Big cc scooters
Discussion
I’m not sure why but I’ve been spending most of my time lately looking at large cc scooters on you tube.
In a very un-pistonheads like fashion I’ve been thinking more and more about a mode of transport to run chores/ commute.
Seems to me the top answer is always a big cc moped ( around 350cc seems spot on). Cheap to service, fast enough for real world traffic, cheap tax, great MPG. No messing with gears when you can’t be arsed. Actually look like a good laugh as well. I’m sure I’ll get load of people saying they are crap.
Anyone run one ? Genuinely interested what they are like to live with. Personally I like the look of the BMW c400 and Honda forza 350.
I have no intentions of buying one as have no need but suspect it’s going to be the thing I look at on YouTube / ebay for next week until my next fad.
In a very un-pistonheads like fashion I’ve been thinking more and more about a mode of transport to run chores/ commute.
Seems to me the top answer is always a big cc moped ( around 350cc seems spot on). Cheap to service, fast enough for real world traffic, cheap tax, great MPG. No messing with gears when you can’t be arsed. Actually look like a good laugh as well. I’m sure I’ll get load of people saying they are crap.
Anyone run one ? Genuinely interested what they are like to live with. Personally I like the look of the BMW c400 and Honda forza 350.
I have no intentions of buying one as have no need but suspect it’s going to be the thing I look at on YouTube / ebay for next week until my next fad.
Not sure I agree with some of that.
Theyre not the best on fuel, some are pretty awful tbh, in the low 30s .
Servicing, cheap? Again, some parts are cheap, but they can be a pig to work on, labour always a chunk more than equivalent engined "bike" in my experience
Twist and go, seems easy, and it is. Some of the bigger motor scooters have pretty poor on board storage also, so worth checking out carefully.
Theyre not the best on fuel, some are pretty awful tbh, in the low 30s .
Servicing, cheap? Again, some parts are cheap, but they can be a pig to work on, labour always a chunk more than equivalent engined "bike" in my experience
Twist and go, seems easy, and it is. Some of the bigger motor scooters have pretty poor on board storage also, so worth checking out carefully.
I've got the C400x, I think it's a brilliant thing, towit on a trailer with my M.H. Hadn't had a motorcycle for about 5 years prior yo getting it. Seen the deal on line, zero £ down 0% finance interest £75 a month, heated grips, seat tft screen abs blah blah, decided even if I didn't use it much it was worth the 75£, as it turns out in 20 months I've done 480 miles, was it worth it.. most definetly stops and goes quick super comfy and the wife likes the big pillion seat
Rumadmitch said:
I've got the C400x, I think it's a brilliant thing, towit on a trailer with my M.H. Hadn't had a motorcycle for about 5 years prior yo getting it. Seen the deal on line, zero £ down 0% finance interest £75 a month, heated grips, seat tft screen abs blah blah, decided even if I didn't use it much it was worth the 75£, as it turns out in 20 months I've done 480 miles, was it worth it.. most definetly stops and goes quick super comfy and the wife likes the big pillion seat
Great stuff any pictures? What sort of MPG would you say it does I've got an ADV 350, very similar to the 350 Forza.
It'll cruise along happily at 75mph, will go a bit more if needed, but then it's screaming.
Just under 80mpg.
Great underseat storage.
It's my every day transport, parks most places for free.
As a commuter it's great, and I'll be touring around Europe on it next year.
It's pretty brisk up to 50 mph, ok up to 70mph, then just a gradual increase over that.
Overtaking from 50mph takes careful planning.
No good with a pillion, kills it.
Would I ride it for fun? No, not really, but it's still more enjoyable to commute on than in a car.
I had a 300 Forza before, pretty good, but can suffer wobbly mirrors.
I had a Bmw C400 GT before, absolute worst experience of my whole 34 years of motoring/driving. But it rode well when it wasn't vibrating.
I also had a few PCX 125's.. They are great around town, but not for long journeys, or country roads. 128mpg.
It'll cruise along happily at 75mph, will go a bit more if needed, but then it's screaming.
Just under 80mpg.
Great underseat storage.
It's my every day transport, parks most places for free.
