Looking for a reasonably priced learner legal 50cc moped for my boy as his first bike (he is 16 and passed his CBT). Preferably something reliable, not cheap Chinese imports. I’ll be getting Scorch to take a look at the bike before I hand over any money, so no funny business 
. Let me know if you hear of something for sale!
Everyone’s opinion of what constitutes reasonable price is different.
Keep an eye on your local facebook marketplace, I see them come up on there often.
Are you sure you want a moped for him and not a trail bike with gears?
Some chinese imports can be pretty good if they’ve been kept in the dry.
Is this only to last him a year until he’s old enough for a 125?
It’s to last him until he is 17, but my daughter will be 16 next year and she has also expressed a desire to learn to ride, so it’ll likely be kept longer. If a geared 50 was to pop up I’d consider it for sure, but they seem quite rare! In terms of reasonable, I’m looking between £500-£1000. You can get a new Chinese 50cc from directbikes for £700, but everyone I talk to says to avoid them…
I had a Chinese import years ago. for a mixture of reasons, young stupid, not in the know skint etc etc.
The engine was pretty OK but I had to basically locktite the entire bike, they ship them without actually securing any bolts! Mate of mine had one which just caught fire while he was sitting on it (car next to him told him he was on fire).
So yer steer clear.
Why don’t you spend a bit more and get a Honda Zoomer? As long as they don’t wreck it too much you can sell it on to some beardy Hipster for £1K in 2 years time.
Ouch, £1800 for a 13 year old bike? Although it definitely looks better than most “modern” mopeds 
What about an electric bike? Then he’d really be the cool kid on the block. And it’d be cheaper to run.
Oh and the noise wouldn’t drive you and your neighbours potty
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He won’t be the cool kid on the block with a electric bike lol - you’ve lived in the suburbs too long Jay!!! 
I beg to differ Electric bicycles, electric scooters, electric skateboards, everything’s going electric. They’re all new and all cool. I’d have been damn excited as a kid to be ahead of the curve and on something as cool as an electric bike.
It won’t be long before kids look at engines and think they’re relics from the past that their grandad used.
I think I’d still be worried about range. The ones I’ve seen are “up to 40 miles range”, but people report much less, and that just isn’t enough. What do you do if you run out? Push it?
Plug it in.
Though in all seriousness, how far does he need to go? When you charge at home you have a full charge every time you go to use it.
Going more than 10 miles on a 50cc scooter is no fun, so I can’t imagine he’d want to go far enough for there to be any range concern.
Electric bikes certainly are the future, unfortunately we are currently in the present!
Jay you are forgetting something important. This is for a teenager.
Get home plug it in?
More like get home leave it then complain when it has not magically charged itself at some random time they next want it. Also how many times can you run the battery completely flat before you start damaging it.
Think teenager + mobile phone
Very much this.
Spend money and get him the only proper thing he needs. A Honda cub, preferably with the round headlight.
When they’re both done with it, you can keep it as your toy. And if anything will survive two teenagers, it’s a cub…
A taste of things to come!
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Ended up with a Honda Vision 50cc, one of the last ever made (they only made the 110cc engine for them from 2018 onwards). Pre-registered December 2017, with zero miles on it, for about the same money as dealers are asking for 2-3 year old bikes with a few thousand miles. Coming next week (delivered from a Honda dealer up north), with 11 months of Honda warranty remaining (although there doesn’t seem like much to go wrong).
The way I see it, he’ll ride it until he’s 17, at which point he’ll either want a 125cc and stick with bikes, or he’ll want driving lessons and will keep riding the moped till he gets a car. Then next year my daughter turns 16 and will want the moped for a year. After that…well my other half does have a category p license, maybe I’ll try and get her on two wheels!
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If you like getting your money’s worth…
personally i would not even contemplate getting a 50cc .
i managed to persuade my brother not to get my 16yr old nephew a 50 to travel the 24 miles to college on welsh a & b roads and he has just turned 17 so 125 sorted.
Too many impatient arsswipes inc other bikers to be limited at 30 .
However urban riding at 30 is not as bad but still same arsswipes