Scooter in LA - suggestions? (Santa Monica, Pittsburg: health insurance, loans, home)

[linck]

I am contemplating buying a scooter so that I don't have to rely on buses to get around. I need a good bike that will allow me to travel from Santa Monica to Loyola Law School on Olympic or Pico. I am very light (under 100lbs) and not that strong, so I need a bike that I can handle (nothing too heavy). Will 150cc be powerful enough? Where is a good place to look at scooters? What does insurance cost? What scooters would you recommend/not recommend for my needs? Thanks for the advice!

[ferretkona]

Buses are much cheaper.

[Ronzou]

150cc is NOT that powerful.

A 49cc scooter will max out around 25 - 30 at best.

150cc will get you about maybe 40 - 45.

A 49cc Honda metropolitan weighs about 157 pounds. And the higher the cc's the more it will way. HOWEVER, I do not know with lower cc engines if California adds extra garbage which makes them heavier. I know with the bigger ones 400 + if you live in California you have to get a special California model.

I know someone who has a 250cc motorcycle and it maxes at 60, and they weight about what you way.

[linck]

Originally Posted by ferretkona

Buses are much cheaper.

I know, but I am sick of waiting all of the time and really want the freedom of having my own transportation. Scooters are cheaper to buy, maintain, and insure than cars so it seemed like a good compromise.

[NYSD1995]

I get scared just thinking about it.

My recommendation: get good health insurance. LA drivers are nuts.

[wanderingwaldo]

Hi and welcome to the scooter lifestyle. Don't listen to the jokers who have posted before - people love to speculate and talk out of their anus about scooters.

I have been scootering for about a year now, got my M stamp on my ID and am going to be bringing my scooter to LA as my primary transportation. I have a 2005 150cc air-cooled 2-stroke manual twist-shift Genuine Scooter Company Stella based of a 20 year old Vespa design with an aftermarket performance pipe. Since this is my first year of riding and I have a lot of coverage including theft so my insurance is high at $400/year. There are people who have been riding a long time and have minimal coverage for $100/year. Even with my 300lb ass I will hit 55-60 on it WOT with a lot of gear and tools stored in the glovebox. Even with the torture I put it through on a daily basis going up the steep hills around Pittsburgh it begs for more and asks for a gallon of gas only every 70 miles or so. I could probably get 80mpg if I was easy on the throttle but that's kind of splitting hairs.

If you are starting out there are a few considerations to make with your first scooter purchase - usage, storage, reliability, cost, and in your case - seat height and weight. With regard to weight 50cc-250cc small/largeframe type scoots will typically range in weight from 150-400lbs. There can be quite a bit of variation here so see what fits you best.

Considering your weight and distance travelled I would actually give a 50cc scoot consideration. Modern small-bore two stroke engines with a light scooter frame will give close to 1mph per cc once the rev limiter has been removed (15-40 minute job depending on your handyness with tools). 75cc kits are available for some models which can boost top speed to 60-65mph. There are scooter racers who have tuned their originally 50cc bikes to go 80!! That is an extreme case though and the perfomance parts used and time involved would be difficult to put a price tag on and may cost more than a 250cc 4 stroke capable of 80 out of the crate and reliability is probably compromised to some degree.

When it comes to cheap chinese no-name scooters there is only one thing to say: RUN AWAY SCREAMING. These sub-$1000 POS's are unreliable, dangerous, are impossible to get parts for, and MOST ARE NOT DOT OR EPA APPROVED NO MATTER WHAT THEY SAY. If you want to know what I am talking about go on ebay - they are rampant there.

When it comes to scooting or motorcycling on LA freeways I would not do it on a regular basis even if the scooter you choose can go 80. Speeds are high, you may have to get over 4 lanes quickly at times and people are constantly vying for position. Surface streets with a GPS is the route I am going personally. I bought a Magellan 2200T which is waterproof and got good reviews and have it mounted with a RAM mount.

I would recommend going to SoHo Scooters in North Hollywood and take a look at the Genuine Scooter Company, TGB, and Kymco models. Any scooter made by those companies is going to be an extremely reliable, affordable, and capable scooter. If I'm not mistaken all scooters from those companies come with 2 year unlimited mileage warranties. See what feels comfortable, can your feet touch the ground easily? Does the weight of the bike feel good? Look at the specs, ask questions, look at several option then go back home and find reviews or ask about them on the international scooter BBS. modernbuddy.com is a good resource for the Genuine CVT models - the rattler 110 or buddy 125 might be good for you although these are 4 strokes and the 50cc 2 stroke versions may have similar performance when de-restricted at a lower price point. After researching come back and try to talk them down a bit on a particular model. Personally if my Stella was ever stolen or swallowed up by the earth I would get a People 250 - it will last forever, go 80 when you want to, and is as reliable as it gets. One group from minnesota motorcycle monthly put 1500 miles on one in 24 hours and the only thing that broke was an exhaust braket.