As a commuter it's great, and I'll be touring around Europe on it next year.
It's pretty brisk up to 50 mph, ok up to 70mph, then just a gradual increase over that.
Overtaking from 50mph takes careful planning.
No good with a pillion, kills it.
Would I ride it for fun? No, not really, but it's still more enjoyable to commute on than in a car.
I had a 300 Forza before, pretty good, but can suffer wobbly mirrors.
I had a Bmw C400 GT before, absolute worst experience of my whole 34 years of motoring/driving. But it rode well when it wasn't vibrating.
I also had a few PCX 125's.. They are great around town, but not for long journeys, or country roads. 128mpg.
There was a thread on the Yamaha Xmax 300 recently. Quite a bit of love shown. I used to have one for commuting and it was great. So much so that I recently bought another now I don’t take my son pillion on the commute any more.
Mine is 2018, paid £4k with heated grips, touring screen and top box for a bike with less than 4000 miles.
I get 88mpg. Speed is sufficient for suburban and town use and it will hold 70mph if you want on dual carriageway. Rear suspension is not great probably need to put it on max preload for my weight (106kg).
Thought about Tmax but couldn’t justify the extra cost with two other bikes already.
Mine is 2018, paid £4k with heated grips, touring screen and top box for a bike with less than 4000 miles.
I get 88mpg. Speed is sufficient for suburban and town use and it will hold 70mph if you want on dual carriageway. Rear suspension is not great probably need to put it on max preload for my weight (106kg).
Thought about Tmax but couldn’t justify the extra cost with two other bikes already.
I was given a Suzuki Burgman 400, it a 2003 and is brilliant for town. Even gone to London on it from Cambridge. Will cruise at 80. Does around 60mpg. It’s done 20k now and in the 8 years I’ve had it all I have done js change the oil.
I must get the belts changed, but this is not a job for me. The issue with scooters is the body work, I couldn’t find the spark plug!
I must get the belts changed, but this is not a job for me. The issue with scooters is the body work, I couldn’t find the spark plug!
I had a Xmax 300 for 2.5 years, covered about 17k miles iirc, all year round.
I bought it for commuting and chores, and ended up riding it way more than I thought, and actually quite enjoying it.
If ridden sensibly you could see a genuine 90mpg, serving was £120-£150 on average, it did go through rear tyres but they were about £60 iirc, storage, underseat I could get my helmet, big winter jacket and gloves no problem. Weather protection for the commute was great too.
The xmax probably has the best engine, it’s punchy and does good mpg compared to the competition in my experience and research. The handling is ok, the forza is better though.
I rode the tmax (2020) and it was great, you could almost call it fast, and the handling was like a good conventional motorcycle but £12k!!!
Funnily enough I’ve been looking at them again recently as I do quite a few miles and they almost pay for themselves over a couple of years in fuel savings.
I bought it for commuting and chores, and ended up riding it way more than I thought, and actually quite enjoying it.
If ridden sensibly you could see a genuine 90mpg, serving was £120-£150 on average, it did go through rear tyres but they were about £60 iirc, storage, underseat I could get my helmet, big winter jacket and gloves no problem. Weather protection for the commute was great too.
The xmax probably has the best engine, it’s punchy and does good mpg compared to the competition in my experience and research. The handling is ok, the forza is better though.
I rode the tmax (2020) and it was great, you could almost call it fast, and the handling was like a good conventional motorcycle but £12k!!!
Funnily enough I’ve been looking at them again recently as I do quite a few miles and they almost pay for themselves over a couple of years in fuel savings.
Got a vespa GTS 300. I used it for commuting in London...now it is gathering dust in my garage. Very good for city, okish for a/b roads, awful for motorways. Will keep up with hot hatches up to 40mph, top speed 70mph, 80mpg. Added a big screen for "high speed", a leg cover for winter and a top box for storage. It handles surprisingly well on twisty roads and is always well received by non bikers. I occasionally get acknowledged by bikers. I have another bike (KTM 790 duke) but decided to keep it when I eventually return to the office.
