Unicorn scooter

[Ministerofsillywalks]

This is what worries me. I've had Moto Guzzi's and Piaggio always seem more incompetent than deliberately bad, but they just don't seem to do as well as Honda.

Andy

Honda and the other Japanese manufacturers didn't come to lead the market for nothing. Selling quality bikes and provide good backup if anything does go wrong. In other words look after their customers and they keep coming back.

[capitano]

This is what worries me. I've had Moto Guzzi's and Piaggio always seem more incompetent than deliberately bad, but they just don't seem to do as well as Honda.

Andy

Honda and the other Japanese manufacturers didn't come to lead the market for nothing. Selling quality bikes and provide good backup if anything does go wrong. In other words look after their customers and they keep coming back.

Piaggio UK are exactly that! If you’re lucky enough to to find a great dealer, you can near guarantee that Piaggio will let them down eventually.

Sang Yang Motors (SYM) also sell quality bikes, and provide terrific backup … as long as you live in a country where they self distribute ( Greece for example.)

The UK market is such a piss in the ocean for them, it’s simply not worth thrm having their own distribution arm here. So, they use multi-brand distributors that frankly make even Piaggio UK look great.

[MrGrumpy]

In my period of owning the Bev350 a few years ago now, I never had any problems with Piaggio support - the dealer in York was fine and getting spares was no problem. 20 years ago, Piaggio were pretty hopeless!

[Ministerofsillywalks]

The UK being such a tiny market could well be the cause of the problem. As Capitano says, it isn't worth manufacturers putting much effort into spares availability. Now if the scooter market was as big as Italy's...

[velocipede6295]

In my period of owning the Bev350 a few years ago now, I never had any problems with Piaggio support - the dealer in York was fine and getting spares was no problem. 20 years ago, Piaggio were pretty hopeless!

How long did you own the Beverly 350 MrGrumpy, how many miles did you cover, any issues etc? What sort of support from Piaggio did you need?
Why I ask - I have today viewed a 2023 Piaggio Beverley S 400, in bright orange, 1400 miles on the clock, and will have a test ride shortly, with a possible view to buy. It has 35 bhp and weighs in at 195 KG kerb weight.

The only Piaggio I previously owned was a 2002 Piaggio X9, 500, which I bought new, and ran for 18 months, until the centre stand holed the oil filter causing a severe oil loss when out on a ride! I lost confidence in it after that and replaced it with a Triumph Bonneville. Apart from a replacement oil filter and a centre stand rubber bung / stop, the only other things I needed was a replacement mirror and some touch up paint to fix a slight mishap when I dropped the bike in a separate incident at low speed I had no problem getting the parts via the dealer. The Piaggio X9 was a terrific scooter with a good turn of speed and was very economical.

[MrGrumpy]

Let me think! I owned the Bev for 3 or 4 years...it was initially my commuter, until I 'retired' (made redundant). I usually had a Tmax as well, so I didn't do huge amounts of miles on it, probably 3-4000 a year. It was normally serviced by a local workshop - the reason for going to the York dealer were that there were several recalls where parts had to be fitted by an official dealer. This was straightforward with it being able to be booked in reasonably promptly I think, though I have a vague recollection that there was a wait for one thing. The only real issue I had, and it was a biggie, was that it developed a water leak - from the engine block! It was nearly it, but my workshop suggested putting radweld in (or similar) and that cured it! Decent economy - 65mpg I think, not bad considering the performance and I normally rode it like I stole it. General reliability was fine I think. Tyres were an issue, I ended up CityGrips which I didn't like, even then life wasn't great, and I had some Maxxis tyres on there once, but the rear wore out in around 1000 miles.....

