Geared 50cc 2strokes....Really that bad?

[nunswimming]

Have heard a lot of 'horror stories' about the geared 50cc 2strokes out there.

I am wanting to buy a geared 50cc as I am only 16 with a CBT and want something a bit different to the endless NRG's and speedfights whizzing around.

Am looking to buy a Derbi GPR 50 but am also considering a:
yamaha tzr 50
aprilia rs 50
rieju rs2 50
cagiva mito 50
[prefer the look of the race reps to enduro styles ']

Most people I have spoke to say that they are unreliable, break down, blow up....etc etc and generally don't think much of them.

I will be getting a second hand bike as I don't have the cash for a new bike and wouldn't buy one if I did.

My thinking is that the people have this idea of the bad reputation because the people riding them just don't respect them as machines and in turn just don't maintain them correctly.
Surely a well maintained and well ridden bike will return good service.....

I am willing to put the work in to keep my bike running at its best and just wondered what sort of things I should be doing.

I know the whole riding everywhere flat out won't help matters, know about warming it up first and always keeping it in good oil etc

But to what extent.
How long should I let my bike tick over for before riding and what sort of revs should I keep it below for the first couple of miles?
etc etc

Most of the bikes above I have seen for sale have been modified to the max not only from an insurance and licensing point of view this changes things but reliability it will obviously make things more interesting in the mechanics department.
I am going to try and keep away from bikes which have had "2 engine rebuilds and a list of aftermarket parts as long as my arm" but is there anything else that I should avoid?
Performance exhausts and the like...

Are there any manufacturers to avoid?
Have heard that Aprilias are not that hot on parts but then again they are all linked in somewhere....
[Have heard that Gilera, Aprilia, Derbi etc are all owned by piaggio ? ]
But as a bike as a whole are there any that are more notorious than others in the ones to avoid.

Sorry for the long post but if any of you knowledgeable people out there could help me out with anything above or anything else you can tell me I would really appreciate it.

Thanks!

Chloe x

[sumpgard]

buy a 50cc honda suzuki yamaha 2stroke and if serviced properly will be very reliable just make sure you use a good quality 2 stroke oil they only become unreliable when people put on cheap after market performance parts .

[rotax81]

if you keep them 50cc geared bikes standard, most are reliable enough. its the mods that kill them, especially poorly set up mods.

as for warming a 2 stroke up..... no need, just start it and ride it normally for a couple of minutes. the biggest issue with cold motors is a cold seizure. the piston expands rapidly and gets too tight in the bore that is still cool. that only happens when thrashed from cold.

the GPR50 is a nice bike.
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[stevo as b4]

I don't think you need to worry that much on the whole. You sound like your expecting it to be a time bomb. Sure 50cc engines will by nature have to work flat out around 90% of the time. But they are generally in a lower state of tune say under 150-160bhp/litre at most for a derestricted Derbi, Minarelli-Yamaha, or similar unit.

This is less than a sporty 125cc 2stroke, and thus they should have an engine life between overhauls of a decent amount like 6-10'000m. Many problems IMO are caused by lack of maintainence and 16yr old's crap riding skills, abuse, and neglect. If you follow the manufactures reccomended maintainence schedules and don't cut corners with cheap oil, etc, they should be reliable for a long time! Tuning often kills them, but again would you buy a bike that a 16yr old idiot has tried to tune, with cheap parts and lack of skill etc. If you were to fit an annoying noisy race pipe, and re-jet the bike properly there should be no issues. Further tuning a 50cc is just FAIL in my opinion.

I don't think that geared 50cc bikes are worse or better than scooters, but if you cant go fast with 50cc then does it really matter if the machine is a bike or a scooter? I don't think all the gear changing is very efficiant or that the best twist and go 50's are much if any slower other than maybe eeking out the last 4-5mph or so eventually. If a scooter can do around 50-52mph which is plenty for a 50cc, then a geared bike that hits say 55-57mph is not worth paying any more for, or getting excited over.

Most people that want a flashy 50cc bike at 16, are the type that want a fast sports 125 as soon as they are 17. It's fine to waste money like this if you have it, but it's sensible IMO if your only wanting a 50cc machine for a year, not to get too caught up with expensive to buy and run machines, if that money could be saved towards a better bike later.

[smegballs]

I served my 50cc apprenticeship on a 1982 Yamaha DT50 MX.

Sure it werent that fast: about 45 top speed

but it was fun and solid. It survived the couple of drops it had
(remember to park the right way on hills!!) and was light enough to pick up easy.

It was all stock (apart from previous owners bodge job electrics)
and kept well fed with semi-synth 2t oil did a good job.

It needed enough maintainence that slowly grew me into the amateur mechanic I am now.

If you can try to actually ride the bike before you buy it to get a feel for the it.

eg. My DT50 actually had a rev/throttle range yet my mates Suzuki TS50 is basically 5 speed twist'n'go its in gear then hold a steady WOT.


