of battery while to someone else two hours mightn’t be anywhere near enough for what they need to use it for. So before you hand over your hard earned money make sure that you find out how long the battery life is on the electric scooter.
  That’s just three things that you need to consider when looking for your perfect electric scooter. Remember to take your time when you’re thinking about your purchase, and make sure that you get the right scooter that you’ve always wanted.

There are many kinds of tyre, and all can be found in both offline and online stores – although it’s more likely these days you will find it online. Because of the huge range of 50cc scooters that are available, you will come across many kinds tyres for different sized wheels. This can be confusing. When you combine the two; scooter and tyre, you’ll find selection is really a difficult job. Even so, there are some fundamental things you should know before deciding which scooter tyre to buy.

New vs Old Tyres:
It really is essential that you avoid ‘part worn’ tyres at all costs. Yes, they’re cheaper, but when it comes to safety and longevity, you can’t beat a good old brand new tye. The problem with part worn tyres is that as time passes and the tyre is not being used, the rubber on the tyre stiffens. This can potentially cause cracks in the rubber in harsh weather conditions which obviously affects your grip – and ultimately your saftey. Brand new tyres offer you a sure guarantee that the tyre has been well tested and is ready for sale and use. Safety vs cost; for me, it’s safety first every time.

What Kind of Ride:
There are even tyres that have been ‘designed’ for specific uses. For example, a couple of the tyres available from one well-known online scooter tyre website have been ‘specifically created for smooth rides’ and another pair ‘best suited to harder surfaced streets’. No I don’t know if this is some kind of manufacturer’s ploy to get us all to buy several sets of tyres for different weather conditions but the reality is you do not need more than 1 set of scooter tyres and all they need to be is good quality – that means from a well respected manufacturer or a tyre that has been publically tested. This may sound trivial, but it is important to look into these kinds of claims prior to committing to premium prices.

Scooter Type:
This sounds like an exceptionally obvious thing to consider but you would be surprised at how many times we get sent emails by website users who claim that they were missold tyres. When it comes down to it, the fact is that they have actually bought the wrong kind of tyre for their particular scooter. It’s very rare, because most people understand what they’re doing when they purchase a 50cc scooters tyre but it does happen. All I can advise here is to just double check your tyre sizes before you place your order. To get the correct tyre size either speak to your scooter manufacturer (or visit their website) or go and actually have a look at the tyre. On the rim, there should be some measurements. These sizes vary according to the sort of scooter you have so you should always double check.

Weight and Power:
An additional essential component to think about is the weight and power of the scooter. With 50cc scooters, this is not so much of a problem, as unless you de-restrict your scooter and severely tune it up, you’re not really going to be throwing out enough power to burn through tyres. The same comment applies to 125cc scooters too. If you’re only buying a smaller engine 125cc or less, then you don’t need to really worry about the power load a tyre can take but if you’re considering a more powerful option, you should be sure to check your manufacturers’ guides with the tyre specs. For example, some bikes are heavier so it is necessary to choose thicker tyres to balance the load.

General Considerations:
Unlike cars, scooters call for two entirely different kinds of tyres for the rear and front. The front and rear tyres of a scooter have distinct functions to perform. The front tyres perform the functions of stability, quick riding, turning the handles, stopping and so on. The rear tyres concentrate on the weight from the bikes together with the driver, the energy of acceleration and also the leaning angles.

Because of these functions you’ll find the tread design differs for the front rear tyres. This is normal. When you choose a tyre, select tyres with groves inside the center to ensure that they offer exceptional grip. The groves improve handling and reduce skids on wet surfaces.

And finally, make sure you keep your scooter tyres fully blown up at all times. This not only helps improve overall scooter performance but helps to reduce the amount of energy (and therefore fuel) required to move.

If you’ve recently bought a brand new Chinese scooter you are soon going to realise the necessity for a decent
insurance policy. Chinese scooters by design are deemed an urban form of transport and are widely utilised for commuting; they’re an appealing and economical choice of transport specifically in these times of rising oil costs and petrol prices that seem to rise daily. Chinese scooters have been developed from the outset using the commuter in mind, providing a more comfortable option to the classic motorcycle. The scooter has smaller wheels and a footplate nicely positioned to allow the rider to sit with his or her feet facing forward and not requiring the rider to completely straddle the seat such as when using a conventional motorcycle. This design makes this type of scooter ideal for city commutes as well as those fashion conscious amongst us.