As a scoot, my experience was a bit mixed. It had a GREAT engine (water leaks apart) - really grunty, would keep up with a Tmax up to moderate speeds and I once found myself cruising at 85 on a dual carriageway....However, I found the handling a bit difficult, I could never work out whether it wanted to be manhandled or treated gently. Corner entry was terrible....you'd brake going into a corner and the moment you took the brake off there was a terrible feeling like your front wheel had come off! When you got power back on it was fine! A lack of feel generally, made it pretty tricky, especially in the wet, though it maybe as much due to the Michelin CityGrips I had on most of the time. So, with me no longer commuting but doing more rural leisure miles, it wasn't that suitable any more. Note that whilst its only 195kg, it feels heavier as the weight seems to be carried rather high up.

Personally I found it extremely uncomfortable after around 20 mins. Don't know why, but my shoulders & arms ached, and I had to keep trying to find a different arm position to get comfortable. This is obviously entirely personal - the previous owner had toured Spain on it!!! So it was obviously fine for him!

So, it wasn't really suitable for me after I stopped commuting, and FunkyCowie was selling his mk3 Tmax so I bought that. I advertised the Bev on ebay and some dealer came all the way from London to collect it!

[velocipede6295]

Thanks for all that! I note you found it uncomfortable. I use my scooters for rides of at least 2hrs, half day, or all day rides. Regarding comfort I'm 6'3", " substantially built ", and find most scooters cramped, but I adapt, mainly. How tall are you if you don't mind me asking? I am wondering after what you said if I would find it uncomfortable on longer rides, I doubt if the dealer will allow me a long test ride ( assuming they can get me covered on their insurance - I had trouble getting a proper test ride recently on a different bike, due to my age, and lack of enthusiasm from the dealer's insurance for an older rider.)

[MrGrumpy]

I'm a more moderate 5'9", so somewhat shorter. You may find that being taller helps as your arms maybe at a different angle to mine. But I said, it seemed an issue thats unique to me - I've seen no other complaints. I am prone to a few arm aches & pains - I still have the occasional twinge from when a kind woman in a Land Rover Discovery decided that the normal rules of precedence on roundabouts didn't apply to her, and fractured my humerous. The general seating position of the Bev isn't that uncomfortable, pretty similar to the ADV350 actually, but its obviously nowhere anything like as roomy as a Tmax (mk3 excepted!).
Actually the Tmax illustrates how marginal these things can be - most Tmaxs are very roomy, though on the mk3 Yamaha played with the riding position and lowered the bars and raised the footboards, and probably moved the rider forward slightly. Unfortunately this proved appalling for tall riders like yourself who found their knees fouling the bars. On the other hand, for me its perfect, and I find the very slightly leaned forward position of the mk3 slightly more comfortable on long journeys than the other versions I've owned. As you say, its can be difficult to find these things out on a test ride, though I could have ridden the ADV350 a lot further than I did on my test ride.

[velocipede6295]

I went to look at a 2019 T Max recently, and I found just what you said, the footboards seemed high and my knees fouled the bars, which cooled my interest immediately. I didn't ride it.
Thanks for all the info about the Beverley ( they need to change that name! ) I'll see how the test ride goes.

[scootabout]

I had a Bev 350 for three years. I found it very comfy, and with a wide Givi screen fitted gave brilliant protection at speed (like MrGrumpy, I rode it like I stole it, which the Bev seems to demand!). I covered about 11,500 miles in that time, often two-up. The handling was good, if I concentrated, but wouldn't tolerate closed throttle corner entry gladly, unlike Hondas). 65 mpg over the course of ownership. I can't remember what tyres I had (not CityGrips), but tyre life was fine (6k rear, 11k front). Storage was excellent, ideal four touring. It felt heavier than it was, the handgrips were chunky, servicing costs were low.
The thing that killed it for me was when I took it in for a service and front tyre. The bike went into limp mode on the way home. The (non-Piaggio) mechanics just couldn't fix it; it went to another garage, then back to the first one. Eventually, it was traced to a sensor on one of the wheels, which cured it, but it was off the road from July to October! Along with the number plate being cloned, I just wanted rid of it, but I gaze at the 400 sometimes and am tempted...