Buy A Scooter

[eltigre]

hi there

I m thinking to buy a moped, I basically need a scooter to go to the market and pick up my girlfriend nothing too taxi, honda click or yamaha mio can be an option,

have anyone tried them or have any advice,

and buy a new one is better than an used one? I cannot really say if a second hand thai mooped is in good condition or not

safety first

[bingo2]

Buy a yamaha in my opinion there better than the honda's in automatics.Also buy new the difference is only about 10,000bt.

[dave_boo]

Definitely buy new! Price differential as bingo2 said is not that great, and unless you absolutely can't afford to drop the extra dosh on a new scooter, be warned that the costs over the long run could be greater given the Thai propensity for running them until they're finished.

[Richard-BKK]

hi there

I m thinking to buy a moped, I basically need a scooter to go to the market and pick up my girlfriend nothing too taxi, honda click or yamaha mio can be an option,

have anyone tried them or have any advice,

and buy a new one is better than an used one? I cannot really say if a second hand thai mooped is in good condition or not

safety first

I have to say that I have seen most of the Thai smaller engined motorcycles around, and I will never buy a full automatic again. First they have a really bad fuel economics, doesn't matter which brand.

[ozsamurai]

Can give a huge thumbs up to the Honda AirBlade, there is a post recently on the bike and all the details. Have one, love it!!

[jackcorbett]

Can give a huge thumbs up to the Honda AirBlade, there is a post recently on the bike and all the details. Have one, love it!!

Read all the posts here, particularly those on the Yamaha Nouvo which also discusses Air Blade and other bikes, manual and auto. No need to start a new thread. Your questions will be answered in those other threads.

[jaideeguy]

Wife loves her little fino, but I wouldn't want to be seen on it in public. great concept for the ladies as you can change colors and add many options.

[eltigre]

thanks mate for the advise, really appreciate it

[RealityCheck]

Before you buy, try riding on the back as pillion passenger first.

Some, like the Mio, are incredibly uncomfortable.

This is a mistake that I made - we often ride 2-up on the Mio and it's agony for anything over 20Km's.

Auto v. Manual is a personal choice.

Personally, I feel the Auto for darting to the market is great.

For longer distances, I'd prefer a manual.

[Richard-BKK]

Semi-automatic like the Honda Wave 125i is twice as much more powerful then the automatics and you save huge on fuel. The Honda Wave 125i is my best buy advice. You never look back and say wrong deal....never

[lost_in_space]

If you can, try one out before you buy it. If I had ridden my first bike before I bought it, I'd have not. Unfortunately, dealers aren't really enthusiastic about about giving test drives.

[jackcorbett]

Semi-automatic like the Honda Wave 125i is twice as much more powerful then the automatics and you save huge on fuel. The Honda Wave 125i is my best buy advice. You never look back and say wrong deal....never

Let's see. The 115 cc. Nouvo is rated at 8.9 horsepower. It is likely the new 135 cc. Nouvo produces 20 % more power. Let's all it 11 horsepower or so. This means the Wave produces around 21 horsepower if it produces twice the power of the Nouvo. I also want to mention as I have so often here that when you ru a Nouvo side by side with a Honda Wave the Nouvo will often outperform the Wave.

As far as fuel savings, I'd put the Wave on top. One main reason for this is the Wave is often loafing due to its often running so low in the power band. The Nouvo's got the acceleration on tap as in right now and I suspect one reason for this it's running higher up in the rpm range in normal driving.

Several more things to consider it the Wave has a much skinnier less comfortable seat than the Nouvo. The Wave lacks the storage space that the Nouvo has (and the Airblade as well). So the Wave must employ a basket over the front of the machine which is right over the front tire whereas the Nouvo has its storage space underneath the seat which is an almost perfectly central location on the bike. The Honda Wave has substantially skinnier tires than the Nouvo which makes it less road worthy.

