Robot reviews Piaggio Liberty 150..and comments on Kymco!

[Iahawk]

great review on our fearless leader's Piaggio Liberty 150 from Robot, at Vespa Motorsport



However, he does reference competitive brands toward the end and makes an interesting comment about Kymco, calls 'em junk! Also says Sym / Lance are junk, too! This surprised me. I really like his videos and respect his knowledge..but c'mon, I don't want to hear any Kymco bashing!

[Neil955i]

Knocking Kymco's?  Clearly not read the forum comments here on high mileage, reliable models run in the real world!  Only 1,500 miles up so far on mine thanks to the lockdown, but so far so good, I'm happy with my purchase.

[Stig / Major Tom]

great review on our fearless leader's Piaggio Liberty 150 from Robot, at Vespa Motorsport



However, he does reference competitive brands toward the end and makes an interesting comment about Kymco, calls 'em junk! Also says Sym / Lance are junk, too! This surprised me. I really like his videos and respect his knowledge..but c'mon, I don't want to hear any Kymco bashing!

Well, actually what he said was, in referring to the competition, "I'm not even going to count the LIKE150...." Then he went on to call the SYM/Lance "garbage". But does love Honda and Yamaha, and of course Vespa.

Remember - both generations of the Kymco LIKE are direct knock-offs of the Vespa/Lambretta scoots - and the 1st gen. LIKE200i was even designed by an Italian firm for Kymco!
So, maybe these plastic imitators are a problem for him.
Too bad - I love my LIKE!.....and my Liberty "S".


Stig

[rdhood]

He sells/services Vespas/Piaggios. Perhaps he is a little bit biased and admits it.  LOL.  And he did NOT call Kymco garbage... he just refused the consider them much the way Vespa owners refuse to consider Piaggios ("OMG, they are PLASTIC SCOOTERS")! 

[Stig / Major Tom]

The original (3 yrs ago?) excellent review from Robot and www.justgottascoot.com of the new Liberty150 impressed me.

Next was to purchase a manual ($7.99) to see if I could easily DIY service it - and check parts availability. "Yes" on both counts.

I was now 75% sold on it - just needed to see one in person - and try it on for size. The quality impressed me. It fit me just fine. So, "Yes" again.

I wanted the "S" model, and in gloss red. I helped the "too busy to mess with tire kickers" dealer unbox Liberty's until we found the one I wanted.
Wrote 'em the check and had it delivered (only 55MPH roads to my house -too fast & too far for a proper break-in procedure)

IMPRESSIONS after nearly 3 yrs:
Love it.
Love the stability & ride of the big wheels.
Love the body finish. Nice frame and engine finish.
Ease of maintenance is only slightly harder than the LIKE200i and parts are avail. & not expensive from TX & Calif.
Uses an oil filter, has ABS, great 55W60 headlight, LED's front & rear.
Has my required EFI, and aircooled engine!

Negatives:
Wish it had rear disc brake.
A pain to top-up fuel and Plastic gas cap was stupid hard to fit. ($11 for a pretty red billet one from HongKong fixed that)
Fly-screen is well made but poorly designed > glare-back.

Surprises:
How well the mono rear shock rides.
Halogen headlight is nearly as good as twin Burgman & Forza headlights.

Sum-up:
If the Govt. decides retired guys who are no longer muddying up work places should get $3100 as a "thankyou" - I'd buy a white Liberty150i, tomorrow.
Stig

[CROSSBOLT]

Don't look, Ethel! Too late! Nastygram already sent to scooterwest.com pointing out that Robot is very juvenile by running down any competitve brand.

[big blue]

I  have in the past liked Robot's videos but I am DONE. Bashing the competition is just a lot of hooey especially ones that have stellar reliability. Italy may have given rise to the scoot culture but Taiwan has made it a world wide phenomenon.

[Iahawk]

I still enjoy his videos and will continue watching...but I am curious about his 'real world' experience with Kymco and Sym. I wonder what specific components and/or models he is referring to?  Engine / CVT / electrics / frame / body panels, etc...?

He's like an auto tech in a dealership who sees a ton of vehicles come through and will notice a pattern of any common or recurring failures. Not sure how many competitive makes he works on, though.

