Scooters - are they cost effective?

Walowiz said:

I'm now commuting just under 2000 miles a month, previously on a 1150GS, then a Gixxer Thou and now a Tmax 500 bought on ukgser for £1500.

My route is a mixture of long boring motorway and country road and built up townsville.

I cannot quantify the savings, but petrol and servicing costs are way down on both the GS and Gixxer. And I'm not really taking any longer to travel to and from work.

But its the ease of riding a big twist and go over a long commuting distance that makes them just such a good buy, over and above any potential saving.

If I had to buy one of my three favourite bikes again - the three above, it would be the TMax. Its utterly brilliant, wish I'd bought one years ago now.

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Snoopy said:

C90's are not reliable, just the parts are available everywhere .

They can also be disassembled down to a crazy size for crating onto a plane.

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Robbo1200ADV said:

Blimey !!!! The T Max 24K is £600 but that's belt plus 5 filters How are you finding it ? I loved it (C600 Sport) on the Launch . Thats Massive money to service

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Bob Southgate said:

I don't have one Robbo, just did a bit of research about the servicing costs. Servicing the scooters would be far more expensive than the service costs on a K1600.

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V4 TRV said:

My £60 every 3K is a real killer

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V4 TRV said:

My £60 every 3K is a real killer

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V4 TRV said:

If youve got a rough 1150 that you're not worried about then you really are wasting your time trying to calculate the millions of options of buying another scoot to commute on instead. Most people that buy a scooter to commute on do so to keep their own bike good - thats me anyway

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Bob Southgate said:

Where do you get £60 every 3k from? The service interval is every 2.5k, with the valves needing checking every time. The drive belt will need inspecting every 5k and changed at 15k. Oil and spark plug change at 5k.

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Backmarker said:

And there in lies the rub. Commute is basically a couple of big towns (Sevenoaks, Southbrough/Royal Tonbridge Wells & Eastbourne) and a load of small villages (Frant, Marks Cross, Argos Hill, Five Ashes, Cross in Hand, Little London, Horam, Coggers Cross) with a few miles of National Limits between. Once it is dark and wet (ie both ways at the moment) I cant overtake much, and so the bike advantage (over a car) is in the filtering in towns. Hence the idea that a scooter would maximise the filtering in towns, lose nothing on the open road (was running at 26-37mph on A22/A26 today - any scooter could do that), or in the villages (30/40/50 limits), be lighter and more manageable in really slippery conditions (I am 2 miles from the A25/M25 and its always my drive followed by those 2 miles that cause me the greatest problems). I just need it to pay for itself. I would save on fuel and tyres but the servicing costs for a scooter just seem extreme. Even if done by me.

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Bob Southgate said:

Where do you get £60 every 3k from? The service interval is every 2.5k, with the valves needing checking every time. The drive belt will need inspecting every 5k and changed at 15k. Oil and spark plug change at 5k.

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Gigsy said:

I got into riding bikes because I started commuting on the train and riding a scooter meant that I could park at the station for free and that I could also filter past traffic etc, cutting my journey to the station from about 20-25 minutes to 15.

On the downside, the lack of power from a 125 scooter meant I was still stuck behind people doing 40 on NSL roads which is a bit tedious (so originally, I was planning on just getting a bigger scooter but got side tracked when I came to take my test and bought the GS ).

Anyway, I now keep a little 50cc scooter up in London to use at the other end as well and it's much better than the GS in traffic and in general I'm quicker across town than the guys on the bigger bikes in town because it's so much easier to filter on it.

Another big bonus is that I can pick it up and fit it into smaller spaces in the bike bays (less of an issue at this time of year but a real bonus in the summer! ). Even with the parking fees, tax, insurance, servicing (£60 per 3k miles or so), fuel etc it works out cheaper than taking the tube and I have the bonus of not being at the mercy of the RMT!

If most of your commute is at sub 60mph speeds then a s
cooter would probably make a lot of sense, I reckon.

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V4 TRV said:

Thats what my dealer said

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Backmarker said:

May I ask the make/model of your scooter?

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Bob Southgate said:

Your dealer said each service will cost £60 regardless of the work required?

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Snoopy said:

Valves are only checked every 5,000 miles. £60 should be tops, in Greece the valve check service cost 40 euro.

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Snoopy said:

Valves are only checked every 5,000 miles. £60 should be tops, in Greece the valve check service cost 40 euro.

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V4 TRV said:

No point - BS is talking BS but wont give in. No point in talking to dealers - BS will always know better

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Bob Southgate said:

I'm not talking BS, I've seen the manual on the link I provided. Why don't you look in your own owners manual and see for yourself instead of coming on and making your usual snide comments.

If you are not prepared to accept what is in the owners manual then you are more of a total cock than what I previously gave you credit for.

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