regarding cyclepedia prices

[Stig / Major Tom]

As near as I can tell from browsing the cyclepedia.com site - they no longer offer life-time online subscriptions.
??
They seem to offer only 1 year online subscriptions now, with 1 yr of free tech support.
In 2013 I bought a life-time subscription for my 2012 Kymco LIKE200iLX. I haven't opened a service ticket with them in a few years - but I imagine I still have thier tech support if needed.
I'll call them next week to see what they say.

Did any others here buy the life-time subscription?
I paid $42.95 in 2013.
Looks like a 1yr (w/1 yr tech support) is now $25.

Stig

[airshot]

Back in 2016 I bought the lifetime plan for my Kymco 450i UTV.
Shortly after purchased the hard copy factory service manual, just in case something would happen to the online version. Have opened a couple tickets in past years, honestly not much help !!  The best thing they did was to give me the phone number to the main shop for Kymco down south.  They were helpfull but that was over 5 years back.

[CROSSBOLT]

I know I am a grump about a lot of thisf type of stuff BUT I have yet to be satisfied at what cyclepedia seems to offer compared to what I was led to believe they were SUPPOSED to accomplish.

Service manuals are the one area that Kymco did not emulate Honda!

[rjs987]

I'm rather satisfied with my FREE PDF file download of the service manual that I have for my AK 550 from www.Kymco.at
From the reports read so far I don't know if I want to bother spending any money for a printed manual that is less than I already have.
Granted, the Cyclepedia manual is likely much more up to date with the USA version of the AK 550 since that was used to create that manual. But I'm not convinced that there is much, if any, significant difference between the USA models and the Euro 4 model that my PDF file is based on. Color is not significant for service manual purposes.

[Stig / Major Tom]

I know I am a grump about a lot of thisf type of stuff BUT I have yet to be satisfied at what cyclepedia seems to offer compared to what I was led to believe they were SUPPOSED to accomplish.

Service manuals are the one area that Kymco did not emulate Honda!

Agree Karl!
HONDA manuals are amazing.....I sometimes get my Forza manual out and read myself to sleep with it at bedtime!
Those line drawings are top notch - and so easy to understand.
Step-by-step panel removal!

Photos? : I do very much prefer the color photos found on Cyclepedia's online manual - to any b/w photos - and doubt that there is any printing that can match the color, lighting and clarity of their online manual.

I only paid $3K for my Scooter - but do not mind paying for a service manual.

Stig

[randyo]

Agree Karl!
HONDA manuals are amazing.....I sometimes get my Forza manual out and read myself to sleep with it at bedtime!
Those line drawings are top notch - and so easy to understand.
Step-by-step panel removal!

Photos? : I do very much prefer the color photos found on Cyclepedia's online manual - to any b/w photos - and doubt that there is any printing that can match the color, lighting and clarity of their online manual.

I only paid $3K for my Scooter - but do not mind paying for a service manual.

Stig

well doesn't that depend on the quality of yer monitor and or printer

now that I received my paper manual, I wish I'd just got a pdf download and printed and bound it myself (not complaining about the spiral binding)

[Stig / Major Tom]

well doesn't that depend on the quality of yer monitor and or printer

now that I received my paper manual, I wish I'd just got a pdf download and printed and bound it myself (not complaining about the spiral binding)

Your printer must be;
a)  a lot more economical than mine to print that many color pages!🙂
b) capable of much higher quality printing!
I've never seen a monitor with a poor quality image.....but I guess they must exist.
Stig

[airshot]

well doesn't that depend on the quality of yer monitor and or printer





now that I received my paper manual, I wish I'd just got a pdf download and printed and bound it myself (not complaining about the spiral binding)

Once I realized just how many pages were involved in printing, I thought the price of 45 bucks was pretty cheap to pay for a hard copy, when I considered paper and ink costs.  Didnt want to take the chance of another online company going down the tube. If the day ever comes where the machine goes up for sale, having a manual can make a good sales point, at leastvthat has been the case in other toys I have sold.....

[randyo]

Your printer must be;
a)  a lot more economical than mine to print that many color pages!🙂
b) capable of much higher quality printing!
I've never seen a monitor with a poor quality image.....but I guess they must exist.
Stig

probably, before I retired, it was not uncommon for me to print wetland impact applications, 7 copies, up to 50pages = 350 pages, and bound, not like I don't have the equipment, and ink, I have spare tanks (500ml cartridges) in all 6 colors, yellow, cyan, magenta, gloss black, flat black and graytone that will just spoil if I don't use em, I might be out of spiral binders, but that's just a trip to
Staples

not all my monitors are the same, they look good individually, but side by side, you see the difference in my high resolution CAD monitors

that said, I still prefer my reference material on paper, I'm just disapointed, I was shown a color manual, and got a b/w one,