Why are mopeds bieng driven to extinction ?

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Why are mopeds bieng driven to extinction ?

Postby chinablue » Tue Jul 02, 2013 8:46 am

I was curious about how much a new Moped would cost so I looked around the internet and realized that new 2013 mopeds are few and far between.
What was the dynamic that turned everyone away from mopeds and on to scooters?
I actually prefer a moped over a scooter as I like the idea of being able to pedal it home if things go wrong.
Mopeds with a long/dual seat to me seem better than a scooter when you weigh in all the data but scooters are just dominating the market.
It seems like if you put a more powerful 50cc engine on a moped and gave it push button start with a higher top end speed they would sell better than a scooter but shops seem completely focused on scooters.
Why has moped production almost come to a stop while scooters are everywhere?
Turn me into a chicken
so that I might spread my wings
and fly.
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re: Why are mopeds bieng driven to extinction ?

Postby mopedlar » Tue Jul 02, 2013 9:36 am

As much as I love mopeds, quality made scooters (not chinese junk) are more comfortable, more reliable, better hill climbers and faster than mopeds. It's as simple as that.
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re: Why are mopeds bieng driven to extinction ?

Postby Ike » Tue Jul 02, 2013 10:22 am

because a 499.00 chinese Scooter can give you 5 years and 5,000 miles of trouble free service but a 1,800.00 Tomos Streetmate can`t .

Only God can make a tree....
and only Tomos can make a Moped!
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re: Why are mopeds bieng driven to extinction ?

Postby Wendell » Wed Jul 03, 2013 9:49 pm

sooo sad ..but oh sooo true..
"Stupid Is As Stupid Does"
And You Just Can't Fix Stupid !
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re: Why are mopeds bieng driven to extinction ?

Postby JunkyardDog » Tue Aug 20, 2013 10:47 pm

Mostly true, but there is an exception, at least with 2 speed mopeds like Tomos and the Puch ZA50. I have 3 scooters, 2 Yamaha 125s and a Genuine Stella 2 stroke manual shift 150. The CVT equipped Yamaha 125s are worthless at climbing hills. The CVT simply does not have a low enough gear ratio to climb steel hills without lugging the hell out of the engines. A 50cc CVT scooter will not climb anything with my 230 pounds on it.

Yet I have been able to climb long steep grades with ease, and keep the engines spinning by keeping them in first gear on both Tomos mopeds and my ZA50. The engine is spinning about the same speed climbing a long steep grade as it is on flat level ground at 30 mph. With a 125cc CVT scooter it isn't even close, the engine rpms are WAY down, and there is nothing you can do about it. My manual shift Stella also climbs well. Not fast, but I can downshift and keep the engine in the powerband.

Now I don't know about a single speed moped. The last one of those I had was a Kinetic TFR, and I never tried to climb hills with it. I do know a single speed motorized bicycle will not climb.
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