gn2 wrote:Sym sensible? That'll be some u-turn...

SYM - Engine of life! Having customers that accept the regular maintenance philosophy and change the oil every 3000 km seems sensible to me.
Prevention rather than cure!

I get the philosophy, but why have to change the oil so frequently when with modern oil technology and metallurgy and design there is simply no need?
With the three year warranty and ridiculous service schedule keeping a new Sym warrantied will cost a ruddy fortune.
Sym advocate three monthly changes, even if the bike has sat unused for three months with fresh oil in it, say over the course of a typical UK winter, you need to drain it and bin it.
So that's a dozen services during the warranty period.
Madness.

I've had a couple of Joyrides & now have a SYM Jet, they all use a crude strainer rather than a filter & require 1000km oil changes. Great if you stick to regular changes but hardly mainstream. I think it's all due to even the rather nice Joyride watercooled 4V engine being evolved from the ancient Honda GY6 motor.

They seen to spend a lot of R&D developing a huge range of different bikes with different body panels, LED lights & lovely dashboards all running 1960's underpinnings.

Kind of suits old boys like me, but hardly good business in the western world.

And as for the dealer network & spares availability............

Blubayou wrote:I've had a couple of Joyrides & now have a SYM Jet, they all use a crude strainer rather than a filter & require 1000km oil changes. Great if you stick to regular changes but hardly mainstream. I think it's all due to even the rather nice Joyride watercooled 4V engine being evolved from the ancient Honda GY6 motor.

They seen to spend a lot of R&D developing a huge range of different bikes with different body panels, LED lights & lovely dashboards all running 1960's underpinnings.

Kind of suits old boys like me, but hardly good business in the western world.

And as for the dealer network & spares availability............

You should see there home market (Taiwan) models... Fuel injected, good instruments, look great, modern engines. Yet for the export market SYM seem to be lagging a little behind. They are still using carbs (on non maxi's) for example whilst almost everyone else has moved onto injection. The oil though doesn't need changing every 1000km... It's 3000km but should be checked every 1000km. Parts can be a bit annoying, I have to get air filters from the dealer, unless anyone knows a site that sells SYM GTS air filters...

Reliabilty wise though I can't fault SYM. My GTS 250i is five and a half years old and so far only a £20 switch for the underseat light failed after four years of use.

My current SYM states quite clearly to change the oil every 1000km and check every 500km. Then again it is written in chinglish.

Why on earth do they not get a british dealer to go through the manual before they print it... in mine they they clearly mark the high beam indicator as 'Time Meter', they tell you to avoid flames when refueling your bike and warn of 'serious cases: it serious cases'.

Looks like the 400i and 600i use cannister oil filters, the screw on type. Wonder what the service interval is. Spaceprobe...we need you!

Even the UK website is a bit "chinglish" (I like that phrase). Makes me wonder about the wisdom of buying a complicated maxi when the manual might make no sense. Still, if the service intervals on the maxis are reasonable and as they have ABS, I'd be seriously interested.

The best bits:

headlights are of excellent aggression and safety. = what, so they blind people deliberately? But not in a bad way, of course.

the automatic interior light to illuminate in the dark. = as against only working in daylight?

The adjustable dual rear shock absorbers imply for different road conditions. = imply what for different conditions?

Its enormous space easily put in two helmets. Even in the dark surrounding, an extra night light provides great assistants for clearly searching. = Where to start? Well, clearly the boot space is designed to be taken out and split in two so that you can carry it in two people's crash helmets. And I can only think that the second part means that along with the scooter you get a couple of people to come along when it's dark and hold a torch for you to see what you are doing? Putting these together makes sense because the two assistants that come with the scooter will be able to carry your stuff from the boot in their crash helmets for you. So you'll always feel part of a community when you buy a Sym as your new friends trail around the place with you. Nice!

The reproduction of retro elegance and pure western classic design are embodied in the Fiddle II. Old fashion elegance and talent, with pure westernized classic design. The astonishing modern retro design is the integration of arc body shape, classic European head light and tail light, and the chromed garnishes. Arc line designed with classic old fashion head lamp, westernized old fashion taillight and electroplated decoration; one remarkable design.= we've copied an old Italian design. And we're actually proud of that. So much that we're going to say "western" and "old" quite a lot and in different ways.

HeadlightThe 35w lights give the best visibility in the dark. = So 55W or Xenon are worse, then?

A clear case of someone using Google Translate and not proof-reading the results....

Spaceprobe is here fear not. On the maxsym 400i its an oil change 3000 miles (3 months), at 6000 throw in an air filter, clean oil strainer, transmission oil and then at 12000 its also plug, belt and rollers. 15000 miles change the drop in oil filter. So far so good, now in Australia the Maxsym 400 is a huge seller and SYM Australia have put out a statement saying the service schedule is incorrect and that it should be based solely of distance covered not time and of course the Max as a warning light which comes on at approximately 3000 miles to inform you thats its oil is due for a change. For my part I am changing the oil and cleaning the strainer and air filter at 3000. At 6000 I will also change the oil and air filter (all cheap from http://makinaparts.com/lang-en/108-sym-en" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;) and the transmission oil. At 12000 miles I will check the belt and rollers to see if they need replacement. I have already fitted a Brisk sports plug . Do keep in mind that these SYM scooters are sold in markets with very hard road conditions and where home maintenance is a necessity and they do very well.

in the sym shark manual,

for safety reasons don't wear loose cuffs when riding they will become tangled with the steering handle and cause you to crash

I found this: http://gostodescooters.blogspot.co.uk/2 ... drive.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; It is on the 400 version, rather handily there is a translator key on the left of the screen.