So, Iv been thinking about getting a little scooter to commute on for a few reasons.
My SV is my only means of transport so I dont want to rack up the miles & get bored of it too soonIm averaging about 60 miles a dayIm having to put £15 ish of fuel in every 2 days (@ 129.99)I want to remove the FUGLY top box off the SV and return it to its former gloryInsurance for the scooters iv looked at start at £112 a yearIf I get a 125cc it means the Mrs can use it too
How do I work out the MPG? :ermm:
If the scooter im looking at averages at 70MPG How much could I save?
Trying to work out what I need to work out is confusing the hell out of me… :crazy:
So you are doing 120 miles in two days and that is costing 15 quid. The £15 is 11.5 litres - about 2.5 gallons. So you are doing 120 miles on 2.5 gallons - i.e. 48 mpg. If you switch to a scooter which managed 70mpg you would spend £10 for the same average mileage.
To take that further - you could therefore save £12 to £15 on petrol per week - so that is up to £750 per year, but tax and insurance would erode some of that saving (assuming you kept the SV) - but then you would have the scooter available for the Mrs…
i wouldn’t want to do 60 miles a day on a 125 let alone a 125 scooter. you looked at a bigger scooter like a gilera runner vx 200 that would be alot better then a 125 and i cant see it being any more in fuel
I was looking at some 200/400/450/500/600cc scooters but a 125 will do the job, as long as its capable of pulling at 70ish il be happy with it.
30mile each way is about 20-25mins on the Sv, so I reckon 40-45mins would be fine on a 125… Maybe… :Wow:
Just gotta find a scooter thats not too pricey with good MPG…
A 125 scooter will be pushed to do 70
Plus you ,would need to take into account more oil changes
I had a 150cc scoot to get me to the train station and it would just about pull 75
I used to wring its neck and it wouldn’t do nowhere near the mpg quoted it’s used to return itr of 65 mpg
only 125 scooters i know that can do 70 are ones that have been slightly done up and 2 stroke most 4 stroke 125 scooters your looking at 55-60 tops and you will hate it im guessing by those speeds its some kind of carriage way you’ll need to go down, it wont be fun =]
I had a scooter for a few days once when my old bike was in for servicing at a place that took ages (this was before I discovered Chiswick Honda. I had a PS125. I think it cost about £5 to fill it up and I got about 150 miles out of it. I don’t remember very well but it seemed to run and run.
Plus you may be faster in town on a scooter. They are much easier to handle at low speed.
it will never get used in town, im out in the sticks so itl be M ways… i havent checked but from what i remember the smallest engine allowed on an M way is a 125… or atleast was…
Anyway, 250cc upwards i think…
just need to find something fairly old/cheap/good mpg…
My Honda CBF500 is returning 60+mpg. More power, more useful and has a 53l topbox on it as well as my 107kg body! And I don’t really hang around much. It goes jolly well and returns excellent mpg for what it is.
I’ve always fancied a scooter but only as an accessory to a good bike.
What about a Honda SH300i? I was chatting to an old boy at the petrol station one day that had one. He couldn’t handle the weight of a bike any more, but the SH allowed him to keep on riding. He was full of praise for it and they’re quick enough for a scooter.
I’ve got a Gilera Nexus 250cc, I will be honest I’ve had a fewissue lately but that’s because the regulator rectifier needs replacing, otherthan that when I commute on it I do 110 miles a day of mostly motorways fromDunstable to Kingston, great scooter, comfy, nice to ride, plenty of storage asI have a top box too, in hindsight I do wish I’d gone for the 500cc but tbh the250cc is more than enough and also means you can’t really get yourself in toomuch trouble as it’s tops out just over 80mph.
I do take the gsxr sometimes but when the scoot is working it’s a much betteroption with it being auto, makes filtering easier imo, also with it being ascoot you do get a lot of weather protection especially if you go for a slightlyhigher screen, it’s like riding a powered arm chair to work haha
Oh and I think MPG is about 60mpg, not properly tracked i though.
I did this last year for the same reasons but my commute is different and that’s why it works. I bought a Honda PCX 125 which is a fantastic little scooter that does 110-115mpg (actual figures of mine tracked through diligent use of fuelly.com). It’s top speed is 55-60mph but as my commute involves crossing London from West to East the only time that becomes a “problem” is for the last 2 or 3 miles of the A40 in the evenings when the traffic thins out but the limit is 50 anyway so it’s not really an issue.
I wouldn’t take the thing on a motorway though and nor would I use it for any significant dual carriageway travel. You definitely need something with a fair bit more power to feel comfortable on the faster roads.
If you really want a 125cc scooter that’ll be OK for A roads or even the motorway, the Honda S-Wing 125 is pretty good. Mine got me stopped by the Police at 72mph in a 60mph limit, although that was down-hill with the wind behind me ;-). It also returned an even 80mpg over almost 2000 miles from new - the best ever recorded (brim to brim) was over 90! It also had a lot of storage space, and much more “presence” than your typical scooter. Frankly if your other half is going to be using it too, it’d be a good investment.
The early 250 X9s (the ones that are just called X9 or X9 SL) have the Honda engine from the Honda Foresight. The later ones, from 2004 (called X9 Evolution) have a Piaggio engine. The Piaggio engined bikes are faster and more fuel efficient, the Honda ones are more bullet proof but a bit boring in performance terms for a 250 and need an oil change every 2000 miles. As said above, a 125 won’t be fast enough for a motorway commute. Most will only do just over 60, and some are not even that fast. Fuel economy was worse on my 125 than on my Honda engined 250 mainly because the 125 is atvery high revs all the time.
From about 2006 Piaggio bikes, and of course the machines they sell branded as Gilera (like the Nexus above) and Vespa with 250 engines are fuel injected, have very good performance and will do 70-80mpg on motorway, but tend to be a bit more pricey.
the x9s are what iv been looking at,
can find a 2000 model for a few hundred, insurance is about 150. so in effect it will pay for itself in a few months.