Cheap Chinese Scooters?

[Kansas kymco]

Just curious if anyone on the forum has owned a Cheap Chinese scooter?  How did it hold up? What failed on it that led to you getting rid of it? Like I said just curiosity. I see ad's all the time for low mileage scooters for $200. or best offer on Craigslist.   Wolf disposable scooters seem to be the most prevalent. 

[Viper254]

Looks to me like stuff original manufacturered by Znen (Zhongneng) and potentially Jiajue.

We don't get these in the UK anymore; they were finished off by Euro 4 emissions standards.

So I rode cheap Chinese scooters for most of my 20s that I bought off eBay with short MOTs in rough conditions. On the whole, I did fantastically well with them.

GY6 motors are fairly bombproof. Change the oil, set the tappets (they're almost always too tight from factory) and it's a very easy unit to work on, and cheap to replace bits if anything goes wrong.

Plastics are usually less hardy than Japanese equivalents, but if you don't fall off they are fine, and they are, again, cheap to replace.

Chinese scooters get a bad rep generally because people pay little for them, treat them badly, then are surprised when they fail.

If you buy one, look after it and keep on top of any problems, they're probably the cheapest motoring money can buy. Yeah, they aren't as good as a Japanese equivalent, we all know that. But are they half as good, when they are half the price? I don't believe the differential is the same.

My Chinese motors;

~ Baotian BT49QT-9 (Pulse Scout) - had three of these at various points. All under £100, all ran lovely, one of them I couriered with for a winter. Minimal problems, very cheap spares.
~ Lexmoto Gladiator (Sanben SB125T-23) - Bought for £180, put 10,000 miles on it in a year before the cam chain snapped on the dual carraigeway. Could have fixed it for £40, but lacked the knowhow at that point.
~ Zhongyu ZY125-2 - Looked like a Suzuki GS125, but with a CG125 clone engine. it was basic, but it soldiered on for a couple of years and got me through a very financially difficult point in my life. High miles, rattled like a paint can full of spanners, but never broke down.
~ Yiben YB49QT-11 - Little retro scooter. Again, bought for £100 and it was like a sewing machine. Shouldn't have sold it.

There's probably a handful more, but my memory is getting more ropy. Basically, look after them and they'll look after you.

Both the worst bikes I've ever owned have been 90's Yamahas.

[Kansas kymco]

Odd,  growing up I rode nothing but Yamaha's and they were bullet proof despite being severely abused.  Mine were from the Seventies and eighties. In the nineties I rode Honda's and never had a issue. I went to BMW'S in the two thousand's and never had any issues but they did not get rode very much. 
Forgot about the Kawasaki KLR 650 in 2009.

[Kansas kymco]

Looks to me like stuff original manufacturered by Znen (Zhongneng) and potentially Jiajue.

We don't get these in the UK anymore; they were finished off by Euro 4 emissions standards.

So I rode cheap Chinese scooters for most of my 20s that I bought off eBay with short MOTs in rough conditions. On the whole, I did fantastically well with them.

GY6 motors are fairly bombproof. Change the oil, set the tappets (they're almost always too tight from factory) and it's a very easy unit to work on, and cheap to replace bits if anything goes wrong.

Plastics are usually less hardy than Japanese equivalents, but if you don't fall off they are fine, and they are, again, cheap to replace.

Chinese scooters get a bad rep generally because people pay little for them, treat them badly, then are surprised when they fail.

If you buy one, look after it and keep on top of any problems, they're probably the cheapest motoring money can buy. Yeah, they aren't as good as a Japanese equivalent, we all know that. But are they half as good, when they are half the price? I don't believe the differential is the same.

My Chinese motors;

~ Baotian BT49QT-9 (Pulse Scout) - had three of these at various points. All under £100, all ran lovely, one of them I couriered with for a winter. Minimal problems, very cheap spares.
~ Lexmoto Gladiator (Sanben SB125T-23) - Bought for £180, put 10,000 miles on it in a year before the cam chain snapped on the dual carraigeway. Could have fixed it for £40, but lacked the knowhow at that point.
~ Zhongyu ZY125-2 - Looked like a Suzuki GS125, but with a CG125 clone engine. it was basic, but it soldiered on for a couple of years and got me through a very financially difficult point in my life. High miles, rattled like a paint can full of spanners, but never broke down.
~ Yiben YB49QT-11 - Little retro scooter. Again, bought for £100 and it was like a sewing machine. Shouldn't have sold it.

There's probably a handful more, but my memory is getting more ropy. Basically, look after them and they'll look after you.

Both the worst bikes I've ever owned have been 90's Yamahas.

I would say your very knowledgeable on Chinese scooters. Your probably right on the cause for the high failure rate along with non-use gummed up carburetors.  The ones I see on Craigslist usually only have a couple hundred miles on them and don't run.

