Advice On Buying A Motor Bike..

[rafferty]

I am thinking of buying a new motor bike, a honda click or one of those scoopys..

or .. any advice gratefully recieved.. and where on the island of phuket gives you the best deal..

cheers

james

Edited September 10, 2011 by rafferty

[Kf6vci]

To be honest, I'm no fan of automatics (scooters). But the step-through Honda Dreams and Honda Waves are amazingly good and have bullet proof engines. Their clutch-less half-automatic gear box is something you will get used to within days. Fuel economy is better too and steep hills will not pose any problems...

Chris

[craigt3365]

Let's try this in the Bikes in Thailand Forum.

[lovelomsak]

To be honest, I'm no fan of automatics (scooters). But the step-through Honda Dreams and Honda Waves are amazingly good and have bullet proof engines. Their clutch-less half-automatic gear box is something you will get used to within days. Fuel economy is better too and steep hills will not pose any problems...

Chris

I agree with you 100%. The woman who cleans my house has 2 automatic motorcycles in her family . She wants to get rid of them and buy honda waves. She says the gas is to expensive. I for one wouldnot enjoy going down a steep hill in an automatic depending only on my brakes. My advice to the poster is buy a honda wave, pay cash ask for discount and shop till you find a shop that will discount.

[guzzi850m2]

I am a great fan of the small auto bikes, they just run and run. My wifes little Yamaha Fino have now done 12k km in app. 2 years and never given any problems, benzine or gasohol 91, it just runs.

Honda is a good bet, they are all fuel injected nowadays, which means that they are very economical on fuel. The fuel injection means that more electronic are involved but I haven't head any reports that it been giving trouble.

I am planning to buy a Honda PCX for myself later this year, expensive but very comfortable for larger persons.

[Atmos]

my earlier post cut from thread Yamaha Fino 21,000km and going strong

have not done many kms since that post 2mths ago, more time on the bicycle, but odo now reads 22,600, average dropping to just 200km per week

Not recommending them over any other bike, we've got a 125 Sonic on the farm (gears) it may be faster but I find it's bloody uncomfortable for anything over 25-30km, less pillion-friendly and useless for carrying extra items, that 'floorspace' on the Fino/Scoopy etc is very handy.

Shop around, ride a few different makes/models, all down to individual preference.

Posted 2011-07-10 13:36:14

Odometer clicked over to 21,000km on the way to the beach this morning on our Yamaha Fino

Did a few calculations

21,000 in my 16 months of use = average 1300km per month, average 43km per day.

Estimate over 80% of this would be with a pillion on board

I've kept all receipts, not that there are many

Had services at various Yamaha dealers (started like in Phuket, now in Chanthaburi) at 1000, 4000 and every 3000km since them, as per service recommendation

Put a better shock on the back, standard one too soft for 140kg (that's two of us - not just me!) - 1200b

Replaced tyres

At last service had a new drive belt and some bushes replaced - before they were due but my 'preventative' maintenance tactic

Numerous tubes from punctures

Seat re-covered 300b the original one took in water through the seams and gave a damp butt for days afterwards - not a good look

A top box on the back - 1600 well-spent it's been ideal for overnight trips

Still on the original battery and light bulbs. I have used the kickstart once - just to see if it worked.

No fancy customising - too much time on dirt roads to consider the flashy bits.

I'm sure some people do more kms than this on their scooter, but I never expected to clock up the kms so fast. A neighbour bought a new Suzuki Hayate about the same time, when I spoke to him a few weeks ago he had yet to reach 2,000km, just trips to the local shops and back.

I've seen people's moans about Finos, carbs and tuning but this has never been an issue - maybe the continuous use on generally longer trips than using it as a 'shopping basket'?

When I bought it in Phuket it was mainly short trips - 24km return to the beach etc, when we went rural the kms really increased, a 90km trip to 'town and a lot of 3-4 day journeys exploring eastern Thailand.

Longest single ride was a bum-numbing 450km in a day. At pillion's request we broke the journey on the way back. We're 210km from my partner's farm property, need an auto-pilot for highway 317.

Top speed? An indicated 108. Not made for speed.

Don't know what to expect in terms of lifespan. Before buying i had a long-term rental Nouvo with 48,000 on the clock - had been poorly (or none at all) maintained and was sounding rather rough.

[dave_boo]

A couple of years ago I bought the mother in law an Airblade. I use it in the morning to nip over to town (some 3 km away) and it performs marvelously for that. Granted, the smallish underseat and lack of a hook make it a bit impractical for shopping purposes, but overall not a bad little bike. Don't know about fuel economy, but it gets this 'hefty' falang up to 40 km/h quick enough. Any faster and I can't smoke... It's also great for zig and zag driving, which is needed considering the road (which they're finally! fixing now) dictates it.

I'm not really a fan of automatics either, but having rode this Airblade, the wife's Scoopy, and the brother in law's Click, this is my favourite. Just bought a PCX for the wife, but with all the rain we still haven't even taken it out so I will reserve comment until that's been done.

[GooEng]

bought an airblade a couple of years ago and it's been great.

only drawback is that i think compared to some of the others on the market it does as mentioned above have less carrying capacity and hooks etc for attaching baggage.

i was swayed to buy it by the fact that it's a honda - honda's are generally very reliable and well built. my choice was also influenced by what i perceived foolishly as it's "sporty" performance - in fact all of the bikes in this class have very similar performance, the 'blade just looks a bit meaner and sleeker.

if you are going to buy a moped type bike, i would recommend a bike with the fully auto gearbox (CVT transmission)over the semi-automatic types purely on that basis of ease of use - these bikes sip tiny amounts of fuel and the difference in fuel economy would only be an issue if you really are on a very tight budget.

if you intend to do anything more than going to the shops and want something that is more of an actual proper motorbike i think the new honda cbr150 looks nice, and will be a fun ride for sure.

Edited September 12, 2011 by GooEng

[poanoi]

Is there any pretty scooter that is lower & lighter than other scooters ?

[dave_boo]

Is there any pretty scooter that is lower & lighter than other scooters ?

It's for a girl?!?!?

Actually if you don't mind the clutchless shifting a KSR would be up for mentioning. Kinda expensive but apparently loads of fun. A lot of people have modded the hell out of them with all sorts of go fast or look fast parts (even saw a mini Ducati Monster version). Super light, looks lower (to me) and as mentioned the only drawback would be the need to move the shift lever (just like a Wave). I provide first hand comment on any brands except Honda (we've got 9 mocycs around here and 7 of them are Hondas) but the Airblade does sit lower than the other fully automatics at my house; both seat height and foot deck height which can make it a bit dicey for big speed bumps or loose soil like where I'm at.