Unnecessary Japanese Scooter Shopping With Mercedes, Part II: Other Silly Vehicles

"Mercedes Streeter" (smart) 03/22/2019 at 19:18 • Filed to: unnecessary motorcycle shopping with mercedes, unnecessary car shopping without E90M3

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Now that I’m committed to removing the Commie bikes from my stable, I’m full on looking to replacing the two scooters with one Japanese scoot. I keep running into weird vehicles that like the spring bloom, are popping up almost out of nowhere.

I should be able to get about to $1k from the sale of both scooters, provided I can get the CF Moto running well again...nobody wants to touch it in its current state. I predict I’ll lose money on the CF Moto but make money on the Chuckus, and thus break even?

ETA: Most of these are just random weird vehicles I found on FB. My main list of contenders (aside from the Sym ) were the scoots from the first post. Much of my “unnecessary shopping” posts are bad ideas that made me smile. That doesn’t mean I want to buy everything here!

You know how I was planning on turning the Chuckus into something like a minibike? !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!!  

This thing’s absolutely stupid, but I kinda like it. It’s a CBR swingarm and rear wheel mated to an electric moped, powered by a snowblower motor. Look at that bicycle front tyre! This thing’s been for sale for a year now.

Good to know that the end result of my Ruckus idea would have been basically worthless.

My favourite scooter from the last post returns. I messaged the seller and they are pretty flexible on price. !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! 125 is at the top of my list. The price is unbeatable and I’ve done a lot of research on it. Not going to lie, if the seller were available this morning you may have read a “Meet [name]!” post but thankfully he wasn’t.

International Harvester Metro 1200

Did you know that I really really really love moving trucks and delivery trucks? A Grumman LLV is a bucket list vehicle of mine, I don’t care how terrible they are to drive. This International is like a bigger mail truck!

It would also be a hilarious Gambler 500 vehicle/mobile motorcycle garage duo.

Thankfully, my inner adult says “come on, Mercedes...really?”

Someone in Kenosha was also selling two former Kenosha transit buses. I never thought about it, but an old transit bus would be a perfect motorcycle garage given many New Flyer buses have floors that are curb height.

But uh...both of these vehicles will have commercial vehicle type of repairs and maintenance, so...no.

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

Tomos Targa LX.

I don’t care too much for these Tomos things. They look pretty cool and I’d love to ride one just to try one out, but I wouldn’t want to take it home with me.

150cc GY6 Elite

It looks pretty well done and I like the pink accents. Though, you can get much cooler rides for $1,600.

Not to mention, riding it in the rain would probably kill the engine...

Sym Symba

Woah...This is a 100cc 4 stroke tribute to the Honda Cub. A Cub-type of bike would be welcome in my stable, though I’m unsure what the quality outlook of a Sym would be. Though, considering it has 12k miles, it’s made it farther than many of the Japanese scoots I see for sale and far more than EVERY Chinese one I’ve seen.

And to round out today’s post, !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . There are several of these all over local Craigslist. I’ve actually been wasting this scammer’s time for two days, pretending to be someone named “Reagan Clinton” and living at the Chicago FBI Field Office’s address.

They keep asking for eBay gift cards and had “eBay” send me an email detailing how “buyer protection” works using eBay gift cards (wut lol), and I keep sending them fake ones with a randomly generated number on them. My email responses are dumb enough that they just think I’m incompetent. They haven’t lost their cool yet, but we’ll see where it goes!

bob and john > Mercedes Streeter 03/22/2019 at 19:28

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jesus do all of these look like terrible ideas. The ONLY one thats not total crap  is the GY6 swap

Decay buys too many beaters > Mercedes Streeter 03/22/2019 at 19:28

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Re: GY6

Just don’t do it, there’s a reason the KNOWLEDGEABLE people in the ruckus scene with GY6 swapped bikes spend more time wrenching than riding

Saying it again, get something modern and fuel injected. :p 

Aremmes > Mercedes Streeter 03/22/2019 at 19:29

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Wait... the Grumman LLV is in your bucket list? Whoa... check this out then:

It’s a Grumman-Olson aluminum body and chassis with VW subframes and powered by a VW Rabbit diesel.

https://milwaukee.craigslist.org/cto/d/milwaukee-1983-grumman-olson-kubvan/6832032299.html

Mercedes Streeter > Decay buys too many beaters 03/22/2019 at 19:30

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Never indicated that I was planning on getting it, especially at that bonkers price!

Decay buys too many beaters > bob and john 03/22/2019 at 19:31

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False, GY6s are time bombs 

Mercedes Streeter > bob and john 03/22/2019 at 19:32

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Wait, so you’re saying a GY6 swap is better than a legit Honda Elite?

I’m actively trying to get rid of my GY6.

Decay buys too many beaters > Mercedes Streeter 03/22/2019 at 19:32

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It’s not a bad price, but they should have just done a bore kit on the stock two stroke. those things can be nutty with a 70cc kit. 

Mercedes Streeter > Aremmes 03/22/2019 at 19:35

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Doesn’t run, has body damage, and the engine that’s not running isn’t even the original diesel? Can I call that a definite crack pipe?

Mercedes Streeter > Decay buys too many beaters 03/22/2019 at 19:36

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Wait wait, the og engine was a two stroke? Sacrilege! Well...I suppose the  engine could have died, leading to engine swap. *shrug*

Aremmes > Mercedes Streeter 03/22/2019 at 19:38

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Yes, that particular specimen is definite CP. It’s not the only Kubvan in existence , though, and others have stick shifts.

