Just bought People 250 S

[axy]

Just wanted to say hello. Purchased People 250 S + Givi 42, should be here on Monday.

My girlfriend has Agility 125, 1 year old, 7500 km on it and Piaggio NRG 2003 with 26.000 kms. First owner.

It will be 10 years exclusively on two wheels for me next week. It all started in 1999 with Piaggio Zenith 50. Then Kymco Cobra 50, Piaggio NRG extreme 50 liquid cooled (upgraded to 72 cc), NRG 50 mc3 liquid cooled, 2003 Piaggio Beverly 200 (sold it yesterday to a friend after happy 30.000 km in the past 3.5 years) and Kawasaki ZR-7S.

I read almost all messages on the forum - strange that there are no more posters?

Greetings to Jprestonian - I am the one who bothers him from time to time. 



All the best to Kymco owners from Rijeka, Croatia.

[jprestonian]

You're no bother at all.  :)
.

[tstalion79]

Im getting my people s 250 friday.  How does the acceleration compare to the BV200 you had?

[axy]

Im getting my people s 250 friday.  How does the acceleration compare to the BV200 you had?

It is interesting that S250 has just one horsepower more yet the difference in acceleration is big.
I would almost say it is like comparing 250 with 400 cc scooters, especially up the hill.
I guess it has to do with 25 % more displacement, torque and strokexbore dimensions.

There is a long 17 % slope on the way home where I could typically go around 85 km/h with Bev if I come from the bottom of the hill at full speed. With S250 I can achieve effortlessly 100 km/h even when it is very hot.
People has around 5-10 km/h higher top speed than Beverly. Also the transmission is different, People can achieve higher top speed downhill: Beverly would not exceed reported 135 km/h while I have seen indicated 155+ km/h, downhill, of course.

The biggest difference is in the brakes, double front disk on People is much more powerful and the fact that Beverly does not corner easily compared to People. Yet, there are things I miss from Piaggio - Kymco has installed battery under the seat rather than in the tail section so a large portion of the underseat storage is inaccessible. Also, there is a question of styling, most people think that People fell off the ugly tree and hit every branch down, yet I do not care much about all that.

Also, I got a special deal so if I wanted to buy new Beverly 250i, I would have to pay approx. 35 % (!!!!!!!!!) more than what I gave for People,l so this was really a good offer.

[tstalion79]

Awesome.  Well im very excited for mine.  Brand new, black, and 4100 out the door.

[axy]

Regular 3rd inspection/maintenance at 6000 kms (3750 miles).

1. Oil leak on the right side, where the circular polished metal "lid" with Kymco logo is... allegedly some rubber gasket or something... fixed.

2. Very small oil leak on the transmission shaft due to faulty 3$ metal seal that goes on top of the radial ball-bearing. Unfortunately, this spare part was not on stock so I will have to come again next week to have it replaced.

These two are fixed under warranty.

Well, not exactly a pinnacle of supreme-hyper-ultimate quality as it is touted to be, but well, no bigger issues in the first half a year on the road.

Hope I will not follow jprestonian`s footsteps.

[beeboytroy]

Welcome aboard! I hang out at my local scooter shop a lot these days because I befriended the scooter mechanic. It started off with me asking him a thousand questions about my scooter. But he happily answers all my questions because he knows its me fixing the scooter and not him. I bought my wife a 2006 Kymco people 250. Yet lately I find that I have been driving it like crazy. I love the acceleration. Here's the thing about your scooters minor problems. I have been at the shop when a semi truck loaded with Kymcos, Syms, and Genuines roll up. And believe it or not, some of them are damaged right out the box. The way the companies package them are really unacceptable. The crates that hold up the scooters are made out of cardboard, plastic, or styrofoam. So when the crate gets damaged during transportation, the scooter gets damaged. So basically the mechanic takes the scooter from the crate, assembles it and gives it a once-over. Then orders all the broken things on it and has it shipped over to the shop. But all in all, I love the Kymco's quality. I find everything on it to be well made and well thought out. Like the well established Japanese motorcycle companies do. Also Kymco's dedication to the environment is far ahead of other scooter companies. I've been trying to research the  emission output of scooters, and found that Kymco has catalytic converters in their massive exhaust. Other scooter companies have not bothered with this yet because the US Environmental Protection Agency has not mandated this yet. Please let me know how your steering feels. Just curious if it feels wobbly. I've found other People 250 owners have experienced this with older scoots.

