I have owned a BWS for about 4 years now and I think it’s great.
The good:
-They are a bit older and you can buy a rebuilt one in very good shape for as cheap as 20k that will look brand new from second-hand scooter shops. You can find one for probably as cheap as 12-15K from a particular. It won’t look new and all rebuilt, but it could still be in good shape.
Either way the price is right for what you get. Great value, in my opinion.
-All parts are available and you have the choice to buy the original Japanese Yamaha genuine parts, or the knock off Taiwanese version. The Japanese parts can cost up to 6 times more, but for many parts the Made in Taiwan version works just fine. Some parts are worth paying more for the original Japanese. But for things like plastic panels if you crash the bike, the parts are ridiculously cheap. You can change every plastic bit on that scooter for about NT$2,000 and the scooter will look new again.
-2 strokes engine repairs are far cheaper than 4 strokes were you to need engine work. (I can replace piston, sleeve and all gaskets for about NT$1,000.) If done by a mechanic, you could easily find one to do the work for no more than NT$2,500 parts and labor. That’s half than what you would pay for a 4 strokes.
-BWS are simple and easy to troubleshoot and fix. They are very basic and most mechanics have a decent knowledge of these scooters, especially in Yamaha shops.
-BWS are genuine Yamaha scooters, and you get the Yamaha reliability for your bucks. I have ridden my scooter countless times at almost full throttle (90km/hr) for hours on end without any problems. In four years, the scooter has never let me down.
-No oil change, just add 2T oil when the red light goes on. The BWS is actually low maintenance as opposed to what Bubba wrote above.
-BWS is excellent on rainy days if you have the mud tires.
-The big tires make it smoother on bumps than most scooters. It’s a smooth ride.
-The single rear shock design is excellent. The swing arm is more sturdy than any other single rear shock design out there by a big margin.
-Good headlight position providing excellent night driving if you have good quality light bulbs.
-Handy seat opening system right from the ignition- No need to remove the keys from the ignition to unlock the seat.
-And of course, the bike is versatile. You can get off the beaten path and go on mountain roads and trails or on the beach.
The bad:
-Noisy
-Gutless at low speed.
-Gas guzzler
-Smoke- only when the engine is cold. If it smokes when it’s heated up, something is wrong. Often times, it’s just the oil pump lever that doesn’t close all the way because it’s dirty. The flaw is that said lever is poorly engineered in that it is not covered from road grime so it tends to get dirty quickly. It’s easy to clean it up, though.
Things to pay attention to when buying a second-hand BWS.
-Scooter shop rebuild these scooters, but often times they repaint some of the plastic that was not originally coated with paint. The paint will chip and look like crap in no time. Better to chose a scooter with replaced plastic than painted plastic.
-Scooter shops often repaint the rear end of the scooter with gray paint- They repaint the outside of the transmission housing instead of polishing the metal. The tranny housing should be metal, not gray paint. That too will chip and look like shite in no time.
-When test driving the scooter, start it and let it idle for a few minutes. If the bike stalls, this means the bike isn’t tuned properly. It will smoke a bit, but if it smokes a lot, something is not right. After the the “cold engine idle test” is done, take the bike for a spin and make sure to heat the engine right up. Stop and go at full throttle for at least ten minutes until the engine is HOT. Then let the bike idle for a good 5-8 minutes. The scooter should not smoke and the idle speed should remain consistent for the whole time.
-Find an open road to test the scooter’s top speed. You should be able to do at least 90km/hr. If it tops at 80km/hr, then either the engine or the transmission needs work. My BWS tops at 98-100km/hr when the tranny is in good shape. The top speed decreases as the pulleys wear out.
-Most importantly, make sure the scooter has an original Yamaha muffler. Often times, they put a cheap knock off muffler on these scooters a the cost of only NT$800 but they are complete shite and the scooter loses nearly 50% of the performance. Most BWS are aged by now, and I’d say a majority of them have been fitted with a cheap muffler. That’s because the original Yamaha muffler costs NT$6,000!!!
marboulette
