http://www.powersportsreview.com en-us http://www.powersportsreview.com N/A javier@jichost.com Wed, 27 Aug 2008 21:25:20 PDT 20 http://www.powersportsreview.com/blogs/12/Gas-Saver.html I just love my 150 Roketa Bali scooter.  I love the gas mileage.  It beats my 350 Econoline van, that’s for sure.  I recommend everyone getting one. I’m sure in about a year there will be so many scooters on the road. I need to get a manual for mine. I bought mine from a private owner, and he can’t find the manual. It only had 85 miles.  Any advice for getting a manual? Where?   Thank you,  Teresa Teresa Boucher Fri, 08 Aug 2008 00:00:00 PDT http://www.powersportsreview.com/blogs/11/My-Roketa-Bali-150---A-Frist-Impression.html I received my new scoot last week. It sure is nice looking The crate was incredibly beat up when I unpacked it and there was some body panel damage at the left foot pad (presumably from a forklift and it was an easy fix) and the right mirror was broken. Assembly went smoothly except for the inablility to adjust the (*)^T*&%&^) mirrors! What pieces of ___! I kicked the manual start 4 times and then tried the electric start and it started the first try! I am very impressed with fit and finish except as mentioned above. I took it into town this evening (7 1/2 miles at 36 degrees..brrrr) and ran it for all she was worth (using hard break in). I reached about 64-5 mph with what I am guessing to be about a 10% error the high side. This was achieved on winding and extremely mountainess roads (not many straights here and definetly not much flat for sure) The unit is a 2006 made last month. The battery is a 9 amp yuesu (spelling), has ABS on the front disc. It was very smooth accelerating, and had some noticeable rattles in the under panel (upon inspection found it to be a bolt of unknown origin). Gas line was hooked up, the muffler bolts were tight! The headlights in the dark SUCK! First they need to be adjusted for a further reach ahead of the bike and then I will be doing a change from the 18 watt bulbs to 35 watt bulbs (all the bike will handle electrically) very soon. The radio is a waste of electronic components! If you buy a scoot with one, either upgrade or get rid of it. Mine is already out to provide more underseat storage. The radio was poorly installed and was very hard to hear due speaker mounting behind the front fairing without benefit of a grill on either speaker. The gas filler is up front in the middle for easy access. The brakes are robust and well behaved. The bike handles extremely well in the wind as I had gusts averaging 35 and some reported upward of 43 mph this afternoon and evening. I did feel what I felt to be excessive wallow in right hand turns and don't know what is causing the feeling but I am getting used to it. It feels as if the rear tire is mushy but I brought them to within 2# of specs (as shown on the tires). Oh, and speaking of tires they are Pirelli's! a first from what I have read. I changed all fluids prior to the first ride to american fluids. It is a quiet scoot, and the muffler produces deep and not unpleasant tones. Fit and finish were good with a couple of minor exceptions ie: right side body panel was rattling and upon inspection two screws were missing. I took the advise many and used rubber washers on the windhield and it is stable and quiet. The seat looked a little too forward to me when I uncrated it but when I drove it the feel was different and is quite comfortable. I am 5'9" and it was almost perfect. My wife and I had it up to almost 55 mph+- on the highway and we are not light weights. I am 220# and she is 190# a lot of beef. The rear of the seat is elevated for the passenger to see over the driver and both seats have small lumbar supports and they effectively prevent sliding back on acceleration. My wife says that it is exceptionally windy back there (well duh?). The seat is made of the same material you see on ballistic covered baggage. It is really tough stuff. The Mirrors are just junk! No other way to put it. I like having the turn signals on them but what is the point if you can't adjust the mirrors to see behind you? They seem to be ill conceived, and almost an after thought. I need desperately to come up with another arrangement, a fix or workaround to make these better. The mirror insets themselves are NON adjustable..they are fixed! How dumb is that? I just completed 150 miles on the scoot and changed the gear lube and crankcase oil. Both of these were easy to find, easy to access. The exception is that in order to refill the gear lube I needed to use a pump type oil can. I simply measured out the oil in a measuring cup (as suggested by scootdawg.com) and poured the correct amount (3.7 oz's) into the can and used it to pump the lube into the gear lube filler. I used Royal Lube 75w-90 for the gear lube and Royal Lube 5w-30 in the crankcase. A recent discovery is what I believe to be an exhaust leak. I will be checking it in the morning. All in all this scoot was very good investment ($1299.95 delivered) Not a bad deal considering that Honda or Yamaha is nearly 4 times that. Charles Ketchum Thu, 23 Nov 2006 00:00:00 PST http://www.powersportsreview.com/blogs/10/Finally-got-the-paperwork-lovin-the-scoot.html OKscoot fans out there scooterdemand came thru for me it took the sales manager to get things rollin (a guy named sean) obviously they figured out how to do business now. once some cages got rattled they were on it and got the job done. so after all that I will give them cudos for responding. ok on to the scoot. Man I gotta tell ya once it gets assembled and properly broke in the thing is a blast. Thanx to all the advice out there!!!!!! I did route all the vacuum lines nice and proper, and took the nose off and found the LED for the stero and mounted that. I found a headlight adjuster in there too!!! it is a black plastic three handle deal. I had heard the bash on the headlights. So I pulled my car up to 20' or so of the garage door and blinded the left headlight with a 12pack box (hey ya gotta have fun while tuning the scoot, never ride after that though LOL) any way then I pulled the scoot next to the car on the center stand and gently cranked on the knob and raised the light to match the car. I gotta say it makes a difference. I ride with the highs on and no one flashes me or flips thier mirror. hope that helps. if ya reach up between the lights and feel around you will find the knob. I also drilled out for the speakers while the nose was off and the sound aint that bad. Tons of fun at the stop lights when people are looking around to see where the jams are coming from, then they see the scoot and are amazed. I cleaned up the wiring while I was in there too. Next time I have the nose off I will upgrade the speakers and the radio too. So far I ave about 74-75 mpg. I have broken in the motor with castrol syntek and now will switch to either valvoline sytek or mobile one. so far for what it is the thing is a hoss. I have alot of fun leaving the lights not really even trying and out accelerate some cars. when the young guys see that they nail it. Cant be shut out by a scoot. always see them looking over at me ckecking the scoot out. LOL. Been doing the maintenance right on schedule and so far so good. rarely do I find myself using full throttle. So all in all scoot fans now I am happy and scooterdemand did come thru. So with a little patience after all that I think they understand what a golden opportunity they have. I see scoots more and more. good riding and be safe out there Dan Hogan Thu, 12 Oct 2006 00:00:00 PDT http://www.powersportsreview.com/blogs/7/Good-Product-Horrible-Customer-Service-After-The-Sale.html I purchased my scoot on 8/25/06 it was delivered on 9/1/06. To this date I await for the paperwork to get on the road. I recently purchased a scoot from ScooterDemand.com, Nick has been my point of contact. He is the worst customer service person I have come across in memory. the whole experience has been a pain. Nick is full of SH big time. I work in a call center customer service claims adjuster for a auto extended warranty co. If we conducted business the way Nick and Scooter demand.com did we would be out of business. Nick promised me the paperwork was in the mail over a week ago only to get a call from him needing the VIN number of my scoot. What the heck is he not supposed to know that already. He has made promises and not kept them. Then when I wanted to talk to his boss the poop hit the fan. He actually has threatened me if i "pressure him"the paperwork would get delayed. how is that for customer service. gonna file a compaint with the attorney general in thier home state. and contact rocketa directly. I have read many stories about the paperwork nightmares and now it is happening to me. sours me from ever buying off the internet. Too bad I actually like my scoot. I would not recomend buying a paper bag from scooterdemand.com with people in that organization like Nick they wont be in business long. I will ck out the other options I have for parts for shure. they are not the only game in the US. Scooters are just gonna get more popular for shure with gas prices and companies like scooterdemand will not last long. this is the US and we are used to a higher level of service unfortunately people like Nick dont have a clue. Dan Hogan Wed, 04 Oct 2006 00:00:00 PDT http://www.powersportsreview.com/blogs/6/ScooterDemandcom-Purchase-Experience.html I recently purchased a scoot from Scooterdemand.com nick has been my point of contact. He is the worst customer service person I have come across in memory. the whole experience has been a pain. Nick is full of SH big time. I work in a call center customer service claims adjuster for a auto extended warranty co. If we conducted business the way Nick and Scooter demand.com did we would be out of business. Nick promised me the paperwork was in the mail over a week ago only to get a call from him needing the VIN number of my scoot. What the heck is he not supposed to know that already. He has made promises and not kept them. Then when I wanted to talk to his boss the poop hit the fan. He actually has threatened me if i "pressure him"the paperwork would get delayed. how is that for customer service. gonna file a compaint with the attorney general in thier home state. and contact rocketa directly. I have read many stories about the paperwork nightmares and now it is happening to me. sours me from ever buying off the internet. Too bad I actually like my scoot. I would not recomend buying a paper bag from scooterdemand.com with people in that organization like Nick they wont be in business long. I will ck out the other options I have for parts for shure. they are not the only game in the US. Scooters are just gonna get more popular for shure with gas prices and companies like scooterdemand will not last long. this is the US and we are used to a higher level of service unfortunately people like Nick dont have a clue. Dan Hogan Wed, 04 Oct 2006 00:00:00 PDT http://www.powersportsreview.com/blogs/5/The-internet-scooter-industry-is-missing-the-boat.html well now almost another week has passed since I had to