[kz1000st]

Is your speedometer and gas gauge accurate? About as accurate as any Japanese motorcycle I owned, at least the speedometer, and I trust my gas gauge to be true enough.

Is your instrument cluster even readable during the day Completely. I've ridden it at just about all hours from 4 AM to 9 PM.

Does all the instrumentation and electronics/buttons still work? Absolutely. Even the horn, which about crapped out on all my Kawasakis.

Did your brake rotors need to be replaced because they were warped Nope. You see the mileage on my Bashan. Original rotor and pads.

Did the super-thin key backs break when you accidentally forgot to push down on the ignition before trying to turn it? Uh, no. Maybe because mine isn't super thin and the same thickness as the Honda Rebel.

Is the frame welded/aligned properly, and did they even bother to get rid of the burs on the tubes before they welded it, or are the welds a stabbing accident waiting to happen while working on the bike? Frame is straight and true. I've had the scoot open to do valve adjustments and not seen anything resembling bad welds or slag over spill. You must have bought a real Lemon.

Is every single hose clamp on the bike a "1 use ONLY because of material quality" type which will need to be replaced if you ever have to take it off? Uh, no again. I haven't replaced a single clamp and ALL The hoses and clamps are all original after seven years, So is the front tire which has not a single dry rot crack.

They simply are not a good value unless you're doing the repairs yourself, AND you believe that your time is free. You see,out in my garage sits a $2200 2010 Kymco Like 50cc that so far needed a starter motor and stator, something my 150cc POS still hasn't needed a replacement for. Now, you can scream,"It was made in China" forever because my retort is "And built to Taiwanese specs, source inspected by Kymco and cost $2200" or three Chinese 50cc scoots. I have about five or six hours into it tracking wiring to deduce that the starter was bad as is the stator. It starts after great effort and doesn't idle correctly yet. Something I'm sure I'll overcome after another two or three hours once I have the charging system corrected. Let's see, eight or nine hours at $75, that's...carry the three...a lot of money repairing a $2200 scooter with only 2,400 miles.

So which is the better, more reliable scooter? The Bashan with 9.400 miles or the Kymco with 2,400 and a blown starter and stator?

Oh, and how many hours did the PDI take? I don't do the over cautious, redundant PDIs I've seen. I put the scooter together, gave the nuts and bolts I could see a little hit, changed the oil and off I went. Seven years, 9,452 miles and any issues I did have was me shooting myself in the foot. It has never left me stranded.

Something the former owner of the $2200 Kymco Like 50 in my garage could not say.