Chinese scooters have changed little in style since their early development days when the style incorporated most of the capabilities we can see and associate with the modern day scooter. Chinese Scooter Insurance as with all other forms of automotive insurance are a legal requirement and could potentially be rather expensive depending on the previous history, age and experience of the rider along with other elements, for instance previous claims history, and geographic location. If an location has a greater than usual rate of claims, accidents or crime then this can impact the cost of your insurance cover.

If you’re now searching for chinese scooter insurance it truly is worth comparing insurance costs on-line as a variety of motorcycle and insurance comparison internet sites have now sprung up on the internet, providing you, the consumer the opportunity to compare policies in one place. Its also worth bearing in mind that most insurers are always on the look out for new custom and as such are sometimes willing to give appealing policies and premium prices for new buyers. So even if you have been with the identical insurer for sometime and have an active no claims bonus built up, it can still be worth your while to take some time out to compare rival insurance companies. The aim with insurance would be to balance cost of premium with peace of mind, this you’ll want to be able to do without having first getting a policy by checking out forums and discussions online from other chinese scooter owners and their insurance experiences. Obtaining scooter insurance may seem a chore and not one most of us will go into with a smile on our faces, but life has been made somewhat easier with the explosion of online insurance offers. Further savings can also be produced by buying a policy directly online where some motorcycle insurers will offer you generous discounts as mcuh as 10% for a policy bought online. If you’rr searching for chinese scooter insurance and you’re keen to obtain the cheapest chinese scooter insurance, visit Quality Scooters and check out the Scooter Insurance section.

Top 10 Scooter Tyres

• 125cc Scooter Tyres
• 50cc Scooter Tyres
• Retro Scooter Tyres

All kinds could be discovered in offline and online stores. As you will locate many kinds of scooters, every bike uses many kinds of it. Together with your a great deal, picking the correct selection is really a difficult job. Even so, you are going to uncover some crucial issues to think about prior to buying it.

New tires: It really is really vital that you choose scooter tyres that are manufactured lately as tires usually stiffen with the passing of time even when it is unused. Fresh tyres offer you high end rate in comparison towards the other tyres.

Sort of ride: A couple of of the tyres are particularly created for smooth rides whereas some for harder streets. It is significant to analyse the kind of ride ahead of purchasing tyres.

Bikes: Its vary according to the sort of bikes. Unique bikes have a variety of kinds of tyres so it ought to be selected accordingly.

Weight and energy: An additional essential step to think about even though selecting tyres range from the weight and energy from the bikes. Some bikes weigh heavier so it is necessary to choose thicker and far more effective tyres to balance the load.

scooter tyres for the rear and also the front ought to be selected based on different facets. Unlike cars, scooters call for two entirely many kinds of tyres for rear and front. Both front and also the rear tyres have distinct functions to do. The leading tyres perform the functions of stability, quick riding, turning the handles, stopping and so on. The trunk tyres concentrate on the weight from the bikes together with the driver, the energy of acceleration and also the leaning angles.

The sorts of the scooter tyres are one more vital step to consider prior to acquiring it. Despite the fact that you’ll locate numerous designs obtainable within the marketplaces at this time, it truly is necessary to fully grasp the designs before picking it for the rear and front tyres.

The tread design differs for the front and also the rear tyres. The leading tyres should make sure stability, improved stopping performance and dry and wet grip. So you ought to select tyres with groves inside the center to ensure that it offers exceptional grip and rarely skids on wet streets. The environment pressure from the tyres ought to be maintained effectively to make sure sturdiness from the tyres.

The majority of the drivers would rather use challenging tyres for the reason that it lasts longer and provides greater mileage in comparison towards the soft tyres. Today getting a hundred diverse kinds of scooter tyres obtainable in most of the retail and wholesale stores, it really is very straightforward to come across the best tyres that fit your bike.

The Pulse Adrenaline is possibly one of the most successful 125cc learner legal sport motocross motorbikes to ever be delivered in the United kingdom. The main model from Pulse is a tremendous performance sport cross offering that drives, handles and performs as good as many of it’s rival products in the comparable motor class. It has developed an unequivocal dent in the UK’s insatiable need for learner legal (‘L’ Plates) performance motorcross motorcycles for the road with it’s massive level of popularity. It’s a popularity that hasn’t been earned empty neither merely because the pulse adrenaline is one of the very few chinese motorcycle imports that genuinely delivers. Powering the specially-designed vinyls and streamlined framework is a fantastically constructed air coolled 125cc engine with a maximum torque of 14.5Nm @ 7000 rpm.