Good luck, be safe, check your blind spot every time, wear a FULL FACE helmet, brightly colored armored mesh jacket, gloves, boots, reflective striping/tape/anything is your friend, and definitley take the motorcycle safety course - before relying on the scoot as transportation. And remember you never know if you might get in an accident so ALWAYS wear your safety equipment. Good places to look for equipment deals/info are webbikeworld.com and newenough.com. If you ever think to yourself "I don't know if I'm up to riding right now" - don't. Take the bus for that trip or ask for a ride from a buddy. Also - get a big-ass chain lock made by Kryptonite or Onguard and use it every time - I have a NY noose. Scooters are all pretty light and two guys with a van is all it takes to leave you stranded and crying if not secured. I also have a Talon alarm I'm going to get installed at some point.

If you see this red stella riding around, feel free to say hi.

[Jonah K]

Originally Posted by linck

I am contemplating buying a scooter so that I don't have to rely on buses to get around. I need a good bike that will allow me to travel from Santa Monica to Loyola Law School on Olympic or Pico. I am very light (under 100lbs) and not that strong, so I need a bike that I can handle (nothing too heavy). Will 150cc be powerful enough? Where is a good place to look at scooters? What does insurance cost? What scooters would you recommend/not recommend for my needs? Thanks for the advice!

If I had to pay approximately $36,000 per year in tuition fees at Loyola Law School, I wouldn't even think about commuting there from Santa Monica on a scooter. One inattentive SUV driver gabbing on a cell phone is all it takes to side-track your law school career. Loan and scholarships are available to cover "transportation" (ie. vehicle purchase, parking, and maintenance) expenses. By carpooling, one can reduce transportation costs and Loyola Law School offers a few "perks" for their carpoolers....
http://intranet.lls.edu/campus/parka...s/carpool.html
https://technology.lls.edu/carpool/

[wanderingwaldo]

I have 120K in school loans for undergrad from going to Carnegie Mellon University for mechanical engineering (currently ranked 10th in the US) - Sallie Mae is the bane of my existence. If I had been in prime scooter country like LA when I was in school I would have probably made the jump sooner.

[Ronzou]

Considering you're jumping around in your stance on where you're going to work from PA to LA, you're stance is very thin.

I ride motorcycles. I don't have my endorsement yet, I'm going for it.

I rode a 250cc GZ250, at 180 lbs, I struggle to get it up to 65 miles per hour. I don't understand where you're coming from.

As for your stance on "scooters are pretty light" I guess that's why the morpheus, majesty, bergman, reflex and silverwing are all over 200 lbs. Let alone the bergman 650 which ways over 500 lbs. Even with your range of 150-400 lbs. You're still off.

And without him having his endorsement anything over 50 cc is illegal to drive without a permit, and you can't drive before dawn and after dusk.

So for your "talking out of the anus hole" which is exactly what you did by speculating all scooters are light. The one you may ride is, but not all of them are.

[wanderingwaldo]

Originally Posted by Ronzou

Considering you're jumping around in your stance on where you're going to work from PA to LA, you're stance is very thin.

I ride motorcycles. I don't have my endorsement yet, I'm going for it.

I rode a 250cc GZ250, at 180 lbs, I struggle to get it up to 65 miles per hour. I don't understand where you're coming from.

As for your stance on "scooters are pretty light" I guess that's why the morpheus, majesty, bergman, reflex and silverwing are all over 200 lbs. Let alone the bergman 650 which ways over 500 lbs. Even with your range of 150-400 lbs. You're still off.

And without him having his endorsement anything over 50 cc is illegal to drive without a permit, and you can't drive before dawn and after dusk.

So for your "talking out of the anus hole" which is exactly what you did by speculating all scooters are light. The one you may ride is, but not all of them are.

I have lived/studied/worked in Pittsburgh since I came here to study at CMU in 2000 and am moving to LA in one week. The reason I did not get a scooter sooner is that I could only afford one vehicle based off the ****-rate they give entry-level engineers here. I had to jump around a bit to make enough to get a scooter.

The reason your GZ250 can only go 65 has nothing to do with the engine and everything to do with the gearing, the fifth on that bike is too high and I have a feeling your engine may still be breaking-in since you still have not gotten your M endorsement yet. If anything my scooter is geared low which is why I can easily get to 55-60 although there was a limited "fireball" edition with higher P200 gearing which will get to 60-65 but has poor acceleration. Maybe you should have saved yourself about $1500 and gotten a people 250, then you would have actually been able to go 80. Heck even the 125cc Genuine buddy will go 65-70, you could have saved 1/3 the cost of your motorcycle to go the same speed.

All of the scooters you have talked about above are more in the maxi-scoot class which are quite a bit heavier, have much longer wheelbases, 250cc-650cc engines, and are completely inappropriate for someone who weights (not ways as you spelled it) less than 100 pounds. The 150-400lbs range was for small/largeframe scooters with 50-250cc engines and is an estimate as I said "typically range in weight from ...".

You are right about it being illegal to ride anything over 50cc without an endorsement/permit, which is why I told linck to take the motorcycle safety foundation course before depending on the scooter for primary transportation. If you were serious about riding instead of serious about being a grease-spot you would have probably taken it and actually known that upon completion you recieve your M endorsement.

I look forward to hearing from you again when you are ready to talk to me out of your mouth.