Consider now the handling of sports cars. The Porshe 911 with its rear engine has often been considered one of the finest sports cars in the world. A very accomplished driver can push one to its limits and accomplish wonders. However, this same car has killed a lot of drivers because less experienced drivers when they push this fine car to anywhere near its limits finds that the rear engine which gives the Porshe a one sided weight distribution tends to do all kinds of wicked unforeseen things that cause the driver to completely lose control of the car. Along comes Mazda which produces the Miata. From the very start Mazda engineers studied the Porche and other sports car designs and concluded that the best sports car design for someone who's driving skills falls short of a skilled race car driver is one that has a perfect 50-50 weight distribution. And so came into being the Mazda Miata. Through the years this fine design has undergone steady improvement which includes vastly improved power, more creature comforts, but it still has a perfect 50-50 weight distribution.

The same thing is true with motorbikes employing front baskets where a substantial amount of weight is put right over the front tire. Bottom line is the Nouvo is a far superior design to the Wave and so is the Airblade. It's got far superior handling, it's far more comfortable due to its far superior seat design and its got a superior tire design which makes it more stable at greater speeds. As far as fuel economy if the Wave has better fuel economy I'm sure that most of us here can afford to pay for the difference. It's not like we are all having to pay for the high fuel prices for a four wheel drive pickup truck. And here in Pattaya the Nouvo is going to be easier to accelerate fast than a Honda Wave.

[dave_boo]

Semi-automatic like the Honda Wave 125i is twice as much more powerful then the automatics and you save huge on fuel. The Honda Wave 125i is my best buy advice. You never look back and say wrong deal....never

Let's see. The 115 cc. Nouvo is rated at 8.9 horsepower. It is likely the new 135 cc. Nouvo produces 20 % more power. Let's all it 11 horsepower or so. This means the Wave produces around 21 horsepower if it produces twice the power of the Nouvo. I also want to mention as I have so often here that when you ru a Nouvo side by side with a Honda Wave the Nouvo will often outperform the Wave.

I'm not sure exactly what RichardBKK was talking about, but I read it as the fact that clutchless manuals deliver twice the power to the ground. Usually manual transmissions are rated at some 10% drive line loss compared to the best automatic transmission with a lock up torque convertor getting some 15-20% loss. Now I haven't checked, but these auto motorcycles don't have a lock up TC in them do they? I'd image their loss to be even greater, I'd probably even wager it to be 25% or so. Thus, the old Nouvo would deliver some 6.7 Hp to the ground. While I doubt that the Wave-i is delivering 15 BHP (what it would need assuming a 10% transmission loss to have double the HP of the Nouvo), assuming it has the same BHP, you're looking at an increase of 1.3 Hp over the Nouvo. Quite a big gain all in all...if not RichardBKK's original claim. Of course this is just a speculative excercise unless someone wants to bench their Nouvo both at the rear wheel and the crankshaft.

As far as fuel savings, I'd put the Wave on top. One main reason for this is the Wave is often loafing due to its often running so low in the power band. The Nouvo's got the acceleration on tap as in right now and I suspect one reason for this it's running higher up in the rpm range in normal driving.

Driving my wife's Wave-i, I've always been impressed with the acceleration it had; as long as you kept it revved up. Of course than it wasn't a pleasant cruising machine and I have my CBR-150R for the times I feel like wringing a little engines neck.

Several more things to consider it the Wave has a much skinnier less comfortable seat than the Nouvo. The Wave lacks the storage space that the Nouvo has (and the Airblade as well). So the Wave must employ a basket over the front of the machine which is right over the front tire whereas the Nouvo has its storage space underneath the seat which is an almost perfectly central location on the bike. The Honda Wave has substantially skinnier tires than the Nouvo which makes it less road worthy.

I am agreeing with most all of what you're saying, but I'd want to state that the Wave-i's seat is pretty darn comfortable for hours and hours of rides. I can't comment on it in relation to the others since I haven't ridden them, but I doubt that its seat could be much improved on. Perhaps since the one my wife has is the 'top of the line' Wave that's the reason the seat is so plush? What storeage space is the Wave lacking? There's an underseat space that can swallow up a non-full faced dave_boo sized helmet (size 6 5/8). Once again, don't know about the others, but that's pretty darn big in my book. I agree with the skinnier tires, however, those taller wheels will offer better ride when you get on a pot-holed street.