Nevertheless performance is not lonely in this terrific value street bike. Design is also a factor with spoked twin wall wheels utlising substantial supermoto tyres with exceptional surface area to supply all the potency and hold you could possibly need. A copyrighted tough-wearing sport suspension is made up of a rear mono-shock with flexible damper and upside-down forks to ensure optimal comfort when riding – on any kind of terrain. Combine easy 5 gear transmission, hydraulic leading and back disk brakes and attractive body work into the blend and the Adrenaline is one of the most desirable of its kind. This isn’t merely our viewpoint either, MCN, the top motor bike information and evaluation website in the Uk gave it a excellent review and a 4 out of 5-star rating.

“Most of us had more fun on the A47 from Peterborough to Leicester than you might ever have on a Hayabusa” – MCN

“Take a step back in time and whisk yourself to work on a retro scooter with bags of style…”

But before you can do that, you first need to buy one and before you do that, you need to know what’s out there and at what price. We’ve taken some time out to have a look at some of the best quality 50cc retro scooters and 125cc retro scooters currently on the market. Now we have to point out here that when we use the phrase retro scooter, we are referring to brand new retro-styled scooters, not actual genuine classic scooters or vintage scooters. The remit of this buying guide is to pick out the best value scooters and give you an overview of each model whilst making you aware of any pitfalls we’ve found with either the scooter or the company selling the scooter.

Retro Scooters

Your first problem is going to be to decide how much power you need. In scooter terms, this means what engine size you’re looking for or in more layman terms, how fast do you want to be able to go? We’re looking only at 50cc and 125cc options for this review. A 50cc scooter typically has a top speed of 30mph. In the UK, you are legally allowed to ride a 50cc scooter by obtaining your CBT certificate and riding with ‘L’ plates. The same rule applies to 125cc scooters and for more information on the legalities of riding 50cc and 125cc scooters have a look here. 125cc scooters typicaly have a top speed of around 50mph. For most people, zipping around town is what they’re looking for from a scooter and we’ve found that 125cc scooters offer both performance and speed more than enough to accomplish this task for you. The price, of course, is in the pudding as it were and a 125cc will normally set you back an extra few hundred pound on initial purchase and a few extra quid a week on petrol.

Cost, Cash and Congestion

If we take a closer look at costs on each engine size and then work out costs over a year, it should help you get a picture in your mind of what would suit you best. A 50cc retro scooter’s average fuel consumption is approximately 110 miles to the gallon, or 2.8L for every 100km (.61 gallons for every 62 miles). Now most of the 50cc retro scooters that we’re going to look at in this guide have a maximum fuel capacity of 3.8L. This means you can fill up the tank for just £3.50 and get about 80 miles out of it!

A 125cc retro scooter, on the other hand, has an average max speed of 50mph. Of the 125cc retro scooters that we’ll be looking at, the average fuel consumption is approximately 3L per 100km, which works out at approximately .66 galons for 62 miles of travel. Baring in mind a 125cc fuel tank can take up to 4.8L of fuel, you’d be looking at paying around £6 per full fuel tank with an average miles per gallon of just under 100 miles to the gallon.

So costwise, the cost isn’t that much different in terms of fuel and for the sake of the £1.50 worth of fuel (probably twice a week, so an extra £3 per week), the extra performance will be well worth it.

Congestion Charges for Scooters

On top of the fuel costs you have the consideration for traffic congestion charges. Now in London, both 50cc and 125cc scooters will avoid the London congestion charge, which could save you even more money over your average car.

Insurance costs for 50cc retro scooters vs 125cc retro scooters

Obviously insurance is more difficult to calculate because insurance prices differ with each individual application based on your personal circumstances. For the purposes of our guide however, we’ll take an average 18 year old’s situation as our base. This would include no driving experience and a recently obtained CBT licence. We’ll also base our prices on the industry’s cheapest retro scooter insurer, MCE Insurance, whom we have found to provide the best quotes across the scooter industry.

– Edit, we had to remove our quote examples because each application is so different and our examples weren’t relevant enough for 80% of our visitors. Instead, we’ve decided to generalise it and can say with confidence that you will save some money on a 50cc compared to a 125cc scooter and expect this to be 10% of the purchase price of the scooter per year. MCE Insurance are still our insurer of choice, beating pretty much all other insurers that we tried.