Edited by paddy1970 on Thursday 2nd June 06:55
I've had a BMW C400GT (350cc) for a few weeks now, done nearly 500 miles on it. I also have a FZS1000 which doesn't move now, and I get to ride larger bikes in works. My car is an A45, that has had very little use either. I've been using the scooter pretty much constantly to commute and generally tit about on.
I've had more fun on this than I've had on big capacity bikes for years, it's a totally different mindset than riding a bike, if I rode my scooter at the same speeds as a larger bike, i'd probably end up chucking it at the scenery, BUT, it's perfect for what I want, easy to ride, the BMW TFT connected means I can have satnav on the screen, play music to my helmet comms and take/ make phone calls, all controllable using the BMW spin wheel controller and see everything on the screen. Heated grips, heated seat.
Fill it up for about £16, the on board computer says I'm getting an average of 70.6 mpg since I've had it, and some of those journeys have been at a 'reasonable' pace. It'll do 90 mph, beat most cars at the traffic light grand prix, light to move etc.
I'm thinking of going on a long tour on it, it'll eat it up. It will do 95% of what a big bike will do, in more comfort, cheaper, just speed and handling is where it lacks a bit.
Gripes, I have a 40 litre topbox, apart from that the storage isn't great for a scooter, but tbh, that's pretty much it.
There's a fair bit of info on a bmw scooters forum (not sure if i'm allowed to link other forums), which is mainly USA based but will give you the ups and downs. There's also an adv rider forum which has a battle scooters sub forum, again mainly USA based.
I think some of the earlier BMW c400 stuff suffered some very irritating issues, but mine is a later models and (fingers crossed) those have been sorted out.
I'm certainly not at all disappointed with the performance or mpg.
Hope that helps a bit? If I can help some more with specific Q's let me know.
I've had more fun on this than I've had on big capacity bikes for years, it's a totally different mindset than riding a bike, if I rode my scooter at the same speeds as a larger bike, i'd probably end up chucking it at the scenery, BUT, it's perfect for what I want, easy to ride, the BMW TFT connected means I can have satnav on the screen, play music to my helmet comms and take/ make phone calls, all controllable using the BMW spin wheel controller and see everything on the screen. Heated grips, heated seat.
Fill it up for about £16, the on board computer says I'm getting an average of 70.6 mpg since I've had it, and some of those journeys have been at a 'reasonable' pace. It'll do 90 mph, beat most cars at the traffic light grand prix, light to move etc.
I'm thinking of going on a long tour on it, it'll eat it up. It will do 95% of what a big bike will do, in more comfort, cheaper, just speed and handling is where it lacks a bit.
Gripes, I have a 40 litre topbox, apart from that the storage isn't great for a scooter, but tbh, that's pretty much it.
There's a fair bit of info on a bmw scooters forum (not sure if i'm allowed to link other forums), which is mainly USA based but will give you the ups and downs. There's also an adv rider forum which has a battle scooters sub forum, again mainly USA based.
I think some of the earlier BMW c400 stuff suffered some very irritating issues, but mine is a later models and (fingers crossed) those have been sorted out.
I'm certainly not at all disappointed with the performance or mpg.
Hope that helps a bit? If I can help some more with specific Q's let me know.
Edited by nordboy on Thursday 2nd June 08:29
I quite like having a scooter in the fleet. Generally good weather protection, better storage than a typical bike and comfortable.
This is my Gilera Nexus 500. It has 40hp, but also weighs about 200kg, so no light weight.
It has more than enough power for the commute and will comfortably sit above motorway speed limits with a pillion.
I generally get 52 mpg, so not particularly great.
The greatest issue with my scooter is that is is now 18 years old and like any bike of that age it has the odd niggle. As someone else mentioned, scooters do have a lot of bodywork to remove when working on them.
I specifically have a smaller capacity motorcycle - Honda CBR300R - for zipping in and out of London on. Yes, I can commute on my VFR too, however, the CBR is narrower, lighter, has a sharper turning circle, is more fuel efficient, saves wear and tear on the VFR, is extremely fast through heavy traffic, and is probably less likely to get stolen when compared with a larger CC scooter.
I don't mind the gears in the traffic, they become second nature after a while.
