Buying my son a scooter I think, heeeeeeeelp

[shane]

Hi, We are looking at buying our son a moped for his 16th. We have been looking around and decided to stay away from the chinese imports. We like the look of the Aprilia SR50 R or the Yamaha Aerox both new. Which one should we go for? Our son has also mentioned a more motorbike style 50cc rather than a scooter. Any advise would be great.

[NewbRider15]

There are motor cycle style 50ccs, a few of my mates have them. You can get scrambler, enduro, sports, motard even cruiser style 50cc. Some automatic some geared.

Brand new the bike will seem quite slow, but after doing around 300-400 miles it should run at its peak. Second hand onces are usually cheaper and because they are used run fine. Just be careful who you bye from.

Derbi motorcycles do a range of 50cc bikes of most styles, Generic are fairly good as are Honda and Peugeot. Really its what your son like the look of and what kind of ride he wants.

Geared bikes tend to be faster but arent always reliable. Scooters are nearly always automatic and aren't much slower than geared but you can feel a big difference.

4 strokes are generally slower than 2 strokes but you dont have to mix the oil with a 4 stoke as you do with a 2 stroke.

Thats about all i can think of at the mo. Any questions just post them or message me.

Hope his helped.
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Now on - 1986 Kawasaki ZL400 Eliminator (33bhp restricted)
Own - 2009 Huatian HT50QT-25 Scooter

[herulach]

A 50cc geared is probably the best start, they're cooler looking than a scoot, and will make it easier to go straight to test at 17 (assuming you want him getting straight onto something with some power at that age, I know I'd have killed myself acting like a complete chump)
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YBR 125>FZS600

[Teflon-Mike]

Dont Buy him ANYTHING just yet.
Get him a gift voucher for his CBT and put in an IOU for a moped.
Book the CBT on a 'Geared' school-bike, check with the school, most have at least one geared 50.
IF he doesn't get on with it, they'll put him on a twist & go.
ONCE he has done his CBT on a school bike, THEN you'll know, if he actually can ride, what he can ride, what he LIKES to ride, and IF he still has the the enthusiasm for it all.

[Doovy]

[el_oso]

but surely going to need to learn how to use gears at some point. even if he doesn't step up to a proper bike i assume he is going to learn to drive at some point in which case he will need to learn how to use a clutch and gears (unless he wants to be like a lazy American and have an auto)
i would say go for the geared 50. will teach you how to ride properly without going too fast
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Duke 390
Previous: '05 XR125L | '96 XJ600S Diversion |'05 Suzuki GSXR1000 | '05 Honda CBR125-R | '97 YZF 600R Thundercat | '11 Honda CBR250
Car: Jeep Wrangler 4.0L

[Teflon-Mike]

[el_oso]

my 10 year old brother learnt how to ride on a 50. and he is really small for his age so he couldn't touch the floor. took him no more than 10mins to be able to use clutch and gears without falling. within a hour or so he was fairly confident with gears changes.
50's are also really light. so easy to pick up when you fall.
my mate had a TDR250. i would not have like to have learn on that. as soon as it hit 6/7k rpm the power just suddenly kicked it. if you had no idea it was coming you would have gone straight off the back.
personally i would say that that a 125 4T is the way to go. but since your son is only 16 a 50 is the only option. a few of my mates had scooters and one had a ts50. the ts50 was much much more fun than any of the scooters
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Duke 390
Previous: '05 XR125L | '96 XJ600S Diversion |'05 Suzuki GSXR1000 | '05 Honda CBR125-R | '97 YZF 600R Thundercat | '11 Honda CBR250
Car: Jeep Wrangler 4.0L

[shane]

Thanks for all the responses. I think we will book him in for his CBT and see how he gets on.

Thanks again