I think he said “I like your bike” but I’m not sure
I got a scooter after about two weeks of my move. It’s a Yamaha Vino 90cc. After hearing that last year’s models were still available with their two-stroke engine (these engines are now outlawed from what everyone tells me), I jumped at the opportunity knowing how quick off the start two-stroke engines are.
I will eventually be giving this to my wife and will be buying one of my own. Now that I’m sold on scooters (and not motorcyles) with their good maneuverability, easy parking, and storage space, I want to know which scooters are the fastest. I’m a fairly mellow driver but I’m convinced that having the speed when needed makes for a safer ride.
So which scooters are the fastest, excluding the mega 250cc scooters with their extra big seats and long chassis (might as well just get a “real” motorcyle at that point)?
It’s not the scooter - it’s the driver.
Anyway, I recommend the Majesty 250 or the 125 for the following reasons. Big wheels, good disk brakes, low centre of gravity, low pollution (unlike those dratted 2-strokes), quiet, and decent acceleration. (My 250 leaves everything behind in the dust, except the yellow-plated big bikes.) As far as maneuverability goes, again, it’s the driver. I can zip around any kinds of traffic, and I almost always get to the motorcycles only box at the intersections before the other scooters do. Then there are the added benefits of under-seat storage space, ample glove compartments, and comfortable rear and front seats, so that taking your 200lb foreign buddy for a ride on the back doesn’t have to be a homoerotic experience. Get the Majest 125. You won’t be disappointed.
Get a Vespa. Be retro, be cool.
Forget scooters! Real men ride real bikes… 
I second Maoman’s advice
It’s the rider, not the bike. I can easily outrun a sport bike in heavy traffic. I also like the Yamaha Majesties, but with their length parking may be a problem. You could look into the souped up scooters or even changing your gearing. Your drive gear works on centripedal(sp?) force, you have 1-5 rollers that move out as the engine rpm’s go up. Fewer rollers equal lower speed, but better climbing ability. I currently have 5 in my bike(faster on a level road, but it was bogging down on the steep mountain roads today). I will have one removed when Jeremy gets back for my coming mountain runs through Taipei, Taoyuan and Ilan counties.
I’ve raced a souped up scooter down Hoping sections 1 and 2. I was on a 135cc crotch rocket and he was on the scooter. I took him off the line, but he killed me by going faster over the distance. I almost wrecked, when I started laughing so hard because a taxi did a U-turn in front of him and he had to brake the bike sideways. He was a great rider, didn’t wreck, and still managed to pass me again.
CYA
Okami
Scooters are convenient and fun.
I see quite a few foreigners riding Yamaha BWS 100s. They are those ones with ‘off-road’ styling. This means they have reasonable suspension travel and nice thick tyres, although I can’t imagine they’d really be serious off-road machines. They’re two stroke bikes but a reasonably recent one shouldn’t smoke too much. They have a nice bit of acceleration at in-town speeds, although out of town, other bikes would quickly catch up. I would really recommend one of those.
If I were to get a scooter as my main bike – which I may end up doing one of these days – I would save up for a Kymco Ego 250 (known as the Bet & Win 250 in some countries). It is lighter and smaller than the Majesties and Grand Dinks, but stable throughout its speed range. Some things have been written about low quality control on Taiwanese-made bikes. For Kymco at least, this isn’t entirely justified. A US Kymco seller has upgraded his standard warranty from one year to two, because of the very low rate of returned bikes.
A review here:
telegraph.co.uk/motoring/mai … fkym16.xml
and some specs. here:
kymco.thesaweb.co.za/bw250.htm
By the way, it’s not me who put the capital letter on “road”: it’s the forum automatic punctuation corrector.
My wife’s got one (BWS 100cc two stroke)
We live at the top of a pretty steep little mountain and the damn thing has got tons of torque. Although I’m not much of a scooter fan, you can’t go wrong with one of these. We bought it new back in 99, and after 34,000Km, it’s still running strong. You can get rid of the pseudo off-road tires, they make a street tire for it and it sucks up the bumps pretty well.
Not really comfortable at speeds much over 70Km though…
I’ve seen some wicked fast scooters too. But they’re still scooters.
In the end it depends on what you’re going to use it for. Are you planning to take long trips? Spend a lot of time in the mountains? Or simply an urban commuter?
If you want a two stroke, then pick up the BWS. If you want to be more environment friendly, then almost any 125cc (with decent brakes) will do. But to be honest, I think most of the foreigners riding the BWS do so because of the way it looks.
One thing about the BWS though, it has the hottest exhaust pipe around. Getting your leg within 2 inches of it is enough to burn!
… another vote for the Majesty: I’ve got a 125cc and I can always rely on it to give me that extra power I need to pull away in potential danger, as well as the appropriate brake-power when needed. Of course a scooter with such a long wheelbase is somewhat reduced in maneuverability, but you’ll soon suss it out and you’ll be whizzing in an out of traffic like a 50cc highschool kid, but with style! 
Anyone see those scooters with a roof and windshield? I saw two the other day, but I couldn’t tell if was one of those BMW scooters with a roof and windshield. What are they? Who makes them? Are they indeed the BMW ones? Looks like a good idea on rainy days. I mostly drive a car because I have to go long distances, but for short trips down the mountain to the 7/11 I still use the scooter.
Also, I think this might have been discussed somewhere already, but do you know if scooter trailers are legal? I have an SUV and wold love to tow my scooter on a trip somewhere then use it to get around.
