Newbie in 29 Palms, CA, with some questions.
 

Good afternoon all!

I'm a newbie to the forum (but not to bikes or mechanics), and decided to join because this site has the most comprehensive information on scooters and looks to be a friendly community. I'm out here in Twentynine Palms, CA for some training until late summer next year, and need some help determining who's a good site/distributor to purchase from.

Most of the sites I found for TaoTao or SSR 150cc scoots range in price from $900-1,100 for CA legal rides. One site in particular caught my eye, as it has free shipping in the contiguous states and good prices. Has anyone purchased from Powersports Distro? They've got a FB site as well, and don't seem to be your typical drop-shipper that I've had bad experience with in buying a DongFang bobber several years ago.

Also, between TaoTao and SSR, which would you all prefer? I've done a bit of research on TaoTao here, and it seems to be a good make past the '08 model years. I need to do some searching on SSR, which I'll do tonight. Thanks for any help you can offer, I do appreciate your time and assistance!

-Rob

No matter which seller you choose make sure the scooter you look at is CARB approved. BMS sells a line of CARB approved scooters. I don't know if Tao Tao is CARB approved.

The site I'm looking at has most of the TaoTao scooters listed as CARB approved. A few aren't, but I'll be looking into it to make sure. ScooterDepot and a few other sites list the same models as CARB approved, makes me wonder just how these get approved, and others don't when they're all basically the same engines (as far as I can tell). Maybe different emissions controls?

http://www.superiorpowersports.com/category_s/180.htm

My favorite of these is the BMS Bi Metro. It's more than you want to spend but it will be a useful tool for a long time. There are millions of these types world wide.

Welcome to the forum. 29 stumps brings back many happy memories. Maybe not. Oohrah!

Rah! This'll be the 4th time I've been out here, mostly for CAX or other training. I called Powersports Distro today and they sounded confused when I mentioned CARB certs, and they never returned my call to verify if any of their TaoTao's are certed. Won't be buying from them! Good news is that I've found a scoot that might be more up my alley.

A guy has a 2004 Honda Metro for sale locally, 500 miles for around $1,110. I tried doing research on the bike, but the only bad I could find is that 02-06 models have longevity issues around 6-10k miles due to fuel washing down the cylinder walls and diluting oil over time , ruining the crank bearing. It's apparently caused by a poor crankcase ventilation design or something like that. Are Metros good scoots? Given that it's a Honda and shares much of the same with the Ruckus I'd take it to be a good deal.

A Honda scooter is about as close to a "Lifetime Guarantee" as you can get. That scooter isn't even broken in yet. It should give you good service and a lot of fun.

I liked to go to CAX. It was always held in comfortable fall weather. It was usually pretty cold at Desert Firex. I did one exercise at 29 Palms in July, called Golden Eagle or something like that. 29 Palms is no fun in July.