In the Market for a Scooter

[bikerdoc]

Hey Steve, when it comes to the 250cc range of scoots there aren't too many choices worhty of consideration IMO. Kymco exciting 250 (MSRP 45K), or even the 400 (MSRP 79K, with ABS!), hell you could go for the big daddy Myroad 700i (MSRP 100K versus BMW C650GT MSRP 135K or Suzuki Burgman 650 MSRP 155K+), all plus tax I might add. Other than those, you have covered the others that are worthy contenders, though there are other China made choices, just not for my money.

A couple of my friends have the Benelli Silverblades, nice looking except for the top part of the front fairing/screen combo - very European styling cues there. Not to my liking. Also, while the ride is smooth, the riders triangle space is a little on the cramped side - good for those of short stature among us.

Both my friends Silverblade's have had issues, water pumps and tranny's. Doesn't help that the so called 'dealer' over filled one of the scoots with oil and on one trip after the scoot had been collected from the stealership workshop the day of the trip in question, the particular Silverblade was pissing out oil from the swingarm mounted air box at every stop - I'm not talking about just a drop or two either. It finally settled down after a whole day... must have been 500mL overfill. It was ridiculous. As for the Silverbalde -who knows what the upgrades might be. I know of a couple of foreigners working for QJ-Beneilli and they won't or aren't falling over themselves to buy any of the QJ-Benelli models - despite one of them being in the market for a new bike. That tells me something!

The CFMoto Jemtax - I've had a good run really, a friends one - not so much, but then he treats his Jetmax as though it was a regular motocross bike, so to my mind all his issues are fairly much self inflicted. No pity here.

(Hell I just wrote several more paragraphs to this reply but farkin lost it all when attempting to update this post!! arghhh!).