[quote=“joesax”]Scooters are convenient and fun.
If I were to get a scooter as my main bike – which I may end up doing one of these days – I would save up for a Kymco Ego 250 (known as the Bet & Win 250 in some countries). It is lighter and smaller than the Majesties and Grand Dinks, but stable throughout its speed range. Some things have been written about low quality control on Taiwanese-made bikes. For Kymco at least, this isn’t entirely justified. A US Kymco seller has upgraded his standard warranty from one year to two, because of the very low rate of returned bikes.
[/quote]
i’ve got a kymco ego 250 unmodified except bridgestone tires and a sparkly 6K HID…its alright…nothing beats me across any intersection, except the big yellow plate bikes. 135cc RZR two strokes will outrun my scooter around 90km+. kymco ego tops out at around 135kmph(tested in a straightline tunnel with no traffic. Carrying a passenger, i can still beat most single riders in a straightline, even the modified 125/150 scooters…
bike shares a lot of parts with the Kymco Dink/Grand Dink - wheels, rubber, levers/controls, basic engine parts, rear frame…but engine and transmission parts are not interchangeable… 
handling is fine, just like a 125 scooter but on steroids. very rare local bike…chinese-websites call it a ‘leng men che’(‘cold door vehicle’ or unpopular scooter), sometimes parts are hard to come by. once a month or so i see another person riding one around…great bike for around the town, easy to park, not too long, brakes could be better though, thinking of upgrading to the double capacity Dink handlebar mounted fluid reservoirs, a brembo four caliper front brake and a dink double caliper in the rear(currently both are single)…maybe bigger disc in front, steel lined cables, a dink fork stabilizer/‘hand-cuffs’(shou kao), dark blue plastic outer plastic painted dark blue/grey matte, ‘naked’ handlebar mounts with analog dials/bezels(can’t stand the digital crap it came with)…gonna cut open the exhaust with an angle grinder, remove all the stuffing and unwanted parts(cat converter will definitely have to go), and have it sewn back up at the local machine shop…
sorry…getting a little carried away here…cheaper to upgrade the bike than buy a big yellow plate monster…plus u can park it anywhere u want
if y’all wanna go for a nice yangmingshan, jinshan, shimen, tandshui ride sometime…this takes me about 2-2.5 hours…let me know, i go about twice a week if i have time…alternative is to run up to keelung and double back the same return route as before…if i could wake up before 2pm on weekends, maybe i could make it farther out…
-chris
[color=violet]I win! I win![/color]
Pah, you bunch of pansies: here’s someone at 268.831 Kph on a pedal cycle:
[color=violet]I win! I win![/color]
:p[/quote]
just wait til u race poagao on his rzr135…i think i raced him up YMS once…135 or 145…UPHILL…and at nearly half the displacement(buzzy 2 strokes…)
How much would a Majesty 250 cost in TW?
I ruined the engine on my Cha Cha 50 going 60 over the bridge into Banqiao.
200-220K depending on ur negotiation skills and if ur wearing kneepads or not
not the cheapest bike out there…for just a bit more u could be riding a 400cc 2nd real motorcycle…around 250-280
-chris
Majesty=Monstrosity (and Dinks are even worse). They’re the ugliest things on the roads.
You can match their speed for a much cheaper price buy going for one of the biggest scooters that is not a Majesty/Dink/Apex (ie not a horrible split level seat and ugly handlebars sprouting out of the middle of the 'dash :raspberry: ewww).
I got a Movie 150CC, which along with the Force was the biggest at the time I bought, but quicker. Majesties can be faster than me when they get up speed, but I have awesome quick acceleration. I really find the sudden bursts of power I can pull off really useful in traffic (top speed itself is not so necessary). That was 2 years ago, and there’s probably newer models out now.
Brian
200-220K depending on your negotiation skills and if you’re wearing kneepads or not[/quote]
My Majesty 250 was 190k over a year ago, and I doubt they’ve gone up in price. I just sold it after a year and a half and got a little more than half price for it. Wished I didn’t have to, but with new tux, wedding photos, engagement cookies, and a business that’s growing in baby-steps, it seemed the smart thing to do. Also, I haven’t been riding it so much since I started my business, as I always take the car to work. (Anyway, the wife promised I could get another bike when we can afford it. 
)
[quote=“mungacious”]handling is fine, just like a 125 scooter but on steroids. very rare local bike…Chinese-websites call it a ‘leng men che’(‘cold door vehicle’ or unpopular scooter), sometimes parts are hard to come by. once a month or so I see another person riding one around…great bike for around the town, easy to park, not too long, brakes could be better though, thinking of upgrading to the double capacity Dink handlebar mounted fluid reservoirs, a brembo four caliper front brake and a dink double caliper in the rear(currently both are single)…maybe bigger disc in front, steel lined cables, a dink fork stabilizer/‘hand-cuffs’(shou kao),[/quote]Thanks Chris, it was your talking about this bike on another thread that made me do some research on it. You confirm what I suspected – that its more standard size compared to the Majesties and Grand Dinks would quicken up the steering and also make it easier to park.
It seems a pity – from what you say the Grand Dink 250 actually has some better components, yet that that monstrous-looking bike has been reduced in price whereas the Ego has stayed the same price and is now the more expensive bike.
I don’t think I’d feel the need to upgrade the braking system, but I’d certainly like to save money if I didn’t have the top line brakes.
Still, I feel that there’ll be more of these big scooters available in time and I hope that prices will drop.