Scooter lifespan - years or miles?

[Stig / Major Tom]

Sitting here watching the sun rise at my sidewalk table, with coffee - looking at my 8 yr old LIKE200iLX.
Wondering .....
I'm too far from home to push it. Heck, some of it is uphill!
Right at 17,000 miles on the odo-metre.
No real worries until I do this on a 21°F morning. ...!
Well, I  have untested 'roadside assistance ' insurance, plus a family who might come to fetch me home...fingers crossed.
Major Tom

[Stig / Major Tom]

If I's a wealthy man, I'd probably go to my Kymco dealer and buy another new Like200i. But then I'd be a week swapping all these parts to the new one.
Too much work.
Oh yeah, since I'm a wealthy man - I could just pay someone to do it - including installing a pair of City Grips ( not that I m not fond of Kenya tires😊
The Major

[Kansas kymco]

My scooters are older with the oldest a 2005 and I have no fear of them breaking down. Milage wise John G runs them up to 50K. I have roadside assistance as well for 18 years on all my vehicles and have (knock on wood) never had to use it.

My truck is even older a 2000 with over 200k miles on it. Just put over 3500 miles on it in the last 30 days.  I put my money in investments that make money instead of depreciating assets. 

My Kymco scooters are low mileage that I can ride for several thousand miles and resell for usually more money then I paid. I'm out the cost of normal maintenance,  license fees and insurance is all.

Knowing that I have the cash to replace a vehicle if needed is my reassurance.

It's whatever your comfortable doing. I have family that replace their vehicles every two years and cringe at me driving older vehicles.  Heck I'm older and probably need replaced as well, LOL.

[john grinsel]

Practical Life span of modern scooters is probably combination of years and miles I am on  11th new one since 1990----my time/sign to get a new one is miles.....all but one have been ridden out to 40-50000 miles. think that adds up to over 400,000 miles on them.   My first Burgman 400 went back to Suzuki at about 9,000 miles with porus engine cases, making excellent money at the time just went to dealer showroom and bought
Yamaha TMAX, probably the best running/handling/fun maxi scooter of all time, except complicated drive line,
Example on life of scooter, both my new SilverWing 600's were traded at near 50,000 miles, but I am sure they would have worked to 100,000 miles---I just did not want the hassle of getting to that point and maybe extra expense. 

[Iahawk]

I was watching a 'watch JR go' you tube video last night (he has a good channel if you like fixing up and flipping vehicles) and it was an older one where he had just purchased an '87 Honda Helix with 72,000 miles on it (for $650)! He said it still ran and rode great.

That scooter must have been about 30 years old...and 72K miles..of course, it is a Honda...

[Kansas kymco]

I was watching a 'watch JR go' you tube video last night (he has a good channel if you like fixing up and flipping vehicles) and it was an older one where he had just purchased an '87 Honda Helix with 72,000 miles on it (for $650)! He said it still ran and rode great.

That scooter must have been about 30 years old...and 72K miles..of course, it is a Honda...

Don't forget Kymco got it's  start in 1962 building stuff for Honda. I see lots of Honda Trail 90's and the more coveted Trail 110's running around built in the sixties, of course now they sell for several times the amount they sold for new.

A lot depends on how you use it, maintance, if it spends it's life outside in the weather, riding on salt treated roads will do anything in a short amount of time as well. Lot of factors in determining the life of a scooter.

On new machines electronics come into play as well. The more complicated you make something the more chances of having a issue as well.

[Kansas kymco]

There is a Cushman club in McPherson and several members are riding scooters from the 40's and 50's. Tires are there biggest problem locating until Coker tires started making reproduction tires for them. They were a odd size.

They have a cult following like old  Vespas and Lambretta's.