provide Nick at Scooterdemand.com the VIN number for my scoot since they did not know that (lame). I thought that would be his last excuse. I guess his threat to hold up my co (certifiicate of origion) is gonna be true. So now it is my turn. I have filed an offical complaint with the Kansas Attorney general I have started a credit card dispute Letters to WIN WIN auto group are written and stamped. The BBB will soon get my complaint and I am doing this. Too bad that these Internet companies have to be such idiots they are really missing the boat!!!!!! Americans are not going to tolerate this poor level of service. I WOULD NOT RECOMEND SCOOTERDEMAND.COM TO ANYONE. DO NOT BUY A SCOOTER OFF THE INTERNET UNLESS YOU ARE GUARENTEED IN WRITING THE CERTIFICATE OF ORIGION FULLY FILL OUT PROPERLY WILL BE ENCLOSED WITH THE SCOOT UPON DELIVERY. Even then I would be skeptical. A damn shame too. the product aint that bad even after all the problems with inital quality control and assembly. I hope people read this prior to buying !!! DEFINATELY DO NOT PURCHASE FROM SCOOTERDEMAND.COM NICK WILL LIE HE NEEDS TO GO SELL USED CARS AT BUY HERE PAY HERE LOTS. Dan Hogan Wed, 04 Oct 2006 00:00:00 PDT http://www.powersportsreview.com/blogs/3/eBay-have-these-people-gone-mad.html First, I would like to start my blog by saying that I believe in free enterprise.  After all, this is the United States of America, the land where a person can take an idea and run with it! Now Pierre Omidyar founder of eBay, has become one of America's richest people. Now, this blog is not about Mr. Omidyar or about free enterprise.  This blog deals with the simple fact that eBay has gone mad!!!   Three years ago, I began to sell pocket bikes in the internet and I decided to try eBay.  I quickly found out that eBay was a great tool to bring people into my local store.  Sales were good, and eBay fees were reasonable.  A couple of years ago, I decided to close my eBay store to avoid competing with the dealer network that I had established.  Several months ago, I opened a local scooter shop in the city of Pomona, were we sell Kymco, Tank, Verucci and accessories for the rider and the scooter, and I thought to myself, I should do some internet sales to promote the local store.    I got my eBay ID, opened my eBay store and began putting the scooters in the store.  From prior experience, I knew that placing my inventory in the inventory section of my store was a good idea, since by doing this more people saw what I was selling.  At .08 cents per item in your store, this is a great value.    I got an email from eBay, informing me that I was in violation of eBay policies.  All of my items in my store were cancelled.  It just happen that eBay created a new section under eBay motors, where you can place the scooter that you are selling and they were now charging 75.00 per each submission.  Imagine that, 75.00 dollars.    eBay no longer allows that you place your scooters under the inventory section of your store.  They force you to submit your add under the eBay Motors section, so they could charge the ridiculous amount of 75.00 dollars.  I understand that we all need to make some money, I understand the value of advertising, but I also know that 75.00 is a ridiculous amount to charge for posting your add.. Javier Acosta Thu, 29 Dec 2005 00:00:00 PST http://www.powersportsreview.com/blogs/1/What-is-up-with-gas-prices.html Last Saturday I attended to a concert at the Greek amphitheater.  We saw the Four Tops and Al Green (great concert).  After the concert my cargo van was on empty so I stopped at a gas station in Hollywood and began to pump gas.  To my surprise after the pump stopped, I looked at how much gas I had putted and I almost fainted.  Eighty-four dollars!!!  Would you believe that?  I took a double take at the pricing hoping that due to old age my eyes were wrong.  I opened my eyes again and still saw 84.00 dollars.  I quietly and very confused got in my van and drove away.  I was no longer happy about the concertâ??   Next day in a casual conversation with a customer she came into our scooter shop looking for a scooter.  She drove a Chevy Tahoe and was looking for some economy.  Me wanting to vent I shared my experience with gas prices and she scared me even more telling me about a report that she had seen on TV.  The reporter was saying that gas prices at the pump were expected to reach the 5.00 dollar mark by next May.  Imagine that.  Five dollars at the pump.    Recently Iâ?™ve noticed huge incentives by Ford, Chevrolet and other automakers promoting their SUVs with discounts of up to 7,000 dollars or more on purchases of their non-efficient gas sucking vehicles.  Are prices been driven perhaps by the unpopularity of these vehicles due to gas prices?  I think so.  I think people are becoming more conscious about gas pricing. I also think that Americans have a limit.  A limit to how much they are willing to show off their SUV and begin driving Hybrid model vehicles looking to save a few bucks.    Scooter popularity has soared to high limits.  In our store we have seen an increase interest in scooters.  The big majority of this people were not driven by nostalgic feelings of riding scooters when they were young or by far memories of some family members with a scooter; these people are being driven by economics.  A scooter provides you with an excellent alternate method to automobiles.  You can easily justify the purchase of a scooter if you do a lot of around town driving.    Well, let me know what you think.   Javier Javier Acosta Tue, 23 Aug 2005 00:00:00 PDT