50cc of screaming Chinese powahhhh

"Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing." (granfury) 07/01/2016 at 21:49 • Filed to: None

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Now that my commute has shrunk from 20 miles to 2, I’m finding that the gas mileage on the trusty Mazda5 6MT kinda sucks, to be completely honest. On the last tank I got the EPA rated 21 MPG city. The tank before that, when it was 100+ degrees outside and I was running the A/C almost constantly I got a record low of 16 MPG - ouch. I knew this vehicle wasn’t the most efficient thing around, but that figure startled me. Enjoying zipping it up to redline on occasion certainly didn’t help, but getting the maximum performance out of a modestly powered vehicle is fun, especially with a motor that likes to sing. However, I think I need to find a cheaper way to get around without buying a Prius.

A friend of mine has a spare TaoTao 50 scooter sitting around. He bought it a year or two ago, but it ran like crap since day one and so he replaced it with a used 2003 Honda Elite 80, a much better scooter in every conceivable way. The TaoTao was just sitting around in his basement, unwanted, and he was about to sell it for scrap with less than 1,000 miles on it. A local shop said it was a problem with the cylinder head and offered to replace it for $200. He took the beast over there, and during their investigation discovered that the timing was off and that the valves were waaaay out of adjustment. With some basic maintenance and adjustments this thing runs as well as, well, as well as you’d expect a cheap Chinese scooter to run.

I rode it around for a few miles this evening, up and down hills and through various neighborhoods. It’s no speed demon, but at least it now performs like it’s supposed to, getting up to its top speed of 35 MPH, eventually. I think I could easily get used to riding this thing to work and back, even if it will extend the duration of that commute a tad. I figure that 60-80 MPG will help make up for the lack of performance, and it should also keep me from buying a bunch of crap I don’t need over at the local Goodwill outlet center that’s just around the corner from the office.

From what I’ve read, there are some kits to enlarge the engine from 50cc up to a massive 80cc. Having ridden my friend’s Elite, I can see that the extra 30cc makes a nice difference. For now I’ll learn to live with the existing amount of power. I just need the thing to be reliable first and foremost, with performance a distant second at best.

I can probably get this thing for about $250, which seems like an OK amount to spend on something that I may or may not keep over the long term. At the very least I should be able to break even if I decide not to keep it. Anything I should be aware of when owning one of these turds?

CRider > Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing. 07/01/2016 at 22:19

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Chinese scooters are basically disposable. They will work if you don’t mind constantly fixing them, but they will never work as good as a Honda.

Also, Grom Grom Grom Grom Grom.

bob and john > Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing. 07/01/2016 at 22:23

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Dont bother. With how much time and money you will spend trying to make it run worth a shit, look into a rukus or a grom. 100+ MPG machines that will work

bob and john > CRider 07/01/2016 at 22:23

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Grom bro. DANK WHOOLIES

CRider > bob and john 07/01/2016 at 22:25

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SWAP A PENIGALE MOTOR INTO IT

shop-teacher > Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing. 07/01/2016 at 22:41

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If you’re only driving 4 miles a day, it’ll be cheaper to buy some more gas than to buy, insure, register, and maintain an additional vehicle. Buy a scooter if you want one, but you won’t be saving a dime.

I’m actually looking into buying a scooter too, but just because I want one. I think the extra cheddar for a used Honda will be well worth not dealing with one of those piece of crap Chinese scooters.

Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing. > shop-teacher 07/01/2016 at 22:54

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Yeah, I know it’s crap, but I’m willing to take a chance. I’ve wanted to get back onto two wheels for some time, and this seems like an affordable way to do it. Since it’s only 50cc it doesn’t need to be registered, and the additional insurance should be dirt cheap.

I’d like to get a Honda or something reliable and better built, but the opportunity to get this thing for next to nothing seems to be an easy way to resume riding. It should also keep me from travelling around too far after work, and should get me back home at a reasonable hour so that I can do the things around the house that I keep putting off...

