Vitacci Scooters

[jetrotcu]

Hi everyone, scooter newbie here looking to buy my first scooter. I've looking at different scooter stores around Houston, and I found one place that sells Vitacci scooters, but I can't seem to find much info about them on the interwebs. I searched this forum with no results. Anyone heard of them?

[juice]

I found Vitacci info on yahoo.com . They apparently make the widfire 50cc sold on ebay , and the Velocity 250cc for $500.00 . Chinese generic most likely . I would steer clear unless you are VERY mechanically inclined and have a LOT of free time to work on it ! Good luck .

[vulcan]

I would advise staying away from any Chinese brand scooter. They have a very bad reputation, and it is well deserved.


Some good brands are- Vespa, Honda, Yamaha, Kymco, TGB, SYM, Aprilia, and Genuine.

If you are new to buying 2 wheeled vehicles, watch out and try not to get ripped off. Some dealers will try to stick you with several hundred dollars worth of totally bogus freight and prep charges. If they do, refuse to buy unless they remove these charges. They are already in the scooter's MSRP, and are known in the business as "additional dealer markup". Very few dealers in todays economy will, or can afford to turn down a sale without these charges. They still make a fair profit without them. Know what the scooters MSRP is before you go to a dealer. There will still be sales tax, if you live in a state that has it, title, and registration charges. Jerry.

[jetrotcu]

Thanks everyone for your responses. Looks like I'll be steering clear of Vitacci...

[IRELAND]

I know nothing about Vitacci scooter, but I do know that there's big trouble with Chinese sccoter for after-sales service and spare parts ... from my personal experience ..

[ronnath]

sounds like they're trying to hide the bike behind an Eye-talian name.

[honkerman]

sounds like they're trying to hide the bike behind an Eye-talian name.

Yes, there's quite a few like that. Look at the "Lambretta" scooters they sell now (mentioned in another thread). There's a couple of other Italian sounding Chinese knock-offs out there, but I can't remember the names at the moment since I just woke up and my brain is all fuzzy.

To the OP, think of the purchase of a scooter in the same way that you would the purchase of a car (or even motorcycle really). I know very few people who do not care if their car breaks down after only a few hundred miles. I know very few people who would settle for a car that has weak braking due to a fake ABS system (which I doubt they'd even be able to get away with on a car, but hey). I know very few people who would settle for a car without a proven track record. Certainly there are those who will, but they aren't the majority of informed buyers.

There are at least three criteria that I would consider very important when considering the purchase of a vehicle:
- Brand reliability; how well known is the manufacturer and what is their track record
- Build quality; ties in with brand reliability but can vary depending on model
- Safety record; There are more safety features in cars, but with a scoot it's still an issue, specifically with braking and maneuvering responsively.

There are more issues that tie in, such as dealer reputation (including whether they will nail you with tons of stupid after-market fees), but they are satelite issues compared to the three I mentioned above IMO.

[ronnath]

can't disagree with you, honkerman. i've always believed you get what you pay for.

i've mentioned it here before, but will repeat it again.

over on the scoot dawg forum the membership is largely made up of chinese scoot riders and they are very sensitive to others (read: us) that don't share their appreciation. if you look through their posts its a litany of problems they have with their scoots: pieces failing, pieces falling off, poor materials, questionable fluids and lubricants, lack of dealer prep, lack of dealer support, hard to find parts. the list goes on and on.

with a list like that, why do they continue to buy them? it largely falls to the low prices paid. the owners justify the lack of quality while avoiding what they consider to be high prices.

an example: you've just paid, say, 1500 bucks for a 150cc scoot. and you've had to replace hoses, fluids, fasteners, and maybe the tires. you like to wrench stuff so you've done all the work yourself and laid out maybe 300 for everything you need to replace. so you've got 1800 invested. well, a decent quality 150cc scoot was probably going to set you back in the mid-3K range. Ta Da! you've saved nearly 2 grand and finally have a scoot that meets your needs. sure, you've got your hands greasy, but your beer budget is in good shape.

and that's what keeps the bottom tier scooter dealers in business.

[honkerman]

can't disagree with you, honkerman. i've always believed you get what you pay for.

i've mentioned it here before, but will repeat it again.

over on the scoot dawg forum the membership is largely made up of chinese scoot riders and they are very sensitive to others (read: us) that don't share their appreciation. if you look through their posts its a litany of problems they have with their scoots: pieces failing, pieces falling off, poor materials, questionable fluids and lubricants, lack of dealer prep, lack of dealer support, hard to find parts. the list goes on and on.

with a list like that, why do they continue to buy them? it largely falls to the low prices paid. the owners justify the lack of quality while avoiding what they consider to be high prices.

an example: you've just paid, say, 1500 bucks for a 150cc scoot. and you've had to replace hoses, fluids, fasteners, and maybe the tires. you like to wrench stuff so you've done all the work yourself and laid out maybe 300 for everything you need to replace. so you've got 1800 invested. well, a decent quality 150cc scoot was probably going to set you back in the mid-3K range. Ta Da! you've saved nearly 2 grand and finally have a scoot that meets your needs. sure, you've got your hands greasy, but your beer budget is in good shape.

and that's what keeps the bottom tier scooter dealers in business.

Yeah, I visit Scoot dawg from time to time. I have to say that I understand the mindset to some extent; however, you are right, the bulk of the people defending the Chinese scoots are mechanically inclined, but they aren't the bulk of the people buying them. The majority of people who buy Chinese scoots know absolutely nothing about them. They can't even change their own oil. Sure, a 50cc Wildfire costs $1100, or I can even get one off the web for $600...fan stinkin tastic...how long will it last? Even if I know what I'm doing, how long will it be until something breaks that I either won't be able to replace or will cost more to fix than the scooter is worth.

Then with the 150cc scoots. O.K., let's take the scenario you've given (excellent scenario btw), some schmuck has a GY6 scoot that he bought for 1500 off e-bay or from Pep-Boys. He gets all the stuff replaced on it for about $300 give or take a hundred or so. Cool...great...wonderful...He's still got build quality issues to contend with and the worry that the thing will just up and die on him without warning. He could have gone to the local Kymco Dealer and spent just a little bit more for a 150cc Super 8. Peace of mind is priceless.

I'd love to see a detailed list of the life expectancy of each brand/model of scooter. I've not seen any such thing, and I would not know where to start to make a comparison, but it seems to me that most of the Chinese scoots never seem to make it past the 1,000 km (600 mi) point without a major problem. At the very least, their performance is lackluster at best. They appeal to people who are uninformed purchasers more often than not, who are looking to save money and think that they are getting a great deal.

It's like going to Big-Lots and buying the toys they sell that are knock-offs of big ticket toys. A few years back, I got my kid a set of "transformers" from big lots. As soon as he opened the package, one of them fell completely apart and the other three in the package only lasted a little while longer. The toys were cheaply made out of very poor quality plastic. Funny thing is, most Chinese scoots use the same brittle plastic in their controls and even on their dashboards. Crazy stuff.

The excuse these guys use about saving thousands on a scooter would actually be believable if there were no options except the Italian and Japanese brands. Fact is, there are several companies that price in the mid range and then the savings get a little less impressive. Sure, a 150cc Vespa will cost me around 4 grand. On the other hand, a 150cc Kymco is a whole lot less, it just doesn't come with the name recognition (though I know a couple Harley guys who nodded knowingly and approvingly when they found out I bought a Kymco, so the brand recognition is getting up there). A similar scenario would be if I were to buy a Yugo and fix it up (if that's even possible), and say, but look, I saved over 50,000 dollars because I didn't buy a Jaguar!

I'm right with ya Ron.

[vulcan]

On the other hand, and I know I've brought this up before, 2 years ago, I bought an American Lifan LF200GY-5 dual sport motorcycle from an authorized American Lifan dealer online, and had it drop shipped to me in the original crate. It hadn't been touched since leaving China. I paid $1375.00 total, including shipping to my door, and liftgate service. The driver even rolled it right into my garage on a pallet dolley. A local stealer wanted $5500 OTD for a new Suzuki DR200SE, a bike of the same type and size as the Lifan.


I carefully uncrated and assembled the bike, found a couple of minor problems with parts that did not fit quite right, devised solutions to these problems that worked fine, drained out whatever that stuff was in the crankcase, put in some real American oil, adjusted everything, put gas in it, and it started right up. I heard just a hint of valve clatter, so I didn't bother checking the valves. This is an OHV pushrod engine, so there is no cam chain to break or get loose and take out the whole engine.

I broke it in properly, changed the oil several times, checked the screen and found nothing, made minor adjustments during break in, and at 1000 klms, started riding it in a normal manner, just like a Japanese bike. I even made a trip from Phoenix to San Diego and back on it, a distance of over 900 miles, on the freeway. It ran just fine, with no problems.


I currently have 28,000 klms on it (thats 17,000 miles), I'm on my second chain, second battery,( the Chinese battery only lasted 3 months, the Westco battery is still working fine) and third set of tires. I have read about people with 50,000 miles on these bikes, and they are still running. The only actual problem I had with it, was the Chinese bulbs all burned out very quickly, but replacing them with American bulbs solved the problem. I did have to replace the turn signal flasher with a $1.99 one from Pep Boys, the Chinese flasher would not work with the American bulbs. I would have to say that I am very satisfied with this bike, so much so, that I would buy another one, but it looks like this one will never wear out. All parts are available from the dealer I ordered it from, or any other authorized AL dealer, including engine parts, at a fraction of the cost of Japanese parts.


Now, there are several people selling Lifan bikes on the internet, especially on eBay, and even quite a few local dealers with real buildings and an inventory. But, these are not the same as the bikes as the one I bought. They are what are known as "grey market" bikes. There is no official importer for these bikes, and they are not designed or manufactured for the American market. Sometimes you can't even register or insure them, and there is no parts source for them. There is one such dealer that routinely advertises on the Phoenix, claiming to be an "official importer" for Lifan. American Lifan inc. is the only authorized American importer, and the bikes they import and sell are different from the "grey market" bikes.


This bike does not quite have the fit and finish quality of a Suzuki, but it is not bad, and has not broken down in 17,000 miles. And for 1/4 the price? I admit I did not know exactly what I was getting when I ordered it, but did a lot of research first, and have not been dissappointed.


But I still cannot recommend Chinese scooters. For some reason, they simply do not hold up as well. American Lifan also sells scooters, and I have read a LOT more complaints about them than I have about their motorcycles. The American Lifan LF200GY-5 seems to be somewhat of an oddity. It appears to be the only Chinese bike that does not have major problems. I guess there has to be an exception to almost everything. Jerry.


BTW, when I say Chinese scooter, I am not referring to the Kymco Agility 50 or 125, which are built in China, but in a Kymco factory. They have the same high quality as the rest of the Kymco line, and the same 2 year warranty. They are just not as fancy as the Taiwanese built Kymcos.