hi was thinking of getting a scooter here. not really sure what i have to do.
my friend recommends a 2d scooter which he says runs about 20k instead of 50k for i think a 150cc??
(any recommendations?)
once i buy such a bike, what about registration, license etc? I dont have an id card (other than the ju liu zheng), nor an international drivers license. can i do this by myself, or will i need a local friend to make a divine intervention with the powers that be?
anyone care to give me a step-by-step list of how to do this in a relatively painless way?
Buy a new four-stroke scooter if you’ll be here for a while. It won’t break, and if, under some weird set of circumstances it does, you’ll be under warranty for a year.
As a foreigner, you need an ARC to get a licence and to get the bike registered to you. If you get a Taiwanese friend to do that, in theory he can lose his own licence if you get caught.
Just walked in the door after a thirty-minute walk through stinking pollution, heat and rain, thanks to the THIEVING BASTARD who stole my scooter this afternoon. It was parked outside my school. I came out from class and it was gone. I would like to get my hands on the mother who stole it and torture him until he’s begging for a merciful bullet.
Scooter theft is common, so the cheaper your bike, the less painful any theft will be. Luckily, I decided against buying an expensive one and the bike that was stolen today was a 12-year old 125 cc Duke which cost 12,000 two years ago.
HG,
Thanks for the advice. I’ve already been to the local police station and reported it missing. What makes you think I have a good chance of getting it back?
Bugger, time for me to WALK back to school for my evening class. I’m going to be bloody thirsty tonight!!
The experience of two friends and heresay from others.
As for the mates, the first lost his bike when it ran out petrol and he, hopelessly lost and drunk, couldn’t remember where he’d left it.
The second, another friend, like you wandered out of work to find his bike stolen.
In both instances I insisted they book them as stolen, despite both thinking me a total lunatic. Sure enough they were called in to pick up their bikes within 3 weeks. The second chap had failed to trust my judgement and gone out and scored a new bike. He now has two.
The reason I felt so confident is that I’d seen coppers riding around checking registrations with those little handheld thingees.
I’ve since heard others say they’d had similar fortune. Doesn’t seem likely I grant you. Perhaps I should post this in the whack things about Taiwan?
Don’t buy a scooter. Buy one of those Harley lookalike things.
They’re heavy, not very manouverable, pigs to park, and you’re always fiddling around changing gears in the traffic. Oh, and there’s nowhere to store anything unless you buy a panier or box. Totally impractical.
I bought one, despite never having ridden anything like it before, and came back shaking after my baptism-by-rush-hour the next day. Scoots were whizzing around me like mosquitos. I was sweating, cursing, and scared to death. When I met up with the previous owner to transfer the paperwork I went by MRT, there was no fucking way I was going to carry a passenger.
It’s also great for burning your leg on the exhausts, one on each side just to be sure.
On the other hand, I now find myself singing as I cruise down the road with my shades on. My students are always telling me how cool I am, and strangers ask me about the bike while waiting for the lights. The girls love it, and can sit on the back comfortably for an hour or two - try that on a scoot! Running out to the beach is a pleasure, partly because the bike feels so safe - it’s so big and solid. And when you hit a big hole in the road with those big wheels it just ‘steps over’ instead of feeling like it’s going to trip up.
I’ve got used to Taipei traffic, got used to the bike, and hunting around for a bigger than normal space is not that big a deal. Wouldn’t change it for anything except maybe a bigger one.
PS - fell off a borrowed scoot last year, thanks to a dog that zig-zagged as I swerved so as to remain in front of me. I lay on the road, a couple of metres from the scoot, and the bloody dog was back in the middle of the road waiting for another victim.
Hi, Ironlady! Really? I thought the whole retro-look of the Vespa might be coming back?!
I have been looking into getting a Vespa. I know that you and Wolf Rhinehold have written about the finer poisnt of Vespas in other threads.
However, may I ask about emmissions and new emmissions standards? I was talking with a Taiwanese friend about getting a Vespa and he claimed that soon many of the older models of motorcycles and scooter (particularly Vespas) won’t be able to (legally) be on the streets. He mentioned something about the WTO and new emmissions standards and controls. He claimed that it will soon be hard to own adn drive any older vehicles on the steets. Maybe he was just blowing smoke–he’s a faithful Kymco man–so I’d like to get your two cents on this issue.
Thanks a lot. And have a great trip on your Vespa–whereever you end up going.
The local cops (Jiayi) found my scooter! I picked it up at noon and it’s none-the-worse for wear.
Man, it sure is nice to be back on a machine; walking and riding long distances in this heat is a complete bastard.
The lessons learnt from this little episode are:
use a bike lock,
report stolen scooters asap,
don’t buy a replacement straight away,
have a crappy old bike with very little resale value.
Fee:
The trick here for passing the emission test is to be tested. Really!
The test guys get paid, so I gather, for you passing, not for you failing. The two different places I have had my Vespa 150 tested pulled out the probe as soon as it became clear that the thing was going to fail and stopped the test. They then goof with the idle and carb mix until the thing runs like shit, but passes the test.
Alternately, I have taken the bike to the mechanic and he fiddles with it to make it pass; I drive over and take the test and pass, and then drive back to the mechanic; he puts it back where it was before.
Cool, eh?
Vintage Vespas RULE!
Vespa in Italian means “wasp.” How cool is that?
There are a lot of “cute” little Vespas on the market these days, and some are reconditioned and about 30 years old but cleaned up to look like new. However, “purists” only ride manual shift 150s.
As a woman I get a LOT of respect on my 150. Although it’s true there are places I just don’t go on it, because I can’t manhandle it into a small parking space, like in Hsimending or something.
)
