Hi there,

I'm new to the two-wheeled world so please be gentle

After 10 years spent sitting in cars in traffic jams, I've decided its time to move over to two wheels to save on time and fuel. I've just done my CBT and am now looking for my first bike. I was initially looking at the Honda Varadero but my budget is only about £1400 so its difficult to find a good one in the South East for that kind of money so am now considering scooters. I will be doing quite a lot of miles so am ideally after a decent sized 125 maxi scooter but don't really know where to begin.

I've been looking at either Honda S Wing, Suzuki Burgman, Yamaha X Max, Piaggo X8/9 or Peugeot Satalis. I'm leaning towards to Japanese makes as I've had French, Italian and Japanese cars and you can probably guess which ones have had no end of issues and which have been indestructable.

The problem I'm having is finding any real world comparisons between them, the all seem to have good reviews from their own owners but not many people seem to have riden more than a couple of them to get a fair comparison. I'm hoping to have some free time in the next couple of weeks to find some at local dealers and get out and test drive them but any help or advice you could offer would be much appreciated.

I'm a tall guy but am pretty skinny so don't add a lot of wait, I want something that will happily sit at 60-65mph but will still hit 70 to make getting past lorries etc a bit easier. My main concern is comfort, some days I might do 40 miles each way so need something comfortable. Most of it will be congested dual carriageway or B-roads so don't need a lot of top end speed but don't want to be dangerously slow either.

Sorry to bombard you all with quite so much reading this early in the day.

Regards,
Ian

Welcome, dont exclude Taiwanese or Korean from your list, there are some good models out there

I hadn't even thought about Korean or Taiwanese and don't really know anything about them, could you recommend some? I know they're meant to be better than the Chinese create bikes but are they as good as the established Japanese manufacturers?

Welcome Ian, I think the Varadero would suit you best, a really good 'V' twin motor which does loads of miles. Some good ones are available for your money, now that the bike not being sold new any more.

welcome lad, scoots in the south east and around london etc are used as commuters so expect around 17,000 miles on them for around £1400.. they have a service interval of 2500 miles to do mainly oil change, so easy to do yourself. so as long as they have service history they will be fine, the main honda sh125 and s-wing (a muppet was selling his s wing) yet they go for a little more money, and have a bigger tank than say the Kymco agility http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Kymco-Agility ... 3cde9e9825 yet you could get a new kymco and service yourself, then in two years or whatever your plans are sell it for £800 that way you get a new scoot, most 125`s are around the 65 mph max speed

I really do like the varadero, however I'll be riding year round in all weather which is whats swaying me towards the maxi scooters with a bit more protection from the weather.

My wife also has a full auto bike licence, whilst currently she doesn't have much interest in riding, I don't know whether this will change. With a scooter she can just hop on and go but think she'd be a bit small for the Dero and has never ridden anything with gears.

I'm just looking up the Sym Joyride 125, are there any other good Korean/Taiwanese (or other) maxi's that I haven't thought about or considered?

Thanks for the replies.

if you could stretch a bit more then http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Honda-pcx-125 ... 1e99715b3d and like it comes into play
yet if you not going on the motorways then the honda vision 110 is a good un, i went up to 60 no probs and im 16 stone, all honda`s have combined braking.. the vision 110 are £1900 new, so you be looking at a good one for 1400 samples here http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_odkw= ... _sacat=422

my daughters 110 vision has now 17,000 miles and runs as sweet as a nut, oil changes every 2500 miles and drive belt at 15000 miles for £30 a belt so easy to look after and 125 miles to gallon

Hello and welcome. I hope you find a suitable machine.

Greetings from the South/East Kent area.Am on my 3d Honda sh125 scoot.Brilliant,

Welcome to the Forum, Ian - it's good to have a new recruit to riding. Take care if you look at a Joyride - they are very decent scoots but I sold mine quite quickly because I wasn't comfy on it for anything more than a few minutes. The relationship between seat and footboards cramped my legs something rotten, even after having the seat built up a bit. From what I've seen in comments on various forums the Honda or the Suzuki would suit you best. I've had a 400 Burgman - very good - but never the little one. Good luck with your search. Summer's coming and you'll be well set to enjoy it.