Consider now the handling of sports cars. The Porshe 911 with its rear engine has often been considered one of the finest sports cars in the world. A very accomplished driver can push one to its limits and accomplish wonders. However, this same car has killed a lot of drivers because less experienced drivers when they push this fine car to anywhere near its limits finds that the rear engine which gives the Porshe a one sided weight distribution tends to do all kinds of wicked unforeseen things that cause the driver to completely lose control of the car. Along comes Mazda which produces the Miata. From the very start Mazda engineers studied the Porche and other sports car designs and concluded that the best sports car design for someone who's driving skills falls short of a skilled race car driver is one that has a perfect 50-50 weight distribution. And so came into being the Mazda Miata. Through the years this fine design has undergone steady improvement which includes vastly improved power, more creature comforts, but it still has a perfect 50-50 weight distribution.

The same thing is true with motorbikes employing front baskets where a substantial amount of weight is put right over the front tire. Bottom line is the Nouvo is a far superior design to the Wave and so is the Airblade. It's got far superior handling, it's far more comfortable due to its far superior seat design and its got a superior tire design which makes it more stable at greater speeds. As far as fuel economy if the Wave has better fuel economy I'm sure that most of us here can afford to pay for the difference. It's not like we are all having to pay for the high fuel prices for a four wheel drive pickup truck. And here in Pattaya the Nouvo is going to be easier to accelerate fast than a Honda Wave.

To each their own! I really think you posted all that about the Porsche/Miata to no avail since when you do have the basket loaded down you're not going to be driving like a mad man since you're not going to want to break your eggs or spill your tom sum! And I'd hope the Nouvo is a better design than the Wave--when did the Wave first come out compared to the Nouvo?

[Phil Conners]

All that theory about torque and BHP to the ground. I have had a Honda AB for about a year and in that time I have never been overtaken in accelleration by a Wave. Generally when we start off of a traffic light the Waves fall behind every time they have to change gear while the AB just keeps going on. The AB loses on top speed though, on my meter around 86 km/h tops.

Edited May 18, 2008 by Phil Conners

[LivinLOS]

All that theory about torque and BHP to the ground. I have had a Honda AB for about a year and in that time I have never been overtaken in accelleration by a Wave. Generally when we start off of a traffic light the Waves fall behind every time they have to change gear while the AB just keeps going on. The AB loses on top speed though, on my meter around 86 km/h tops.

v about 120 on a flat out wave !!

The gear changes on a wave take split seconds unless your a real klutz and the added ability to engine break and apply power without all that 'lurch' as the auto drive train kicks in the power mid bend makes the wave far more able in real world use.

But we are talking about scooters here people.. Lets not get carried away.

[Phil Conners]

No hill in Pattaya are big enough to require engine breaking (besides the AB's brakes are really very good!). Don't know what you mean by "lurch", one of the thing about the new twist-and-go's are that you twist the handle and they go. No "lurch" whatever that is.

Yes I know we talk scooters, but we're arguing about the functionality of the automatics here...

PS. I've had a couple of Waves in the past, none 'i' but all 125's and none of mine could do faster than about 110 on top on the best conditions.

Edited May 18, 2008 by Phil Conners

[Richard-BKK]

A lot of things happening in the Scooter world, the first question is will Suzuki introduce the Suzuki Sixteen 150 in Thailand, if that happens all other scooters are doomed to prehistoric technology. The Suzuki Sixteen 150 is able to deliver performance normally seen in road bikes, also the fuel consumption level he Suzuki Sixteen 150 take the grown of all scooters in Thailand. (even the Honda AirBlalde 110cc)

More info Suzuki Sixteen 150

Edited May 18, 2008 by Richard-BKK

[LivinLOS]

No hill in Pattaya are big enough to require engine breaking (besides the AB's brakes are really very good!).

Engine braking to slow down for corners..

You do have corners in Pattaya ??

Don't know what you mean by "lurch", one of the thing about the new twist-and-go's are that you twist the handle and they go. No "lurch" whatever that is.

The lurch is the transition of power applied for the free wheeling (no engine braking) deceleration phase to the power being back on..

Yes I know we talk scooters, but we're arguing about the functionality of the automatics here...

PS. I've had a couple of Waves in the past, none 'i' but all 125's and none of mine could do faster than about 110 on top on the best conditions.