[axy]

After half a year trying to find this information...

OEM roller weights in P S 250 - 23x18 20 g.

[axy]

Regular 3rd inspection/maintenance at 6000 kms (3750 miles).

1. Oil leak on the right side, where the circular polished metal "lid" with Kymco logo is... allegedly some rubber gasket or something... fixed.

2. Very small oil leak on the transmission shaft due to faulty 3$ metal seal that goes on top of the radial ball-bearing. Unfortunately, this spare part was not on stock so I will have to come again next week to have it replaced.

These two are fixed under warranty.

Well, not exactly a pinnacle of supreme-hyper-ultimate quality as it is touted to be, but well, no bigger issues in the first half a year on the road.

Hope I will not follow jprestonian`s footsteps.

After 1000 kms, again problem with #2 - oil leak around the seal.

[zombie]

You might want to look at the seal to be sure it is installed in the correct direction. The "lip" must face inwards. I have seen too many mechanics repeat a factory mistake. I would also check the vent to be sure you are not building pressure that would cause it to blow. If all else fails an aftermarket set up may work better. Since yours seems to be the only one I would think there is an un seen problem.

[axy]

7300 km.

Jprestonian will like this post.

There is still this oil leak that began in the late summer so I brought the scoot to the mechanic for repeated inspection. After five days of testing he found out that there is a crack in the engine block caused by poor casting of the material where the oil has started slowly to leak out.

He has cleaned everything, took the pictures and he and importer will ask Kymco for a new engine block.

I will be probably without scoot for a long period of time, so I took out of the garage my gf's ex Piaggio NRG 50 today, checked gas, oil, tire pressure, washed and cleaned it thoroughly and off I go from Monday to work on old faithful 50 cc 2stroke.

I do not know if the story about Kymco as a premium brand of high quality still holds after all this.
I cannot recommend Kymcos to other people any more with a straight face, even if I have a "black swan" scooter and everybody else is very satisfied with build quality.

[jprestonian]

Well, axy, I dunno. Nothing's perfect every time. Since my bike's been back together, it's performed like a champ. I'm guessing you'd find Hondas that have had bad castings, too.
.

[zombie]

At least when you do get it back, you can sat it is in better than new condition. I'm sure it is the time factor that BITES! Keep smiling.

[axy]

Well, axy, I dunno. Nothing's perfect every time. Since my bike's been back together, it's performed like a champ. I'm guessing you'd find Hondas that have had bad castings, too.
.

Yes, there are, there was a whole series of Honda CBR 1000 XX that had engine blocks replaced in the first few hundred kilometers because of that issue.

The problem is that people often speak about certain brands as premium and other brands as lower quality. Even you and me discussed about Chinese scooters (I gave an example of Keeway as extremely well built Chinese scooter).

Nowadays it is pretty much the same and my experience shows that Kymco is not what it is touted to be. I had a number of scooters in the past ten years, I ride 365 days per year and I can tell you that the only bikes where I had big problems were Kymcos. When I had Cobra 50 (in USA Top Boy), I had issue with low acceleration that was never fixed whatever the mechanics tried. On Italian scooters every now and then stupid things die - bulbs die regularly, so do turn signal switches and even long beam switch - but none of the major mechanic things ever broke. My ex. Beverly 200 has now around 35.000 kms, my colleague from the office is driving it and it looks as good as new. NRG at the picture is Aug/2003, 2 stroke, 26.000 kms, engine is completely intact... also, here the prices for spare parts of Italian scoots are 50 % of those for Kymcos (I realize it is vice versa in USA).

I do not care much about this little incident because I have other two scoots, two quads and a car I bought two weeks ago so I am not left without a vehicle, but I am a bit disappointed and during my next purchase I will carefully evaluate options - but probably again end up with Kymco because as I said, importer is a friend of mine and gets me a good deal and the mechanic is great too. I was even offered a replacement bike for the duration of repair!

p.s. When I had Kawasaki ZR-7S, I was listening fairy tales that Honda is the top of tops while Suzuki, Yamaha and Kawasaki have lower quality. I never understood this story but maybe it originates from 50s or 60s and bikes from that era...

[axy]

People is back, the engine block is temporarily patched up with sealant.
The picture of the crack in the engine block is sent to Kymco asking for a new block considering that the scooter is still under warranty.
I wonder how long this will take.