Cheers, Rich

[Faraz]

They're not as bad as people make them out to be.
Maintain them, treat them well, and you wont have any/many problems.

I've had mine for 4 months and nothing has gone wrong.
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'56 Yamaha MT-01
'05 Nissan 350z Roadster GT
3 words dude.. Fvck. Yes.

[Ariel Badger]

The bikes are fine if serviced well and used within their capabilities.
The problem is the 17 year old rider that will rag it, spend hours trying to stunt it and then forget to check fluids, fit a aftermarket pipe but not undrstand about jetting carbs etc.
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Bikers make great organ donors, get 115 on your licence today.

[joshmac_3]

When I was 16 I had a 2004 Rieju RS2 Matrix.
I bought it with about 13,000 miles on it and sold it with 18,000ish miles on the clock for only £50 less than I bought it for.

It had an MK pipe when I got it (only mod I was aware of). Went out with an instructor when I was thinking about taking my test a year on, (borrowed a mate's 125 for the actual test) just to iron out any bad habits I may have picked up over the year, and he said he had 60mph on his clocks when we went down the A3 for a couple of junctions, so probably ~55mph if you take into account the 10% margin for speedo error. Sure, I probably looked like a tw*t all tucked in, but it was good fun.

Never had any problems with it during my ownership. I didn't do much as far as maintenance was concerned (apart from oil and filter etc). Oh and I ran it on fully synthetic 2 stroke oil (castol IIRC?). It is more expensive at around £12 a bottle, I think, but it kept my bike running nicely
IMO a geared bike is a lot more fun to ride than a 'ped and also good practice if you are considering doing your A2 test and getting a 'big' bike when you're 17 .

I ride a restricted SV650S now... GREAT FUN!

HTH

[jackojeff]

[NSR Mick]

[jackojeff]

[Vincent]

[Billing]

My Suzuki TS50X lasted a whole year without any real mechanical problems, a restrictor fell out in the exhaust and stopped it running, it got through 10,000 miles, which I don't think is too bad. Only mods i know of were a 1mm oversize piston, wider inlet port and a well tuned 18mm carb (slightly bigger than standard) top speed was an indicated 50ish so probably truely 40 - 45mph
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[Kickstart]

Hi

If you want to know how fast your 50 is then get a decent performance GPS unit. If someone is trying to track you then they will easily be out, and normal GPS systems react too slowly for the speed to be that useful.

Also any speed down hill is meaningless. That is more the hill than the power.

65mph is probably within reason for a well breathed upon 50, but for that you are going to need somewhere in the region of 10hp. Not a simple amount to get and likely to result in a pretty unreliable engine.

All the best

Keith
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Traxpics, track day and racing photographs - Bimota Forum - Bike performance / thrust graphs for choosing gearing

[jackojeff]

yh well i have been told that the rs2 rs (all the minarelli engines) come with 12hp (aparantly) please correct me if you know the real bhp

(aprilia rs50 dont count post 2006)
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ride it like its new !!!

[Theoutsider]

don`t go for the 50s. I had a derbi,a honda and a aprilia (the aprilia was the tuned one) but all of them bloody unreliable. wait untill you`re 17 and get a 125. They are so much more reliable than the 50s.Trust me

[Kickstart]

[Sosha]

Wouldn't go for anything too fancy for a 50 - end of the day it'll still be a 50.

As said - reliability'll be down to how it was looked after (no different for scooters) so quiz the owner and draw your own conclusion...
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Eliminating dynamic range since 1999

[jackojeff]

also when lookin dont think oh thats cheeper than it should be for the miles n years then just dismiss it as u suspect something is wrong

i got my rs2 50 on a 58 plate for 1400 an dun 164 miles
so in reality i got it £1000 cheaper than it should have bin
check who is sellin as i bought mine off of a car dealer (his sons friend sold it to the dealer) and it was really good he knew nothin about the value of the bike and i set not 1600 1400 he didnt even say hmmm straight away yes n nothin wrong with the bike (have had serviced and cheked over by a mechanic i know)

so
1. dont dismiss cheep it may be perfectly fine
and
2. check who is sellin if a car dealer or a teen haggle they will give in
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ride it like its new !!!

[MarJay]

[The Artist]

[truslack]

Geared 50's are fun, though they don't like towing other bikes
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Current: Suzuki RG 125 Gamma, Honda H100, Triumph Tiger 800XC, Suzuki SV650 (minitwin)

[jackojeff]

[The Artist]

1. It's a thread from last year

2. Its a she not a he

3. You are giving advice which is wrong. You obviously do not frequent this forum a lot because you disagreed with Kickstart which has never even been thought about before. Even Chuck Norris has second thoughts.

[c_dug]

at number three, although technicaly you are wrong, still made me laugh.

c_dug
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