I can approach (and indicated) 120 on a couple of different waves.. I can clearly pass that on a Kwaker cheer but I think when it had a new piston he put a larger bore barrel on.. All of them are very shaky at those speeds but between 80 something and 120 your talking 50% more.

If I lived in town and didnt ride out of it much I probably wouldnt dislike the autos as much.. But I ride all over a hilly island regularly and ride a bigger bike most of the time.. Getting my 105k+kg ass plus the missus on an auto and trying to get over hills as it chokes and I cant manually change down, well they are just weak.

[moo9]

All that theory about torque and BHP to the ground. I have had a Honda AB for about a year and in that time I have never been overtaken in accelleration by a Wave. Generally when we start off of a traffic light the Waves fall behind every time they have to change gear while the AB just keeps going on. The AB loses on top speed though, on my meter around 86 km/h tops.

Same same here. The Airblade is great (except for fuel economy, but that"s same for all automatics).

For my purpose (in city riding, dense traffic, changing lanes quickly, suddenly crossing pedestrians and cars / motorcycles there is really no other choice than automatic. As much as I liked my CBR, the Airblade is much better in town!

Rgds

Moo9

Edited May 19, 2008 by moo9

[jackcorbett]

All that theory about torque and BHP to the ground. I have had a Honda AB for about a year and in that time I have never been overtaken in accelleration by a Wave. Generally when we start off of a traffic light the Waves fall behind every time they have to change gear while the AB just keeps going on. The AB loses on top speed though, on my meter around 86 km/h tops.

Same same here. The Airblade is great (except for fuel economy, but that"s same for all automatics).

For my purpose (in city riding, dense traffic, changing lanes quickly, suddenly crossing pedestrians and cars / motorcycles there is really no other choice than automatic. As much as I liked my CBR, the Airblade is much better in town!

Rgds

Moo9

This Swede living in my condo has 900 cc. Honda. He can go fast and he can brake going downhill. But now he has trouble walking. Yep, I encountered him at Pattaya Bangkok just two weeks ago. Didn't even hit anything. Just fell down in the rain. I suppose he used the power of the engine to negotiate the waves.

As they often say, a fool and his bike are often parted.

[MaiChai]

If you dont' know what you want, then buy what everyone buys! That would be a Wave 100 Handy to have the basket at the front, well built, cheap, economical, can be fixed anywhere. I am weary of these modern autos; full of plastic and not much steel, not to mention poor fuel economy.

By the way I read the standard Wave 125 does 30 km/litre while the fuel injection one does 33 km/litre. Thus is the extra cost worth 3km/litre more?

[Uros]

No hill in Pattaya are big enough to require engine breaking (besides the AB's brakes are really very good!).

Engine braking to slow down for corners..

You do have corners in Pattaya ??

Don't know what you mean by "lurch", one of the thing about the new twist-and-go's are that you twist the handle and they go. No "lurch" whatever that is.

The lurch is the transition of power applied for the free wheeling (no engine braking) deceleration phase to the power being back on..

Yes I know we talk scooters, but we're arguing about the functionality of the automatics here...

PS. I've had a couple of Waves in the past, none 'i' but all 125's and none of mine could do faster than about 110 on top on the best conditions.

I can approach (and indicated) 120 on a couple of different waves.. I can clearly pass that on a Kwaker cheer but I think when it had a new piston he put a larger bore barrel on.. All of them are very shaky at those speeds but between 80 something and 120 your talking 50% more.

If I lived in town and didnt ride out of it much I probably wouldnt dislike the autos as much.. But I ride all over a hilly island regularly and ride a bigger bike most of the time.. Getting my 105k+kg ass plus the missus on an auto and trying to get over hills as it chokes and I cant manually change down, well they are just weak.

Another thing about the automatics, when riding through floodwaters, they're the ones that get stuck and you need to get your feet wetter and push them to the side. The semi-automatic scooter just keeps on scooting through.

Edited May 20, 2008 by Uros

[gpdjohn]

When you want and need a dependable mode of transport,

When the need to feel cool is there,

When onlookers can only wish..

There is only one..

[DaoDao]

Sorry little off topic maybe but hope someone can advice me!!

Anyone knows a good dealer close to Koh Chang??

What to pay for a reasonable semi autom. bike?

Thnx