Roketa MC-119-150
 

I just ordered a Roketa MC-119-150 Scooter from powersportsbest last Tuesday and it should be here this coming Tuesday, although I am not sure exactly when I will be able to schedule a drop off yet. I have another scooter coming in from greenearthscooters on Wednesday so I am trying to schedule both drop offs near the same time.

This unit is a Chinese knock off of the Yamaha Zuma/BWS 125 for the non-North American market. The North American market Zumas have side by side (bug eye) headlights. Roketa imports one of those too, known as the MC-31-150.

I am looking to use this as a commuter and outdoor fun. I am hoping it is a close enough clone that I can order in a Zuma frame brace and do a little back road travel as well. Kinda like this guy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4DX...gn5kNw1o97TFxw but not as hard as these guys https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7HcB5OMR0PE

Wow. $799. This looks like a pretty nice scooter.

http://powersportsbest.com/moped-sco...mbled-170.html

I wonder how it would hold up to the gravel roads in Kansas. That would be the safest way for me to commute to work.

That price does not include shipping or the warranty you have to pick. I picked the 3 month warranty for $39.00 and with shipping it came to $1,099.89. They were $100.00 less than the other sites that I found this unit on. It still comes with a 12 month frame and engine warranty.

I know the two-stroke 50cc BWS / Zuma scooters relatively well. Are the Roketa versions two-stroke?

The one I ordered is a 150cc GY6. They do import a 50cc in the new style Zuma http://www.roketa.com/product/produc...=0&proID=59578

And the older style Zuma http://www.roketa.com/product/produc...=0&proID=59540

I do believe that they are 4 cycle engines though. Not sure what they are based on.

The GY6 is a great engine. Easy to get parts. Even at $1100 I think it still looks like alot of scooter.

Looking forward to see more on this one.

I have a 150 GY6 in a quad, and it has been a terrific workhorse.

I bought a 2007 Tao Tao ATA-150 D http://taotao.us/index.cfm/atvs/ata-150d/ for my wife in 2008 and it has been a awesome machine. Fun to drive and easy to maintain. I picked it up from V-Bike http://www.vbike.us/, who is still in business. If they sold the scooter I wanted I would not hesitate to order from them again. Great service. My two Chinese quads have both been good machines. That is why I did not hesitate on ordering Chinese scooters.

V-Bike are a blast from the past here on chinariders! They were very popular selling the first (first and readily available) 250 (I believe really 229cc) enduro here in the US; the Hibird QH 250 enduro. Many members bought the $1000 machine until after several months and container-loads, the well ran dry. They then carried the 200cc version for a while. Once that stopped, they carried Hensim 250 street bikes which resembled Honda Rebels. If I am not mistaken, they even carried a few of the Hensim 250 enduros which were promised on Hensim's USA site, but never officially carried (I believe VBike shipped them in directly from China or another distributor besides Hensim USA).

Wrong place or not--I still have the same Chinarider's memory of Vbike! Never used them, but everyone who bought a bike seemed happy enough with the transaction, and a few issues with the product after the sale from some of the purchasers were taken care of by Vbike. I don't recall one angry poster no matter what kind of bike they bought!

I'm glad to hear V-Bike is still in business. :) As far as I know, every customer who dealt with V-Bike was a satisfied customer. :tup:

Incidentally, I agree with all the others. That is fine looking scooter. :tup:

Ok, so this is listed on the Roketa website as a MC-119-150. The manufacture plate says it is manufactured by Jonway and there is a sticker with YY150T-4 on the side covers. Cannot seem to find this scooter on the Jonway website. The YY150T-4 comes up as a Jonway scooter, but not this style. So weird right?

My first impression when I lifted the box at the dock for inspection was, wow this scooter is bigger than I thought it was going to be. This scooter came preassembled and had a PDI performed on it before it left powersportsbest shop. I say, I will do another PDI just for my own piece of mind. What is better than one PDI? Why, two PDI's of course..... :-)

Once home and the box off again I was still amazed at how large the scooter seemed. Now I feel a little intimidated by it. But, it is a beautiful scooter. I love the aggressive look that it has. The tires I think complement it quite well and it screams, I want some rugged roads to travel on. After watching some videos of the Yamaha BWS 125 used in Asia I am ready to go on some rugged roads too.

The unit showed 3.9 miles on the odometer when I got it. Probably a test run to make sure everything worked right. Motor and CVT case look nice. There were a couple of blems in the plastics. Nothing big, and certainly nothing to complain about for the price.

The welds and tube alignment look pretty darn good to me. Side plastics have a nice even distance from outer frame. There is some weld splatter and welding wire visible here and there, but in general it is pretty light and not at all distracting to the appearance.

The big muffler made me giggle when I looked at the tail pipe. You have this BIG exhaust outlet and then a small little pipe that bends and goes out the bottom. Hey, at least it will be hard for water to get in there.

I like the fact that it has a dual swing arm with the extra shock. Probably good for those rugged roads and it really adds to the support of the exhaust too.

The wheels have a nice rough texture to them. Again, nice aggressive tires to compliment the wheels.

