Getting started with a scooter : A beginner's checklist

As someone who’s getting geared up to get into the Taiwan scooter club, I’d like to see what you guys think about putting together a “Beginner’s Checklist” for all beginners. There are a few good stickies but nothing that I’d quite be willing to call comprehensive. And let me also add that I wouldn’t even think of trying to incorporate the vast amount of material covered in every thread on these subjects; but I at least want to get people pointed in the right direction and thinking about all of these things. Especially regarding safety and traffic considerations.

For starters, I can think of the following for inclusion. Please chime in with suggestions if you see something wrong or can think of additional suggestions:

  1. Safety precautions
    -Helmet purchasing
    –What to look for/avoid
    –Where to buy
    -Other recommended equipment
    –Where to buy
    -Scooter riding do’s and don’ts
    -Safety training (hopefully the program currently being discussed is successfully launched)

  2. Licensing Issues (mostly a rehash of information already available)
    -Getting a fresh license in Taiwan
    -Transferring a motorcycle license from another country

  3. Insurance
    -Recommended/English friendly insurance carriers
    -Price range expectations (broken down by engine displacement?)

  4. Taiwan traffic rules
    -Where to find information on the net
    -Dealing with “real traffic” (as opposed to what the book says)

  5. Recommended Scooters (always changing but could be updated maybe once a year?)
    -Current popular scooters rated on price, comfort, speed, etc. (any user could add a review to a given scooter)
    -Scooters to avoid (are there any?)

  6. Basic Mechanical considerations
    -Before every ride
    -Regular maintanance practices (weekly/montly/yearly)

I would seriously recomend watching traffic for at lest ten minutes a day uninterupted for about a week at a few random intersections, traffic lights and on roads and in streets to get a general feel for the cowboyesk style of driving/riding that gets many more people killed in Taiwan than it does in more developed areas of the world. One might even begin getting a feel on a more familiar mode of transport such as a bicycle taking it slowly down the curb side where one can more readily jump off onto the sidewalk/pavement if the need comes.
However much anyone feels the need to just go and jump on a scooter, please take the time and precautions to become at least fairly adjusted to the road conditions and almost total lack of respect for rules and laws that protect our persons on the road.

I know we all like to think we are the best riders/drivers on the road from time to time, but please, please think first and don’t let your testicles do the riding as many of us blokes do much of the time! A big high five to Moredeth!

Hi there, I have 3 years driving experience with 8 accidents in which I only hurt myself.
Of all the technical formalities like listed in the OP post I would forget everything if doing so could help add just 1% of experience and reaction speed.
I should had put reaction speed N 1.
Here’s my checklist if I dropped 3 years back:

  1. Helmet
  2. License (I still don’t have it)
    The only scooter (of all I tried - 7 +) I can reccomend is 50cc Yamaha Vino. Why?
  3. Coz if I had anything else I’d sure as hell wouldn’t make it to this post.
  4. It prevents you from driving 80 km/hr (more than enough to be statistically suisidal).
  5. Fuel economy.
  6. Extremely high torque (equal to most 5 y.o 125 cc)
  7. Sorry, should be N 2 important - agile as HELL.
  8. Reliable.
    One minus with this scooter though - slightly less stable on steep turns due to low mass (solvable when you feel your drive). Low mass actually is more of a winner in more important aspects of dealing with Taiwanese SUV kamikaze. It allows you to stop 3 times the distance you’d surely make on a 125 cc right into the windshield of SUV both brakes squizzed (you braking, SUV drivers are too buisy sorting out the outlines of the road with their eyesight -5 and far lights on, god I’m gonna buy a kilo of tomatos for SUVs).
    Also, with low mass of the scooter you can marvell even yourself kolibri around busses when those drive up behind blind corners in the middle of the road (same width as their differentials) at 50 km/hr during the night time and, yeah, you guessed it, far lights on. No kidding.

Thanks for the tips, ssamaz. In general, the warnings you give are very valid. However, I’d like to discuss a couple of the things you wrote.

