KymcoForum.com

Commuting to Nottingham for the final time (new job next week) through the icy Peak District, UK.

Not usually one for pictures and my phone takes awful pictures, but managed to get out for a 40 minute ride before the rain set in tonight.

The newly-reconstructed, 32 year old CB250 didn't miss a beat and I could feel it freeing up after a few years in bits and the battery finally started to charge a bit. A few rattles that will need tightening, especially around the headlight area.

It's that time of the year where I have to look for bike insurance

I don't ride to work anymore as I largely work at home - especially at the moment.

Both my remaining bikes - a 1983 Honda C70 Cub/Passport and a 1981 Honda NS50 Melody are getting on a bit. I've let everything else go over the last 12 months to fund work on the house which we are slowly renovating.

Called around a bit. Quotes for £180, £150 to insure the pair of them, which I didn't think was too bad. Made one last call for comparison, and the chap asked if I'd considered classic bike insurance. It hadn't crossed my mind because they're both dogs and I have never really thought of them as classics, just as bikes that happened to survive to 37 and 39 years old.

But, apparently, insuring classic bikes is cheap - £75 for the pair for the year. Whoooooooo!

Went out to meet some friends in the Cotswolds, UK in the middle of April. It was unseasonably cold. We stayed at a rubbish pub, drunk the beer, rode the lanes and generally had a good time at sub-40mph. The newly-repaired SH50 did well - 38mph all the time and managed the 350 round journey for the weekend!

Copied from some notes I wrote for myself this morning...

Pictures to follow - but it's not very easy for me to upload them from this tablet, and it's quite hard to take pictures of people's scooters without looking weird.

***

Another day, another poorly thought out series of ramblings. I’m bashing this out on an old Android tablet and my faithful servant of a Bluetooth keyboard, bought for £5 a few years ago and somehow still running through thick and thin.

I’m sat on the balcony of our flat (for the week) somewhere near Belfiore in Florence, though I’m not entirely sure of the localities here. It’s probably less scenic than it sounds. It’s Monday morning around 9AM, traffic is heavy and builders are starting work on the building opposite. The small bicycle repair shop opposite is also closed, although it’s opening hours have been something of a mystery to me. The proprietors seem to come and go as they please, and spend most of the time outside of the shop smoking and talking on their mobiles even when they are in residence.

In the distance, highlighted by the skyline of the narrow street, I can see the Duomo looming up. It looks a lot closer than it actually is, which is testament to it’s obscene size. It really is spectacular to behold.

Anyway, I’ve harped on enough for now. Let’s talk about the automobiles.

As you’d expect, the Italians are pretty keen on Italian vehicles. The undisputed king of the roads is the Fiat Panda, which is popular at home as well, but here seems to make much more sense. Gone are the parasitic SUVs that blight the streets of the UK, and smaller cars are all the rage. Lancia still have a bit of a presence here, and old Lancia Ypsilons cruise around, looking a bit worth for wear. They are seriously ugly cars.

The commercial vehicles bring me joy as well. The Italians like their vans small, and there’s quite a few Piaggio Apes still around, carrying mostly fruit and flowers as far as I can tell. If you haven’t seen what one is, now is the time to search the internet for a picture. They’re bizarre. They are also very noisy. You never miss one approaching. The Piaggio Porter is also popular here; a “bread bin” mini van that appears in all sorts of configurations. There’s one shaped like a pickup truck down in the road below me now. In the UK, we used to have these; the Suzuki and Bedford Rascal, and the Daihatsu Hijet later on. Now, however, they’re all but gone.

Anyway, let’s talk about scooters. We all know that these are what I get excited about, after all!

I think I’ve figured the system out now. Basically, if you want scooter respect, there are only three options open to you; a Honda SH150, a Piaggio Liberty or an Aprillia Scarabeo, which is a model that’s all but disappeared everywhere else in the world. If it’s a two stroke, all the better. There are two strokes running around the streets here that should have been blown up and dead ten years ago, and the Italians don’t seem to be preoccupied with new models in the same way that they are in the UK.

Conspicuous by their absence are two models; the Honda PCX and the Honda Vision, the biggest scooter in France and the UK respectively. Despite sharing a border with the French, who totally love the PCX, there’s none here. I may have seen one, although I’m not sure. The Honda Vision, beloved in the UK and used by every delivery company without fail, isn’t here either. I can’t see why you’d have a Piaggio Liberty and not consider a Vision 110, so I’m a bit foxed by this if I’m honest.

Also conspicuous by their absence are Suzuki and Kawasaki. Apart from the occasional Burgman (Burgervan), Suzuki just aren’t here. Kawasaki, as far as I can tell, don’t exist here.

