Moped Buying Tips?

 One of the gals at the local coffee joint (she is maybe 22) is looking for a
moped and only has about $400 to spend.

Any tips as to how she should do her shopping?

Any other tips?

 Get something more than 50cc.  At a top speed of maybe 40 mph downhill, it
isn't to good should she venture onto the freeway. Toss on a windshield and
it will drop to maybe 32 mph.  Forget riding 2-up.  Something along a 150cc
or 250cc may be a better bet as she can go faster and maybe onto the
freeway.

New scooters like Vespa or Piaggio run $2000 (50cc) up to $7000 new, so she
is definitely looking at a very used scooter for $400, which seems very rare
now that gas has hit $4.00/gal. and no sign of how high it will go.
Advantages are that her gas expenses will be nil as well as maintenance
costs.  Here is a scooter club shot: http://tinyurl.com/5hqaly   Seems they
are getting more popular of late.

Maybe she could buy a $400 SUV now that the used-car dealers are flooded
with them.  I know car dealerships are only offering $500 on some fairly
recent model SUV trade-ins so maybe she could hang around a new car lot and
intercept a trade-in buyer.  Those SUV's go onto car auctions and onto used
car lots for much more - and sit there and rot.

B~

 B. Peg wrote:

I agree completely that anything under 250cc is only suited
to residential or 'calmed' city streets.  Maybe a 150cc
or a 125cc scooter would be OK if you knew you were never
going to have to ride on a highway.  A 50cc anything is really
nothing better than a motorized bicycle and should be thought
of as such, even though a lot of them look like bigger
scooters.  Aprilia RS50 excepted of course.

She probably can only ride a 50cc because she doesn't have a
motorcycle endorsement.  I see tons of 50cc mopeds for sale
on Craigslist with a couple of hundred miles on them.  People
think they are going to commute on them but discover how
underpowered they are and give up on the idea.  I believe a
lot of people who want a moped just to save gas aren't good
candidates for getting a motorcycle endorsement and moving up
to a 250cc scooter or motorcycle.

--
'01 SV650S  '99 EX250-F13  '98 ZG1000-A13
OMF #7

 
The Craigslist idea may be the best one.  I'll eventually print out this
thread and supply it to her.

I can see potentially that someone would get tired of a moped quickly in
some cases.

The town involved (Marshall, Michigan) is a small one, and there are lots of
side streets to commute on.  It should be fine for her if she gets one.

Thanks for all, Dave.

 

She might be fine providing she knows how to ride, including counter steering
knowledge.

Ben