[quote=“ssamaz”]The only scooter (of all I tried - 7 +) I can reccomend is 50cc Yamaha Vino. Why?

4. Extremely high torque (equal to most 5 y.o 125 cc)[/quote]Got any figures for that? :wink: Not denying they’re zippy little things in their own way, but torque is not the word that comes to mind. They make the most of what power they do have through the transmission.

[quote=“ssamaz”]I was in special forces, my reaction is superb. In 3 years mountain riding I had to ditch myself 8 times thanks to just FREAKS ON THE ROAD.[/quote] :astonished: I’m sorry, but ditching the bike should be absolutely the last option. I’ve done a fair bit of mountain riding over the last few years and despite some hairy situations I’ve never had to ditch the bike once.

Thanks a lot for the reply while I’m here, Joe. Torque is the same stuff as power transmitted although English is my second.
If in doubt, you can rely on my word or see other people on vinos taking off after red lights, only a few new 125 cc scooters can make a fraction of a sec ahead in 10 meters from the line. If you don’t drive like nuts on 125, cc internal horses in vino will preserve it n2 (or 3 or 4) position ahead of the crowd.

Ditching part. Just three examples from this year.
N1 - a minibus (I assume 2 m width) going down FenJiHu - Danshui 3 zigzag part (10 degree 20 m twists 3 times down the hill of a 3 m width road) going down at 45 or so when I was going up 40. I happened to turn 70 degree turn when he flew up at me also turning there. He didn’t even try to slow down coz he thought it’s ok - he saw me going on the side of the road, 20 cm off the brink. His front right angle basically turned the whole width of the road would-be swipping me off too, so I had to ditch - only 40 cm dow the asphalt but scooter down, me off to the side, luckily behind the bus, helmet over the road, lost breath, bruises all over left side. He saw me falling, he didn’t stop.
N. 2. just a mersedes, on my line, behind the corner. He was 5 m infront of me, I was going 55 (my line, wide almost flat surface), he was going 60 past a car, blind turn ahead of him 30 meters. He was only a /3d past the car he was passing already on the corner. I didn’t ditch, I exaggerated with 8 times, ditching was only 3 and the rest were just free falls, but had I not turned right, cranked the gas and balanced off in a seriously, fraction of a sec, I would had been all over the place. Another thing was that my right was a 80 m slope right of the road (only 40 cm concrete side bloking off the fall).
N. 3 A garbage truck, also - whole road width - going up at 35, I am going down 15 degree down the hill 120 degree turn at 40, but also, 60 cm to my side (although no markings). It’s a part of my fault coz I wasn’t going 25 but he was all over. That was uncontrolled ditch - controlled in the beginning, my head beneath his front when, thanks god, he stopped. I jammed both brakes, stupid me, the scooter first threw to the side on the wheels, then, thanks to gravity, speed and the 15 degree descend of the road, the scooter flew 3/4 a revolution and landed almost behind the truck whenas I was literally facing the my-right front wheel of the truck. That was a nice one, when I was getting me off the asphalt (no broken bones) my ex gf (2 weeks separation) was standing perfectly befind the truck (she was going up smelling his fumes coz he was so immense) watching. I will suppose she didn’t get off her scooter coz I got on my feet.
Other accidents were minor, not like n3, but, major enough to be sometimes lending 5 m apart from the scooter.
Why am I replying in these nasty details - people, if you have an option, ride MRT. Ask folks with wheels, they all have stories.
I am also sorry if reading all this makes you feel bad, I am only writing because I sincerely believe reading this will alert you enough to stay out of trouble. Thanks fro reading.

[quote=“ssamaz”]Thanks a lot for the reply while I’m here, Joe. Torque is the same stuff as power transmitted although English is my second.
If in doubt, you can rely on my word or see other people on vinos taking off after red lights, only a few new 125 cc scooters can make a fraction of a sec ahead in 10 meters from the line. If you don’t drive like nuts on 125 cc internal horses in vino will preserve it n2 (or 3 or 4) position ahead of the crowd.[/quote]Horsepower and torque aren’t the same thing. Horsepower is a function of torque and speed. The reason that 2-stroke 50cc scooters tend to pull ahead at the lights is a combination of their light weight, CVT transmission and the powerband of the engine. The transmission engages near the narrow powerband and at relatively high rpm compared to 4-stroke scooters. This combined with the light weight ensures a quick start. But the power really isn’t very high and the torque even less so.