The brush guard, although probably not very effective, really sells this scooter to me. Even the bug eyed North American clone has the brush guard that surrounds the headlights. It just lets everybody know that this is not just a everyday scooter. This scooter means business!

The view from the back is just as menacing. It reminds me of old school goggles and some sort of respirator. The lenses look awesome when lit. Rear handle is very solid.

The gas tank is in the front portion of the seat. Not real sure how I will like this yet. I have heard that it is a bit of a pain to get the pump nozzle in and it is at a awkward angle. Time will tell I guess. I do think it looks cool though.

The ignition is very nicely done. It has a built in cover that flips in front of the key hole. It could be easily defeated if you know how. I believe it will work great to keep water out of the tumblers if you have to store the scooter outdoors.

Handle bar controls seem to be of good quality and are placed in normal positions. Hand grips are comfortable and throttle is nice and smooth and has a nice return tension to it.

Handle bar is basic. I wish it had a cross bar, but hey for the price I can add that myself and still not cry in my sleep.

So this is the part I find lacking with this unit........storage space. Now I know that I would have to sacrifice cool looks for more storage. But guess what? I like the cool looks so I will have to deal with the lack of storage. No, you can not get a full face helmet in that storage area. You can get the helmet in there, but you cannot get the seat shut. The storage area does have a nice sealing gasket though. Good for keeping the water out of your storage goods while going down the road. So it looks like panners are in the future for this scooter, but hey I think that will make this little scooter look that much cooler.

So as it stands I think this scooter is a steal at $1099.99 to the door with a PDI. Like I said I will do another PDI for my own piece of mind.

It was shipped with the idea that you could put the rear view mirrors on and you are ready to ride. It even had the battery installed and charged and enough gas to get to the nearest gas station. The scooter feels exceptionally solid and I could not get any odd sounds hitting the large bumps on my street. I did find that the rear brake did need some adjustment though.

I am 6'1" and I find it to be a great fit and very comfortable to sit on. My wife on the other hand, at 5'6", found the scooter a bit too high for comfort, but doable. It does seem to sit fairly high which I believe is do to it's off road capable look. It also sports 12" wheels.

Only time will tell if this unit will perform as well as the unit it is cloned after. I really hope that it will be. The Yamaha Zuma/BWS 125 is a outstanding scooter, but at $3390.00 MSRP even if this scooter is half as good I am still ahead of the game.

Updates to follow......

I ordered my TMEC 200 and a friend of mine's sister ordered a BWS 50cc (the side by side headlight style) from Excalibur Motorsports. Like you mentioned earlier about your's being a Jonway mystery bike--it is a branded as a Lintex made by Huatian, but cannot be found on Lintex's site. Also, if you look around, TaoTao makes a bike like the Lintex BWS 50 in both 150cc and 50cc according to some online dealers, but only the 150cc BWS replica can be found on TaoTao's site.

Like you, I was initially intimidated by the Lintex scooter's size (I am only 5'7"). I knew what to expect with the TMEC since I already had been riding an older TMEC, but was surprised by the size of the BWS bike. Since I am short and know how to tip toe my way around enduros starting with my Suzuki DR250s from back in the early 90's and my two TMECs, I could balance and hold up the BWS at a stand-still with no problem. The only thing I found weird (okay I found a few others) was the lack of initial power from a standstill which by no means is the scooters 'fault' (what does one expect out of a Chinese 50cc?). However, the 50cc is perfect for someone who wants to buzz around town and/or lost their license via a DUI (like my friend's sister).

I don't know how feasible my friend's BWS is for of-roading, but her tires are agressive and look like they mean business like yours. In fact, her bike looks alot like yours but yours is updated (I assume the dual-headight version is copying the old Yamaha BWS, or if I remember someone mentioning on advrider's scooter forums, your style BWS is a copy of everywhere in the world but the US's version of the Yamaha BWS. Either way, both look agressive and good. I bet your headlights are more useful than the side-by-side version.

Thanks for posting the excellent photographs. You got a good deal. :tup:

Indeed. I have trust issues when it comes to the PDI process for China machines.

At least part of the speedometer mileage would have been from the factory that made the speedometer. They likely would have tested it with a drill.

Excellent write-up and review! I look forward to following your adventures down the road.

Just got done doing the oil change and the gear box change. Yup, I am glad I did. There was quite a bit of dust in the oil I dropped from the engine and gear box. Oil did not look like something I would use. Still thin and clear looking. It did smell like petroleum based oil though. New Rotella 15-40w and Valvaline 75-80w. Next change out in 25 miles.

On my friend's Lintex 50, I changed the oil first thing, but Wade Liu who owns Excalibur Motorsports told me that the gear oil is fine for 1000 miles. At about 150 miles, I changed the oil again. At about the 400 mile range, after seeing a few youtube videos on how easy the gear oil is to change, I told my friend it was time to change it. It came out clear like it was new! Not like it hurt anything, of course, but Wade was right (and it wasn't like he gains anything by NOT changing it other than a possible headache for warranty issues if something gave out). I don't know about Jonway, and it is a 150cc. Again, it doesn't hurt or cost anything (except to buy the gear oil and time), so it is good you changed it out first thing.

If the 75W90 is synthetic, it will last a long time. Since there is no adjacent combustion, there is nothing to contaminate the oil, other than dust through the breather. I've had excellent luck with Castrol Syntec 75W90.

Nice! I joined chinariders to see your pictures. A picture it with someone on it for size comparison would be nice. The zuma in the video doesn't have a frame brace that I can see. A nice exampe of what a scooter can handle, not quite what I expected based on some negative experiences of others on CVT scooters posted on the ADV.

Welcome!

Are you saying that you can't see pics until you register? I didn't know that.

I do not think ADVscoot ever installed a frame brace on his Zuma. I think there is a lot of negativity on other sites because they do not understand the Scooter. Asia and Europe seem to embrace the scooter better. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DcXHoqvPLWA

You're not likely to find that here. :tup:

Yup, some sites are more friendly, less negativity about something they do not understand or are bias towards.

Thanks for the welcome and replies. I sort of like the idea of a CVT even though I have never ridden a scooter. Initially I was leery of the CT90/110 semi auto trans but after using it I liked it better than dual sports with manual clutches so I probably would like a CVT even more if it can handle hills. From the videos you posted it looks like CVTs could handle anything the trails I have ridden can hand out. I need more speed than the CTs only for paved roads they were fine on the trails but could only get to maybe 50mph going down hill on paved roads. A review of a big ruckus clone on ADV indicated 59mph (I think) on a brand new not broken in motor and the big ruckus clone has the same motor and a lot more weight than yours or the small ruckus 150 clone I was thinking about. Another option I have is to put a Lifan 150 on a CT but that will have a manual clutch and I thinking I want to try a CVT.

Have you had your Zuma clone on the road much, any idea of top speed on flat road? The seat height I saw for yours was 33" and the ground clearance was I think less than the ruckus clone -which is also lighter at about 200# like the CTs, I found that to be a great low weight where 300# dual sport was too heavy - especially to pick up off of your leg on a steep rocky narrow trail next to a 50' drop off, trust me on that one.

Not sure what the top speed is yet, might be a bit before I attempt that, I am a new rider. I can say it gets to 40-45 pretty quick and I have no doubt it will go much faster. I have read that the stock Chinese 150cc scooters generally like to cruise in the 45-50MPH range. With some tweaking they will like to cruise in the 50-55MPH range. Stock top speed is usually around 60MPH. Of course that depends on rider and conditions, but I believe those are solid numbers and not made up numbers. I am 6'1" and weigh 140 and it feels pretty solid off the line.

Here is another video of a Ruckus off road. Again these are only 50cc. Looks like they do alright. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0VYwAwnY6_E

The CVT transmission can be tweaked to perform better for your driving styles. There are different weights, variators, sheaves, contra springs that can be easily changed to adjust performance.

Video of a CVT in action.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTKUy-8Ne68

That video is really cool! I know how CVT's work, but I've never taken the cover off and ran one like that to visualize it. Thanks for the vid.

real offroad ruckus
 

Great video. If that is a 50cc then a 150 should handle about anything. The CVT doubters must be basing their concerns more theoretical than having actual experience, at least from what can be seen on the videos you found.

My 150cc CVT ATV carried me and Son of Weldangrind, while towing a jr. dragster with a driver in it, about 1/2 mile. We did that several times over a weekend. The little quad never complained.

More BWS/Zumas being used off road. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rklimPELiF4

Weld, is your quad a GY-6 engine? I never realized that most (I believe all)of the small displacement ATV's from TaoTao are GY-6 based engines, and I am quite sure all the competitors similar quads (Coolster, etc) are GY-6. I think that is why they run so well (at least the engines--everything else falls apart--just kidding).

I just figured out the wiring for a Baodiao 50cc scooter that I ordered from Excalibur that will be raffled off for a local Yuma girl's home for abused girls, and will have it started and running by Saturday. The fit and finish is better than I thought it would be being the lowest-priced scooter, so once I throw some gas in it, get it running for a few minutes, drain the vegetable oil that comes in the bike (someone mentioned that it is thick, so it is actually advisable to run the engine for a couple of minutes to heat it up so it drains easier), fill with its run-in oil, I will ride around the block a few times.

[QUOTE=ghcoe;172109]More BWS/Zumas being used off road.

That's pretty cool! A good friend of mine (and forum member Atomic Wedgie) has a 50cc BWS that he's setting up for a road course (not dirt). So far, it has a 70cc kit, performance CVT mods and a Leo Vince exhaust. His is the early French model. It's starting to look really cool, and he'll do well with it, due to his slim shape. He also has considerable sport bike racing experience, so he's a natural.

The 150 is a GY6 and the 200 is a CG pushrod.

Just turned 100 miles and did another oil change. Looks much better than the first. Still a little dust. I think most is flushing and some break in. Running great. I do think that the speedometer is off some. Have not been able to confirm that yet though.