I had an early BMW C600 and it was a great scoot.
When I bought it I was very wary about all the horror stories that I had heard about
But it turned out fine, only problem I had was that dust collected in the variator and it used to squeak once in a while.
Apart from that it was great.
Almost 60 BHP and it went very well.
The handling was the best of any Maxi-scooter I have tried and I've ridden them all except the Gilera GP800
I am a massive Burgman 650 fan (owned 3) but when I rode the latest Burgman 650 back to back with the BMW it really showed how good the BMW suspension was.
The Burgman was like a pogo stick in comparison!
Hope this helps

Andy

I did seriously consider the BMW and did hear about the the steep price of the major service,i confronted the dealer and after a lot of “beating about the bush”did admit about he major service price,i think much early this year or even in 2017 i did post a receipt someone had put on another forum,anyway I didn’t pursue it further and i brought the Tmax instead which i am very happy with....

Steve

roadster wrote: Sat Dec 29, 2018 10:17 am With a Kymco engine I reckon its very similar to my AK550 but without the belt final drive. I'm not keen on chains or on BMW prices but time will tell.

Nah, your AK 550 engine is Kymco designed, Kymco built and brilliant. Gorgeous sound, EASY servicing, wet clutch like a proper bike and no scooter chain drive in back.

The C 650 engine is BMW-designed, Loncin (in China) built, with lowest-bid subcontractors in China making all the parts. Kymco only supervises the BMW scooter assembly line at the Loncin factory, and had NOTHING to do with the marginal, cheap design of the C 650 engine. Bad cam drive chains and tensioners, bad rear chain/gear sets and guides, cheap dry clutches, reoccurring driveability problems, porous engine castings and rear chain housings, etc.

The current iteration is better than the original, but that's a REALLY LOW threshold to exceed. Check resale values of the BMW scoots. Horrible...

Where did the ak550 get purchased from... Can't find any for sale

SkuTorr wrote: Sun Dec 30, 2018 11:00 pm Nah, your AK 550 engine is Kymco designed, Kymco built and brilliant. Gorgeous sound, EASY servicing, wet clutch like a proper bike and no scooter chain drive in back.
The C 650 engine is BMW-designed, Loncin (in China) built, with lowest-bid subcontractors in China making all the parts. Kymco only supervises the BMW scooter assembly line at the Loncin factory, and had NOTHING to do with the marginal, cheap design of the C 650 engine. Bad cam drive chains and tensioners, bad rear chain/gear sets and guides, cheap dry clutches, reoccurring driveability problems, porous engine castings and rear chain housings, etc. The current iteration is better than the original, but that's a REALLY LOW threshold to exceed. Check resale values of the BMW scoots. Horrible...

Goodness with that assessment of the bmw scooter I’m surprised they’ve sold any

The BMW scooters are now quite a good machine, but expensive to service in my opinion. The marque was dogged by poor quality when the first ones were released and engine failure was common over here and in 'Urop' and the States. Bikes were often off the road for weeks and weeks and even months waiting for new engines or other parts. You couldn't get the spare parts to rebuild the engines with and even if you could the engine would clap out again shortly after with exactly the same camchain, valve, camshaft, piston or cylinder problems. After much re-designing, as per Kymco's recommendations, the engines were finally acceptable. Shame BMW didn't listen to Kymco telling them the motor was floored in the first instance.

This is all interesting. I thought that Kymco did make the C650 engines? I know that Loncin make the complete C400 scooter but didn't think they had any involvement in the C650s. But its quite possible that things have changed over the years...
My impression was that the rumoured Kymco disatisfaction with BMW's design was more to do with the transmission, or did I dream that??
It would be interesting if some technical bod was able to examine the AK550 and C650 engines and could find out exactly how similar they are! Superficially, they look very similar, and the basic design concept is the same, but looks can be deceiving. One wonders whether BMW asked Kymco to design as well as build the engine, and Kymco used the same concept in the AK550, or whether BMW designed it, and Kymco nicked it!

MrGrumpy wrote: Mon Dec 31, 2018 1:46 pm whether BMW designed it, and Kymco nicked it!

TBH with the cost of R&D and the number of pies BMW have got fingers in I really can't think their budget would stretch to any scooter work at all and would outsource the lot.for such a small market slice

Like Roadrunners GS310 to my knowledge all Indian designed and built (TVA?) so I feel sure the quality will be there. KTM small capacity machines & the baby HD where taking a huge sway in the market of the noveau rich whilst us peasants rode the old Honda Activa

Mark has visited Goa more lately than me so may have more of an update

Riding wise I rode a 2014 model through the Sierra Nevada mountains and it wasn't too shabby through the hundreds of bends. Comparing it to tmaxes and Nexus 500, I felt it handled a little slower than both. But was very stable and didn't suffer the high speed wobble my mk3 tmax had. It had a decent turn of speed, but it did suffer with bar vibration at 70 ish.

I actually liked it overall and it has plenty of room for two up, if that's your thing. However, two things put me off. My local BMW dealer ignored my request for a test drive and it used more fuel than my other maxi's.

I'm sticking with tmaxes. But we all have our own views and there maybe many who disagree with me. Good luck.

I remember being impressed by the 600S' suspension - had a nice taut but comfortable feel (much like the TMax mk6!), and the lovely noise it made when being thrashed. But for some reason I didn't feel confident to push it into bends. OK I'd only been riding it for half and hour, but every time I went up to a bend, I ended up backing off a lot. No idea why...very strange.
An annoying thing mentioned in some road tests is that whilst the storage is claimed to take full face helmets, it seems that only BMW helmets fit! Even normal sized and shaped helmets from other manufacturers don't seem to fit on many occasions. Obviously the answer is to try before you buy.