I didn’t say “horsepower”, Joe, I said torque = power transmitted. Although your corrections why vino appears to have so much torque are more than correct and technical.
P.S - “horsepower” is not a function of torque and speed, joe, it’s “power delivered directly by the engine”, as in first match in google.com/search?hl=en&q=ho … +wikipedia
Don’t be a smart ass, joe, torque in the original context was plain figurative.

[quote=“ssamaz”]I didn’t say “horsepower”, Joe, I said torque = power transmitted.[/quote]Power transmitted is usually measured by horsepower at the rear wheel, isn’t it? And that comes from engine torque and RPM minus some loss due to the drivetrain. Also, you mentioned “internal horses” later in your post.

[quote=“ssamaz”]P.S - “horsepower” is not a function of torque and speed, joe, it’s “power delivered directly by the engine”, as in first match in en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horsepower … ith_torque

[quote=“ssamaz”]Don’t be a smart ass, joe, torque in the original context was plain figurative.[/quote]I’m not being a smart ass. If you meant torque in a “figurative” way you should have said so. However, if “torque” was intended as a figure of speech for “power”, the statement that Vino 50s have “extremely high power” would still be incorrect. They are light and the transmission makes the most of what power they have.

[quote=“ssamaz”]Ditching part. Just three examples from this year.

Why am I replying in these nasty details - people, if you have an option, ride MRT. Ask folks with wheels, they all have stories.
I am also sorry if reading all this makes you feel bad, I am only writing because I sincerely believe reading this will alert you enough to stay out of trouble. Thanks fro reading.[/quote]Well, thanks again for the warning. Actually, there are lots more nasty details in other threads on this forum. Driving conditions here can certainly be difficult. Great alertness is needed and sometimes even that’s not enough.

The way you worded it at first, I thought you meant 8 times deliberately ditching the bike in an attempt to avoid a worse accident. Not generally recommended.

ssamaz:
Welcome to the 'mosa, good of you to offer your opinion on safety and offer some tips and pointers…

A few points though, Joe is not being a smart ass, you are being a dumb ass… If you don’t understand the technical terms used to refer to engine output and performance or how they are derived, or if you have your own personal “special” definition of these terms then stop, learn something about what your are talking about and try to explain yourself correctly… There are a lot a very knowledgable people who post on this site, and when they correct you, they are not being smart asses, they are just trying to help you understand something you clearly don’t… saying a 50cc yamaha scooter has more torque or power or “internal horses”[sic] or any performance variable you like, than a 125cc scooter is just flat out wrong, and no amount of linguistic beating around the bush is going to change that…

Like Joe, I disagree with your suggestion that “ditching” the bike is somehow unavoidable… I’ve ridden thousands of hours in Taiwan’s mountian roads for years now on bikes ranging from old 125cc clapped out POS farmer bike SYM’s, 125cc scooters, 400cc Hondas, 1000cc Kawasakis and for the last 2 years, a new model 1200cc BMW, and like Joe, so far despite many close calls I’ve never “had to ditch” a bike (touch wood)… actually ditching a bike is appropriate in perhaps 0.001% of situations at best, perhaps even less on Taiwan’s mountain roads, although to be honest from your descriptions it sounds like mostly you just crashed / lost control more than a deliberate “ditch”…

Your points are well taken and it’s great that you are here contributing… I’ve said it before though, in Cars and Motorcycles, there are a lot of folks who are extremely knowledgable, experienced and well trained riders, so you are truly ‘preaching to the choir’… so if you get a verse wrong from time to time, don’t be surprised when you cop a swift correction and “character reference” or two… :wink: