ok what the heck?

[cheapeto]

[The idea that when you buy a China scoot, you're on your own is dated.]
Maybe in your area, in mine not so much. The ones here are charging the same hourly rate as powersports places are. Once you take them in a few times, you will be getting close to a brand name cost anyway,without the reliability.

[Even the brand name boys botch it up periodically.]
You are correct. My Big Ruckus had a shock on it that IMHO was horrible junk. Cost me $240.00 to upgrade to what should have been there.
Had I paid show room price for it, I'd be pissed about it.

If I remember right kz, you had come into TotalRuckus, once looking to repair your Ruckus starter switch maybe? Or something like that, sure anything can break.

[As you say....Branded, (which is politically correct talk for, high priced), doesn't mean bullet proof. Noticed this description on our areas craigslist this AM.]

I never stated bullet proof, nor did the ad say a high priced tech did that.
It was a $5,000 scooter the 2005 Vespa brand new. Now that I think about it, they are still worth between $1000.00 and $1400.00 if in decent shape according to NADA.
Excellent resale value, something most china scooters do not have.

Every manufacture of anything has defects. I will respectfully suggest to simply relook at the threads here, on Scooter Doc, on where ever the threads are at, statistics of china scooters letting folks sit, between 0 and 1,500 miles is alarming to me, when you say branded scooters are way over priced.

You can also, go through your local Craigslist and when you see china scoots for sale, the majority of them will be between 50-1500 miles on the OD, regardless of year. Which means sitters and dust collectors.
They also have very low resale value, but dig around man, I sure you can find the exceptions.

The only thing I'm grateful to my china scooter, is I found the love of 2 wheels again. It was her reliability I could not count on, a used Honda gave me that.

Since I found ScootDawg, in 06 or so, what is the most asked question? Help I: starting issue, lights, hoses, gas vapor lock. Not hating them, just the facts.

Over on Adventure Rider, is a thread for a Big Ruckus clone, started in 2011, I've been following for years, as the guy is giving one of the best follow my scooter threads to show how good that machine is. It's very impressive, for reliability, and all his miles. I love reading it.
BUT where are the others? You have to dig to find them. Or find the exceptions, to pigeon hole you view.

[kz1000st]

What you are saying has a great deal of substance but old timers like me have seen it before. In the seventies and eighties cheap Japanese motorcycles abounded. You could buy a 750cc for a couple of thousand dollars less than a Harley or European bike. Flogged to within an inch of its life they ended up back at the dealer where the estimated repair cost could be three quarters of original MSRP. The dealer would offer a pittance for trade in, sell the abusive owner a new bike, scrap the bike and the cycle repeated. Of course Harley and BMW owners derided the rice cookers. They didn't mind paying comparable repair costs because their bikes cost more originally.

BUT. Every so often someone like me or RKS came along. You see we knew what we were doing, didn't flog the bike and got tremendous service for our money. My 1979 KZ1000st was with me for 125,000 miles before I sold it to my brother. Even my 1974 Kawasaki H-1 two stroke gave me 30,000 miles over six years before I sold it. Both with all original engine bits.

As you can see I have two Chinese scooters with decent mileage that were manufactured in the "Bad Old Days". I find it amusing that mine work just fine while those around me suffered such ailments. Maybe because I don't beat my equipment, fix it when it needs it and do the scheduled maintenance.

Also. I did own a Big Ruckus for a year. Sadly it was in a flood, something I didn't know when I bought it. I didn't keep it after having to fix too many things and discovering rust was inside the engine. I replaced it with my CF Moto Fashion, a decent Honda copy that has given me fair service for 15,000 miles of its near 17,000 mile life.

I don't like the word overpriced in referring to brand name scooters. More expensive describes it better without sounding judgemental.