Decay buys too many beaters > Mercedes Streeter 03/22/2019 at 19:41

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Yep, the locals in P ortland get them to about 10-12 hp and ride wheelies.

bob and john > Mercedes Streeter 03/22/2019 at 19:42

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elit es are that bad.

bob and john > Decay buys too many beaters 03/22/2019 at 19:43

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still a better idea then the rest. at least GY6 has aftermarket galore for parts. 

themanwithsauce - has as many vehicles as job titles > Mercedes Streeter 03/22/2019 at 19:43

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Two words: Yamaha Morphous

Mercedes Streeter > bob and john 03/22/2019 at 19:45

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Damn. I mean, shop-teacher seems to have good luck with the old Honda scoots (basically where I got that inspiration from).

Wait..are those neat looking Honda PCX scooters okay?

Mercedes Streeter > themanwithsauce - has as many vehicles as job titles 03/22/2019 at 19:46

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YES. I’ve only ever seen maybe 1 or 2 of those for sale before. I absolutely love how low slung they look.

Decay buys too many beaters > bob and john 03/22/2019 at 19:47

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Because you will need that aftermarket . Frequently.

Mercedes Streeter > Decay buys too many beaters 03/22/2019 at 19:49

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That sounds like such a Portland kind of thing lol.

In Chicago you’ll get women wearing spandex (that’s...that’s not riding gear) doing a wheelie on a Hayabusa down the Interstate and squids running from cops, but I’ve not seen too many custom scooters aside from your garden variety GET Ruckus... or Ice Bears posing as GET Rucks? Hmmm.

Decay buys too many beaters > Mercedes Streeter 03/22/2019 at 19:51

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This is the local shop

Decay buys too many beaters > Mercedes Streeter 03/22/2019 at 19:52

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Joined up with them for a ride later that day

Mercedes Streeter > Decay buys too many beaters 03/22/2019 at 19:55

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Because you will need that aftermarket. Frequently. 

*Laughs in Mandarin*

One thing I noticed the GY6 aftermarket does have going for it is an extensive knowledgebase. If it were the Ruckus clone that was dead instead of the Helix clone, I would have had it fixed and running (enough to get it sold) within a few days of it breaking.

Another thing I noticed is that a lot of GY6 engines seem to get hydrolocked from people running pod filters and riding in the rain. I ride in the rain so that’s gonna be an automatic no from me, dawg. 

Mercedes Streeter > Decay buys too many beaters 03/22/2019 at 19:57

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I love that Helix with a shaved windscreen! Yours is that Grom looking bike , I assume? Or have I been out of the loop of your garage long enough that I can’t spot what you brought?

Decay buys too many beaters > Mercedes Streeter 03/22/2019 at 20:02

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They have a lot of really neat stuff.

And yeah, mine is the Grom. Nothing new and small lately, grom,  ruckus and vespa pretty much cover that base perfectly. Took the grom because it was a warm day and I needed to get it hot to evaporate the water out of the oil (they severely overcool in the wet and cold, leaving condensation in the oil) 

Decay buys too many beaters > Mercedes Streeter 03/22/2019 at 20:03

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Definitely! It’s the universal motor for most non japanese scooters. There is a huge knowledge base. But anecdotally, based on group rides ive been on, they are not the most reliable things

Mercedes Streeter > Decay buys too many beaters 03/22/2019 at 20:25

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I generally base my “is it reliable?” thought train on how many high mileage models I can find. I’ve read some people claiming to have gotten over 20k mi out of their CF Motos, so that’s why I thought I could trust it. And who knows, maybe a new CDI/coil/valve job will make it reliable.

I’ve yet to see any 50-150cc GY6 exceed say, 10k miles. Most of the 10+ year old GY6 scooters for sale in this area don’t even have 1,000 miles. And that's part of why I felt a GY6 would be the perfect Gambler scooter. If only I got the tyres mounted in time..

GLiddy > Mercedes Streeter 03/22/2019 at 20:56

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I’d be all over the Symba. Various sources have reported that SYM was the contracted manufacturer for Honda in Taiwan. Quality is very good on those. People have ridden Symbas to Alaska. If I could find one local to me, I’d buy it. I own 2 Honda Passports (non-running though) and would like a newer model one. The 12K miles does give me pause. However its a Honda horizontal engine clone and there are hundreds of sources for parts, be they cheap Chinese (Lifan, Jincheng) or expensive Japanese (SP Takegawa, Kitaco ).

Sanyang Motor Co., Ltd. founded in 1954, is the sole international enterprise in Taiwan that manufactures both motorcycles and automobiles. In 1962, SYM formed a joint venture with Honda to begin local assembly of motorcycles, the first motorcycle manufacturer in Taiwan.

https://www.alliancepowersports.com/about.html

https://advrider.com/f/threads/ca-to-ak-on-a-sym-symba.592359/

RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars > Mercedes Streeter 03/22/2019 at 21:10

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FYI the Super-cub Sym would be a great bike - good quality too as Sym is a Taiwanese manufacturer and their bikes are known to be almost Japanese quality compared to Chinese stuff (as many of them started out in partnerships building bikes and scoots for Japanese companies like Honda).

shop-teacher > Mercedes Streeter 03/22/2019 at 23:10

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Merc, I'm 1 for 2 on old Honda's, I'm not exactly killing it here.

Manny05x > Mercedes Streeter 03/22/2019 at 23:41

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I am dying to get a honda dio. My cousin backnin my country had a modded one and those things go.

Mercedes Streeter > shop-teacher 03/23/2019 at 00:41

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Shhhhhh!!! Wait, which one was the bad one?

shop-teacher > Mercedes Streeter 03/23/2019 at 09:40

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The Helix has been a total nightmare. The Elite worked, but it was super janky. I just didn't mind it being janky, because I only paid $100 for it.