[Kansas kymco]

One ad in the Tulsa craigslist was for two scooters that had less then 300 miles on them that he could not get to start after sitting through the winter. He stated that the selling dealer refused to work on them and he wanted to dump them and get ones he could get serviced.

[Neil955i]

Glad Viper replied KK as I knew he was the closest you can get to an expert on a wide variety of cheap Chinese machinery!  With your tech-savvy nature, I'd say the two scooters for $300 should prove a great winter project for you?...

[Like50]

Bought on 2018 Solifer Retro (basic Baotian 50 cc) from year 2012, with 4490 km in it. Sold year later with 10 000 km when did not start anymore, my lucky guess is valve no open anymore. 410 € - 120 € = 290 € in a year. No service, nothing during that, just gasoline as long as it moves.
Was it worth it? No, lack of quality always around, the feeling this will explode in any minute. Not worth 290.- for the year ride. When I noticed, that this will no last, I made the decision only ride, its not worth to put money for the service. As 99% everybody else.
No chinese anymore, Taiwan will do, and does perfectly  now 17300 km without need valve checking, fires up and runs as a moped must.
EDIT: almost forgot. When it was rain, or water on the road, the engine cutted, dunno was it electric like spark or what. Same after gently wash everytime. Cutted but not totally stopped "moving" 
Tires and variator and belt were original, 7 years and 10 000 km, that was unusual.

[Iahawk]

if you want a really in depth look at the typical cheap Chinese scooter, a 50cc Tao Tao...take a look at Garret Seesing's youtube channel where he does a 10 part series called 'Living with a Tao Tao'. He's a (motorcycle or auto?) tech who orders a cheap scoot, sets it up and proceeds to use it as his only vehicle, commuting to work on it.

We get to see the early failures and what he does to fix. It's a very good watch. It is based on the question of whether the scoots themselves are bad or if it's more the owners of cheap scoots who are bad..

[john grinsel]

If you have really no place to go or to be there on time.... and know source for parts and are set up to work on it .  They are pretty good deal.   Just throw them away when fixing costs more than they are worth. 

[Kansas kymco]

Glad Viper replied KK as I knew he was the closest you can get to an expert on a wide variety of cheap Chinese machinery!  With your tech-savvy nature, I'd say the two scooters for $300 should prove a great winter project for you?...

I think people misunderstood my post I have no desire to tackle cheap Chinese scooters repair. I was simply curious about what fails and when after purchase.  I do scan Craigslist for Kymco's and see the cheap low milage Chinese scooters often.  It was simply a mater of curiosity.

[Kansas kymco]

if you want a really in depth look at the typical cheap Chinese scooter, a 50cc Tao Tao...take a look at Garret Seesing's youtube channel where he does a 10 part series called 'Living with a Tao Tao'. He's a (motorcycle or auto?) tech who orders a cheap scoot, sets it up and proceeds to use it as his only vehicle, commuting to work on it.

We get to see the early failures and what he does to fix. It's a very good watch. It is based on the question of whether the scoots themselves are bad or if it's more the owners of cheap scoots who are bad..

Thanks Iahawk,  I will watch it,  was curious why they fail and what fails on them.  That's exactly what I was asking about.

[Kansas kymco]

If you have really no place to go or to be there on time.... and know source for parts and are set up to work on it .  They are pretty good deal.   Just throw them away when fixing costs more than they are worth.

John no desire to tackle something that has limited parts availability and no resell value.  Like I told Neil it's more out of curiosity sense you see so many advertised.

I used the Tulsa listing as a example of what I see listed.

[Kansas kymco]

Bought on 2018 Solifer Retro (basic Baotian 50 cc) from year 2012, with 4490 km in it. Sold year later with 10 000 km when did not start anymore, my lucky guess is valve no open anymore. 410 € - 120 € = 290 € in a year. No service, nothing during that, just gasoline as long as it moves.
Was it worth it? No, lack of quality always around, the feeling this will explode in any minute. Not worth 290.- for the year ride. When I noticed, that this will no last, I made the decision only ride, its not worth to put money for the service. As 99% everybody else.
No chinese anymore, Taiwan will do, and does perfectly  now 17300 km without need valve checking, fires up and runs as moped must.

Thanks for the first hand knowledge.

[Neil955i]

I think people misunderstood my post I have no desire to tackle cheap Chinese scooters repair. I was simply curious about what fails and when after purchase.  I do scan Craigslist for Kymco's and see the cheap low milage Chinese scooters often.  It was simply a mater of curiosity.

My mistake!  Thought you'd got too much time on your hands and fancied the automotive equivalent of a game of Russian roulette 

[Kansas kymco]

My mistake!  Thought you'd got too much time on your hands and fancied the automotive equivalent of a game of Russian roulette 

The lack of parts availability and no resell value precludes any desire to tackle such a project. Just no R.O.I.

It might be a good project for a young person with limited funds for cheap transportation.