At the tier below the three undisputed gods of Italian scootering, there’s a tussle between a few more models. In contrast to my visit a few years ago, ownership of Vespa models seems to be on the down. A handful of battered PX models are still kicking around, but they’re far from ubiquitous as they once were in this country. Snapping at the heels of Vespa are the giants from Taiwan, Kymco and SYM. There’s not many streets you can walk down without happening across a Kymco Agility, and this is likely the result of every Piaggio dealer I’ve seen also being a Kymco dealer, whether for spares or dealing parts. The dealer network seems really strong and the network of small scooter shops throughout the city reflects the reality that 25% of the traffic here is scooters. If you really like scooters, as I do, it’s some version of heaven.The Agility models are pretty evenly split between the older, small wheeled carburetted versions and the newer “City” models with larger wheels. It’s perhaps testament to the quality of the Agility that they’re racing around the city, two-up, running happily past 50,000KM from the odometers I’ve seen.

Snapping at the heels of the Agility is the obvious European contender from SYM, their “Symphony 125”. It’s quite hard to pick them out from the Honda SH models kicking around, so I haven’t actually spotted that many. In the UK, SYM dwarf Kymco, but here their showing is on a much more even ground. They are great models. I have a lot of time for SYM; well built, dependable and with a nice range of scooters.

Notable again by their absence are Chinese scooters. In the UK, the Chinese import brand “Lexmoto” rule the roost of small-capacity machines. Here, however, there’s nothing Chinese at all. It seems that Italians may be more discerning, or maybe just more loyal, preferring their Piaggios and Aprillias to many machines from outside. Let’s not forget that the Piaggio Group (which has owned Aprillia since the mid ‘00s) is the fourth biggest producer of two-wheelers in the world, and it’s right on their doorstep. The SH model from Honda has clearly made it’s reputation here from quality, and I suspect Kymco’s foothold has come from being the budget offering of every Piaggio dealer. It’s a market that has everything it needs, and perhaps doesn’t need the influx of budget machines in the way that the UK did.

With a fairly narrow selection of bikes on the streets, let’s turn our attention to aftermarket parts.

I have seen maybe two bikes here that don’t have a significant screen, coming up to at least eye level and often shielding the hands as well. At first I struggled to work out the purpose of these, but then it became clear; everybody likes to ride with open-faced helmets without visors, and the screens essentially become their eye protection. The screen brands are predictable, with Givi, Isotta and Puig ruling the roost. I’d be surprised if these bikes are leaving the showroom without screens, and most of them seem to shun factory-fitted goodies for the aftermarket offerings of Givi and Shad, especially when it comes to top boxes. In the UK, top boxes and screens are predominantly Chinese. Here, they’re predominantly from Givi. Personally, I’ve never been able to justify the expense of buying from Givi, but perhaps I’m missing a trick.

There’s no doubt that the glorious scooter culture of Florence is fed predominantly by it’s very agreeable weather. It is February at the moment, and I’ve been walking around for a few days with a t-shirt on and occasionally a jumper. If it were this nice all the time at home, perhaps more of us would be riding scooters. In stark contrast to even my home city in the UK, the traffic here isn’t very bad at any time. Although I can’t deny it’s a bit frantic, the smaller proportion of cars really makes getting around easier, and there’s a large number of locals also using bicycles and the pay-per-use “Mobikes” to get around the city. The tram’s well used, and the busses are cheap and plentiful.

I do wonder if riding good quality scooters makes for a happier scooter culture as well. There are some absolute sheds riding around the city, but they’re still running, and older bikes are much more common than newer ones. We haven’t really been able to buy two stroke scooters here in the EU for a good few years now, but they’re here in force and the dense air has a distinct whiff of two-stroke in the mornings when you get down to street level. It’s a culture that’s more in love with their scooters, and sees commuting on them as a no-brainer rather than a chore. Perhaps, with the screens, top boxes and lack of protective gear, they’re on to something.

I've had a bit of a bad run financially recently, with my other half's job becoming unstable and having to prop up other family members, which seems to be a recurring issue.

After some fairly heated discussion, the Like 200i has been sold as it was worth considerably more than my other half's 20-year-old Toyota, to buy us some breathing space. I've also said goodbye to my bass guitar cabs, which was a wrench.

For the first time in 10 years I am without a bike and it feels rubbish. Other half is now walking to work and I will drive her car until it goes pop, which will hopefully be the other side of Christmas.

I've enjoyed the forum and hope that it's alright to check in and get involved although I'll be Kymcoless for a while. I've been generally impressed by the brand and I'll be keeping my eyes open for an Agility 50 (worth pretty much nothing over here) to pootle around town on as soon as I can scrape a few quid together.

Anyways, cheers for the help with the bike and the food for thought - I'll be around

Evening Everyone!

I'm in need of a new belt and Kymco dealers in the UK are less than helpful. Does anybody have a part number and manufacturer they could recommend for me, please?

I think I can get Malossi from Italy but I'm open to any other suggestions!

Cheers

Hi Everyone,

I've got a Like 125, 2012, black in colour, that I'm taking apart slowly.

If there's anything in particular you want or need, send me a PM. If it's not needed for my project, I'll quote!

Thanks