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« on: July 25, 2018, 06:22:15 PM »
I thought it might be interesting to some to share my experience going from a scooter to a motorcycle. Although it sounds like most of you went the other way. I've made a few threads for decision making that I could reply to, but I think it better to start a new thread rather than revive one of those.
I drove a Vino 125 for about 6 years until it was stolen. I was intent on buying the absolute smallest vehicle I could. I might have gone with the 50, except I didn't think it would be fast enough.
I replaced it with a People 250 and drove that for 4 years until the engine got destroyed.
I was fairly particular about choosing the People 250. I loved the aesthetics. I wanted the large wheels, the flat floorboard. The radiator seemed to be located in the best possibly place. I had previous experience with one before, and new how comfortable and powerful it was, and and how high the quality was. There's really nothing quite like it -- and it seems to me they made some very questionable decisions in the later revisions.
After the engine died, I became aware of some of the problems with owning this bike, as I was stuck.
Rebuilding it would have been very expensive and risky. The piston shattered and the crankcase was full of fragments. Ever sweep up broken glass and then step on a piece a month later?
There were no used engines that wouldn't be imported from Italy. And so far, no interest whatsoever in buying the bike from me.
The cost of even a small used bike is very significant for me, so I narrowed my choices to bikes with plenty of used parts. And no water cooling -- too many ways to lead to catastrophic failure.
The XV250 is very popular, and basically unchanged for roughly 30 years. So plenty of used bikes, and plenty of used affordable parts. Moreover, there's a ton of quality aftermarket parts. Carburetors, ignition components, cylinders, all extremely cheap new. So basically as long as the frame stays in one piece, I don't see any reason I can't just keep replacing things as they go. To me, that's incredible.
There's features on scooters that I took for granted that aren't unusual to be absent from motorcycles: oil pressure light, center stand, fuel gauge, turn signal clicks. STILL no tachometer, and still no hazard lights.
Compared to scooters, working on it is amazingly easy. No plastic removal, and what does need to come off sometimes (seat, gas tank, covers) is trivial to do. Everything is extremely accessible.
The fuel economy is better. This has less, it seems, to do with scooters vs motorcycles, and more to do with this particular bike. An average tank seems to be about 80mpg. My best so far was 98mpg. Most 250 motorcycles it sounds like are on par with scooters though, somewhere in the 60's.
The differences in the way it drives is pretty surprising. Everything I've read says that a motorcycle should have a huge advantage in not having the weight of the engine involved in the swingarm. But the People 250 is much more well cushioned. Thankfully, I live in place with excellent roads now, so it doesn't matter much.
There's much more vibration on the XV250. It seems pretty similar in power, but the People 250 felt much more effortless getting up to speed. It probably is able to accelerate faster, if I were more willing to push the RPMs in lower gears.
And the seat is noticably worse on the XV250, reminiscent of the Vino 125. For longer trips, on the People 250, the limit on how far I could go was how much my brain could take. On the XV250, after a couple hours the seat gets pretty hard and my legs need to get unbent. I bought a new seat (cheap, aftermarket) that seems much better, but I haven't taken it for a long trip yet.
The transmission is obviously a huge difference. While I already understood basically how to do it, more or less, I underestimated the amount of skill needed or the complexity. I'm still learning, months later, and there's still a bit that I'm unclear about. Engine braking is a godsend on the hills around here. And instead of having to preset how the transmission behaves with rollers, I can simply select a gear for efficiency or power. The gearing can also be modified a bit with sprockets.
In terms of complexity and repair, the scooters have a pretty significant advantage here I think. It doesn't sound like it would be that much work to completely rebuild a CVT which are simple devices. Manual transmissions are relatively complex, and working on them involves completely disassembling the engine.
The XV250 is about 70 pounds lighter than the People 250. This is particularly welcome on the steep gravel/dirt forest service roads, although I can't ride them side by side to be clear on how this changes things.
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