Retro Scooters Compared

Below you will see 4 of the top retro scooter buys currently online. We’ve included 2 50cc retro scooters and 2 125cc retro scooters for comparison. We’ve bolded our star buy, which is the Traditional 50cc Retro Scooter based on price/performance – not looks! Although looks are a consideration, we’ve left that to your own tastes (women seem to luuurrvvveeee the pink retro scooter, you see, and it’s not quite to my taste )

Statistics, wise, there’s not much between them, but given the extra power in the 125cc scooters, we’d recommend considering those as a first choice. 50cc scooters are great for getting through CBT tests or as first bikes, but when it comes to true city scootering, you can’t beat the 125cc retro scooters that are currently available.

Conclusion

In our opinion, there are two great value buys online at the moment; both form the same company actually, and both well worth the small price you’ll need to part with to own them. We’d go with 125cc scooters purely because the power offered by them is enough to get you about without feeling ‘flat’ and because the slightly higher insurance costs and running costs (amounting to about 10%) are worth the extra kick. With this in mind, our two top choices would be the 125cc Tommy Scooter for just £799 and the 125cc Retro Scooter for just £749. Both scooters have the option of next day delivery for certain areas so you could actually order online today and be riding your scooter tomorrow. A great service in our view. Don’t forget to get an insurance quote for any bike you like and make sure you give MCE Insurance a try, you’ll not be dissapointed

Other Helpful Resources:

• Find out how you can obtain your CBT
• Learn about the legal requirements to ride a 50cc or 125cc scooter in the UK
• If you don’t want to buy new, have a look at some cheap 2nd hand retro scooters
• Get a retro scooter insurance quote

We’ve looked at several scooter products suitable for the daily commute, as we assume that if you’re looking for a 50cc engine you’re either a new rider or a short rider – and that’s short as in the amount of distance required to travel from a to b during each commute, not your physical stature!

If you are a regular reader of our reviews then you’ll know we like to compare at least 4 variations on each model. In this case, we’ll be looking at two ‘retro’ scooters and two ‘modern’ scooters. All scooters will be brand new and available to buy for next day delivery in the UK.

As the theme of this review is on conserving things, we’ll be paying special attention to how much you can ‘save’ with each model in terms of fuel, time, money and even carbon footprints. At the end of it all, we’ll even save you time on choosing which one to buy and give you our recommendation.

50cc Scooters : August 2010

When it comes down to it, most of us won’t ever be able to choose function over style, so no matter what recommendation we have now, you’ll probably choose the scooter that you prefer the look of anyway. For those of you that want to put emotion aside and choose a scooter based on the real, cold hard facts and figures, you can’t beat the X, whose fuel economy slightly outstrips the others with the added advantage of being excellent value for money too, coming at nearly Y cheaper than the X and Z. If the facts weren’t enough to convince you alone, then we’ve also considered delivery time and delivery costs and at the very least, the X is comparable to the other models and if you can get your order in before stock sells out, you could have your hands on this as early as tomorrow. A hearty recommendation.

Related Resources:

• De-Restrict 50cc Scooters

South Africa is the native home of Jonway Scooters whose new 2010 models have impressed the UK market almost as much as the hospitality of the South Africans at the World Cup. The scooters being used to run about the cities of the host nation are both 50cc and 125cc and continue to be one of the most economical methods of petrol-powered personal transport available.

Back here in the UK, we are seeing a growing number of 125cc models on the roads which is continuing to drive down prices and now UK commuters can buy a brand new scooter for as little as £499. The £499 sports scooter is available in a flurry of colours and available with next day delivery too.

It was the Chinese who took this technology and obtained a patent on the engine. In essence, the 125cc version is a suped up Honda CT110. Wisdom here that uses the same engine and the motor casing barrel sawed it to fit 54 mm piston stroke, and expand.

125cc engines are now stable and reliable, but the first release on the markets were a nightmare.

When the first 125cc engine was released, there were some common problems:

• Clutches were not strong enough to handle the extra power, it is 125 cc.
• Overheated engine. Use the Pistons are just garden variety. Aluminium stress at high temperatures, bending, and burn circles. It would melt in the tube and plunger. Woe That’s not good.
• Inner seal the sprocket and clutch covers to burst and leak gear oil, because the pressure release valve would be jammed between frame and engine assembly engine does not allow to escape the pressure.
• The internal engine piston rings as important, bearings to get out of cheap raw materials, resulting in poor quality products.

Best 125 cc engine and the most reliable on the market when the fan motor. Zongshen comes close second, then Du cars. Incarceration is the best 125cc racing engine built for the 125cc class, but it is much more expensive.

About 50 years later 125 cc engines are now very reliable, and 99.5% of all the problems are ironed out. For a selection of the leading 125cc scooters with quality, reliable engines, visit our 125cc scooters garage.