[QUOTE 4065510, member: 45"]I was in your position 18 months ago. Was looking at the cheaper Chinese scooters (a mate has had a Sym for years and it hasn't let him down once), but took the more reassuring route and bought a Honda Vision 110. You can get a decent 1 year old one for about £1200 but they were doing O% when I bought so I got a new one I think for £1900. It was fantastic. 130mpg (£6/week in fuel), really cheap insurance and reliable. Service intervals were about 2500 miles I think, which wasn't great for me doing 6k miles in a year, but if you've got a friendly local mechanic it's really cheap -there's hardly anything to do with the servicing. A lot of scooterers do their own.
I rode it through the seasons and I think there was only one morning when it was too icy to ride. I did my direct access test after 12 months as a short stretch of motorway shortened my commute massively, and I hated having L plates. Then work moved me to a 15 mile motorway commute, so I bought a 650 Kawasaki motorbike. It was fantastic fun, but much more than I needed, so I've gone the sensible route and now have a 300cc Honda Forza. Cruises at 75mph, 70-80mpg and great weather protection, 8000 mile service intervals. I'm considering riding over to Europe on it next week.
Kit doesn't cost much. A decent helmet for about £130 (if you buy new they'll give you a discount on gear). Waterproof, armoured clothing cheap on
ebay.
A tip on insurance -tell them you're not using any security. It hardly affects your premium. You don't have to lug a huge chain around, and if your bike does get nicked and you happened not to secure it you won't get any problems.
UK scooter forums aren't great. Twistandgo is dead. As has been said Maximuppets is ok, but it's more about bigger scooters. There's a Honda PCX forum that's ok. You might find an international forum that's busier.
Scooters are fantastic for commutes too big to cycle, and there's absolutely no quicker way to get around cities. I really don't understand why they're not more popular over here. Mainland Europe knows how useful they are, but the UK doesn't seem to have cottoned on.
Now is a good time to buy, new or second-hand. I'd go Honda, Suzuki, Yamaha.[/QUOTE]
Have an account on hondapcx.org, picked up some useful info on there.
A big plus for me with Vespa/LML is that if I fall off, it's no big deal, but fall off a plastic scooter and it'll break into many expensive pieces. If a geared scooter frightens you then they (LML) now do a 4 stroke auto (twist & go) with the same classic styling, the best of both worlds.
