UK expert advice for an Australian Scooter

[DownSouth]

Advice required from those in the know!

We have a weird selection of Maxi Scoots available in Australia, I’m after a new one for single and two up riding and I like storage bigger than in my previous GTS300’s.

The prices are all over the place compared to the UK. The prices below include 12months registration (road tax) and third party insurance for personal injury, but not insurance for other vehicles or your scooter. What do you think of the options available?

Kymco Downtown 2024 £4250
Honda Forza (analogue dash) £4900
Yamaha Xmax300 (digital dash) £5000 (2024 version £4500)
Sym Maxsym400i (analogue dash) £6000
Peugeot XP400GT (2023 model on sale for £6500 usually £7800)
BMW C400GT ion £7800
Kymco DT X360 £5000
Yamaha TMAX usually £11500 a few 2024’s for £9000
Kymco AK 550 £7500 if you can find one…

[roadster]

Difficult to say what will suit you physically or your usage requirements, but I can say I have had two of the Kymcos on your list and the quality was pretty good with no complaints. I currently have a Sym Joymax 125 and I would expect the 350 version of this would be equally good with a big fuel tank and reasonable underseat storage. Both of these makes suffer from poor dealer and spares support in the UK but having said that the more famous makes are now shrinking their coverage too. Your location and dealer coverage may be a factor but it depends whether you intend to use dealer servicing etc. Personally I am not a big fan of excessive electronic wizardry so it might be a factor in your choice too.

[DownSouth]

Good of you to reply, thanks. Yes as you say I’m going to have to try to find some to look at/ sit on or test next week. I live in a rural area so all the dealers are an hour or three away. I’m 6ft tall so it will be interesting. There is a secondhand Peugeot 400 in the next town so I’ll have a look at that. Most UK/European reviews of scooters usually take cost into account but our prices are not the same as you can see from the list. How was your Kymco AK550?

[roadster]

Regarding the AK550 it was an ideal combination of scooter and motorcycle design so excellent performance and handling, as good as a smaller wheeled bike could be. Mine was a fairly early model which tended to drain the battery because of all the permanently live electronics without any easy access to the battery which was hidden away below the headlamp. I fitted a charging lead and eventually a new battery. I believe Kymco did revise this on later machines both by reducing battery drain and by providing a charging socket. The dealership were at least partly responsible for this because by their own admission they tested the scooter and left it stranded overnight in the shop owners garage. Letting a new battery go flat and charging it with a fast emergency charger is about the worst thing you can do, but it also suggests that the bike might have been standing around with a connected battery for some time.

The toothed belt final drive worked well, clean and maintenance free, possibly over engineered. But dealer know-how on setting the correct tension was dubious at best. I set it myself after a bit of research and it actually gave no trouble.

All of this is forgotten when you ride the AK550 because it is so un-scooter-like and thrilling to ride. Much like the T-Max I suspect there is a down side to ground breaking levels of performance and technical complexity, so it comes back to the level of risk/reward which suits you.