MGisalwaystheanswer > Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing. 07/01/2016 at 23:38

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You know they are crap. I know they are crap. Everyone knows they are crap. For $250 running, buy it. Don’t expect too much, and in a few years when it falls apart, either put another motor in it, or push it off a cliff. I own one. Lots of fun. But I recommend against the “big Bore” kits, they improve the odds of overheating.

shop-teacher > Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing. 07/01/2016 at 23:44

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Fair enough!

uofime-2 > Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing. 07/01/2016 at 23:50

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You drive a tenth as far so even if the car gets 3mpg you're saving money

Chuckles > Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing. 07/02/2016 at 00:53

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With a commute that short, you need to adjust your mentality. Miles per gallon only matters if you’re traveling a significant amount of miles. Better MPG doesn’t pay off unless you drive far. Even at 16 MPG, that’s 8 trips to or from work, or 4 days round trip. Stretch it to 20 MPG and that’s a whole work week of trips for one gallon of gas. That’s what, $2.25 a week? Buying a scooter for $250 to get 80 MPG instead means you’ll save like $7 a month on gas. So the scooter wouldn’t pay for itself for about 3 years, assuming you drive it to work every day. Being stuck on a slow scooter for 3 years just to break even isn’t my idea of a good time.

RadioRaccoon > Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing. 07/02/2016 at 01:24

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Cheap Chinese scooter I haz! there not that bad, picked one up for $100 and modded the gy6 engine to hell. used to be 150cc and now were at 232cc i think? I got this sucker up to 70mph before I ran out of courage. Modding is fun :)

Cé hé sin > Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing. 07/02/2016 at 05:19

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If I had a commute of 2 miles I’d probably walk, weather permitting.

Then again, the weather might permit on the way in and forbid on the way home...

bob and john > CRider 07/02/2016 at 10:56

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BUST NUTS ON IT (image unavailable)

Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing. > Chuckles 07/02/2016 at 14:17

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If the opportunity to pick up this thing on the cheap didn’t come up I probably wouldn’t bother and would save up for something better. I know that over the long run it probably won’t save me anything and will most likely be a bit of a money pit. If I still had the long commute I’d probably still buy it just for the goofy fun that comes from puttering around on one of these things.

I’ll think of it as almost disposable and won’t worry too much about it since it isn’t my only form of transportation. It won’t be used year ‘round as I don’t think I want to ride it in the snow. I think my expectations, as low as they are, are realistic. This really isn’t about saving money, but having some cheap fun on two wheels and keeping the mileage on the Mazda, a vehicle I want to keep forever, a little lower.

Chuckles > Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing. 07/02/2016 at 17:50

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I understand. If you want cheap fun on two wheels, I totally get it. I was just thinking it through from a financial point of view. Sometimes people get so caught up with efficiency that they don’t bother to think about consumption. Dollars per week spent on gas is far more important than MPG in terms of a budget. That’s why I don’t rag on people who drive gas guzzlers. I might get better gas mileage, but I also drive hundreds of miles for fun and they might only use their Hummer for work. We might use the same amount of gas.

Hopefully your commute is on roads with a low speed limit. These things become very dangerous on roads with even just a speed limit of 45. People don’t pay attention, and the scooters clog up lanes and cause congestion. I’ve heard that around here, many of the people riding these scooters only do so because they lost their driver’s license but can still ride these.

Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing. > Chuckles 07/02/2016 at 21:11

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Thankfully my commute is almost entirely through residential neighborhoods with 25 MPH speed limits, finishing with a quarter mile section of a light industrial area near the office. For the most part, speed limits on surface streets around here rarely exceed 35 MPH, with 40 and 45 MPH limits on wide open roads that I don’t plan on going anywhere near with this little buzz bomb.

Funny you should mention the loss of license issue. The guy I’m getting this from rides a scooter for this very reason. He’s quite the alcoholic, still, and not surprisingly lost his license after a few DUIs. The humorous but snarky term I’ve heard around these parts is ‘DUIcycle’...