I've been looking around for a scooter for my wife - actually I am planning on joining her on a scooter too (we want matching scooters). She is 5 foot tall and so far, only the Honda PCX seems to fit her (wearing heels!). But I am not ready to settle on that scooter yet because of its excessive maintenance. Having said that, I am asking for help in finding a scooter that has a low seat height. Only 2 requirements are that the scooter needs to be 125cc or over and not too heavy (I have been eyeing the Aprilia Sportcity 125 but I haven't seen one in person). Thanks for y'all's input!
Looked into a Yamaha Morphous ? Low seat. Weight center of gravity is so low you don't feel it. Exceptional build quality. The looks do grow on you.
True but the PCX requires a valve adjustment every 2,500 miles. The oil change is every 5,000 miles. Unless I read wrong...
May be... How wide is the seat? The seat might be low but if it is wide, it won't work. Makes me wonder about a Majesty 250 now...
Look at the Genuine Buddy which comes in 125cc and 170cc version. My son started riding ours when he was 5'1" with the stock seat. They have a lower seat available as an option as well. Ours is 6 years old and a daily rider for 5 of them, maintenance is easy and the only things we've had to deal with that aren't scheduled maintenance were a broken mirror and a horn wire that came loose. Streets in Houston are horrible with lots of potholes so if it holds up to that and a 15-20 year boy riding it to school daily I suspect you won't have any problems.
The relatively tall seat heights and wider seats on scooters does make touching the ground difficult for short people. I'll be curious to hear the answers to this problem. Regarding frequent maintenance of small scooters--to achieve the performance to keep from getting run over in real-world traffic you're almost going to have to have a fairly high strung motor which in turn is going to require more frequent maintenance and rebuilds. Although virtually all small motors nowadays are incredibly reliable they're simply not going to last as long as a larger motor running at a more relaxed pace. To get the most life from them you're going to have to change the oil, adjust the valves and such more frequently. They don't hold much oil and personally I wouldn't go 2500 miles on a smallbore (under 250cc) scooter without changing the oil. Depending on conditions changing it at a thousand miles or less wouldn't be a bad idea. I live by the motto "oil is cheaper than crankshafts." There are some motors nowadays that call for as much as 25,000 between valve checks/adjustments and folks I know blissfully ignore checking them until they reach this mileage. The thing is how do you know the bike was properly adjusted at the factory? (Always remember that your bike was made by a human who goes out for three beer or saki lunches just like anyone else.) It's not that big a deal to periodically give them a look-see with a feeler gauge even if you don't have the tools or ability to adjust them. For example if you see the clearances suddenly closing up it's a sign that your valves may be cupping or the valve seats wearing away. Frequent maintenance like this is simply a way of staying in touch with your motor and how it's doing during it's lifespan.
My wife is Asian, 4'11". Ended up getting her a Chinese scooter, 125cc, but still had to get the seat cut down (which I thought was surprising, and kinda funny). The trouble is that the scooter is not all that quality, but at least she can ride it.
Another option, although not quite 125cc, is the Honda Elite 110. It's 108cc with fuel injection. Low seat height. I'm "vertically challenged" and it fits me very well. The only downside is it's restricted to 52 MPH. As far as I know, they only imported them for the 2010 model year. The Vino is nice, too The Zuma is nicer, but the seat height is higher than the Vino.
Check out the Genuine Buddy. They make a low profile seat for it further lowering it. It comes in a 50, 125, of Fuel injected 170. All the same body and frame size. My local shop installed one on a bike in the shop http://www.motostrada.com/2013/01/low-profile-buddy-seat.html Happy scootin! ~Gd
I've heard the helix has a very low seat. I'm not sure if the scooters width would cancel our that low seat though.
The Kymco Grand Vista 250 fits my wife, who is short, but with no oil filter, the oil change is about 1200 miles. But only 1 qt of oil to buy, so it is a cheap change. It does weigh about 330 lbs. Not sure about the valve adjustment period. At the low purchase price and the distances that my wife rides, I don't figure to ever worry about the valves. Scoot safely,
It would do Honda well to put out a limited production of new Helixes, with a bit of modernization; fuel injection, and maybe a mild change in body style. The Helix was reliable, with a low (and comfortable) seat, a top speed of 72mph (though most Helix owners have gone much faster), and they're easy to service. I love my '98; it'll turn 20,000 miles when I put it back on the road in April (it's at 19,900 or so now).
Coming from someone who does own a PCX 150. The main problem with a lot of high maintenance scooters is that the engines themselves are very hard to get to. I wouldn't mind checking valves at 2,500 if I didn't have to virtually take the thing apart before I get to the engine. That alone is what drives up maintenance costs, because the owner is overwhelmed by the process and just takes it into the dealer to have them handle it at the cost of $100.
My old Helix was similar. Accessing the vernier adjusters was easy but removing the bodywork to turn the motor over and see the TDC marks was a pain in the arse. Many scoots ain't very user friendly in this respect.
