Maintenance costs/most reliable scoots

[coreyman]

Why would a clutch replacement cost $1000? I bought mine for $30 on amazon, saw some $70 performance ones as well. Sounds like I need to get into the scooter repair business if there is $930 of profit there for a 10 minute job..... hah.

[Shadowfire]

Least amount of maintenance:
Honda Forza, with its 8,000 service / oil change intervals.
Next least amount of maintenance:
Honda Silverwing, Kymco Xciting 500, or Burgman 400 (4,000 mile oil changes)

Once you start looking at smaller bikes, you're looking at engines which don't have an oil filter and the oil change intervals become <2000 miles.

As for reliability:
Honda = Kymco = Sym > Suzuki = Genuine > Anything made in China at a plant that also runs a line for the Japanese or Taiwanese > Vespa >>> Anything made in any other Chinese plant.

When you put 13,000 miles a year (over 7 months) on your scoot, a 1200 mile oil change interval really starts to annoy.

[bandito2]

Originally Posted by coreyman

Why would a clutch replacement cost $1000? I bought mine for $30 on amazon, saw some $70 performance ones as well. Sounds like I need to get into the scooter repair business if there is $930 of profit there for a 10 minute job..... hah.

Why would a clutch replacement for a scooter cost $1000?
Well, if the Burgman he is talking about is the 650 Burgman, then the total in parts alone is more like $1300. That is just parts and does not include labor. (which certainly could be close to twice the parts cost...) You do know shop time is not cheap... It is not a simple dry centrifugal clutch. It is a wet, multiplate centrifugal type.

The CVT is no simple matter either because the CVT is internal; meaning the engine needs to be dropped and major surgery done to get in there to replace the belt. (which does last FAR, FAR longer than the simple belts most other scooters use.) But it isn't even a simple rubber belt either; metal links on a fiber type loop. And it IS a big job to replace the CVT belt. Total tear down of the bike and multiple days to do the job. YIKES!

And! the energy delivered to the rear wheel is not by a drive belt, but rather via a series of several gears. This is why I would never get a 650 Burgman. It works fine until it doesn't. Then the pocket book takes a huge hit to fix it unless you just sell the rest of the bike for parts to minimize your loss.

Here's a link to a forum where the issue is discussed. Reading the first 2 pages pretty much confirms what I said. (and should scare the hell out of anyone thinking of getting a used older Burgman)
http://burgmanusa.com/forums/15-burg...r-problem.html

I'll stick to the simpler rubber belt CVT and dry centrifugal clutch thank you.
Well, I guess that's more information than you wanted to know.

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Well further research shows a modified method where not all of the plastics need to be removed. The engine is detached and lifted some so the clutch can be removed between frame members rather than by removing nearly all the plastic to drop the engine completely out. STILL! it is a big job. But I think the engine still does need to be completely dropped to get at the CVT since it is internal and cases need to be split.