SCOOTER HELP: FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Genuine Scooters are sold are through our network of Genuine Authorized Dealers. Our list of dealers is always growing. There may not be a dealer near you now but, that could change really soon. Click HERE to search for the Dealer nearest you.

Typically, you first go to your local department of motor vehicles and take a written test. Upon passing the test, you will be issued a learner’s permit which will enable you to legally ride with a licensed rider during daylight hours. The DMV will also provide the specifics of the driving test, which you can simulate and practice by setting up cones in a parking lot. Since the DMV course is usually painted on the pavement, you also can practice on the DMV course when they aren’t conducting tests. Once you have practiced and mastered the test, you can take the driving test at the DMV and receive your license.

An alternative is to sign up for an accredited riding class, such as those organized by the Motorcycle Safety Foundation.There is typically a small charge to take the course. Small displacement motorcycles are usually provided, but many riding courses are adding scooters to their fleets. It may also be possible to get permission to use your own scooter. You will need to bring your own helmet, gloves, long sleeve shirt, long pants and over-the-ankle boots. There is usually a classroom session on a Friday night, filled with valuable information on riding safely and skillfully in a wide variety of situations and weather conditions. Saturday usually starts with a short classroom session followed by several hours of riding drills. The drills are conducted on cone courses at low speeds in a parking lot sectioned off from car traffic. The class concludes with a riding test. If you pass, you are awarded a certificate which in most states qualifies you for a motorcycle license without taking the DMV riding test. As an added bonus, many insurance carriers offer discounted rates for completing a safety course.

IMPORTANT NOTE:
This is a general description. You must check with your state licensing agency for laws that apply to you.

Two-stroke scooters that comply with EPA and local regulations are legal. Genuine’s Buddy 50, Roughhouse 50 feature eco friendly, EPA and CARB compliant two-stroke engines. There are 50 states where it is legal to own and operate.

An alternative is to sign up for an accredited riding class, such as those organized by the Motorcycle Safety Foundation.There is typically a small charge to take the course. Small displacement motorcycles are usually provided, but many riding courses are adding scooters to their fleets. It may also be possible to get permission to use your own scooter. You will need to bring your own helmet, gloves, long sleeve shirt, long pants and over-the-ankle boots. There is usually a classroom session on a Friday night, filled with valuable information on riding safely and skillfully in a wide variety of situations and weather conditions. Saturday usually starts with a short classroom session followed by several hours of riding drills. The drills are conducted on cone courses at low speeds in a parking lot sectioned off from car traffic. The class concludes with a riding test. If you pass, you are awarded a certificate which in most states qualifies you for a motorcycle license without taking the DMV riding test. As an added bonus, many insurance carriers offer discounted rates for completing a safety course.

IMPORTANT NOTE:
This is a general description. You must check with your state licensing agency for laws that apply to you.

Because of their small size, scooter engines are much more sensitive to stale fuel and fuel impurities than a car. The fuel passages in Scooters are small. Fuel that is perfectly fine for a car may clog up a scooter if it is left sitting for a longer period of time. Scooters are often driven short distances at slower speeds. This type of low RPM stop and riding, coupled with frequent electric starting can begin to drain a battery. A Battery tend and fuel stabilizer can easily correct this. Please contact your local Authorized Genuine Dealer for pointer on proper scooter storage.

Scooters are primarily designed for nimble, quick, convenient and efficient urban transport. They thrive in places where parking is scarce, roads are congested, and fuel prices are high.

The minimum engine displacement is 150cc on interstates. Most scooters are too small to be legally operated on interstate. Genuine’s Buddy 170i and Hooligan 170i are large enough and can attain a top speed in excess of 60+mph. However, cruising at 65 miles per hour on a 170 scooter would be similar to cruising at 130mph in your car. These high speeds will shorten engine life and are not recommend for long periods of time.

In other words, your properly maintained Buddy, Hooligan or G400C will faithfully zip you along city streets, country roads, bustling boulevards, tree lined parkways, and even pikes. But we’d advise staying off the expressway and the interstate.

Genuine’s various scooter models have a weight capacity ranging from 320 to 340 pounds. But you have to remember that the weight capacity factors not only the weight of the rider and the passenger, but everything else the scooter is carrying.

In other words, the combined weight of you, the weight of your clothing, the fuel in the tank, the oil in the engine, cargo, your passenger, your passenger’s clothing, your helmets, any accessories mounted on the scooter, the stuffed animal you tied to the handlebars, etc. must be equal to or less than the weight capacity of the scooter.

We’d strongly advise you have the scooter maintained by your Authorized Genuine Dealer. Proof of maintenance and Factory recommended service at the suggested intervals are necessary in keep your warranty in good standing.

Let’s be totally honest here. The number of problems we see with customer-maintained scooters vastly outnumber the problems we see with dealer maintained scooters. We’re talking like a 10:1 ratio or something crazy like that.

Your dealer has special tools that you probably don’t have. Your dealer has service manuals. The guys at your dealership do nothing but wrench on scooters every day. The guys at your dealership have cool shop jackets (with embroidered name tags) we’d bet you don’t have. We could go on and on.

If you are bound and determined to maintain your own scooter, we ask you to at least do the following:

Have your authorized dealer perform the 500 mile first service. This is the most important service in the life of the scooter and goes way beyond an oil change. The valve clearances are inspected, the cables are adjusted, the brakes are tested, bolts are tightened, the carburetor is tweaked, and so forth.

After that, if you choose to perform some or all of the maintenance, please make sure to purchase a shop manual from your authorized dealer, all special tools, a torque wrench, etc. Then make sure to closely follow the recommended maintenance schedule, read the instructions before you even think about picking up a wrench, and take your time.

If you do all that, chances are you’ll be just fine. But if you do something wrong and your motor starts sounding like a 4th of July fireworks display, it ain’t warranty…it’s all on you.

Y

our scooter is designed to operate reliably at the factory settings using factory components. In addition, the scooter is only EPA certified (i.e. legal to ride on the street) in stock form.

If you make modifications and/or install performance parts such as big bore cylinder kits, free-flow exhausts, and clutch kits, this not only voids the warranty, but potentially makes your scooter illegal to ride on public highways. On top of that, when you install a performance part, it usually requires additional adjustments (such as changes in the carburetor jetting) that if done incorrectly can cause extensive damage to your engine.

Genuine’s 2-3 year Unlimited Warranty is valid only for the original purchaser of the scooter and does not transfer if sold.

The answer depends on the size of the rider and the type of riding he or she does.

For example, a 100 pound woman who cruises at 45mph on rural Iowa backroads will get better mileage than a 250 pound guy who battles rush hour traffic in San Francisco.

That said, we see riders of all shapes and sizes riding in all sorts of different places getting an HONEST 80+ miles per gallon on a Buddy 125. Some Buddy 125 riders have achieved over 100mpg! Figure that a 50cc model will get 5-10 mpg higher than that. Figure a 150cc model will get 1-3 mpg lower.

Your dealer is not trying to rip you off. The price listed on our web site is the manufacturer’s suggested retail price (MSRP). That price does not include the money your dealer paid to have the scooter shipped to them or the cost of paying their mechanics to assemble, inspect, adjust, and prep the scooter. Other costs include taxes and state licensing fees. These are real costs that your dealer pays in addition to the cost of the scooter. Just like you, your dealer has a mortgage or rent to pay, utility bills, taxes, etc. They also have to pay salaries to their mechanics, parts and sales staff. Everyone needs to eat, you see.

We’re best friends with a lot of our dealers, and we know for a fact that most of our dealers are in this business because they love scooters; they believe scooters are easy on the environment and make our cities nicer places, and they want to foster a close-knit scooter community in their towns. If they wanted to get crazy rich, they’d do something else.

You’ll notice that our scooters aren’t sold in big box stores, or direct on the internet. That’s because we as a company are firm believers in supporting local businesses. We believe in people paying a fair price for an honest product. Your locally-owned scooter dealer can make buying and owning a scooter a significantly more rewarding experience, and we feel there’s a huge value to that. So give ’em a break, won’t you?

Practically all scooter and motorcycle manufactures calibrate their speedometers to read optimistically. This is because several safety studies conducted by the motorcycle industry proved that if the speedometer read slightly fast, accidents are dramatically reduced.

People also have found that their fuel economy goes up because they are traveling at slightly slower speeds, and they are less likely to get tickets for speeding.

Yes. The Stella 4-Stroke, the only modern vintage scooter, is EPA and CARB approved for sale in all 50 states.

If you really want to ride a scooter, but are unsure about your ability to handle one, we strongly recommend taking a reputable beginning riders course, such as those organized by the Motorcycle Safety Foundation. The classes take place in a safe, controlled environment and feature a series of easy drills that progressively get you feeling comfortable on a motorcycle and scooter. In fact, the first drills are done with the engine off and the instructor pushing you!

It’s a great way to learn in a relaxed setting, and decide if scootering is for you!

There is a lot of debate on this topic, and a lot of chatter on the internet. When in doubt, ALWAYS refer to your owner’s manual and talk to your authorized Genuine Scooter dealer. The manual was written by the engineers who designed and built your scooter. We’d say that carries more weight than some random guy with an internet connection.

Your manual goes into specifics, but here’s a general overview:

The engine in your scooter was run and tested at the factory, but only briefly. So when you’re breaking in your scooter, the internal parts of your engine are essentially rubbing together for the first time. The friction points between the various components need time to wear down to a smooth surface.

Among your engine internals, the most important parts to consider are the piston rings. If you break in your engine correctly, you’ll create a nice tight fit between the piston rings and the cylinder wall. A tight fit is necessary to create a barrier that prevents oil from leaking into the combustion chamber. You need your oil to lubricate, not to burn!

The best way to break in a scooter is to do a lot of city riding, places where there are lots of stop signs and lots of stop-and-go traffic.

Why is that? As you accelerate your scooter, you’re putting a load on the engine. When a load is put on the engine, the piston rings are forced outward, pushing them hard against the cylinder wall. As this happens, a nice, squared off edge forms on the rings. A squared off edge helps the piston ring do its job of creating an oil barrier.

The worst way to break in a scooter is to cruise on a highway, especially if it’s at wide open throttle.

If you’re cruising at the same speed, you’re not putting enough load on the engine. As a result, the piston rings get a rounded edge, and will not be able to prevent oil from leaking into the combustion chamber. Your scooter will burn oil, it won’t run very well, and you won’t be very happy.

Once you’ve logged a few hundred miles, your scooter should be broken in. your manual says that you need a 500 mile first service. To be honest, 500 miles is the longest you’ll want to wait for this service.

Here’s why: All those engine parts rubbing together scrape off tiny shards of metal. These pieces float around in the oil, acting like sandpaper.

Replacing the oil filter and putting fresh oil in your engine therefore, is crucial to a long engine life.

Genuine does not currently cut keys by VIN.

If you have a Brio, Buddy, Buddy Kick, RoughHouse, Hooligan or Urbano, you will need to get a new ignition switch assembly through your local dealer.

If you have a Stella and the four-digit code that was either stamped on your keys, or on a small metal tag when you purchased your scooter, you can contact the San Francisco Scooter Centre through their website here and they can cut a key for you.

If you have a Stella and no code, you will need to purchase a tumbler set from your local dealer.

We do not stock touch up paint. You can check out ScooterPaint.com to find color matched Genuine touch up paint.