[souzamoto]

Prior to becoming a vespa dealer, they were one of the best kymco dealers around. They sold and serviced a boat load of Kymco but, as soon as they moved to the current location and got Vespa, things began to change. They became all high and mighty and changed to "Nobody wants a Kymco" attitude.
CJS

[CROSSBOLT]

Well, I can see how ANYBODY could get a sour attitude about Kymco considering the slide of the importer to near oblivion and dealer attitudes in general. The fact that Kaosheung builds a good machine both in Taiwan, china and who knows where else speaks for itself. The books suck but the bikes don't. Robot is just got himself a fat head by being so popular which led him to make a grave error by trashing any other brand. Badmouthing competition is not approved!

[monkeybongos]

First time I've heard anything negative about SYM  (or Lance).  Just hit 10K on my 2018 Lance and it has been
a joy to ride and own so far.  Expecting 40K out of it, hoping for 50. 

[Stig / Major Tom]

That youtube post has 4,340 views in the 24 hrs it has been up.
So, if the viewer made it to nearly the end - in the first day over 4000 were privy to America's scooter-pope's take on the Kymco Like150i and all Lance/SYM scooters.

A Vespa forum moderator agreed that his comments were poor form since he is "a representative of the PTW trade...."
Not everyone on the forum agreed with his assessment of Taiwan's Big Three scooter companies.

When you get right down into the clover - aren't we all just scooter riders?



Stig

[Neil955i]

Yes Stig, we are.

BTW interesting to see the PTW abbreviation used, seems to have fallen out of favour over here.

[az_slynch]

Two K-Pipes. a Spade, two Yagers and a Bet&Win in my stable. Forgot one in my MV post. Either I'm addlepated, or they're decent bikes. Nothing's exploded yet and all they've needed were fluids and consumables.

They weren't my first scooters.

Started on Vespas when they were just old, cheap and uncool. Still love the two smokers (got three). Moved to the '80s Hondas and then stumbled into Yamahas since they were more persnickety to fix. Got a burgeoning gaggle of Yammies (six) and a similar number of Hondas.

I've worked on the modern Vespas and there is a different slant to them than most other scooters. Holistically, there are several bits of clever engineering interspersed with several bits of silly mistakes; exhaust gasket failures melting rear brake lines, oil drain located above the center stand, heavy gauge power leads melting their connectors, to name a few. They're nice to ride new but they don't age any better than any other scoot. Resale is higher due to it being a more of a lifestyle brand.

One dirty little secret about the earlier Granturismo 200Ls; the driven clutch assembly is stamped up with "TGB"...Taiwan Golden Bee! If the cultured masses only knew...

I was a bit put off by Robot's dismissal of Kymcos. I get that Piaggio products define his paycheck these days, but please don't diss good engineering just because it wears the "wrong" badge. I still respect his skills and I'll still buy my pasta-burner bits from them, I'll just skip the scooter reviews due to a poisoned well of knowledge.

Maybe some sacrilege is in order...stick a 300cc Kymco mill into a Modern Vespa chassis and ride it to far-off rallies.   

[CROSSBOLT]

Two K-Pipes. a Spade, two Yagers and a Bet&Win in my stable. Forgot one in my MV post. Either I'm addlepated, or they're decent bikes. Nothing's exploded yet and all they've needed were fluids and consumables.

They weren't my first scooters.

Started on Vespas when they were just old, cheap and uncool. Still love the two smokers (got three). Moved to the '80s Hondas and then stumbled into Yamahas since they were more persnickety to fix. Got a burgeoning gaggle of Yammies (six) and a similar number of Hondas.

I've worked on the modern Vespas and there is a different slant to them than most other scooters. Holistically, there are several bits of clever engineering interspersed with several bits of silly mistakes; exhaust gasket failures melting rear brake lines, oil drain located above the center stand, heavy gauge power leads melting their connectors, to name a few. They're nice to ride new but they don't age any better than any other scoot. Resale is higher due to it being a more of a lifestyle brand.

One dirty little secret about the earlier Granturismo 200Ls; the driven clutch assembly is stamped up with "TGB"...Taiwan Golden Bee! If the cultured masses only knew...

I was a bit put off by Robot's dismissal of Kymcos. I get that Piaggio products define his paycheck these days, but please don't diss good engineering just because it wears the "wrong" badge. I still respect his skills and I'll still buy my pasta-burner bits from them, I'll just skip the scooter reviews due to a poisoned well of knowledge.

Maybe some sacrilege is in order...stick a 300cc Kymco mill into a Modern Vespa chassis and ride it to far-off rallies. 

Yes, Vespa 300 EFI is a performance slug compared to any Kymco with 300 cc's.