I don't mind the gears in the traffic, they become second nature after a while.
Ilovejapcrap said:
Is the bmw connect for phone an extra? I know heated grips are.
I bought mine used, 13 months old with 2500 miles on it. So i’m not 100%, i saved near enough £4000 on what my local bmw dealer wanted for a brand new one!!. I just made sure it had everything i wanted spec wise. IIRC, the C400GT is specced higher than the C400X which you pay for the extras. The majority of the GT models i’ve seen come with heated grips/ seat and the TFT connectivity, well certainly the newer ones do.poo at Paul's said:
Not sure I agree with some of that.
Theyre not the best on fuel, some are pretty awful tbh, in the low 30s .
Servicing, cheap? Again, some parts are cheap, but they can be a pig to work on, labour always a chunk more than equivalent engined "bike" in my experience
Twist and go, seems easy, and it is. Some of the bigger motor scooters have pretty poor on board storage also, so worth checking out carefully.
Jesus, which ones get low 30s?!Theyre not the best on fuel, some are pretty awful tbh, in the low 30s .
Servicing, cheap? Again, some parts are cheap, but they can be a pig to work on, labour always a chunk more than equivalent engined "bike" in my experience
Twist and go, seems easy, and it is. Some of the bigger motor scooters have pretty poor on board storage also, so worth checking out carefully.
Trevor555 said:
I've got an ADV 350, very similar to the 350 Forza.
It'll cruise along happily at 75mph, will go a bit more if needed, but then it's screaming.
Just under 80mpg.
Great underseat storage.
It's my every day transport, parks most places for free.
As a commuter it's great, and I'll be touring around Europe on it next year.
It's pretty brisk up to 50 mph, ok up to 70mph, then just a gradual increase over that.
Overtaking from 50mph takes careful planning.
No good with a pillion, kills it.
Would I ride it for fun? No, not really, but it's still more enjoyable to commute on than in a car.
I had a 300 Forza before, pretty good, but can suffer wobbly mirrors.
I had a Bmw C400 GT before, absolute worst experience of my whole 34 years of motoring/driving. But it rode well when it wasn't vibrating.
I also had a few PCX 125's.. They are great around town, but not for long journeys, or country roads. 128mpg.
Man that looks like a chore to tour Europe on.It'll cruise along happily at 75mph, will go a bit more if needed, but then it's screaming.
Just under 80mpg.
Great underseat storage.
It's my every day transport, parks most places for free.
As a commuter it's great, and I'll be touring around Europe on it next year.
It's pretty brisk up to 50 mph, ok up to 70mph, then just a gradual increase over that.
Overtaking from 50mph takes careful planning.
No good with a pillion, kills it.
Would I ride it for fun? No, not really, but it's still more enjoyable to commute on than in a car.
I had a 300 Forza before, pretty good, but can suffer wobbly mirrors.
I had a Bmw C400 GT before, absolute worst experience of my whole 34 years of motoring/driving. But it rode well when it wasn't vibrating.
I also had a few PCX 125's.. They are great around town, but not for long journeys, or country roads. 128mpg.
paddy1970 said:
Got a vespa GTS 300. I used it for commuting in London...now it is gathering dust in my garage. Very good for city, okish for a/b roads, awful for motorways. Will keep up with hot hatches up to 40mph, top speed 70mph, 80mpg. Added a big screen for "high speed", a leg cover for winter and a top box for storage. It handles surprisingly well on twisty roads and is always well received by non bikers. I occasionally get acknowledged by bikers. I have another bike (KTM 790 duke) but decided to keep it when I eventually return to the office.
I’m about to get my 4th GTS300, best thing into London.Edited by paddy1970 on Thursday 2nd June 06:55
Couldn’t agree anymore with the above.
I ride all year albeit when I drag my Honda out for some summer commutes.
I took my old GTS250ie back in ‘07 to France and spent most of the motorway time bouncing off the limiter, 93mph but let’s say real speed 80mph. The abs ring on the 300’s reduces the top speed.
Edited by Simes205 on Thursday 2nd June 18:42
Edited by Simes205 on Thursday 2nd June 18:43
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